The Graduate Conference of the Basel Doctoral Programme in Ancient Cultures is an event that brings together a variety of disciplines around a common theme, allowing different approaches to converge and compare their points of view and methodologies. Palaeography, as a multidisciplinary research tool, is a topic that meets this objective and undoubtedly allows for the pooling of interests and questions.

The study of palaeography has long been at the forefront of the establishment of typologies of ancient manuscripts. Researchers use it to familiarise themselves with these scripts, to situate them in time and space and, moreover, to study the forms and gestures that gave rise to them. In Egyptology, interest in this kind of approach dates back to the earliest days of the discipline, when Jean-François Champollion saw it as a means of comparing hieratic and hieroglyphic scripts. Although based on these basic principles, palaeography has evolved considerably and it would be useful to define its constants, variations and developments in different fields. What are its limitations? How is it used today, with different examples? How is it positioned in relation to textual studies? How does it differ from sister disciplines such as epigraphy? What about engraved texts, for example? Are they included in this study? How can textual materiality and palaeography be combined?

This proposal also provides an opportunity to take stock of new technologies that are assisting researchers in some of their approaches. How can they be used to develop new perspectives? How can they be selected and organised to meet the needs of textual research? What are the problems encountered? Do they allow us to get closer to the person behind the text, to the "hand" that traced the signs? In this context, how can the anthropological approach be used to determine the operational chains used by these "text craftsmen"? Is it appropriate to experiment with gestures, techniques and tools in the manner of experimental archaeology?

Starting from the DNA of a text, the building blocks that make it up, this topic allows us to address multiple aspects of research, as well as very topical concerns that researchers in the field of antiquity are increasingly confronted with. In response to this, a workshop could also be organised to discover or rediscover modelling software such as Metashape, as well as other relevant resources.