paleography

paleography
    n 1: the study of ancient forms of writing (and the deciphering
         of them)
    

Paleography \Pa`le*og"ra*phy\ (p[=a]`l[-e]*[o^]g"r[.a]*f[y^]),
   n. [Paleo- + -graphy: cf. F. pal['e]ographie.]
   1. An ancient manner of writing; ancient writings,
      collectively; as, Punic paleography.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The study of ancient inscriptions and modes of writing;
      the art or science of deciphering ancient writings, and
      determining their origin, period, etc., from external
      characters; diplomatics.
      [1913 Webster]
    

80 Moby Thesaurus words for "paleography":
      IPA, ITA, Initial Teaching Alphabet,
      International Phonetic Alphabet, alphabet, alphabetics, autography,
      bowwow theory, calligraphy, chirography, comparative linguistics,
      criticism, cryptanalysis, cryptography, cryptology, derivation,
      descriptive linguistics, diagnostics, dialectology,
      dingdong theory, epigraphy, etymology, exegetics, fist, futhark,
      glossematics, glossology, glottochronology, glottology, grammar,
      graphanalysis, graphemics, graphology, graphometry, hand,
      handwriting, hermeneutics, historical linguistics, language study,
      letters, lexicography, lexicology, lexicostatistics,
      linguistic geography, linguistic science, linguistics,
      literary criticism, manuscript, mathematical linguistics,
      metoposcopy, morphology, morphophonemics, oneirology, pathognomy,
      pencraft, penmanship, penscript, philology, phonetics, phonology,
      physiognomics, physiognomy, psycholinguistics, runic alphabet,
      script, scription, scrive, semantics, semeiology, semeiotics,
      sociolinguistics, structuralism, stylography, syllabary,
      symptomatology, syntactics, textual criticism,
      transformational linguistics, tropology, writing system