Epigraphy (Archaeology)

THE CULT OF DIONYSOS IN ASIA MINOR
IN THE ROMAN IMPERIAL AGE

Making his presence, which can be traced long before the Archaic Age, deeply felt mainly in Hellas, Asia Minor and then in Rome throughout the ancient world, Dionysos, depending on the place and time, appears before us sometimes as a god of grape-wine, sometimes as a god of theatre and acting arts and sometimes as a religious power shaped according to the local needs, however, he has generally been a god of nature representing the fertility and abundance. According to the inscriptions, Dionysos was mentioned with many epithetons in Asia Minor of the Roman Imperial Age, and that he was a god of nature bringing abundance-fertility and his many other features can be observed by these epithetons. Depending on the long stated customs, the cult of Dionysos in Asia Minor survived throughout the Roman Imperial Age (especially in the II-III. Century A.D. with festivals, cult associations and structuring, artists (musicians, players, dancers) that served his cult. According to the written records, festivals such as Dionysia, Lēnaia, Anthestēria, Trietēris organized in the name of Dionysos were celebrated. Dance, music and play competitions were made in these festivals maintained by the rich citizens or directors and not commonly known cult rituals were performed. Besides the associations of synodos artists called by different names in different times in the large cities of the west, cult associations broad in scope such as thiasos, speira or cult member groups with large audience in various names were active both in worshipping and these festivals. In order to achieve this, undoubtedly, both artist associations and cult associations had to have a well organized governing structure. Names were given to the cult members according to the task taken. These members also had to pay a membership fee in order to be a member or to continue to be one. Actually, these fees were as important as the epimeletes in the mainta-nance of these associations. In addition, they were supported both mate-rially and spiritually by the Roman emperors or provincial governors. Although the paganic religious activities in the lands of Asia Minor under the control of Rome were left to the free will of the cities, they would not be strong without the respect shown for the cults of the emperors, emperor and the Roman goddess (Dea Roma). The worshipping of Dionysos could only develop with the close relations with the emperors and the Roman Empire. Correspondingly, supporting a paganic cult significant for the people, the Roman Empire gained the sympathy of the people and also kept them loyal to Rome. The deification of the Roman emperors began with General Marcus Antonius, who was wellcomed as “New Dionysos” on his arrival to Ephesos, and continued in the Roman Imperial Age. During this period the associations in Anazarbos, Ankyra, Ephesos, Teōs, Aphrodisias and Sardeis characterised Emperor Hadrianus, Commodus and Caracalla by this epitheton. Thus, they deified them by considering them equal with Dionysos. Dionysos also had common worship with imperial or Dea Roma cult besides the common paganic worship of Zeus and Dēmētēr. Like all other paganic religions, the cult of Dionysos broke down with the strengthening Christianity with which it had opposite doctrines and finally with the acceptance of Christianity as the official religion of the state. However, many features of the Dionysos cult continued to exist in Asia Minor both in Christian features and local cultures and traditions. Today it still continues this effect.

