Inscriptions are words or letters written, engraved, painted, or otherwise traced on a surface and can appear in contexts both small and monumental. Coin texts and monumental carvings on buildings are both included by historians as types of inscriptions.

The study of inscriptions is epigraphy.

Types of inscription

• Abecedarium
• Chronogram
• Epitaph on a headstone
• Epigraph
• Ex libris
• Memento mori
• Monumental inscription
• Rune stone

Notable inscriptions

• Rosetta Stone
• Behistun Inscription
• Laguna Copperplate Inscription
• Shugborough House inscription
• Inscription of Abercius
• Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions
• Orkhon inscriptions
• Forum inscription
• Duenos inscription
• Bryggen inscriptions
• Bitola Inscription

The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is an example of an attempt by scholars to publish an organized collection of the known inscriptions from a particular language.

See also

• Petroglyph
• Ogham
• History
• Historiography
• Primary source