Current Epigraphy
ISSN: 1754-0909

The Centre for Computing in the Humanties, Kings College London, is again offering an EpiDoc Summer School, on July 14th-18th, 2008. The training is designed for epigraphers or papyrologists (or related text editors such as numismatists, sigillographers, etc.) who would like to learn the skills and tools required to mark up ancient documents for publication (online or on paper), and interchange with international academic standards.

You can learn more about EpiDoc from the EpiDoc home page and the Introduction for Epigraphers; you wil find a recent and user-friendly article on the subject in the Digital Medievalist. (If you want to go further, you can learn about XML and about the principles of the TEI: Text Encoding Initiative.) The Summer School will not expect any technical expertise, and training in basic XML will be provided.
Attendees (who should be familiar with Greek/Latin and the Leiden Conventions) will need to bring a laptop on which has been installed the Oxygen XML editor (available at a reduced academic price, or for a free 30-day demo).

The EpiDoc Summer School is free to participants; we can try to help you find cheap (student) accommodation in London. If any students participating would like to stay on afterwards and acquire some hands-on experience marking up some texts for the Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica project, they would be most welcome!

All interested please contact both charlotte.roueche@kcl.ac.uk and gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk as soon as possible. Please pass on this message to anyone who you think might benefit.

Practical Epigraphy Workshop

24-26^th June 2008

Yorkshire Museum, York

The British Epigraphy Society is pleased to announce a second Practical Epigraphy Workshop in York for those interested in developing hands-on skills in working with epigraphic material. With expert tuition, participants will gain direct experience of the practical elements of how to record and study inscriptions. The programme includes the making of squeezes; photographing and measuring inscribed stones; and the production of transcriptions, translations and commentaries. Participants may choose to work on Latin or Greek texts, and the workshop is open to those with or without previous epigraphic training. Booking fees for attending the workshop are £28 for students and £38 for non-students.

Postgraduate students may apply for bursaries of up to 100 pounds to set against the costs of attending the workshop.

For further information and an application form please contact Dr. Charlotte Tupman at: charlotte.tupman@kcl.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is Friday 16 May.

At a teaching and learning training day for new lecturers run by the Higher Education Academy’s Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology (26th February 2008, Birkbeck College, London; see PDF poster), is listed a break-out session on ‘Teaching Languages with Inscriptions’.

I have always thought this was a valuable tool, for several reasons: (1) inscriptions tend to use simple grammar and repetitive vocabulary that are easy for beginning students to handle; (2) it’s real ancient text, not invented and unrealistic lingo like so many textbooks offer; (3) exercises involving uppercase letters (in Greek), no word-breaks, can be useful in consolidating students’ knowledge of the basics, *and* (4) working from photographs and real texts will give them a sense of real accomplishment and be a lot of fun.

Anyone have any insight or experiences to share on this?

The latest issue of the American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy Newsletter has arrived. Paul Iversen (secretary-treasurer) informs us via email that he hopes to begin posting newsletter issues, including back issues, on the ASGLE website beginning fall 2007.

Table of contents:

• New Website URL & Online Payment
• Election Ballots: Vice President (Tracy, Lupu) and Member-at-Large (Bodel, write-in)
• 2008 ASGLE Joint APA/AIA Panel, Chicago, IL January 3-6
• ASGLE has some money for Research Awards
• The Ohio State University Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies Summer Course in Greek and Latin Epigraphy
• The XIIIth International Epigraphical Conference
• Announcements and Notes
• An Epigraphical Puzzler
• Elias Kapteanopoulos provides a new text of IG II² 1069
• Eran Lupu has “More Corrections and Some Second Thoughts” on his book: Greek Sacred Law: A Collection of New Documents (NGSL), Leiden 2005

Over the last few years an international group of scholars has been developing a set of conventions for marking up ancient documents in XML for publication and interchange. The EpiDoc Guidelines started from the case of inscriptions, but the principles are also being applied to papyri and coins, and the aim has always been to produce standards consistent with those of the Text Encoding Initiative, used for all literary and linguistic texts.

Following on from the interest we have seen in EpiDoc training events (including recent sessions in Rome and San Diego) and the success of the London EpiDoc summer school over several years now, we shall be holding another week-long workshop here at King’s College London, from the 11th-15th June this year.

• The EpiDoc Guidelines provide a schema and associated tools and recommendations for the use of XML to publish epigraphic and papyrological texts in interchangeable format. For a fuller description of the project and links to tools and guidelines see http://epidoc.sf.net.
• The Summer School will offer an in-depth introduction to the use of XML and related technologies for publication and interchange of epigraphic and papyrological editions.
• The event will be hosted by the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London, which will provide the venue and tuition. The school is free of charge, but attendees will need to fund their own travel, accommodation, and subsistence. (There may be cheap accommodation available through KCL; please inquire.)
• The summer school is targeted at epigraphic and papyrological scholars (including professors, post-docs, and advanced graduate students) with an interest and willingness to learn some of the hands-on technical aspects necessary to run a digital project (even if they would not be marking-up texts by hand very much themselves). Knowledge of Greek/Latin, the Leiden Conventions and the distinctions expressed by them, and the kinds of data and metadata that need to be recorded by philologists and ancient historians, will be an advantage. Please enquire if you’re unsure. No particular technical expertise is required.
• Attendees will require the use of a relatively recent laptop computer (Win XP+ or Mac OSX 10.3+), with up-to-date Java installation, and should acquire a copy of the oXygen XML editor (educational discount and one-month free trial available); they should also have the means to enter Unicode Greek from the keyboard. Full technical specifications and advice are available on request. (CCH may be able to arrange the loan of a prepared laptop for the week; please inquire asap.)

