Blogging CIEGL 2012: invitation

Posted on 2012-08-22 by Gabriel Bodard

As in previous years, Current Epigraphy will be posting reports on the papers delivered at the Berlin Epigraphic Congress next week. Watch this space, and the CIEGL category, for frequent updates.

If you are interested in contributing to this reportage, please get in touch in advance so we can sign you up with an account on the blog, and in Berlin look out for Tom Elliott or Paola Tomasi who can give you instructions and a sticker to attach to your name badge. Reports on papers should not be too long; a couple of paragraphs is fine, and you may report either a summary of the argument and/or your own response to it, as you prefer.

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Inscriptions in the Russian “Online Database of Ancient Art”

Posted on 2012-08-02 by Tom Elliott

I recently became aware of the Поиск Изображений В Античном Искусстве and its English version, the Online Database of Ancient Art, which presently includes records and images for 82 inscriptions (an English version of the search results is also available).

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Ficheiro Epigráfico 100 (2012) released

Posted on 2012-08-02 by Tom Elliott

Via a post on Manuel Ramírez Sánchez’s blog, we learn of the publication of Ficheiro Epigráfico 100 (pdf), which provides addenda et corrigenda to previously published inscriptions, as well as indices to fascicules 90-99.

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Inscriptions reported in Chronique des fouilles en ligne

Posted on 2012-08-01 by Tom Elliott

The joint “Archaeology in Greek Online” database of the French and British schools at Athens provides for keyword searching of the archaeological reports contained therein. One of the keywords provided is “find type -> inscription”. A search today, to which I cannot link here because search results are not returned with corresponding URLs, turned up 269 reports so categorized. The search form may be found at https://chronique.efa.gr/index.php/fiches/search/.

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Materiality of Texts Conference Program Released (Durham, September 2012)

Posted on 2012-07-19 by Tom Elliott

The program for “The Materiality of Texts – placement, perception, presence” (24-26 September 2012) has been announced at https://www.dur.ac.uk/classics/events/upcoming_events/?eventno=12362.

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Seminar: Digital epigraphy beyond the Classical (London, July 6th)

Posted on 2012-07-03 by Gabriel Bodard

Digital epigraphy beyond the Classical: creating (inter?)national standards for recording modern and early modern gravestones

Charlotte Tupman (KCL)

Institute of Classical Studies Digital Seminar 2012

Friday July 6th at 16:30, in Room G22/26, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Early modern and modern gravestones are a vast but rapidly decaying historical resource for the period from the 16th century to the present day. Processes of weathering, deliberate or accidental damage, the re-use of cemeteries and the uprooting and rearranging of monuments (such as the practice of removing stones from their original positions and stacking them around the edges of walls) all have an impact on both the size and the scholarly value of this body of evidence. Countless records have already been lost, which makes it particularly important to address as soon as possible the question of how to record and publish these monuments systematically and usefully.

Currently there are no agreed standards for recording such gravestones. Interested historians and volunteers in some churches or local areas have recorded their own particular monumental inscriptions, and have made these available on microfiche, CD, or in a basic form online. Typically these records only include the text itself; very rarely there might be a photograph, but almost never is any metadata recorded about the monument. The nature of these recorded examples is thus very fragmentary and inconsistent.

The experience of projects using EpiDoc and other shared standards for the recording and publication of ancient and medieval inscribed materials has shown that there is considerable value in agreeing a set of guidelines for encoding and publication. This applies to materials that span a variety of languages, geographical areas, and centuries. It is clear that many, if not most, of the standards described in the EpiDoc guidelines are appropriate for, and directly applicable to, the recording and publication of modern gravestones. This paper investigates what is required in order to make these standards a viable method of recording such a large body of data, where many of those doing the recording are not experts in epigraphy.

It is clear that considerable thought must be given to what is asked of those who are responsible for recording the monuments, and how this can best be balanced with the need to produce a scholarly resource that will be useful for local historians, genealogists and other interested parties, as well as to people who would define themselves as epigraphers and archaeologists. Crucially, the system must make it sufficiently simple to input the data, but must also ensure that the resulting records are sufficiently detailed and useful for enabling in-depth research to be undertaken. This paper discusses these challenges and suggests solutions with a view to designing a pilot project for a national (and potentially international) system for recording and publishing gravestone evidence.