Arkaik Çağ’dan çok daha eskilere götürebildiğimiz varlığını, coğrafi olarak başta Hellas, Küçükasya ve sonraları Roma olmak üzere tüm Antik Çağ coğrafyasında etkin bir şekilde hissettiren Dionysos, yer ve zaman farkına bağlı olarak, bazı yerlerde üzüm-şarap tanrısı, bazılarında tiyatro ve sahne sanatlarının tanrısı, bazılarında ise yerel ihtiyaçlar doğrultusunda şekillendirilmiş dinsel bir güç olarak karşımıza çıkmıştır. Ama genel olarak bereket ve bolluğu temsil eden bir doğa tanrısı kimliğine sahip olmuştur. Yazıtlardan anlaşıldığına göre Roma İmparatorluk Çağı Küçükasyası’ nda birçok epitheton ile anılan Dionysos’un, bolluk-bereket getiren bir doğa tanrısı olduğu ve diğer başka özellikleri gene bu epitheton’larından anlaşılmaktadır. Küçükasya’daki Dionysos kültü Roma İmparatorluk Çağı boyunca (bilhassa M.S. II-III. yüzyılarda), öncesinden gelen bir geleneğe bağlı olarak şenlikleri, kült dernekleri ve yapılanması, kültüne hizmet eden sanatçıları (müzisyenler, oyuncular, dansçılar) ile varlığını sürdürmüştür. Yazılı belgelerden bu dönemde büyük ve zengin kentlerde hâlâ Dionysia, Lēnaia, Anthestēria, Trietēris gibi Dionysos adına tertiplenen şenliklerin kutlandığını; masrafları, epimeletes olarak bildiğimiz kentin zengin vatandaşları ya da yöneticileri tarafından karşılanan bu şenliklerde külte ilişkin dans, müzik ve oyun yarışmaların yapıldığını ve herkesçe bilinmeyen kült ritüellerinin uygulandığını öğrenmekteyiz. Bilhassa batı kesimlerdeki büyük kentlerdeki, farklı dönemlerde farklı isimlerle anılan synodos sanatçı derneklerinin yanında thiasos, speira gibi daha geniş kapsamlı kült dernekleri ya da en yaygını mystai olan çeşitli adlar altında toplanan geniş kitleli kült üye grupları hem tapınımda, hem de bu şenliklerde aktif olmuşlardır. Şüphesiz ki bunu gerçekleştirebilmek adına gerek sanatçı dernekleri gerekse kült dernekleri, iyi organize olmuş bir idari yapılanmaya sahip olmak durumundaydı. Bu derneklerde üstlendikleri görevlere göre adlandırılan kült üyelerinin, üye olabilmeleri veya üyeliklerini sürdü-rebilmeleri için ödemek zorunda oldukları aidatlar da vardı. Esasen bu derneklerin finansmanının karşılanmasında bu aidatlar, en az epimeletes’ ler kadar önemliydi. Ayrıca Roma imparatorlarının ya da eyalet yöneticilerinin hem manevi hem de maddi desteğini alıyorlardı. Zira bu dönemde Roma egemenliği altında bulunan Küçükasya topraklarındaki pagan dinsel yaşam her ne kadar kentlerin özgür iradesine bırakılmışsa da, imparatorlara, imparator ve Roma Tanrıçası (Dea Roma) kültüne gösterilen saygı olmaksızın güçlü kalamazdı. Küçükasya Dionysos tapınımı da, tamamıyla imparatorlar ve Roma İmparatorluğu ile kurulan güçlü bağlar sayesinde gelişebilmiştir. Bununla paralel olarak da Roma İmparatorluğu, halk için önemli olan pagan bir kültü destekleyerek, hem halkın sempatisini kazanmakta, hem de böylece onların Roma’ya olan bağlılığını sürdürmek amacını gütmekteydi. General Marcus Antonius’un Ephesos’a gelişinde “Yeni Dionysos” olarak karşılanmasıyla başlayan Romalı devlet adamlarını tanrılaştırma geleneği, Roma İmparatorluk Çağı’nda da sürmüş; bu dönemde özellikle Anazarbos, Ankyra, Ephesos, Teōs, Aphrodisias ve Sardeis’teki dernekler, İmparator Hadrianus, Commodus ve Caracalla’yı bu sıfatla nitelendirmişler, böylece onları Dionysos ile bir tutarak tanrılaştırmışlardır. İmparatorluk veya Dea Roma kültü ile ortak tapınımı da görülen Dionysos’un Zeus ve Dēmētēr gibi pagan tanrı-tanrıçalarla da ortak tapınımı söz konusudur. Diğer pagan dinler gibi Dionysos kültünün yıkımı da, öğretilerinin birbirine tamamen ters düştüğü Hıristiyanlık dininin güçlenmesiyle ve nihayetinde M.S. 391’de imparatorluğun resmî dini olmasıyla gerçekleşmiştir. Ancak Dionysos kültünün birçok unsuru, Küçükasya topraklarında, gerek Hıristiyanlık unsurlarında gerekse halk kültür ve geleneklerinde yaşamaya devam etmiştir. Bugün de bu etkisini göstermeye devam etmektedir."

SEG 60-1998. Religion. Dionysos: his cult in Asia Minor, Imperial period:
On the basis of archaeological, numismatic, and (mainly) epigraphic attestations, B.Öztürk,Roma imparatorluk çağı Küçükasaysı’nda Dionysos kültü (Istanbul 2010), studies the cult ofΔιόνυσος in Roman Asia Minor. After general remarks about the god, he presents a geographically arranged catalogue of the relevant inscriptions with brief comments (ph. of some texts). On 196-209, Ö. provides a register with explanations of the most important terms found in the inscriptions, and on 210/211 a list of epithets.

