"Writing and Cognition", Ascona, Switzerland, August 2024

Writing and Cognition in Interdisciplinary Perspective Writing is one of the key early markers of human civilization, and it has been around for more than 5,000 years. This 5-day international conference will bring together neuroscientists and experts on ancient writing systems with the goal of adding a historical dimension to neuroscience and, for ancient world studies, opening up objective criteria for measuring the efficiency of writing. The conference aims to foster exchange between scholars active in different fields. To facilitate this dialogue, the conference will combine traditional talks with discussion panels. We have invited talks on topics related to: (1) aspects of script usage from different perspectives; (2) neuroanatomical networks and writing-related pathologies; (3) relationship between writing and language; (4) visual form and eye coordination in reading as constituent factors of writing; (5) cognitive load and the role of behaviors in reading; (6) materiality and spatial arrangement of writing; (7) interaction between mind, body and the material technologies of writing; and (8) role of the visual system and object recognition in writing. The conference proceedings will be published. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Invited Keynote Speakers Laurent Cohen, Paris Haleli Harel, Jerusalem Olivier Morin, CNRS / ENS-PSL Lambros Malafouris, Oxford Gordon Whittaker, Göttingen Invited Workshop Leaders Aleksandra Eberhard-Moscicka, Bern Special Feature Experiment: eye movement behavior (saccades) in reading ancient texts Organization Annick Payne, Bern and Venice René Müri, Bern Karenleigh A. Overmann, Colorado Funded by the European Union (ERC-2022-COG, CAncAn, G.A. 101088363). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. International conference Writing and Cognition in Interdisciplinary Perspective 25 – 30 August 2024 Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland SUNDAY 25 AUGUST TUESDAY 27 AUGUST THURSDAY 29 AUGUST 15.00-17.00 Arrival & Registration 7.30-8.30 Breakfast 7.30-8.30 Breakfast 17.00-17.30 Welcome Apéro 8.30-10.00 Keynote lecture Gordon Whittaker: Exploring the complex relationship of sign sequences to language 8.30-10.00 Keynote lecture Lambros Malafouris: Writing as ‘thinging’: A material engagement perspective 10.00-10.30 Coffee Break 10.00-10.30 Coffee Break 10.30-12.30 Presentations Chair: Nathan Lovejoy Rachel Garton: Eye movements while reading Hakha Lai: Exploring literacy processing in Tibeto-Burman languages Benjamin K. Tsou: On dating the origins of the Chinese writing system: A sociolinguistic perspective Jeremy J. Purcell and Robert W. Wiley: Insights into the sublexical system in written English 10.30-12.30 Presentations Chair: René Müri Christian Prager: Writing, speaking, thinking: Maya hieroglyphic writing revisited Gordon Berthin: A study of analogous glyph forms and their possible roles in Rongorongo Janusz Krukowski: Semasiographic writing from 13,000 years ago 12.30-14.00 Lunch 12.30-14.00 Lunch 14.00-16.00 Presentations Chair: Šárka Velhartická Martin Kupky: Competing notations in a system, or “how do I express the same thing in three different ways?” The Deutsche Bahn signaling system Karenleigh A. Overmann: Writing as visible language Yannis Haralambous and Sveva Elti di Rodeano: Compounding and computing: Grapholinguistics and its application to ancient writing systems 16.30-19.00 Reading Experiment 14.00-16.00 Presentations Chair: Sveva Elti di Rodeano Valérie Angenot: Language and writing in a tropological perspective. Elisabeth Birk: A typology of typologies: Recent developments in writing systems typology Alexey Koshevoy: Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation holds for individual characters across a broad range of writing systems David L. Share: What makes a writing system efficient for the reader? 19.00-20.30 Dinner 16.00-16.30 Coffee Break 17.30-19.00 Keynote lecture Gianmaria Potenza: Elaborating New Codes. Presented by Valeria Loddo 19.00-20.30 Dinner MONDAY 26 AUGUST 7.00-8.00 Breakfast 8.00-10.00 Welcome Keynote lecture Haleli Harel, Orly Goldwasser and Dmitry Nikolaev: Concepts and categories: A datadriven network approach with iClassifier 10.00-10.30 Coffee Break 10.30-12.30 Presentations Chair: Karenleigh Overmann Annick Payne: Phonetic Classifiers in the Anatolian Hieroglyphic Script Nathan Lovejoy: Listening, interpreting, and (mis) understanding personal names in the multilingual ancient Near East Šárka Velhartická: Thoughts on bilingualism in ancient Near Eastern texts 12.30-14.00 Lunch 14.00-16.00 Presentations Chair: Nicolò Bordoni Paul Saenger: Verbal numbers and numerals: The Christian metamorphosis of Medieval Latin and its linguistic and neuroscientific implications Michela Galli: Read and transcribe. Cartular copyists in 13th-century Paris Arthur P.-É. Coppée: Hylography: A cognitive archaeology of writing in the Aegean Bronze Age 16.00-16.30 Coffee Break 16.00-18.00 Keynote lecture Laurent Cohen: The reading brain 18.00-19.00 Eberhard-Moscicka and Müri: Methodology Workshop Neuroscience 19.00-20.30 Dinner 16.00-16.30 Coffee Break WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST 7.30-8.30 Breakfast 8.30-10.00 Keynote lecture Olivier Morin: Solving the puzzle of ideography 10.00-10.30 Coffee Break 10.30-12.30 Presentations Chair: Gabriele Biancalani Jean-Jacques Glassner: L’écriture, les mots et les images Emily Zeran: The state of phonograms in cuneiform c. 2550 BCE Colton Siegmund: Seeing signs in Mesopotamia 12.30-14.00 Lunch 15.30-21.30 Excursion & Conference Dinner 16.30-19.00 Reading Experiment 19.00-20.30 Dinner FRIDAY 30 AUGUST 7.30-8.30 Breakfast 8.30-10.00 Panel Müri, Overmann and Payne: Research Outlook and Network 10.00-10.30 Coffee Break 10.30-12.30 Reading Experiment 12.30-14.00 Lunch