Current Epigraphy
ISSN: 1754-0909

From Laura Löser:

Dear all,

Exciting things are happening in the realms of EpiDoc. Since Thursday, you can find EpiDoc on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EpiDoc

First of all, if you are not a member of Facebook, worry not: any information that we publish on our Facebook page will also reach the Markup List. However, the page was established in order to keep anyone, whether just interested in learning more or established member of the EpiDoc community, up to date with current events and developments in an informal setting.

If you ‘like’ the page, you can show support for EpiDoc and share our news with your friends. Thus, you can make a contribution to promoting the benefits of EpiDoc, which may enlarge our community and thus increase the number of helping hands in the list – we shall regulargy encourage our followers to join the Markup List and make joining less ‘scary’, especially for students and younger scholars to widen access and outreach and raise awareness.

A reminder that we are inviting applications for a training event in digital encoding of epigraphy and papyrology at the Institute for Classical Studies, London, April 22-5, 2013 (see full announcement here).  Thanks to the generosity of the British Epigraphy Society and Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, we now have a limited number of bursaries available to assist students with attending this workshop.

If you would like to apply for financial support in attending the EpiDoc workshop, please note in your application email that you would like to be considered for a bursary, approximately how much you expect the trip to cost you, and what other sources of funding you have. If you have already applied for the training, please just send an additional email asking to be considered, and we’ll add a note to this effect to your application. A decision will be made shortly after the closing date on March 1st.

We invite applications for a 4-day training workshop on digital text-markup for epigraphic and papyrological editing, to be held in the Institute for Classical Studies, London, with support from the British Epigraphy Society and Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. The workshop will be taught by Gabriel Bodard (KCL), James Cowey (Heidelberg), Simona Stoyanova (KCL) and Charlotte Tupman (KCL). There will be no charge for the teaching, but participants will have to arrange their own travel and accommodation.

EpiDoc (epidoc.sf.net) is a set of guidelines for using TEI XML (tei-c.org) for the encoding of inscriptions, papyri and other ancient documentary texts. It has been used to publish digital projects including the Inscriptions of Aphrodisias and Tripolitania, the US Epigraphy Project, Vindolanda Tablets Online andCurse Tablets from Roman Britain, Pandektis (inscriptions of Macedonia and Thrace), and the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri. The workshop will introduce participants to the basics of XML and markup and give hands-on experience of tagging textual features and object description in EpiDoc as well as use of the tags-free Papyrological Editor (papyri.info/editor).

No technical skills are required to apply, but a working knowledge of Greek or Latin, epigraphy or papyrology and the Leiden Conventions will be assumed. The workshop is open to participants of all levels, from graduate students to professors or professionals.

To apply for a place on this workshop please email gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk with a brief description of your reason for interest and summarising your relevant skills and background, by Friday March 1st, 2013.

Please find attached a flyer advertising the online publication of a new corpus of Greek and Latin inscriptions, Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua XI: Monuments from Phrygia and Lykaonia.

MAMA XI is a corpus of 387 inscriptions and other ancient monuments, 292 of which are unpublished, from Phrygia and Lykaonia recorded by Sir William Calder (1881-1960) and Dr Michael Ballance (†27 July 2006) in the course of annual expeditions to Asia Minor in 1954-1957. The monuments have been edited with full commentaries and marked-up in xml using EpiDoc electronic editorial conventions by Peter Thonemann with the assistance of Édouard Chiricat and Charles Crowther.

The full corpus was published online on 14 September 2012 at the following address: http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk/. A print volume will be published later as a Roman Society monograph.

The MAMA XI project has been funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and is based at the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents in Oxford.

Peter Thonemann
Wadham College, Oxford
peter.thonemann@wadh.ox.ac.uk

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.

EpiDoc and TEI / XML training workshop

Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Giuridiche, Economiche e Sociali dell’Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria
BILG Project

4 – 7 giugno 2012

The Department of Scienze Storiche, Giuridiche, Economiche e Sociali of University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria and the Department Diritto dell’Organizzazione Pubblica, Economia e Società of University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, within BILG (Inscriptiones Graecae et Latinae Bruttiorum) project, is organising an intensive training workshop of EpiDoc, with Monica Berti (Tufts University – Roma Tor Vergata), Lou Burnard (TEI Editor) and Marion Lamè (Università di Bologna).