The recent surge in ancient scripts has resulted in huge image libraries of ancient texts. Data mining of the collected images enables the study of the evolution of these ancient scripts. In particular, the origin of the Indus Valley script is highly debated. We use convolu-tional neural networks to test which Phoenician alphabet letters and Brahmi symbols are closest to the Indus Valley script symbols. Surprisingly, our analysis shows that overall the Phoenician alphabet is much closer than the Brahmi script to the Indus Valley script symbols.

Epigraphers and archaeologists working in Egypt must navigate a host of complex relationships both on and off site. This chapter explores the multifaceted nature of local Egyptian peoples’ relationships with nearby monuments through the lens of a single case study: the site of Sheikh Abd al-Qurna and its local population, the Qurnawi. Egyptologists have not traditionally sought to incorporate formally the stories and histories of local populations in their studies of pharaonic sites. An increasing blend of social awareness and the desire for social action on the part of both foreign professionals and local activists, however, is pushing Egyptologists to re-evaluate their practices, which, in turn, is moving the discipline in new and positive directions.

Sessione pomeridiana, ore 15:00 Vittorio Rizzone L' iscrizione di Iulia Florentina: peculiarità linguistiche ed epigrafiche Martino Ruggieri La morte di Iulia Florentina: ipotesi diagnostiche Elena Commodari Iulia Florentina e la mors acerba: tra rappresentazioni e vissuti. Il punto di vista psicologico

Graffiti aus römischer Zeit kommen auf Oberflächen aus Stein, Wandputz, Metall, Ton, Glas und Bein vor. Auf persönlichen Gegenständen fungieren sie häufig als Besitzerinschriften, wie im Fall eines Terra Sigillata-Tellers oder -Deckels, auf dessen Fragment ein gewisser Silvester als Besitzer genannt ist (Abb. links oben). Die kursiven, zum Teil gelängten Buchstabenformen sind Merkmale einer elaborierten Handschrift. Diese Schriftart, in der man auch in Wachs, auf Papyrus oder Pergament schrieb, wird als ältere römische Kursive bezeichnet.

The monograph deals with the linguistic and historical study of the inscriptions on two 15th-century steles from Tyr cliff in the Lower Amur (now they are kept in V. K. Arsenyev Primorye State Museum in Vladivostok) with texts in Chinese, Jurchen, Mongolian (the 1413 stele), and in Chinese only (the 1433 stele). The present book is an attempt to make the first full translation of all texts of the Tyr steles into Russian with an extensive philological and historical commentary, indices, and illustrations. A new reconstruction of all the texts of two steles was performed from their plates and photos as well as on the basis of their earlier research. The comparative analysis of the texts made by the authors enabled them to make some conclusions which are important for the textual study of the monuments. The results are significant both for linguistics (the steles are unique evidence of language contacts in the Far East in the Middle Ages) and for the history and ethnography (the monuments contain important information about the Ming China policy towards the peoples of the Lower Amur, and a large number of ethnic and geographical names).

Acoustic and visual signaling is one of the vital elements for the functioning of an army. This volume presents  the first approach of this subject for the Roman army since the works of A. von Domaszewski (from the end of the 19th century). The geographic (the provinces of the former Roman Empire, from Italy to Britannia and from Spain to Egypt) and the chronological frames (1st century BC to 4th century AD) as well as the holistic investigation of the ancient sources regarding the categories of underofficers in the Roman army called generically musicians and standard bearers are the main coordinates of the book.
The three constitutive parts are: studies on terminology, function and rank in the Roman army and the iconography of the two categories of soldiers, the catalogues of the investigated sources (inscriptions, representations, finds of musical instruments and standards) and the illustrative part.
The novelty is given both by the synthesis of the existing information on the Roman military musicians and standard bearers and by the study of their depictions and of the archaeological finds of musical instruments and
standards, many of them yet unpublished.

