Current Epigraphy
ISSN: 1754-0909

David Meadows alerts us to the reports of a newly discovered Roman altar from the archaeological work at Dalheim in Luxembourg:

Following previous archaelogical discoveries at the Dalheim dig (see http://www.station.lu/newsDetails.cfm?id=21601, another artefact has been discovered. The site of the former Gallo-Roman baths has now produced what is described as an “exceptional archaeological discovery”. The National Museum of History and Art (MNHA), led by the young German archaeologist Heike Posch and overseen by the curator John Krier, has uncovered fragments of a large 1.3m high limestone altar. The discovery dates from the 3rd century AD and has a Latin inscription showing that the altar was dedicated to the goddess Fortuna. The text over 10 lines mentions not only the people of Ricciacum vicus, but it also describes the return of the portico of the building baths, destroyed ‘by violent barbarians’, probably during an incursion by Germans. The curator of the work undertaken at that time was a soldier of the 8th Augusta legion stationed in Strasbourg. The fragments have been transferred to the MNHA workshop in Bertrange where they will be restored. Other major surprises are not excluded in further excavation work at the site.

(Larger photograph on the original site. Obviously we should leave the preliminary transcription to whoever plans to publish this, but does anyone have any more epigraphic information on this find?)

Dear colleagues and friends:

(Apologies for cross-postings to lists. Please feel free to forward to colleagues, students and other discussion fora.)

Please send me (tom.elliott@nyu.edu) information about digital projects, publications and computer-aided research in epigraphy. This information will be used to update or inform multiple resources including:

• The “ASGLE links” resource (currently out of date): http://www.case.edu/artsci/clsc/asgle/links.html
• A section on “digital epigraphy” in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Latin Epigraphy
• A review of the state of the discipline to be presented at the ASGLE-sponsored session of the Joint Meetings of the APA/AIA in Philadelphia in January 2009

I am interested in any undertaking that involves computational approaches or digital data, whether it has resulted in publication or not. Any subdiscipline of epigraphy (Latin, Greek, other) is of interest. Information about papyrological and palaeographical projects whose methodology, technology or content has direct application in epigraphic study is also welcome.

The ASGLE links update will include a software upgrade, and will be carried out in collaboration with the editorial board of Current Epigraphy and the leadership and appropriate committees of the Association Internationale d’ Épigraphie Grecque et Latine and of the American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy. All information presented in the resulting “new” links collection will be released to the public under terms of a Creative Commons Attribution license so that it can be re-used freely by others. All information sent to me will be assumed to be the intellectual property of the person submitting it, and will be treated under terms of the CC license.

Ideally, I would like to have as much of the following information as possible (please feel free to use your native language):

• Title of project, resource or publication
• Principal investigator(s), author(s) or editor(s)
• Intitutional affiliation(s)
• URLs for websites
• Publication citation(s)
• A short description
• Status (e.g., experimental, complete, published, in progress, continuing, private)
• Technologies, methodologies used
• Sources of funding (past and present)
• Contact email address

Thank you for your assistance in this endeavor.

Best,
Tom
—
Tom Elliott
Associate Director for Digital Programs
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
New York University
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~te20/

Stephen Chrisomalis has posted on his blog Glossographia some thoughts on (and an image of) the “Elogium of Gaius Duilius” from Rome.

(reblogged from Ancient World Bloggers Group):

Here’s a hearty welcome to the blogosphere for Marion Lamé, whose Épigraphie en réseau debuts with a post entitled “The Athenian Tribute Lists, A First Bibliography.” She describes the blog thus:

Modeler l’informatique aux exigences des Sciences de l’Antiquité et transformer les outils de recherche de l’Antiquisant pour les adapter aux outils d’édition, conservation, communication et traitement de l’information modernes.

I’ve just added the blog’s feed to Maia Atlantis.

Here is the latest news from the American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy:

– CALL FOR PAPERS, 2010 ASGLE Joint APA/AIA Panel, Orange County (Anaheim), CA January 6-9, 2010 (Wed. – Sat.)

