2nd István Hahn Lecture (2010)

Venue:
István Hahn Seminar Room
ELTE BTK Múzeum krt. 6–8. Rm 138.
Date: 10 AM, 29 March 2010

10.00. Opening:
Tamás Dezső, Dean of the Faculty

10.20. Honorary lecture:
Ioan Piso (Klausenburg): Capitolia, epulum Iovis und dies Iovis. Die Beispiele von Dakien, Pannonien und Hispania Tarraconensis

11.00. Conference
Marc Mayer (Barcelona): La céramique avec inscriptions de La Maja (La Rioja, España).

11.20. Radu Ardevan (Klausenburg): Die Verteilung der römischen Provinz Dakien in der Geschichtschreibung

11.40. Giulia Baratta (Macerata): Riefelsarkophage und Bildersprache.

12.00. Élodie Cairon (Paris): Présentation du numéro 18 d’Hungarian Polis Studies : Les épitaphes métriques hellénistiques du Péloponnèse à la Thessalie

12.20. Péter Kató (Budapest-Heidelberg): Philoi kai symmachoi: Polis-Netzwerke und der Krieg in der hellenistischen Zeit

12.40. Discussion

This colloquium investigates the phenomenon of the cupae, which are roughly semi-cylindrical or barrel-shaped tomb monuments found at various sites across the Iberian Peninsula from the first to the third centuries A.D. Many are inscribed with funerary texts in Latin. Scholars from many areas of the Peninsula as well as elsewhere in Europe are gathering for the three-day colloquium at Uncastillo to discuss a number of questions relating to these monuments: their origins, which remain a source of contention; their diffusion across the Peninsula; their practical and symbolic uses by members of different social groups; and their typology, which has thus far proved difficult to establish. This is the first conference to be devoted to this enigmatic type of funerary monument.

Further information and the conference programme can be found here:

Las Cupae Hispanas

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

A day of lectures and shorter presentations in Room G.21 of the Classics Faculty Building, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, starting (with coffee) at 10.00 am. (Lunch will be available in Newnham College opposite).

The first speaker will be Richard Gordon on “Putting the gods to work: the new prayers for justice in Latin from Moguntiacum / Mainz”.

Anyone who would like to offer a paper or make a short presentation is asked to get in touch with Joyce Reynolds (jmr38@cam.ac.uk with a copy please to djt17@cam.ac.uk) as soon as possible so a programme can be finalised. This will then be posted on the Faculty website. It would also be helpful but not essential to have some idea of numbers in advance (to djt17@cam.ac.uk).

Rediscovering the inscriptions of Campa (Vietnam)
Speaker: Arlo Griffiths
Location: 2nd Floor Lecture Room
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 E 84th St
New York, NY
Date: Monday, March 8 2010
Time: 6:00 p.m.

The aim of this lecture is to inform the interested New York public on recent developments in the study of the written records of ancient ‘Indianized’ polities in Southeast Asia. We will take as example the epigraphic corpus of the ancient Campa kingdom(s), which lay in what is now central and southern Vietnam. The study of Campa epigraphy involves texts in Sanskrit and in the poorly known vernacular Old Cam language, which belongs to the Austronesian language family. This field of research once flourished in French colonial times, then all but died out after WW II, and has only recently been resuscitated from a coma that lasted for decades. Newly discovered inscriptions have started to be published again, and a census of Campa inscriptions was undertaken last September-October in museums and archaeological sites of Vietnam. The aim of the census was to up-date the general inventory of Campa inscriptions, whose last published installment dates to 1942, and to record essential data of previously known and newly discovered epigraphical documents. The presentation will discuss general aspects of Southeast Asian epigraphy, as well as specific aspects of the Campa corpus and the history of its study. Some new inscriptions, which throw interesting new light on the history of Campa and its place within the larger scale development of Southeast Asian history, will be selected for close inspection.

Arlo Griffiths holds a PhD in Sanskrit from Leiden University. After holding a position as lecturer in Indian Religions at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), and holding the chair of Sanskrit at Leiden University, he joined the French School of Asian Studies (L’École française d’Extrême-Orient) in 2008 as Professor of Southeast Asian history. His main fields of interest are Hindu religious/ritual literature in Sanskrit, on the one hand, and inscriptions of Southeast Asia in Sanskrit and vernacular languages, on the other. His approach to the (ancient) history of Southeast Asia is primarily epigraphic, and he is currently involved in projects concerning the inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, ancient Indonesia, and Campa.