The Harappan seals contain several linguistic symbols which have not been properly understood so far.Through my works especially- Indus script decipherment breakthrough, PaNameTa-the troy tower weight  and measure system of Harappa, The Harappan Symbol Of 
Man+ Trident And Its Relation To Kausika Visvamitra  And The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower Weights), The Harappan Unicorn And The Kalinga Malla MeTas(Tower Weights) , The Harappan Symbol Of  Intersecting Circles And Its Relation  To Kausika Visvamitra And The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower  weights), The Harappan Contest Motif Of Nude Man With Six Locks Of Hair Fighting  Two Tigers And Its Relation To The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower Weights), The Harappan symbols of Roots, Nuts And Cocks And Their  Relation    To Kausika Visvamitra And The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower  weights), Identification Of KaNva In The Indus Script, Identification Of Troy In The Indus script,Identification Of Barley And Mustard In The Indus Script, Krishna’s Mathura And Dvaraka In The Indus Script, The Pinna In The Indus Script, The Identity Of Vedic Sarasvati And The Location Of Krishna’s Dvaraka, Identification Of Vedic Bharadvaja In The Indus  Script, Krishna’s Dvaraka  In The Indus Script, One Symbol  Of Indus Script Can Tell  A Lot About The Indus Valley Civilisation, The Identity Of Kasyapa In The Indus Valley And Sumeria, Kusa -The Son Of Rama-In Mesopotamia(Sumer),Indus -Sumer Trade, A Few “Copper” Names In The Indus Script, Janaka-King Of Mithila-In The Indus Script,The Vedic Asvins, Yama And Kartikeya In The Indus Script, The Goddess Sarasvati And The Origin Of Brahmi And Kharoshthi, The Origin Of The Roman Aes Grave From The Indus Valley Money, A Solution To The Mystery Of  The Gundestrup  Cauldron, The Eternal Soma Of The Vedas,              Vedic Roots Of Ancient Egyptian Religion, A Veiled Visvamitra Soma Sacrifice  In The New Testament , The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-1:The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-2,
The Punny Plough,The Bearded Kings Of The Ancient,
Bharata -The Language Of The Indus Valley Civilisation,
The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation -3,The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-4,Harappan Vedic Sacrificial Feasts In Mesopotamian Art And In The Bible,The Script of Indus valley Civilisation-6 :A Vrishni Silver Coin And Its Harappan Source,The Script of Indus valley Civilisation-7: The Conversion Of Makha(Sacrifice) To Tanka(Mint) In The Indus Script,Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-8:Vedic Root Of Gudea’s Akshayapatra,Three Men In A Boat Seal Evidence Of Indus –Dilmun Trade,The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-9: The Goodluck Symbols Of The Indus Script, The script of Indus valley civilisation-10:Identification Of The True Vedic Soma From Harappan Seals  Confirms The Indus Valley Civilisation As Vedic, The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-11:
Daksha (Soma) Yaaga-The Vedic Eucharist -In The Indus Script , The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-12:
Dāśarājñá And Dasaratha In The Indus Script, The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-13:The Silver Palm Seals Are Rosetta Stones Of The Indus Script , Vedic And Sumerian Linguistic Evidences For The Language Of Harappa, The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-14:The Difference Of Meluhha And Mlecca,
The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-15:The Shift Of The Capital Of The Vrishnis From Mathura( Kalibangan) To Dvaraka( Mohenjodaro), 6000 Year Old Mehrgarh Wheel Amulet Employs Vedic Script, The Script Of Indus Valley Civilisation-16:Vedic Sarasvati-Ganga Civilisation, The Identity Of The RigVedic Rivers, Mohenjo-daro-The City Of Krishna -

