Sorry, no ... epigraphy and paleography are the study of inscriptions
(things incised on hard objects like walls) and documents (things
written with ink etc. on soft materials like paper, parchment, papyrus)
respectively. Very few scripts remain undeciphered; you'd just have to
be in the right place at the right time to come across a new one.

The epigrapher is on the archeological expedition in order to interpret
and make copies of whatever inscriptions happen to turn up -- and the
rule seems to be that if you have an epigrapher, you don't find any
inscriptions but if you find some inscriptions you don't have an
epigrapher on hand to deal with them.

Cathy Waldman wrote:

>
> Isn't it deciphering ancient scripts? Like what they did with the
> Rosetta Stone?
>
> "Peter T. Daniels" wrote:
>
> Er, maybe we'd better back up a step: what does "epigraphy"
> mean to you?
>
> Cathy Waldman wrote:
> >
> > Peter, thanks for replying!
> >
> > Another question: What if I'm not sure what language I'm interested
> > in? Right now I'm interested in all languages, really. Especialy the
> > ones that are not from Europe: Native Americam, Asian, Mesoamerican,
> > Middle East. Is there a way to study epigraphy w/o picking a
> > particular language, maybe by studying a whole language group or how
> > about studying comparative writing systems?
> >
> > Cathy
> >
> > "Peter T. Daniels" wrote:
> >
> > Why is it not on topic?
> >
> > The epigraphy of a language is a (very small) part of the study of (the
> > history of) that language. So if you have specialized in a language or
> > language family, that is the department you belong in. (Archeologists
> > aren't epigraphers, unless they happen to have also studied that
> > subject; they invite them to the dig in order to deal with whatever
> > inscriptions might turn up.)

--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...