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Text inside them is gone from the object and supplied by the editor.
Also known as: Restoration brackets, Square brackets in an inscription
The most important mark in the system and the most often misread. Square brackets do not mean an editorial aside — they mean the surface is damaged or lost at that point and everything inside is the editor's restoration, however confident.
Square brackets enclosing text that is lost or illegible on the object itself and has been supplied by the editor from context, formula or parallel texts.
Contexts: History
A restoration is an argument, not a reading. A short bracketed span in a formulaic funerary text may be near-certain; a long one in a unique document may be little more than a guess, and the brackets look identical.
The brackets state that text is missing. They say nothing about how confident the restoration is.
Empty brackets containing only dots or a number indicate that text is lost and the editor is recording how much, without proposing what it said.
Two upright square brackets, each a vertical line with short horizontal arms turned inward at top and bottom, enclosing a span of text.
Both are editorial supply, but square brackets restore lost text and angle brackets add text the scribe omitted.