I have shown that several seals contain vedic metrological terms,names of vedic ornaments,names of people, places and gods etc. My perception is that only a comprehensive study of ancient vedic  metrology can decipher the script symbols satisfactorily. A significant find herein is the existence of the Kalinga malla mana system during Harappan times challenging  the common perception of its origin from the later  Kalinga kingdom(Orissa).The unicorn is identified as the pala/nishka/soma/agni.Signs of intersecting circles, fish , crab,bud,tower etc. also indicate pala.The six locks of hair indicate  the paNameTa weight of six barley grains.Roots  and nuts indicate viira bhadra/ Drupada/ varaha/pala.We have located Lord Krishna’s Mathura and Dvaraka in the Indus valley scripts.
We have confirmed Mohenjodaro as the first Dvaraka
on the basis of the inscription on the copperplate B7C2 from there and textual evidences from the Rgveda, Mahabharata etc.We have located PadmakuuTa,one of the
palaces of Krishna there.Also we have identified the Sindhu(Indus) as the Vedic Sarasvati river.We have gone through the symbols  identifying the Bharadvajas,the clan of composers of the earliest vedic texts.In Krishna’s Dvaraka we gathered more details from the script on Lord Krishna’s Dvaraka and Sindhu/Sarasvati. We have looked into the
indications of the Harappan jar symbol with three forks on each edge.We have located  the Kasyapas in Hastinapura
trading with Sumeria.We have decoded the Mari Standard,went deeper into the meanings of several Sumerian images and confirmed Meluhha as Vedic Harappa/Indus valley. We have located Janaka,the king of Mithila,father-in-law of Rama, in the Indus script.We have identified the names of copper in the Indus script and located  the Asvins,Yama and Skanda  in the Indus script.In A Model For Indus Script Decipherment
we have identified the deity in the seal M-1181 and built a model for complete decipherment of the Indus script.
We have seen how  Brahmi and Kharoshthi evolved from the Indus Script and how the Indus script was in use along with Brahmi/Kharoshthi even into the  first centuries CE.We have seen how the coins of the ancient world,including the Roman coins evolved from the Indus valley money.
We have looked for  and located a Rosetta Stone for the Indus script, in the varaha/gadyanaka coin form.
We have gone into the relation of the Druids to the Indus valley civilisation and the role of their  Gundestrup cauldron
in the evolution of Christianity.
We have explored the relation of the Anau seal to the Indus Valley Civilisation.
We have gone into the relationship of the Egyptian and Harappan deities.
We have looked into a beautiful story from the New Testament
invoving  the vedic soma sacrifice in A Veiled Visvamitra Soma Sacrifice In The New Testament.
We have studied  the indications of some of the Indus script symbols with particular reference to their use on ancient coins of India .
We have looked into symbolism of the overflowing vase on the Sumerian statue of Gudea and through it we identified the indications of several Indus symbols including the Harischandra vaajapeya sacrifice.
We have seen how the Harappan glyphs served as goodluck symbols .
The identification of the right vedic soma has two important
aspects:First, it ends the long quest for the mysterious soma. Second,it confirms the Indus valley civilisation as vedic ,beyond any doubt.
We have studied the vedic Daksha Yaaga  and its relation to the soma yaaga.Also we have located  Dāśarājñá and  Dasaratha in the Indus seals.
We have explored the application of the palm seals as further rosetta stones of the Indus script .
We have looked into the claim of mlecca as the language of the Indus valley civilation and concluded that Bharata,not mlecca, was the language of the Indus valley civilisation.
We have gone into the shift of the vedic Yadava clans from the Ghaggar-Hakra(Yamuna) to the Sarasvati(Sindhu) basin.
In another article we have confirmed the river Sindhu as the vedic river Sarasvati and Mohenjodaro as Krishna’s Dvaraka.
In this article we are going into a majestic bull seal.

Content

AD GLORIAM 

S. V. Beletsky, N. I. Platonova (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Anatoliy Nikolaevich Kirpichnikov. Life and Works17
L. M. Vseviov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
List of Scientific Works by A. N. Kirpichnikov27


WEAPONS AND MUNITIONS 

E. N. Nosov, N. V. Khvoshchinskaia (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Weapons from Rurikovo Gorodishche (excavations of 2011—2012)47
I. P. Vozny (Chernivtsi, Ukraine)
Shock Weapons during the 12th — Early 13th Centuries on the Territory of Northern Bukovina55
S. V. Beletsky (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
A Hatchet from Suzdal Opolye65
E. R. Mikhaylova (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Rider and Horse Equipment of Pskov Long Barrow Culture73
S. Yu. Kainov, Yu. A. Kuleshov (Moscow, Russian Federation)
Battle Half-masks of Eastern Europe in Light of Recent Findings and New Research83
A. V. Kurbatov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
What Was Olstra According to Written Sources and Archaeological Evidence99


HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTIONS 

M. M. Kazanski (Paris, France)
Gelon with Falx: About Staftarms of the Great Migrations Period103
S. B. Sorochan (Kharkov, Ukraine)
Byzantine Military Forces in the Crimea in 6th—7th Centuries113
A. V. Fedoruk (Chernivtsi, Ukraine)
Artillery in the Great War of 1409—1411 (according to written sources and archaeological materials)133
V. L. Myts (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Armenian Community of Kaffa during the War with the Ottoman Turks in 1475149
P. E. Sorokin, V. N. Matveev, B. S. Korotkevich, K. A. Mikhailov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Assault on the Landskrona Fortress by Archaeological Data163


MONOGRAPH INSIDE THE JOURNAL 

V. P. Kirilko (Simferopol, Crimea)
Fortress Structures in the Medieval Alushta177


MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE 

G. G. Atanasov (Silistra, Bulgaria), N. D. Russev (Kishinev, Moldova)
Fortress Gate of the Early Byzantine Dorostol and the Medieval Drăstăr (6th—10th cc. AD)247
N. Yu. Skripinskaya (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Yamburg Bastion System249
A. I. Saksa (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
The Old Cathedral in Vyborg — a Unique Object of Cultural Heritage261