Greek and Latin Inscriptions: New Discoveries, organizers: Stpehen V. Tracy and Paul Iversen

As archaeological artifacts that preserve writing from the ancient past, inscriptions constitute one of our most valuable primary sources of evidence for the ancient Mediterranean world. Their importance cannot be stressed too much. The Society seeks to create a panel that will offer to the audience new and exciting discoveries about Greek and Latin inscriptions. The Society, therefore, welcomes papers that present new texts, new joins, new archaeological find spots, new readings, new interpretations or new methodologies. We are particularly interested in papers that discuss truly new and important texts or really innovative interpretations or methodologies.

Abstracts will be adjudicated anonymously by a committee of ASGLE and should not be longer than one page. Please follow the instructions for the format of Individual Abstracts that will appear in the Program Guide of the October issue of the APA Newsletter. Abstracts should be sent electronically in either Word 97-2004 format with a .doc extension or as a PDF to: Stephen Tracy, Vice-President, ASGLE at stracy@ias.edu. The deadline is February 1, 2009.

– ASGLE has money for Dissertation Research Awards. These awards consist in travel money for a student working on an epigraphical dissertation to visit a collection somewhere. Send in a proposal to the Secretary-Treasurer (paul.iversen@cwru.edu) with a letter of support from your advisor. All applicants should be members of ASGLE and will be required to write up a report.

– The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at The Ohio State University offers short-term fellowships (of one to four months duration) to support visitors pursuing post-doctoral research in Greek and Latin history and epigraphy. See the Center’s web page for the application guidelines.

– The University of Cincinnati Classics Department offers research support with their Margo Tytus Visiting Scholars Program. For more information and application guidelines, see here.

– The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at the Ohio State University offers a summer course in Greek epigraphy July 27 – August 7, 2009. For more information, see here.

– The Vergilian Society will be sponsoring some summer 2009 tours. See the Society’s web page for more information.

– Rex Wallace, UMass Amherst, recently published Zikh Rasna, A Manual of the Etruscan Language and Inscriptions.

-The ATHENIANS PROJECT is pleased to announce the recent publication of 2 more volumes of Persons of Ancient Athens.

Volume 16: Sym- to Tychonides, xviii + 481pp ISBN 978-0-0685232-9-2

Volume 17: U- to Philostratos, xviii + 399pp ISBN 978-0-9810250-0-1

All volumes 1-17 are in print and available at ATHENIANS, Victoria College, Toronto, ON M5S 1K7, Canada. Website: chass.utoronto.ca/attica. A special discount is granted to members of ASGLE and to their affiliated institutions.

For more information on how to become a member of ASGLE, see the Society’s web page.

Over at Bread and Circuses, Adrian Murdoch rounds up the (epigraphic) evidence for M. Nonius Macrinus, whose monumental tomb was recently discovered north of Rome and who supposedly inspired the main character in that Ridley Scott film from 8 years back …

From Christina Kokkinia:

Survey results in Boubon (Cibyratis, northern Lycia) 2004-2006.

This website offers a preliminary presentation of the results of three survey campaigns conducted in Boubon and its territory in 2004-2006 as part of the Cibyratis Project of the University of Heidelberg under the direction of Thomas Corsten in collaboration with the Institute of Greek and Roman Antiquity (IGRA/ΚΕΡΑ) of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens (NHRF/ΕΙΕ). It includes a corpus of the inscriptions found in Boubon and its territory, 15 of which are published here for the first time. Though our main interest lay in the epigraphy of the region, we have attempted, on the evidence of surface finds, to document the archaeological remains as thoroughly as possible.

Following on from the earlier partial summary—seminars that may be of interest to epigraphers:

University of Exeter, Classics, Oct 30, 2008, 16:00
Barbara Borg (Exeter)
What’s in a Tomb? Roman Death Public and Private

University of Exeter, Classics, Nov 6, 2008, 16:00
Ivana Petrovic (Durham)
Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo and Greek Metrical Sacred Regulations

University of Exeter, Classics, Nov 27, 2008, 16:00
Nick Fisher (Cardiff)
Festivals, the Charities and Social Cohesion in Greek City States

Accordia (London): January 13th 2009, 17:30 (ICS, Senate House, Room N336)
Dr John Patterson, Magdalene College, Cambridge
The City of Rome as Imperial Capital

Accordia (London): March 3rd 2009, 17:30 (ICS, Senate House, Room N336)
Dr Gillian Shepherd, University of Birmingham
Interactions and identities: burial and elite society in archaic Sicily

Just circulated via AEIGL:

Mireille CORBIER fait savoir que L’Année épigraphique 2005 est sortie au Mois d’août 2008 et peut être commandée à la maison d’édition

Presses Universitaires de France
6 avenue Reille
75685 Paris Cedex
revues@puf.com

Une remise de 20% est accordée aux membres de l’AIEGL sur présentation d’un justificatif.

