Current Epigraphy
ISSN: 1754-0909

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 Association Internationale d’Épigraphie Grecque et Latine offers grants of up to 1000 Euros to support Epigraphic Educational and Training Courses and Workshops.

The following conditions apply.

1. Applicants must be AIEGL members.
2. Due to limited funds, the maximum grant for any event will be 1000 Euros. Applications for smaller sums are encouraged and may have a better chance of success.
3. Applications should be submitted by 28 February and 31 July, and applicants will be notified of the outcome by 15 April and 15 September respectively.
4. Applications will be assessed and ranked by a commission of three AIEGL members (IIIviri praemiis dandis), to be appointed by the AIEGL officers. Awards will be made by the AIEGL officers on their recommendations, subject to sufficient funds being available.
5. Events supported by AIEGL must be open in principle to any participant with appropriate and relevant qualifications and not restricted to students from particular institutions or countries.
6. AIEGL is keen to support all forms of training in Greek and Latin Epigraphy, including the promotion of digital epigraphy, in line with its own objectives and priorities.
7. Successful participants must submit a 300-word report within one month of the conclusion of the event in a format suitable for publication on the AIEGL web-site.

This bursary does not yet seem to be advertised on the AIEGL website; check back for updates. In the meantime, perhaps contact Angela Donati for further information.

Lucia Criscuolo writes to alert us to the following event:

Seminario Avanzato di Epigrafia Greca

Bologna, 15-17 gennaio 2009
Novotel Bologna Fiera
via Michelino 73

Alma Mater Studiorum
Università di Bologna
Istituto di Studi Superiori

L’Istituto di Studi Superiori dell’Università di Bologna, che comprende l’Istituto di Studi Avanzati e il Collegio Superiore, organizza il primo SAEG, Seminario Avanzato di Epigrafia Greca.

Il Seminario è un’iniziativa volta innanzitutto a dottorandi, assegnisti e giovani ricercatori che intendano approfondire la propria formazione in tematiche relative alla disciplina epigrafica greca, allargare le proprie esperienze nel campo delle scienze storiche antiche o presentare eventualmente le proprie ricerche nel settore. L’occasione si prefigge inoltre di favorire un incontro tra studiosi, al fine di discutere in modo costruttivo il proprio lavoro scientifico e di confrontare i risultati delle ricerche in corso.

Per informazioni:

Lucia Criscuolo
Dipartimento di Storia Antica
Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna
lucia.criscuolo@unibo.it

Alice Bencivenni
Dipartimento di Storia Antica
Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna
alice.bencivenni2@unibo.it

[full program follows - TRE.]

(more…)

Circulated by the British School at Athens:

POST GRADUATE TRAINING COURSE IN GREEK EPIGRAPHY
14th-28th June 2009
Athens

Whether publishing new texts, challenging old ones, or critically analysing editions, this course provides training for historians, archaeologists and textual scholars alike in the discipline of reading and interpreting epigraphic evidence. Inscriptions are constantly changing the way in which we view the ancient world, as year on year hundreds of new discoveries are made. This course will focus upon this new material, with lectures and site tours by scholars currently excavating and publishing in the field. Students will be guided through the process of producing editions of inscriptions, gaining both practical first hand experience with the stones, as well as instruction in editorial and bibliographic skills. The course will be taught at the BSA and at the Epigraphic Museum, the world’s largest collection of Greek inscriptions, where students will each be assigned a stone from which they will create an edition and commentary, and where they will receive tuition from leading scholars in Athens. The importance of seeing inscriptions within their archaeological and topographical contexts will be explored during visits to sites in Athens and Attica.  Some prior knowledge of Greek is essential, although students with only elementary skills are advised that reading inscriptions is a very good way to learn! For advice about whether this is the right course for you, please contact assistant.director@bsa.ac.uk.

Students will be based at the BSA Hostel in shared rooms of two. Self catering facilities are available as well as 24 hour access to the superb library facilities. Accommodation, tuition, entry to all sites and museums, and membership of the BSA for one month are included in course fee of £580. Free membership for the remainder of the session will be offered to students wishing to remain at the BSA after the course to continue their research. Travel to and from Greece is the sole responsibility of the course participants, who are also required to provide their own travel insurance. Students are recommended to apply to their universities or funding body for financial support. A number of bursaries are available (see the application form) from The British Epigraphy Society.

Further information and an application form can be obtained from the Assistant Director (assistant.director@bsa.ac.uk) and from the website (www.bsa.ac.uk). Application forms and a reference letter should be received no later than April 1st 2009.