This workshop is an introduction to the use of TEI and of EpiDoc, XML schema for the encoding and publication of literary texts and inscriptions, papyri and other documentary classical texts respectively. Participants will study the use of EpiDoc markup to record the distinctions expressed by the Leiden Conventions and traditional critical editions, and some of the issues in translating between EpiDoc and the major epigraphic and papyrological databases. The course is targeted at scholars of historical and ancient texts, epigraphic and papyrologic ones (from advanced graduate students to professors), that are interested and want to learn some of the hands-on technical aspects in the markup, encoding, and exploitation of digital editions.

The course will give a practical introduction to the Text Encoding Initiative, an introduction to EpiDoc markup and editing tools, and the text transformations with XSLT.

For more details about EpiDoc and TEI /XML, see at http://epidoc.sf.net and http://www.tei-c.org. Knowledge of Greek and/or Latin, the Leiden  Conventions, the distinctions expressed by them and the kinds of data that need to be recorded by epigraphic scholars and ancient historians are of  course essential. The course will be held in English with Italian tutors. No particular computer skills and technical expertise are required, even if the possession of an interest for computer know-how is preferable.

The workshop is free of charge and open to all, but spaces are limited (not more than 20 people) and registration as soon as possible is essential. To enrol in the training, please contact daria.spampinato@cnr.it or stefania.romeo@unirc.it with a brief statement of qualifications and interests.

This is a call for applications to a post-doctoral one year  fellowship in Greek Epigraphy, starting from March 1, 2012. Applications must be submitted by Jan. 31, 2012, according to the “Bando” on University of Bologna website (Dipartimento di Storia Antica/Società e potere nelle iscrizioni della Cirenaica), https://www.aric.unibo.it/AssegniRicerca/BandiPubblicati/zz_Bandi_din.aspx#scadenza

The research fellow will allowed and welcome to work in English as well in French, and foreign applications are very much welcome. To get help in order to write down the application (in Italian), applicant can write directly to Lucia Criscuolo (lucia.criscuolo@unibo.it) or to Alice Bencivenni (alice.bencivenni2@unibo.it). The interview, which will take place on Feb. 22,  can take place via Skype.

The applicant will be involved in the international project on Lybian inscriptions, which has to develop a publication portal for several digital corpora of inscriptions from Libya. The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania (IRT) were republished in 2009 (irt.kcl.ac.uk/irt2009); the first volume of Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica (IRCyr) is scheduled for publication in 2011; the Greek Inscriptions of Cyrenaica are under preparation (IGCyr). All these corpora are prepared in EpiDoc. The portal will offer access to all these publications; it will provide a common bibliography, a shared search facility, shared indices, and draw on a shared geographic database. The bursar shall prepare and update the already existing Bibliography, according to the standard of the Bibliographie Papyrologique, and the Prosopography accomplished by A. Laronde, and collaborate in the mark-up and the preparation of the metadata, checking different sources and enlarging, if necessary, the information already provided by the other members of the team. Through this work the bursar will get an experience in the evaluation and interpretation of the epigraphical evidence of the ancient Cyrene, from VII to I century BC.

EpiDoc Training Workshop
5-8 September 2011
Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, London

An EpiDoc training workshop will be offered by the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, and the Institute of Classical Studies in September this year. The workshop is free of charge and open to all, but spaces are limited and registration as soon as possible is essential.

This workshop is an introduction to the use of EpiDoc, an XML schema for the encoding and publication of inscriptions, papyri and other documentary Classical texts. Participants will study the use of EpiDoc markup to record the distinctions expressed by the Leiden Conventions and traditional critical editions, and some of the issues in translating between EpiDoc and the major epigraphic and papyrological databases. They will also be given hands-on experience in the use of the Papyrological Editor tool implemented by the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, which facilitates the authoring EpiDoc XML via a ‘tags-free’ interface.

