Grammar

Giorgio Buccellati – April 2026

The relevance of grammar

A properly construed grammar is the trampoline to archaeological hermeneutics, via semiotics. There are two major steps in the process.

Correlation of patterns. – A grammaticalized universe makes it easier to establish patterns and to see how they correlate. The formal dimension is well estalished and objective. Hence it is especially in the syntax that we see how grammar can be relevant for hermeneutics.
Inference. – On the basis of such correlations, one may then safely and arguably draw inferences based on the regularity of the patterns.

An example: the prestige of a drinking cup

As an example, we look back at the the conical cup assemblage. We already saw how the correlation with a depiction on cylinder seals indicates how the cup would be used in ceremonial occasions.

An assemblage: 23 selected conical cups
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TGL^qu4

We can now draw a more complex inference from a statistical array of conical cups from eight excavation units, giving the total of vessels and sherds and the totals and percent of conical cups.

There is a total of 2,370 conical cups (wholes or sherds), which is almost one percent (.80%) of a total of almost 300,000 vessels and sherds, with considerable variations among the various units.

Lowest percentage: this occurs either in open spaces (J1-J6, the Temple Plaza) or in a unit (A16) that includes burials from the later periods and the formal courtyard of the Palace of Tupkish. Nowhere here would we expect much use of conical cups in a ceremonial function.
Medium percentage (0.88%, highlighted in white): this is found in unit A15 which includes a ceremonial platform near the necromantic structure. A higher use of the conical cups makes good sense in this context.
Highest percentage (1.65%, highlighted in green): this is found in unit A12 which consists mostly of the necromantic structure (the abi), where rituals would take place which would have likely required the use of conical cups.

unit	total	c.cups	%
A12	47,815	790	1.65
A15	62,117	552	0.88
A16	59,818	350	0.58
J1	44,732	262	0.58
J2	33,582	246	0.73
J3	13,301	13	0.10
J5	18,309	85	0.46
J6	17,182	80	0.46
total	296,856	2,370	0.80

A global record

The inference as described in the case of the conical cups is possible only because of the nature of the global record. This implies not only that we have the totality of the data as excavated, but also that that they are “grammaticalized” so as to allow the statistics we have just discussed.

Grammar and semiotics

Building on what we have just seen, a grammar offers the possibility to establish referentiality not just with an object, but with the wider reaches that the object held for the native carriers of a given cultural tradition, whether emotional, spiritual, or simply as matter of etiquette – as with the conical cup in our example.

In this perspective, we may say that the process just outlined is that of semiotics. Semiotics attributes meaning by identifying the referential dimension inherent in an object, and this process, rooted in grammar, is the proper springboard to hermeneutics.

References

B mKB 2024 Balzan Dirt and People pp.21-23

Cipolla 2025

Christian Greco

Wylie 2023