ALL WELCOME

The seminar will be followed by wine and refreshments.

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Mégarika colloquium program (8-12 July 2012, Mangalia, Romania)

Posted on 2012-07-02 by Tom Elliott

The following program was sent in by Adrian Robu:

Mégarika.

Nouvelles recherches sur les cités de la Mégaride et les fondations mégariennes du Pont-Euxin : Archéologie, Épigraphie, Histoire.

8-12 Juillet 2012, Mangalia (Roumanie)

colloque international organisé avec l’appui financier du CNCS-UEFISCDI (no du projet : PN-ID-WE-2012-4-008) et du Collège de France

Programme du Colloque

Dimanche 8 Juillet 2012

Arrivée des participants

Lundi 9 juillet 2012

0900-0915    Allocutions d’ouverture

0915-0930    Adrian Robu, Iulian Bîrzescu, Introduction au colloque

Colonisation et contacts des cités mégariennes avec le monde Egéen   

Modérateur : Alexandru Avram

0930-1045

  • Irad Malkin, Colonization and apoikia.
  • Alexander Herda, Megara and Miletos : Colonizing with Apollo.
  • Cornelis W. Neeft, Absolute chronology and Corinthian pottery.
  • Discussion-Pause

1130-1245

  • Richard Posamentir, Chersonesos Taurike – no ties to Megara ?
  • Christel Müller, D’Héraclée pontique à Chersonèse taurique : les formes de la colonisation secondaire dans le réseau mégarien des apoikiai pontiques.
  • Thibault Castelli, À propos du réseau mégarien du Pont Euxin : la mobilité des personnes entre mer Égée et mer Noire.
  • Discussion

1315-1430      Dejeuner

Modérateur : Iulian Bîrzescu

1430-154 5

  • Denis Knoepfler, Une femme de Callatis dans un nouveau décret attique d’association religieuse au IIIe siècle av. J.-C.
  • Victor Cojocaru, Un espace dorien pontique d’après les décrets de proxénie.
  • Federica Cordano, Les familles de Sélymbria et quelques noms personnels.
  • Discussion-Pause

Archéologie et épigraphie des cités de la Mégaride

1630-1745

  • Yannis Chairetakis, Burial customs of Megara during the 7th and 6th c. B.C. The case of the North-East cemetery.
  • Politimi Valta, A late archaic sanctuary in the west of Pagai – Preliminary results.
  • Irini Svana, A refuse deposit of classical period from Megara. Reexamination of the architecture and the history of the ancient town.
  • Discussion

1815-2000      Visite du Musée d’archéologie Callatis, Mangalia

2030                  Dîner

Mardi 10 juillet 2012

Modérateur : Victor Cojocaru

0900-1015

  • Eleni Banou, The Megarian urbanisme : new finds.
  • Panaghiota Avgerinou, The water management in ancient Megara.
  • Evgenia Tsalkou, A “peridiavasis” in the city of Megara of the 5th and 4th c. B.C.
  • Discussion-Pause

1100-1215  

  • Stella Dreni, The coin circulation in Ancient Megara during the Classical and Hellenistic periods.       
  • Adrian Robu, Contribution à l’épigraphie mégarienne : les tablettes funéraires inscrites.
  • Yannis Kalliontzis, Les relations entre Aigosthènes et le koinon béotien : quatre nouvelles inscriptions d’Aigosthènes.
  • Discussion-Pause

1300-1430      Dejeuner

Callatis et son territoire : nouveaux développements de la recherche

Modérateur : Denis Knoepfler

1430-1525

  • Alexandru Avram, Sorin Marcel Colesniuc, Mihai Ionescu, Ion Pâslaru, Remarques préliminaires sur le papyrus de Callatis.
  • Iulian Bîrzescu, Mihai Ionescu, Recherches sur la fondation de Callatis : l’apport de la documentation archéologique.
  • Livia Buzoianu, Maria Bărbulescu, Les terres cuites d’Albești d’époque hellénistique. Les représentations de culte.
  • Discussion-Pause

