Il mantello di Zas

CORDA, ANTONIO MARIA

2016-01-01

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Abstract

Fr. Antonio Ferrua SJ (1901-2003), a master of archeology, argued that epigraphy should be considered as 'the eye of archeology' meaning in this way defining how the written epigraphic source was, specifically, an extension of the monument. A sort of 'augmented reality' ante litteram that gave the possibility to those who understood the usefulness of going far beyond the written stone. After all, this is the primary function of an epigraphic text, that is to create a sort of empathic relationship between the text editor and the reader. The latter was (and right now) to expand the text during the reading. The case of the epigraph then, in its duplicity of monument and of communicative message, is the emblem of the two primary sources used to 'make' history: material culture and texts allow us to define the two first dimensions. Their collocation in modern space and in the ancient world give us the third dimension (depth of field) while their narration and their interpretation give us the movement in time, ie the fourth dimension. The four, all together, allow us to build what interests us most and that is the historical narrative.