The course is targeted at scholars of epigraphy and papyrology (from advanced graduate students to professors) with an interest and willingness to learn some of the hands-on technical aspects necessary to run a digital project. Knowledge of Greek and/or Latin, the Leiden Conventions and the distinctions expressed by them, and the kinds of data that need to be recorded by philologists and ancient historians, will be assumed. No particular technical expertise is required.

Places on the EpiDoc training week are limited so if you are interested in attending the workshop or have any questions, please contact charlotte.tupman@kcl.ac.uk and gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk as soon as possible with a brief statement of qualifications and interest.

An announcement from Charlotte Roueché, Catherine Dobias-Lalou and Lucia Criscuolo:

We are delighted to announce a new project to develop and co-ordinate research on the Greek and Roman epigraphy of Libya. The collaborative undertaking involves scholars at King’s College London (Centre for Hellenic Studies and Department of Digital Humanities), the Universities of Bologna and Macerata, and the University of Paris IV–Sorbonne (Centre de recherche sur la Libye Antique).

We propose to develop a publication portal for several digital corpora of inscriptions from Libya. The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania (IRT) were republished in 2009; the first volume of Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica (IRCyr) is scheduled for publication in 2011; the Greek Inscriptions of Cyrenaica are under preparation (IGCyr). All these corpora are prepared in EpiDoc. The portal will offer access to all these publications; it will provide a common bibliography, a shared search facility, shared indices, and draw on a shared geographic database. It is our hope that other scholars publishing material from Libya will make use of this opportunity to present their material.

Multiple language versions of this announcement can be found at Sito Italiano di Epigrafia Greca.

Over at the Sito Italiano di Epigrafia Greca (SITEG), Alice Bencivenni reports on an EpiDoc/SoSOL training workshop held at the Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, 10-14 January 2011.

The Summer 2010 EpiDoc training workshop will now take place in London, at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London, from June 28 – July 1. Thanks to the generosity of the Association Internationale d’Épigraphie Grecque et Latine (AIEGL) we have €500 available for bursaries to help students attend this event. The workshop will be taught by Gabriel Bodard (KCL) and James Cowey (Heidelberg). There will be no charge to attend this workshop.

(more…)

This year one of the strands in the programme of the Digital Humanities Observatory Summer School is an EpiDoc training workshop, which may be of interest to epigraphists (please circulate this announcement widely, especially to students):

This course will introduce attendees to EpiDoc markup, an XML schema for epigraphic and papyrological editions. The workshop is targeted at Classical scholars: we shall assume knowledge of Greek and/or Latin and some experience in Classical history or adjacent disciplines, but no technical expertise is required. We shall introduce students to the use of EpiDoc markup to record the distinctions expressed by the Leiden Conventions and traditional critical editions, and some of the issues in translating between EpiDoc and the major epigraphic and papyrological databases. Students will also be given hands-on experience in the use of the “Son of SOL” editing tool, currently implemented by the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, which facilitates the creation of validating EpiDoc XML via a ‘tags-free’ interface.

Registration for the summer school costs €300 students / €400 staff.
Subsidized/free places are available for members of Irish universities,
and we hope that a few bursaries will also be available for EpiDoc
students. Please get in touch with <gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk> if you want more information.

Announcement: DHO Summer School registration now open

2010 DHO Summer School
in conjunction with NINES and the EpiDoc Collaborative
28 June – 2 July 2010
http://dho.ie/ss2010

The third annual Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO) Summer School will
take place in Dublin from 28 June to 2 July 2010. Following the highly
successful 2009 Summer School, next year’s event will see the expansion
of popular workshop strands such as:

• A Practical Introduction to the Text Encoding Initiative
• Data Visualisation for the Humanities
• An Introduction to EpiDoc Markup and Editing Tools
• The One to Many Text: Text Transformations with XSLT

The Summer School will feature lectures by Dr. Hugh Denard (King’s
College London Visualisation Lab) and Dr Ian Gregory (University of
Lancaster). Workshop facilitators include Dr Gabriel Bodard (King’s
College London), Dr James Cowey (University of Heidelberg), Professor
Laura Mandell (Miami University of Ohio), Dr Susan Schreibman (Digital
Humanities Observatory), Justin Tonra (NUI, Galway) and Dana Wheeles
(University of Virginia).