1630-1745

  • Gabriel Talmațchi, About the activity of the Callatian mint during the 4th-1st c. B.C.
  • Florina Panait-Bîrzescu, Tatiana Odobescu, Découvertes sculpturales de la ‘zone sacrée’ de Callatis 
  • Nicolae Alexandru, Fortified settlements in the territory of Callatis (4th-3rd c. B.C.).
  • Discussion-Pause

1830-1855      Alexandru Avram, Conclusions

2030                  Dîner

Mecredi 11 juillet 2012

0930-1200      Visite des fouilles archéologiques d’Histria

1300-1500      Déjeuner

1530-1800      Visite du Musée d’histoire nationale et d’archéologie de Constantza

2030                  Dîner

Jeudi 12 juillet 2012

Départ des participants

Contacts :

Adrian Robu, adrianrobu@yahoo.com

Iulian Bîrzescu, iulian2@gmail.com

Lieu du colloque :

Hôtel Président, Salle des Colloques

Strada Teilor, nr. 6, 905500 Mangalia, Roumanie

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Help with reading Greek inscription

Posted on 2012-05-14 by Gabriel Bodard

David Meadows posted the following call for help reading the scratched inscription on an ossuary in Jerusalem. Can any epigraphically trained readers help decipher the Greek letters? (We’ve help crowdsourced readings and e-seminars before, so I’m hopeful our readers have the expertise to help with this.)

To begin: the inscription is found one of a number of ossuaries still  in situ in a tomb in Jerusalem, so we’re dealing with a funerary context. The inscription is only seen in photos (of varying quality) because the tomb was explored via a robotic camera. When the tomb was originally excavated back in 1980 or thereabouts,  the inscription itself does not seem to have been recorded (or if it was, it has not been published). Further complicating things is the fact that the ossuaries were moved around and there are plenty of scratches thereon, which may or may not be affecting the reading of this inscription. Amongst the artifacts found in association with the ossuary inscription was this pot:

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Corbier and Guilhembet: L’écriture dans la maison romaine

Posted on 2012-04-26 by Tom Elliott

Mireille Corbier writes to alert us to the publication of the following:

“L’écriture dans la maison romaine”, edited by Mireille CORBIER and Jean-Pierre GUILHEMBET, published by DE BOCCARD (11 rue de Médicis 75 006 PARIS). 426 pages. 193 illustrations. Price : 60 euros.

Through the global analysis of writing in the domestic space, this edited volume looks at all forms of a writing culture, from archeological or epigraphical traces to forms mentioned only in literary sources. It demonstrates the great variety of media, but also of types of writing that can be found in the domestic context. “Books,” archives, writing materials, everyday objects with inscriptions: all have been integrated into the field of research covered in the essays in this volume. The practices found in the Roman household that are catalogued here point to usages very different from our own in a world where the practice of writing, a privilege shared by a fraction of the population, had multiple functions. The twenty chapters in this volume highlight certain writing forms and usages and cannot claim to be exhaustive. Social pretension and a desire for social distinction, the construction of the family memory, the pleasure of “reading together,” a constant dialog with guests, the conservation and archiving of personal and professional documents, apprenticeship in relations of authority, the written expression of vota and respects paid to the genius of the pater familias and to the domestic Lares, affirmation of the self by the writing of personal messages: all are part of the domestic writing culture analyzed here. The household is a space placed under the authority of masters, where domestic cults are practiced, where the family’s children and young slaves benefit from a variety of acculturating experiences: the hierarchy of behaviors expected of all the domestic actors, but also the practice of reading and writing. The households of magistrates and men exercising a profession were first and foremost places and instruments of their professional activities, and only afterwards spaces of representation and conviviality.

This volume is the product of an international colloquium organized by “L’Année épigraphique” group of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and brings together articles written by twenty-one historians, archaeologists, and philologists from seven different countries (France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, and Tunisia). The authors are specialists of the ancient Mediterranean world and offer their contributions as possible avenues for comparative research with other historical periods and societies. They are asking questions about writing practices and levels of literacy in Roman society, about the relations between text and image and the culture that lies behind them, about the relations between the written and the oral and the dialog between the inner self and the public self, about the diversity of graphical forms and what they reveal about the ability to read and to write.