(In)formal epigraphy
This meeting examines formality and informality within epigraphic culture. What different types of formality and informality can we detect in epigraphic material and to what extent is this affected by the survival and recording of material? How does the use of space (where do we find epigraphic writing?), agency (who writes? who publishes?), or interaction with the inscriptions (who views them and why?) construct notions – or undermine them – about formality/informality? How do these ideas affect the reuse and reception of inscriptions, ancient and modern?

10.30-11.00: Coffee & registration
11.00-11.45: Dr Graham Oliver (University of Liverpool): Formality & informality in Attic inscriptions
11.45-12.30: Dr Jennifer Baird (Birkbeck College, London): Graffiti & inscriptions in Dura-Europos
12.30-1.00: Lunch
1.00-1.45: Dr Amanda Kelly (NUI Galway): Informal invective: inscriptions on sling shots
1.45-2.30: Short reports
2.30-3.30: Travel to UCD (Coffee on arrival)
3.30-5.00: Prof. Andrew Smith (UCD): Tour of the epigraphic collection in the UCD Classical Museum

Colloquium fees
Registration including tea, coffee, and the sandwich lunch:
€15.00 (BES/AIEGL members), €10.00 (BES student members), €25.00 (non-members).

Registration without lunch:
€10.00 (members), €5.00 (student members), €20.00 (non-members).

Taxi fare from TCD to UCD (for museum trip)
Between €5 and €20 one way (depending on how many people share a taxi. Please bring cash to pay the taxi driver).

For further information, or to reserve a place at the colloquium and a sandwich lunch, please contact Dr Claire Taylor (claire.taylor@tcd.ie). The deadline for registration is 9 April 2010.

(Download a poster of this announcement)

Mardi 19 janvier 2010
George Steinhauer (Eπίτιμος Διευθυντής Αρχαιότητων)
« Ένα αναθηματικό μνημείο στην οικογένεια του Αυγούστου από την ακρόπολη της Σπάρτης »

Mardi 9 février 2010
Madalina Dana (EHESS)
« La mobilité des enseignants dans le monde grec : révision de deux inscriptions du Pont-Euxin »

Mardi 23 février 2010
Miltiade HATZOPOULOS (KERA)
« Un décret urbanistique de Kyrrhos (Macédoine) »

Mardi 16 mars 2010
Robert K. Pitt (British School at Athens)
« ID 104-4: Some new readings and old problems from an Athenian building contract on Delos »

Mardi 20 avril 2010
Mathilde DOUTHE (École française d’Athènes)
« La situation linguistique à Delphes aux IVe – IIIe siècles »

Mardi 11 mai 2010
A préciser

Mardi 12 octobre 2010
Christina Kokkinia (KERA)
« Prospection épigraphique à Boubôn (Lycie) »

Mardi 16 novembre 2010
Daniela Summa (IG Berlin, DAI)
« Recherches sur le corpus de la Locride orientale »

Mardi 14 décembre 2010
Francesco Camia (KERA)
« Η λατρεία των ρωμαίων αυτοκρατόρων στην Ελλάδα: η περίπτωση των πελοποννησιακών πόλεων »

International Congress
French School at Athens, University of Rennes 2 – Haute Bretagne
Athens, February 3 – 5, 2010

Thanks to Nathan Badoud for sending notice that the programme and abstracts for this event are now available onlin at the congress website: http://www.efa.gr/Recherche/Manif/timbres/presentation_en.htm

Please send any enquiries to amphore@efa.gr

(If you attend this event, we would welcome a report or review to post to Current Epigraphy. Please contact the editors or leave a comment to volunteer.)

Lo spazio ionico e le comunità della Grecia nord-occidentale Territorio, società, istituzioni

a cura di Claudia Antonetti
Giovedì 7 gennaio 2010
10,00 Saluti del Rettore dell’Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia

Filippo Maria Carinci (Preside della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia) inaugura il convegno

Luisa Breglia (coordinatrice del PRIN, Università di Napoli Federico II) presenta il progetto di rilevante interesse nazionale La ‘terza’ Grecia e l’Occidente

Claudia Antonetti (responsabile dell’Unità di ricerca dell’Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia) presenta il convegno

I Sezione – Territori nella storia

10,30 Introduce Peter Funke (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster), North-Western Greece: in the Shadow of the Greek World?

