Epigraphy is the name given to the practice of writing texts on durable materials, such as stone or metal (instead of wood, papyrus or vellum). The decision to engrave a text is a cultural choice, and not common to every society. The ancient Greeks, and above all the Romans, angraved texts in very large numbers (as many as 1 million survive); others, such as the Phoenicians, did so much less.

The most common inscriptions are funerary epitaphs (c. 70%), but many other types of document were also engraved, both public (e.g. laws, treaties, honours) and private (e.g. curses). Inscriptions reflect a deliberate choice to make a text permanent, often for public disaply - as a result they are not necessarily the same as the original document, and they always reflect a conscious effort to present a text, and must be read accordingly.