Two sets of seminars of interest to epigraphers (I’m a little late passing on the first one):

Epigraphy North:

All students and teaching staff are welcome to this ongoing series of talks on epigraphical subjects. The seminars are particularly useful for graduate students and advanced undergraduates who are interested in learning about inscriptions and epigraphical methods.

Tuesday 28th October 17.30 – Liverpool
Bosanquet Seminar Room 12-14 Abercromby Square, The University of Liverpool
Graham Oliver (Liverpool): Another look at the Priests of Poseidon (Syll.3 1020)
There will a strong teaching element with working from squeezes and photographs.

Tuesday 25th November 17.00 – Manchester
Room 3.211, University Place, Oxford Road, Manchester
Ted Kaizer (Durham) The epigraphy of Palmyra

For further details please contact Graham Oliver gjoliver@liv.ac.uk

I assume there must be some epigraphy in at least some of these seminars in the Classical Archaeology series:

Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, Room N336, 17:00

October 29 Maria Stamatopoulou The sanctuary of Pasikrata in the southern cemetery of Demetrias

December 3 Milena Melfi Patrons, worshippers and generals: reconsidering Early Roman presence in the sanctuaries of Greece.

March 11 Olga Palagia Philip’s Eurydice in the Philippeion at Olympia

For more information: c.riva@ucl.ac.uk

As circulated by the BES:

Writing in the Classical World

Sunday October 25th 2008

Provisional Timetable:

9.00-9.30: Registration

9.30-10.30: Dr. Lisa Bendall: Clay tablets and Linear B: the earliest written Greek

10.30-11.30: Dr. Peter Haarer: The Emergence of Alphabetic Writing

11.30-11.45: Tea, Coffee and biscuits

11.45-12.45: Dr. Charles Crowther: Writing on Stone

12.45-1.30: Richard Grasby: Stone Cutting Demonstration (Group I)

1.30-2.30: Buffet Lunch

2.30-3.15: Richard Grasby: Stone Cutting Demonstration (Group II)

3.15-4.15: Professor Peter Parsons: Papyrus: Books and Bureaucrats

4.15-4.30: Tea, Coffee and biscuits

4.30-6.00: Latin Cursive Documents:

Professor Alan Bowman: Writing on Wood: The Vindolanda ink Tablets

Dr. Roger Tomlin: Waxed Stilus and lead tablets

6.00 Wine

The cost will be £50 for a very full day, inclusive of a buffet lunch (£40 without lunch)

For further details and a registration form please contact: Maggy Sasanow, Research Support Officer, The Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, The Ioannou School, 66 St. Giles, Oxford OX1 3LU; e-mail: margaret.sasanow@classics.ox.ac.uk; Tel: 01865 288255; Fax: 01865 288262

As circulated by Christian Witschel, “an Epigraphic Spring Academy for students and young scholars in the Classics, jointly organized by Inscriptiones Graecae, the Kommission fuer Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik in Munich and the University of Heidelberg”:

Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Seminar für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik, Universität Heidelberg

Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des DAI

Ausschreibung für eine

Epigraphische Frühjahrsakademie

Athen, 15. bis 25. März 2009

Die internationale Akademie 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 Epigraphik dienen.

Aus dem Programm: Aufnahme und Edition griechischer Inschriften; zur Geschichte Athens in klassischer, hellenistischer und römischer Zeit; Studium epigraphischer Monumente auf der Akropolis und der Agora von Athen, Arbeiten an Originalen im Epigraphischen Museum Athen (u.a. zu den Monumenten des Seebundes), Exkursionen – verbunden mit Übungen im Feld – nach Attika. Ein detailliertes Programm der Veranstaltung (mit Themenliste für Referate) wird den Teilnehmern rechtzeitig zugestellt. Anreisetag ist Sonntag, der 15. März 2009; Abreisetag Mittwoch, der 25. März 2009.

Leitung und Durchführung: Klaus Hallof (IG, Berlin), Christof Schuler (DAI München), Christian Witschel (Universität Heidelberg); in Kooperation mit der Abt. Athen des DAI sowie der Ecole Française d’Athènes.

Von den Bewerberinnen und Bewerbern werden gute Kenntnisse des Griechischen erwartet, außerdem Grundkenntnisse in der Epigraphik (in der Regel durch Nachweis der Teilnahme an einem einschlägigen universitären Kurs). Unterrichtssprache ist in der Regel Deutsch (gegebenenfalls aber auch Englisch). Die Teilnehmerzahl ist auf 12 beschränkt. Zu den Reisekosten wird ein Zuschuß (voraussichtlich ca. 150,- Euro pro Person) gewährt; die Übernachtungskosten können 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 17. Oktober 2008 an:

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

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.