Introduction: Developing an approach to writing as material practice

In this chapter we introduce the topic of the materiality of writing and the approaches and methods needed to study writing from a material perspective. Within this interpretive theme analysis concentrates not on the linguistic and semantic meanings of ‘texts’ but on their physicality and how this relates to creators and users. We also introduce the individual chapters of the book,which cover a chronological span from c.3200 BCE to the present day and a geographical range from the Americas to the Near East and Europe. We end with a brief survey of research on writing as material practice and set out the role that we hope the present volume will play in developing this exciting new research theme.