• Harbours: infrastructure and society
• The world of the Military
• Inscriptions in private space
• Inscriptions and the digital world
• History of epigraphic scholarship
• The measurement of space
• Sanctuaries and cults
• Inscriptions and Christian cult places
• The dialogue of the living and the dead: tombs and their inscriptions
• Space, image and inscription

The deadline for submission of short papers under these topics is March 31, 2011. Full details in the newsletter (below).

Newsletter_01_110216.pdf

Elaine Matthews (Oxford) in her paper reproduces a general tracing of the development of IT in many of its applications and explains the introduction of it in epigraphy. The IT revolution is nothing new; it is at least sixty years old and classicists’ use of it has a history of some forty years. Individual projects are a reliable testimony of certain activity in the field. Some early projects are mentioned, such as the David W. Packard’s 1968 Concordance to Livy and the TLG online. More recent exploitations of technology applied for in the Classical world include EpiDoc and LGPN. At the end of her reconstruction of the history of the IT Revolution, E. Matthews stresses the importance of IT in the future of epigraphy. This, she explains, does not mean that every single epigrapher has to have technical knowledge, but it does mean that someone must engage with the technology!

John Bodel (Brown University) is the second and last speaker of this plenary session. In tune with Prof. Panciera and Elaine Matthews, he emphasises the importance of embracing the IT Revolution in the study of inscriptions. It is not a matter of it being necessary or worth it but inevitable! The IT Revolution has indeed already touched the world of epigraphy. A pioneer in digital epigraphy was D. Packard (Concordance to Livy, 1968). Packard’s mark-up system, known as Beta Code, was then adopted by the TLG in 1981 and quickly established itself as the standard means of encoding polytonic Greek. These early initiatives were important for raising general awareness of the potentials of computers. J. Bodel defines our days as “the age of digital epigraphy”. There have been many important advances in digital epigraphy during the last decade that can lead us towards a more optimistic vision of the future. Three broad areas have been particularly touched: 1) Databases. – EAGLE (Collaboration among three projects: Heidelberg, Rome, Bari). The federation is open and recently a fourth initiative has been welcomed into the community, namely HISPANIA EPIGRAPHICA ONLINE. 2) Images. The use of technology can provide high quality at relatively low cost images. – X ray fluorescence imaging. – Polynomial texture mapping. – GRAVA. 3) Editing. – EpiDoc. Two pilot projects are “The Vindolanda Tablets online” and “Inscriptions of Aphrodisias”. Recently the EpiDoc system has been adopted in papyrology and numismatics as well. We now have all the tools we need to perform efficiently and the potential benefits to epigraphers of the new information technology are widely recognised!

Cédric Brélaz (École Française d’Athènes), “La langue des indigènes sur le territoire de la colonie romaine de Philippes”, drew attention to the fact that in Philippi, in contrast with the majority of Roman colonies in Greece, where the prevailing language outside the small circle of colonists is Greek, there are several inscriptions of the incolae in Latin. Since practically all such Latin inscriptions belong to persons of Thracian origin, the speaker convincingly argued that the appeal of Latin to these populations was due to the lesser degree of hellenization in the territory of Philippi. This relative appeal of Latin is also attested in other insufficiently hellenized Roman colonies of the Greek East.

Slavica Babamova-Janik (Institute for National History, Skopje), “Personal names of the inhabitants of eastern Paeonia in the Roman period”, dealt with the onomastics of eastern Paeonia. A perusal of old and new inscriptions led her to the conclusion that many names of that area which have been characterized as Thracian should be considered epichoric, part of the local substratum of the Balkan peninsula.

Manuela Mari (Università degli Studi di Cassino), “Epigraphic evidence on the cults of Amphipolis”, provided a full overview of all sources on the cults of Amphipolis. Three main features emerged: a) remnants of the city’s Athenian past persisted into much later periods; b) the number of cults is surprisingly high, surely a testimony to the city’s cosmopolitan and religiously open-minded character; c) personality cult (primarily, but not exclusively, royal cult) was particularly popular.

Isabel Rodà de Llanza (Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology, Barcelona) in a presentation entitled “Exposicíon de inscripciones” surveyed recent evolutions of the idea of the epigraphic museum, using the evidence of colloquia on the subject and newly conceived or renovated museums. She suggested that some of the best museums were those that presented an integrated view of a few monuments in context, as opposed to those that attempted to offer an integral display of an entire epigraphic collection. Praise was also extended to museums that now make use of multimedia displays, such as the Musée d’archéologie et d’histoire de Montréal.

Charalambos Kritzas (Epigraphical Museum, Athens), “Teaching with Inscriptions: Beyond the Alphabet”, took as a starting point his role as director of the best collection of inscriptions in Greece. He focused on the elaboration of teaching and interactive displays at the Epigraphical Museum and also singled out the local museums of Rhodes and Chios that have recently been made more accessible and attractive to visitors. Kritzas seemed on the whole to agree with Rodà de Llanza’s acclaim of the ‘integrated’ epigraphic collection, and he concluded with a description of possibly the best example of the genre: the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki.

