Close examination of the surfaces on which ancient scribes wrote causes us to consider more carefully the various aspects of their work and allows us, to a certain extent, to think as they did. Recent technological advances have revealed details of surface structure, fibres, stains, watermarks, fingerprints and alterations on artefacts of all kinds. This new information can lead to great advances in our understanding of the processes of preparing, inscribing and otherwise transforming the material surfaces of wood, bone, ivory, flint, metals, papyrus and so on. Furthermore, many ancient documents that were previously unreadable can now be digitised and read for the first time. This seminar will consider inscribed objects of a wide variety of types from the earliest period of state-formation to the Graeco-Roman period.