Elliptical Epigraphy – What text types and formulas can tell us about the purpose of Gallo-Latin and Elder Futhark inscriptions

This thesis deals with a corpus of Runic inscriptions in the elder Futhark and Gaulish inscriptions in Latin script, both at the geographical and cultural periphery of Latin epigraphy. The inscriptions were examined within their specific text type or genre. The work concludes that Gallo-Latin writing is the result of Gaulish speakers participating in the Latin writing culture, rather than an attempt by Gaulish speakers to establish their own writing tradition. Due to the bilingual or multilingual environment that seems to produce most of Gaulish writing, we can presume that most writers of Gaulish would have also been able to write in Latin. Therefore the choice of language is still significant and may be an attempt to broadcast a distinct identity, which should probably be addressed as Gallo-Roman rather than as exclusively Gaulish. What remains of Runic writing may be limited, but it is largely consistent in itself. Runic writing was not inherently magical, but it was, through its limited use, inherently exceptional. Runic writing was not adapted to fulfil a practical, but an ideological need.