Delphine Ackermann (Université de Neuchâtel) presented a paper entitled “Le règlement religieux d’Aixonè: quelques réflections sur l’organisation du culte et le panthéon d’un dème de l’Attique”, a preliminary version of a new edition that will be included as an appendix in her dissertation on the deme of Aixone. The fascinating sacred law from Aixone (mod. Glyphada) has most recently been edited, with new fragments, by G. Steinhauer “Hieros Nomos Aixoneon”, in A.P. Matthaiou and G.E. Malochou (eds.) Attikai Epigraphai: Praktika Symposiou eis mnemen Adolf Wilhelm (1864-1950), Athens 2004, 155-173. Ackermann offered a synopsis of the various offerings to numerous deities which are catalogued in this sacred law and convincingly argued that this variety demonstrates that the inscription is a deme document, almost certainly from Aixone itself, and not the product of a phratry or genos, groups which had narrower pantheons. She proposed a few new interpretations of the context of the inscription, most notably, that the 5 drachmai allotted to each priest and priestess cannot be considered a sacrificial tariff since the amount largely exceeds all other known tariffs, and that this amount must instead be thought of as a ‘base salary’ for the priests (similarly the sum of 3 drachmai, which is granted in some cases for the sacrifice of a heuston teleon, would have been a supplement to this base salary).

Marietta Horster (Humboldt University, Berlin) in a paper entitled “(Self-)Representation of Priests and Priestesses in Fourth-Century Athens” catalogued the public recognition of priests and priestesses: known decrees honour almost exclusively foreigners in the fourth century. She also surveyed the evidence for private representation: votive offerings and funerary momuments, which were set up by Athenian priests and priestesses, not foreigners, but very few of them issue from a known cultic family or gene. Further implications of these findings remained unclear for the time being.

Catherine Keesling (George Washington University) delivered a very interesting paper entitled “Syeris, Diakonos of the Priestess Lysimache on the Athenian Acropolis (IG II[2] 3464)”. Through detailed comparison with other examples, she clearly demonstrated that this inscription must be a pillar type A base for a statue (using Raubitschek’s classification), with the capital of the pillar base missing. This usefully accounts for the difference in letterforms found on the inscription which had confused some of the earlier editors: lines 1-4 could have been originally inscribed on the capital and then reinscribed in the 3rd century BC or later, after the loss of the capital. The remaining lines seem to date to the 4th century BC, as is also confirmed by comparing the sculptor of the statue, Nikomachos, with other signatures of the same name: IG II(2) 4274 (4th century) and IG II(2) 3038 (a choregic monument dated to 364/3). Keesling is thus able to convincingly conclude that the Syeris honoured in IG II(2) 3464 must have been the diakonos of the famous Lysimache, the long-serving priestess of Athena Polias (IG II2 3453), whom David Lewis identified as the inspiration for Lysistrata (Selected Papers in Greek and Near Eastern History, ed. P.J. Rhodes, Cambridge 1997, 187-202).

Giulia Baratta’s paper is an observation on the unfair role given to inscriptions within archaeological areas. This point of view is shared by Antonio Santori (Universita’ di Milano, Italy) who gave a paper in the same session, “Museographia Epigraphica”, entitled “La comunicazione epigrafica e l’epigrafia comunicata”. His advice is to use a considerable number of inscriptions and create a separate area for them within a museum, a sort of ”epigraphic gallery”. The inscriptions should be cleaned properly and lit with a good, possibly individual, light. In order to be more accessible to people, they should also have a quite detailed and clear caption with description and translation.

In general, both papers show big disappointment for the very limited role and scarce importance given to inscriptions in museums and archaeological sites.

Walter Scheidel (Stanford), “Epigraphy and Demography: Birth, marriage, family and death”, presented an overview of the advances in demographic studies, mostly on the Roman empire. Although no useable information on fertility is provided by epigraphy, inscriptions allow us to affirm that there is a spike in the number of births in January, just as in the premodern Mediterranean. They also allow an analysis of the age of marriage. They confirm that the nuclear family is, by far, the key social bond in urban environments, although more extended families are attested in the countryside. The sex ratio of inscriptions (the attested number of men per 100 attested women) is often exceptionally high in the epigraphic data, due to epigraphic habits rather than demographic realities. Mortality rates, contrary to the older consensus, cannot be deduced by the dates recorded in epitaphs. There are, however, data on seasonal mortality: the late summer / early autumn was a dangerous period of the year in Rome, while comparison with some other major cities, where no observable pattern in seasonal mortality is observed, allows the assumption that they were healthier places to live in than the capital of the empire.

Scheidel’s working paper can be found here (pdf).