11,00 Garifalia Metallinou (8^th Ephorate, Corfu), Corfu through the Excavations of the Last Years. Myths and Realities

11,40 Stefanos Vasiliadis (32^nd Ephorate, Thesprotia), The Myth of Linear Progress or What Pseudoskylax didn’t see circumnavigating the Thesprotian Coastline

12,20 Discussione

12,30 Pausa pranzo

15,00 Ekaterini Kanta-Kitsou, Kassiani Lazari (32^nd Ephorate, Thesprotia), Thesprotia during the Late Classic and Hellenistic Periods. The Formation and Evolution of the Cities

15,40 Georgios Riginos (33^rd Ephorate, Arta, Preveza), Kassopeia and Adjacent Areas during the Classical and Hellenistic Periods

16,20 Discussione

16,30 Pausa caffè
16,40 Maria Stavropoulou-Gatsi (36^th Ephorate, Etoloakarnania, Lefkada), New Archaeological Researches in Aetolia, Akarnania and Leukas

17,20 Andreas Sotiriou (35^th Ephorate, Kephallenia, Zakynthos), Classical and Hellenistic Kefalonia. The Evolution of Four Major City-States

18,00 Discussione

18,10 Visita al Laboratorio epigrafico, sezione greca, del Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità e del Vicino Oriente

Venerdì 8 gennaio 2010

II Sezione – Storia politica e istituzioni

9,30 Introduce Pierre Cabanes (Université Paris X Nanterre), Institutions politiques et développement urbain (IV^e-II^e s. av. J.-C.): réflexions historiques à partir de l’Épire

Unità di ricerca dell’Università degli Studi di Parma

10,00 Ugo Fantasia, La Grecia nord-occidentale fra il 461 e il 425 circa a.C.: dinamiche locali e relazioni internazionali

10,30 Discussione

10,40 Pausa caffè

Unità di ricerca dell’Università della Calabria

10,50 Maria Intrieri, Autarkeia. Osservazioni sull’economia corcirese fra V e IV secolo a.C.

Unità di ricerca dell’Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia

Forme ed esperienze di organizzazione politica in Grecia nord-occidentale

11,20 Francesca Crema, Pritania e spazio civico

11,45 Ivan Matijašić, Magistrature di ambito militare: natura e funzione

12,10 Stefania De Vido, Istituzioni, magistrature, politeiai: frammenti di documentazione e spunti di ricerca

12,40 Discussione

13,00 Pausa pranzo

15,00 Lazzaro Pietragnoli, I probouloi nel pensiero politico e nella pratica istituzionale: un tentativo di sintesi

15,25 Silvia Palazzo, Ethne e poleis della Via Egnatia: la prospettiva delle fonti

15,50 Tomaso Lucchelli, La monetazione della Grecia nord-occidentale tra integrazione e identità locali

16,20 Discussione

16,35 Pausa caffè

III Sezione – Istituzioni e società

16,45 Introduce Claudia Antonetti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia), I diversi aspetti di una koine socio-culturale nella Grecia nord-occidentale di epoca ellenistica

17,15 Pierre Cabanes (Université Paris X Nanterre), La structure familiale dans le cadre social et économique de l’Épire antique

17,45 Discussione

17,55 Pausa caffè

18,05 Daniela Summa (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften), Una nuova lista cultuale per Artemide

Unità di ricerca dell’Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia

Istituzioni, cultualità e società in Grecia occidentale

18,25 Elisa Bugin, Asylia sotto gli occhi di Artemide: considerazioni a partire da un decreto di Calidone

18,50 Discussione

Sabato 9 gennaio 2010

9,00 Damiana Baldassarra, Le liste cultuali della Grecia occidentale: tipologie, protagonisti e fenomenologia rituale

9,25 Anna Ruggeri, Intorno al sacrificio: ἄοζος, οἰνοχόος e κᾶρυξ

9,50 Discussione

Encomî e committenza in Grecia occidentale dopo Alessandro Magno

10,00 Edoardo Cavalli, ῝Ως ἀγαθῶν οὐκ ἀπόλωλε ἀρετά. Storia e gloria nell’età dei Diadochi

10,25 Elisa Criveller, Epigrammi funerari di Etolia e Acarnania tra III e II secolo a.C.

