Polis Integration and Eipgraphic Culture

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The purpose of this paper is to make clear the aspects of the Attic Epigraphic Culture, mainly from the sixth century B.C. to the third century A.D. So far inscriptions have been read as texts. Epigraphists and Historians have thought that inscriptions were read as texts in ancient times and they themselves have read insriptions as such. Therefore their main concern is the contents written in texts. This study however does not simply take inscriptions as texts. But it takes them as one of the vehicles of information and pays attentions to the meaning of the guise, its existence and the social functions. In previous times inscriptions were squeezed away from stelae and read as texts but in this study inscritpions squeezed away will put back to the stelae and the stelae will be set back to the places where they stood. By so doing I tried to read the whole meaning of text information and non-text information on stelae. Conclusions are as follows :1) A stela consists of not only texts but also non-text information such as shape and meterial of stela, placement where thery stood, large letters, ΘEOI, reliefs, and making costs.2) Each of these non-text information has its own grammar like texts and send information. This information however does not always supplement the text information, but has nothing to do with it. Thus on a stela not only public records but also private ulterior motives, ambitions, desire and hope were intertwined.3) Inscriptions were narrated in two different contexts; the Primary Context and the Secondary Context. And often there was a gap between them. Thus inscriptions were not only used for keeping records and sending massage, but also for persuading people, binding people, and direct people to a certanin direction (for integration of people as a polis).