Christoph Schuler (Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik, Munich), “Inscriptions and the identity of population groups: case studies from the countryside”, studied the connection between epigraphy and the identity of rural population in Roman Asia Minor. Taking the middle road between two opposite views (the countryside as a world apart – the countryside as an integral part of the city), the speaker used a variety of evidence ­–dedications to local manifestations of weather gods, archaeological evidence from rural sanctuaries, atonement inscriptions– in a convincing attempt to show how epigraphy and the rural sense of identity are interrelated; how pride in the local cult is portrayed through epigraphy, thus further reinforcing the sense of distinct identity.

Beate Dignas (Somerville College, University of Oxford) surveyed a few inscriptions recording foundations of new cults in “How to Found a Cult: Epigraphic Manifestations”, notably F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques 129 (Anaphe) and 180 (Paros). Many interesting issues raised by this paper remain to be developed further, such as the distinction between individual and public motivations for a foundation as well as the involvement of foreigners in founding new cults and enhancing local forms of religious practice.

A paper by Eran Lupu (George Washington University), “Of Priests and Snouts: The Snout as a Priestly Prerogative in Greek Cult Regulations”, was read in absentia by the author’s wife, Catherine Keesling. Snouts were considered a refreshingly entertaining subject by the Oxford audience, yet they are only seldom attested in sacred laws: F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées d’Asie mineure 21.5-6 (Erythrai) and 54.4 (Didyma), and possibly Lois sacrées des cités grecques 151.B.20 (Kos) where the restoration is not certain. Lupu suggested that the uncertain mention of an akrokolion, ‘extremity’, in a fragmentary sacred law, I. Ephesos 1263, may refer to a snout, but Lois sacrées d’Asie mineure 54 shows that this could not have always been the case, since it distinguishes between akrokolia and snouts. Various literary sources collected in Athenaeus 3.48 demonstrate that snouts were prized delicacies.

Maria Paz de Hoz (University of Salamanca), in “Confession Inscriptions and Other Testimonies of Aretalogy in the Greek World”, discussed several inscriptions from G. Petzl, Die Beichtinschriften Weskleinasiens, EA 22 (1994), and from P. Herrmann and H. Malay, New Documents from Lydia, TAM 24 Suppl. (Vienna 2007). Classifying confession inscriptions as aretalogical texts, she stressed that the main aim of these inscriptions was to publicize the power of gods to punish human transgressions (dunamis), over and beyond any notion of benevolent divine power. In the case of the texts from Maionia in Lydia, she argued that the “receding economical power of the sanctuaries as well as the loss of influence [of these sanctuaries] on the community”–factors perhaps tied to the rise of Christianity–led priestly officials to foster the practice of erecting these inscriptions.

Filippo Canali de Rossi (Liceo Scientifico Talete, Rome) gave a paper entitled “Achaean Military Support for Rome: A New Interpretation”, with the aim of clarifying the dating of Moretti, ISE 60. This inscription records the support lended by Achaean cities during a Roman campaign led by Gnaius Domitius (Ahenobarbus) against the Galatians. There are two possible identifications of the leader of this expedition, the consuls of 192 BC and 122 BC respectively. Adducing the evidence of SIG(3) 606, which records a dedication by Achaean mercenaries of a statue of Attalos II at Pergamon ca. 190 BC as a result of a campaign in Lydia, Canali de Rossi presented the hypothesis that the two military expeditions were linked and that the earlier date of ca. 192 BC for ISE 60 must be preferred.

Jean-Christophe Couvenhes (Université de Tours) presented a preliminary report on his work in preparing a corpus of Greek inscriptions which mention troops devoted to civic and territorial defense in Attica: “Péripoloi, kryptoi et hypaithroi dans la défense de l’Attique: permanence civique, influence royale”. He outlined in some detail the historical development of these various groups, which succeeded one another: peripoloi and peripolarchoi (generally from the end of the 5th century to ca. 332/280 BC), kryptoi (‘covert’ units, 287-229 BC), and hypaithroi (non-garrisoned troops, from 229 to probably the end of the 1st century BC). The question of the influence that Hellenistic kings may have had on these developments was briefly raised.

Henri-Louis Fernoux (Université de Bourgogne, Dijon), in “Représentations et faits de guerre dans cités grecques d’Asie mineure à l’époque impérial à travers le témoignage de l’épigraphie”, offered an account of the evolution of warfare in Asia Minor during the centuries of Roman imperial peace. Local conflicts between neighbouring cities such as Nikaia and Nikomedeia, illustrated by sometimes rich epigraphical dossiers (cf. L. Robert, “La titulature de Nicée et de Nicomédie: la gloire et la haine,” HSCP 81, 1977, 1-39 = OMS VI, Paris 1989, 211-249), show that warfare took place mostly on a psychological and covert level, and that effective ‘faits de guerre’ were few and far between.

Eduard Rung (University of Kazan), in “Diplomacy of Classical Greece and the Inscriptions”, presented a general overview of the large number of inscribed treaties of alliance (symmachia) between Greek cities which date from the 5th and 4th centuries BC. He is preparing a new study of these inscriptions.