10,50 Discussione

11,00 Pausa caffè

IV Sezione – Prospettive occidentali

11,10 Giovanna De Sensi Sestito (responsabile dell’Unità di ricerca dell’Università della Calabria) presenta il convegno di Cosenza (5-6 maggio 2010)

Unità di ricerca dell’Università di Roma La Sapienza

11,20 Lavinio Del Monaco, Riflessioni in margine all’organizzazione civica di Locri Epizefirii

11,45 Paola Grandinetti, Cultualità, pitagorismo e prestigio sociale: riflessioni sul ruolo della donna a Locri Epizefirii e in altre zone della Magna Grecia

12,10 Discussione

12,20 Conclusioni del convegno

The Earliest Runic Inscriptions: Problems of Language and Interpretation

Elizabeth Solopova, Oxford, November 21st, 2009

In keeping with the theme of the British Epigraphy Society’s Autumn Colloquium, (‘Epigraphy, but not as we know it’) this interesting paper took us away from the familiar territories of the Mediterranean to consider the Runic alphabet (or, to give it its proper name, futhark) used by Scandinavian and Germanic peoples from the second century through to, in the case of Scandinavia, the early modern period. Specifically, her paper examined the difficulties of interpreting ‘older runes’, these being the futhark as extant from approximately the 2nd to the 6th centuries AD. After this the futhark entered a phase of transition, developing and diversifying into regional variations, known collectively as ‘younger runes’.

As to evidence for these ‘older runes’, we are limited to some 400 extant inscriptions. In contrast to the ‘younger runes’, ‘older runes’ appear to develop strikingly little across the geographical and chronological range of their usage, as least until the shift to the ‘younger runes’. However, their interpretation remains problematic. Inscriptions have been found of words which have defied translation, and indeed appear to be unpronounceable, such as the word ‘baijsz’, found on the Kårstad Rock in Norway. Furthermore, certain words, which appear frequently (e.g. ‘laukaz’ – leek, ‘lathu’ – invitation, ‘alu’ – ale?), seem to have a ritual significance as magic or charms, being used almost as one might the symbol of a cross. For example, we find ‘alu’ inscribed without any other words upon a gold pendant known as Djupbrunns-C, from Gotland, Sweden. If this might be said to be bordering on non-linguistic uses of letters, we must say this all the more of the Linholm ‘amulet’ from Skåne, Sweden. In this case, Solopova suggests a numerological significance for the following of a more comprehensible inscription with runes translating as ‘aaaaaaaa zzz nnn? bmu ttt: alu:’.

Solopova draws attention to the fact that, even where these inscriptions are comprehensible, they are most often highly formulaic, sometimes to the point of foiling interpretation. A large part of surviving inscriptions are found upon items made of metal, bone etc. Some of these are obvious in purpose, such as the inscription ‘I Hlewagastiz Holtijaz made the horn’, upon the golden horns found at Gallehus, Denmark. Others, however, are far more uncertain in their significance, such as an ankle bone from a deer, found at Caistor-by-Norwich, marked with ‘of a deer’. As to inscriptions upon stones, some formulae are self-evidently memorial in purpose, observing the pattern ‘Eyvindr raised this stone in memory of Gunnhvatr, his son’, as found on the Søgne Stone, from Vest-Agder, Norway. However, others say simply ‘Dagastiz painted runes’ (Einang Stone, Norway) or ‘I wrote runes of divine origin’ (Noleby Stone, Sweden), without any greater statement of the reason for writing these runes.

Not surprisingly, it has been suggested that runes were seen at this time as having an almost magical power, rather than simply being the writing of language. Supported by this apparent lack of linguistic development, Solopova makes the point that the introduction of the runes does not appear to have changed the oral nature of the cultures by which the runes were used. Indeed, though she acknowledges that administrative documents, and other such evidence of everyday use of the ‘older runes’, would be less likely to survive to the present day than the stone, metal and bone objects which form our evidence, the absence of any such evidence supports her argument. Rather she suggests that the futhark remained largely confined to elite groups, nobility, religious figures etc. This would also account for both the archaism and uniformity of the ‘older runes’.

Finally, building upon this, Solopova addresses the question of the origins of the futhark. It is widely agreed that similarities in letter forms and sounds indicate that the futhark was inspired by at least one of the Mediterranean languages, though Latin, Greek and Etruscan have all been suggested as the progenitor in question. At the same time, however, there is a notable difference from these alphabets in the ordering of letters within the futhark. Indeed, the term futhark derives from the first six letters of the runic alphabet (f-u-th-a-r-k). Solopova argues that this indicates a conscious effort to differentiate the futhark from whichever language, or languages, provided its inspiration. In conclusion, Solopova suggests that this was the action of an individual or small group of individuals, associating it with priestly figures, who would also have formed a large part of the ‘rune literate’ population, arguably encouraging its ongoing conservatism.