Abstract:This paper examines at the physical traces of cognition left on papyrus manuscripts from Graeco-Roman Egypt. It borrows from theories developed in the cognitive sciences and philosophy which extend cognition beyond the brain to view it as a cooperation between mind and environment. Examined from this perspective, the classic opposition between scribe as wilful editor and scribe as pure medium for transmission breaks down. The invective of literary sources against the scribe as corruptor of text sits awkwardly with papyrus evidence which shows scribes acting as trusted allies in composition. This binary way of thinking of the scribal contribution to the transmission of knowledge might be alleviated by thinking of scribal practice as a cognitively rich collaboration between material and mind and by attending to physical traces of this engagement. In particular, this paper suggests that patterns of re-inking the stylus may correspond to sense breaks if the scribe is particularly conscious of or invested in a manuscript's content. If such is true, an examination of re-inking patterns may offer papyrologists a new technique to track scribal engagement in the content they produce.

中文翻译：

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在亲笔签名和复制之间：在纸莎草纸上写作作为思考

摘要：本文考察了希腊罗马埃及纸莎草手稿上留下的认知物理痕迹。它借鉴了认知科学和哲学中发展起来的理论，这些理论将认知扩展到大脑之外，将其视为思想与环境之间的合作。从这个角度来看，抄写员作为任性的编辑与抄写员作为纯粹的传播媒介之间的经典对立崩溃了。文学资料对抄写员的谩骂与文本的腐败者相悖，纸莎草证据表明抄写员在写作中是可信赖的盟友。通过将抄写实践视为物质和思想之间认知丰富的合作，并通过关注这种参与的物理痕迹，可以缓解这种对抄写对知识传播贡献的二元思维方式。特别是，本文建议如果抄写员特别意识到或投入手稿的内容，则重新给手写笔上墨的模式可能对应于感觉中断。如果这是真的，对重新上墨模式的检查可能会为纸莎草学家提供一种新技术来跟踪他们制作的内容中的抄写员参与度。