Major workshop strands will be conducted over four days allowing
delegates to choose a mini-workshop on Wednesday from one of the
following offerings:

• Geospatial Methods for Humanities Research
• Using Digital Resources for Irish Research and Teaching
• Visualising Space, Time and Events: Using Virtual Worlds for Humanities Research
• Finding the Concepts In the Chaos – Building Relationships With Data Models
• Planning Digital Scholarly Resources: A Primer

The introduction of the one-day mini-workshops allows people to choose
to attend a single-day event only at a reduced cost.

Announcement
EpiDoc Training Sessions 2009
London 20-24 July
Rome 21-25 September

The EpiDoc community has been developing protocols for the publication of inscriptions, papyri, and other documentary Classical texts in TEI-compliant XML: for details see the community website at http://epidoc.sf.net.

Over the last few years there has been increasing demand for training by scholars wishing to use EpiDoc. We are delighted to be able to announce two training workshops, which will be offered in 2009. Both will be led by Dr Gabriel Bodard. These sessions will benefit scholars working on Greek or Latin documents with an interest in developing skills in the markup, encoding, and exploitation of digital editions. Competence in Greek and/or Latin, and knowledge of the Leiden Conventions will be assumed; no particular computer skills are required.

London session, 20-24 July 2009. This will take place at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London, 26-29 Drury Lane. The cost of attendance will be £50 for students; £100 for employees of universities or other non-profit institutions; £200 for employees of commercial institutions. Those interested in enrolling should apply to Dr Bodard, gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk by 20 June 2009.

We hope to be able to offer some follow-up internships after the session, to enable participants to consolidate their experience under supervision; please let us know if that would be of interest to you.

Rome session, 21-25 September 2009. This will take place at the British School at Rome. Thanks to the generous support of the International Association of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, the British School and Terra Italia Onlus, attendance will be free.

Those interested in enrolling should apply to Dr Silvia Orlandi, silvia.orlandi@uniroma1.it by 30 June 2009.

Practical matters
Both courses will run from Monday to Friday starting at 10.00 am and ending at 16.00 each day.

Participants should bring a wireless-enabled laptop. You should acquire and install a copy of Oxygen *and* either an educational licence ($48) or a 30-day trial licence (free). Don’t worry if you don’t know how to use it!

The organizers would like to bring to the attention of interested colleagues this upcoming event dedicated to the digital publication of a new corpus of Ancient Inscriptions from the Northern Coast of Black Sea (IOSPE = Inscriptiones Orae Septentrionalis Ponti Euxini).

Enhancing and Exploring Epigraphic and Archaeological Data through e-Science

In Association with eSI Thematic Programme: e-Science in the Arts and Humanities

10 February 2009, 09:30 AM – 11 February, 04:00 PM

e-Science Institute, 15 South College Street, Edinburgh

Organisers: Stuart Dunn, Irene Polinskaya and Gabriel Bodard

The meeting will bring technical and editorial researchers participating in, or otherwise engaged with, the IOSPE (Inscriptiones Orae Septentrionalis Ponti Euxini = Ancient Inscriptions of the Northern Black Sea Coast) project together with researchers in related fields, both historical and computational. Existing projects, such as the Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica and Inscriptions of Aphrodisias, have explored the digitization of ancient inscriptions from their regions, and employed the EpiDoc schema as markup. IOSPE plans to expand this sphere of activity, in conjunction with a multi-volume publication of inscription data. This event is a joint workshop funded in part by a Small Research Grant from the British Academy, and in part by the eSI through the Arts and Humanities e-Science theme. The workshop will bring together domain experts in epigraphy, and specialists in digital humanities, and e-science researchers, which will provide a detailed scoping of the research questions, and the research methods needed to investigate them from an historical/epigraphic point of view.

Further details and programme can be found here. 

Inquiries may be directed to the co-organizer:

Dr. Irene Polinskaya

Department of Classics

King’s College London

University of London

Strand, London WC2R 2LS

Tel. (0)20 7848 1762/Fax (0)20 7848 2545

irene.polinskaya@kcl.ac.uk