Places on the workshop will be limited so if you are interested in attending the summer school, or have a colleague or student who might be interested, please contact gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk as soon as possible with a brief statement of qualifications and interest.

Announced today via AIEGL, the Epigraphy Summer School in Berlin:

Die internationale Sommerakademie richtet sich an fortgeschrittene Studierende sowie an Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden der Alten Geschichte und der benachbarten altertumswissenschaftlichen und historischen Fächer. Sie soll der Vertiefung der Kompetenzen von Nachwuchswissenschaftlern in der griechischen und lateinischen Epigraphik dienen.

Aus dem Programm: Arbeitsmethoden der Epigraphik – Erstellung und Benutzung von Inschriftencorpora – Geschichte und Bearbeitungsstand der Inscriptiones Graecae und des Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum – Epigraphische Datenbanken – Inschriften als historische Quellen: Aktuelle Fragestellungen und Methoden der Interpretation. Der Kurs umfaßt praktische Übungen in den Archiven von IG und CIL sowie die Besichtigung von Originalen im Pergamonmuseum.

Leitung und Durchführung: Klaus Hallof (IG, Berlin); Manfred G. Schmidt (CIL, Berlin); Christof Schuler (DAI München); Christian Witschel (Universität Heidelberg).

Von den Bewerberinnen und Bewerbern werden gute Kenntnisse des Lateinischen und des Griechischen erwartet, außerdem Grundkenntnisse in der Epigraphik (in der Regel durch Nachweis der Teilnahme an einem einschlägigen universitären Kurs). Unterrichtssprache ist Deutsch. Die Teilnehmerzahl ist auf 15 beschränkt. Zu den Reisekosten wird ein Zuschuß gewährt; die Übernachtungskosten können voraussichtlich weitgehend übernommen werden.

Bewerbungen (mit Lebenslauf, Zwischenprüfungs- oder Abschlußzeugnis, Nachweis über absolvierte Seminare oder Übungen mit epigraphischen Inhalten, Interessensschwerpunkte, ggf. auch Projektskizzen zu Examens-/Magisterarbeiten oder Dissertationen) richten Sie bitte bis zum 25. Mai 2007 an:

Prof. Dr. Christian Witschel
Seminar für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik
der Universität Heidelberg
Marstallhof 4
69117 Heidelberg
E-mail: christian.witschel@urz.uni-heidelberg.de

The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at the Ohio State University has announced a summer Epigraphy course, to be held 30 July - 10 August 2007 in Columbus Ohio USA. The application deadline (with 2 letters of recommendation) is 16 April 2007.

The full announcement includes information about fees (which are subsidized by the American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy), a course overview and the syllabus from the 2005 version of the course.

Announcement just seen on Classicists:

In case anyone would like to incorporate the course into their PG training programme undertakings to the AHRC for particular individual graduate students, here is an early warning of the Sixth Biennial British School of Athens Postgraduate Taught Course:

The History, Archaeology, and Epigraphy of the Greek Sanctuary

This eight-week residential course will take place from January to March 2008 under the direction of Professor J.K. Davies and the incoming BSA Director, Professor C.A. Morgan. The course is specifically designed for graduate students at United Kingdom universities, who are taking either a Master’s degree course or a research degree in Classics, Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and related subjects. Course demands are flexible and adapted to individual students, and it is possible for students with limited classical languages successfully to complete the course.

Formal teaching for the course will involve 48 hours of on-site teaching at archaeological sites and museums and 12 hours of seminar teaching.

Students will be expected to make occasional presentations at sites, to give a 20-minute seminar paper, and to produce (normally) one substantial piece of written work on a topic chosen by them in discussion with Course Director. A variety of ‘training needs’ can be met, including training in epigraphy and Modern Greek.

Please bring this to the notice of any would-be Master’s or Ph.D student who would benefit. Professor Davies will be happy to answer any detailed queries about the content of the course. A ‘course template’ is available (from ro225@cam.ac.uk) should any department need one. The template is designed particularly for departments which have modular Masters’ schemes, to allow students to gain the appropriate credit.

Applications forms will be made available on the BSA website in June and a further circular will be made to alert you to this.

27-28th June 2007: Roman Legionary Museum, Caerleon

A Practical Epigraphy Workshop is taking place for graduate students and non-student members of the British Epigraphy Society who are interested in developing hands-on skills in working with epigraphic material. With expert tuition, participants will gain direct experience of the practical elements of how to record and study inscriptions. The programme will include the making of squeezes; photographing and measuring inscribed stones; and the production of transcriptions, translations and commentaries. Participants may choose to work on Latin or Greek texts, and both those with some epigraphic experience and those who have not studied inscriptions previously are welcome.

Practical Epigraphy Workshop