(Publisher’s website at http://www.puf.com/wiki/Revues:L’année_épigraphique_vol_2005 –but no mention of the discount and apparently no online purchase option.)

Charles Watkinson sends word of a new publication from the American School of Classical Studies in Athens:

Theoroi and Initiates in Samothrace: The Epigraphical Evidence, by Nora M. Dimitrova. 208 pp., 132 b/w figs (Hesperia Suppl. 37, ASCSA 2008) ISBN 978-0-87661-537-9 Pb $55.00

The core of this work is an edition of all documents pertaining to sacred ambassadors (theoroi) and initiates (mystai and epoptai) in Samothrace. These documents, which constitute the majority of all Samothracian inscriptions, form a crucial body of evidence for the Samothracian Mysteries of the Great Gods, the most famous mystery cult in antiquity after the Eleusinian Mysteries. All 169 inscriptions that concern theoroi and initiates, both published and unpublished texts, are presented here. The presentation of each document includes the following elements, in accordance with standard epigraphical publications: a physical description of the stone, bibliography, text, epigraphical commentary, and general commentary. Part I comprises documents concerning theoroi in Samothrace, and Part II, those concerning initiates. Each part is prefaced by a discussion of various problems associated these classes of visitor. A major contribution of the volume is prosopographical: The author increases the total number of known theoroi to approximately 250, and that of initiates to some 700. Fourteen new names of eponymous kings, the major Samothracian magistrates, have also been added to the list. A map of the cities who sent visitors to Samothrace demonstrates the site’s wide catchment area.

More information about the book, and a link to buy it, can be found at: http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/book/?i=9780876615379

The volume is available to purchase through Amazon.com, bn.com, and other fine booksellers.

Update: Charles has provided the cover page, table of contents and introduction as a PDF file.

Over on the Markup list (for discussion of text markup issues) we have been discussing the ligature of VI that appears in some Latin inscriptions. I asked:

We have come across several cases in the Inscriptions of Roman
Tripolitania of the symbol that looks a little like an Arabic '4', but
seems in fact to be a ligature of VI and stands for the numeral six (or,
followed for example by II, part of a larger numeral VIII etc.)

(1) is this a recognised symbol, and is there a Unicode codepoint that
is either dedicated to it or acceptable to use to encode this symbol (as
opposed to just for display)?

(2) is there a common name for this symbol, better than "six-ligature"
or "vi-ligature"?

(The symbol appears not to have a separate codepoint in Unicode, and nor should we expect it to be treated differently from U+2165, “Roman numeral six”, of which it is, after all, only a glyph variant. We have also, I think, answered the question of how to represent this symbol in EpiDoc [i.e. just like any other ligature].)

As an interesting aside, Paul Iversen suggested that there may some influence on this glyph-form from the Greek numeric stigma/digamma for six. There are plenty of other examples of the use of this symbol (including some useful Latin papyrological examples provided offlist by Rodney Ast). I include here the one photograph I have been able to find of a Tripolitanian example, where (VI)III = 9:

What do readers think? Is there any relationship between this and digamma? Is there a name for this ligature? Is there any argument for treating this any differently from a ligature of (NM) or (ΠΡ)?

From BMCR 2008.10.1 (but not actually available for review):

Cooper, Craig (ed.). Epigraphy and the Greek historian. Phoenix supplementary volume, 47. Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2008. xvii, 197 p. $75.00. ISBN 9780802090690.

Still available from September 2008 (and of possible interest to epigraphers):

*Dubois, Laurent. Inscriptions grecques dialectales de Sicile. Tome II. Hautes Études du monde gréco-romain 40. Genève: Droz, 2008. 220 p. $82.00 (pb). ISBN 9782600013406.

*Bodel, John and Saul M. Olyan (edd.). Household and family religion in antiquity. The ancient world: comparative histories. Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2008. xii, 324 p. $100.00. ISBN 9781405175791.