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Conference Announcement: “Aspects of Ancient Greek Cult II”

Posted on 2012-03-26 by Gil Renburg

Aspects of Ancient Greek Cult II:  Architecture – Context – Music
An International Colloquium in Honor of Erik Hansen
4-6 May 2012, Copenhagen

Abstracts and other information can be found here:
https://www.diomedes.dk/events_diomedes.htm

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Call for papers: The Materiality of Texts, Conference at Durham University

Posted on 2012-02-28 by Andrej Petrovic

Call for papers:

The Materiality of Texts. Conference at Durham University
September 24-26, 2012

Organizers: Dr Edmund Thomas, Dr Andrej Petrovic, Dr Ivana Petrovic

In recent years, the study of ancient texts has gained from a focus on the physicality of text. Epigraphists are interested more than ever in issues of context, reading and performance. Furthermore, studies of architecture have fed on literary approaches to take account of displays of writing and their implications. The project ‘The Materiality of Text’ brings together these cross-disciplinary approaches to focus on material aspects of the written word.

We invite scholars from a range of disciplines, including philology, epigraphy, ancient history, archaeology and art history, to join us in discussing the physical aspects of inscribed texts in the Greek and Roman world, in Greek, Latin and other scripts, and their relation to literature, art, cultural history, and aesthetics.

Papers are invited on both theoretical approaches and individual case-studies which seek to address questions such as: the visualization of text in a physical context, whether monumental or miniature; the relationship of inscriptions to their support, including steles and statue bases; the appearance of inscribed text in buildings and their impact on the perception of architectural space; the form and varieties of lettering, the aesthetics of writing, and its implications for the reading of a text; issues of visibility and legibility; the role of inscribed dedications or commemorative texts in the perception of buildings sacred or secular;
the placement and arrangement of inscriptions in public, religious or private space; the aesthetics of particular genres of text such as building contracts, epigrams and sacred laws; specific techniques in the display of prose and verse texts, ritual or magical use and performative aspects of inscribed texts; re-dedication and re-use of inscribed texts; and the use and contribution of specialized media of support from monumental bronze letters to miniature gold plaques and precious metals.

Keynote speakers:
Professor Joseph W. Day (Wabash College),
Professor John Mitchell (University of East Anglia),
Professor Joannis Mylonopoulos (Columbia University),
Professor em. Peter J. Rhodes (Durham University).

Abstracts of 250 words should be sent to Ivana Petrovic
(ivana.petrovic@durham.ac.uk) by 31st May 2012.

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NEW: Tyche 26, 2011

Posted on 2012-02-27 by franciscaferaudi

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren!

Wir freuen uns, Ihnen mitteilen zu können, daß Tyche 26 erschienen ist.
Das Inhaltsverzeichnis finden Sie hier: Tyche-Inhalt26

Den Band können Sie entweder direkt beim Verlag bestellen
https://shop.verlagholzhausen.at/hhshop/Tyche-Band-26-2011.htm
oder auch über Amazon beziehen
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3902868074

Wir möchten Sie auch darauf aufmerksam machen, daß neben den Bänden 19–24 nun auch Tyche 25 DIGITAL online erworben werden kann:
https://shop.verlagholzhausen.at/hhshop/Tyche-Digital-Edition.htm

Mit herzlichen Grüßen aus Wien
Im Namen der Tyche
Franziska Beutler

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Tyche 26 has been published!
Please find the table of contents here: Tyche-Inhalt26

You can either place an order for this volume at the publishing house
https://shop.verlagholzhausen.at/hhshop/Tyche-Band-26-2011.htm
or via amazon
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3902868074

We also would like to inform you that apart from the volumes 19–24 Tyche 25 DIGITAL is available online:
https://shop.verlagholzhausen.at/hhshop/Tyche-Digital-Edition.htm

Best regards from Vienna
for Tyche
Franziska Beutler

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