SIGNS OF TIME 

M. V. Ivashchenko (Saratov, Russian Federation)
Ceramic Stamps from Chersonesos “Nymphaeum”273
L. S. Klejn (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Rus’ in the System of Ethnonyms as a Clue to the Origin of the Term283
A. G. Shpilev (Kursk, Russian Federation)
Rings with Christian Symbols of the Late 10th — 17th cc. from Kursk Region287


TALENTS AND LEPTA OF THE ANTIQUITY 

E. Ya. Turovsky (Sevastopol, Crimea)
Monetary Business of Chersonesos: between Mithridates Eupator and Emperor Tiberius (63 BC — 37 AD)307
L. V. Nosova (Odessa, Ukraine)
Tyras in the Middle of the 1st Century AD: Political History by Numismatic Data315


HARD FLOWERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

G. Yu. Starodubtsev (Kursk, Russian Federation)
Russian Coins in the Last Quarter of the 10th — first half of the 11th Centuries and Russian Monetary Circulation331
A. V. Crivenco (Tiraspol, Moldova)
Serbian Medieval Coins Found on the Territory between the Rivers Prut and Dniester341
N. A. Alekseienko (Sevastopol, Crimea), L. V. Dergaciova (Kishinev, Moldova), Ju. A. Tzepkov (Sevastopol, Crimea)
New Findings of Moldavian Coins From the South-Western Crimea349


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

List of Abbreviations361
Submissions365

On 2012, two of the authors conducted research in the amphora collection of the National Museum of Roman Art (Museo Nacional de Arte Romano/MNAR) in Mérida (Spain). Their attention was attracted by one of the museum's finds. It was an almost complete Beltrán 72 amphora, the fabric of which showed its production place to have been within the Cadiz Bay area (Spain). It bore a red-ink inscription on the neck and upper part of the body. Taking a good graphic copy of the inscription, the authors discussed it with several epigraphic and linguistic specialists, arriving at the conclusion that it was written using two alphabets, a Semitic one for the two upper lines, and Latin for the lowest one.

Because of this exceptional piece, already presented to the general public in the exhibition catalogue Ars Scribendi (Almeida 2014), the authors decided to conduct a closer examination of this amphora typology, Hebrew inscriptions found on amphorae and known to them, and to establish the context of this find within the important Roman and late antique Jewish community of Augusta Emerita and the Iberian Peninsula

using the corpus of pre-Angkorian (6th-8th century) and Angkorian (9th-14th century) inscriptions, this study finds a growing frequency and diversity of road terms, particularly during the 11th century when the khmer began expanding across mainland southeast Asia. this likely corresponds to the development of the durable roads of the Angkorian transport system. Analysis of the texts highlights a distinction between types of roads (e.g., thnal, phlu, vraḥ phlu) that may be discerned from archaeological features (causeways, embankments, main roads) visible in the landscape today. the paper supports the view that the road system was the product of centuries of inter-regional communication rather than the work of Jayavarman Vii predominantly and demonstrates the utility of employing inscriptions to provide spatiotemporal contexts of features found through traditional archaeological investigations.

This article presents a fragmentary and hitherto unpublished inscribed funerary stele, which was reused in Venice as an architectural spolium and has recently come to light. The text, written in Latin, is very likely to be the epitaph for a legionary, whose name is unknown since it occupied the part of the inscription that has not survived. Archaeological data and textual analysis suggest that the inscribed stone dates to the 1st - early 2nd centuries AD and probably came to Venice from the Eastern shores of the Adriatic. It also seems likely that the legionary mentioned in the fragmentary text was a native of Narbonese Gaul who died in Dalmatia or in Aquileia. The inscription can perhaps be associated with another funerary stele (CIL V 2162), which was reused in the base of the nearby San Vidal bell-tower.

A complete edition of all known Latino (and Graeco)-Punic inscriptions along with a detailed, comparative grammatical analysis, esp. with regard to phonology and orthographic practice. Several texts are presented here for the first time. These texts from Roman-era Tripolitania (the first centuries A.D.) render Punic systematically, although written with Latin graphemes. Until now they have been largely neglected by Semiticists. They thus provide, among other things, fully vocalised material, unusual for alphabetically written Semitic languages, which can provide us with insight into the historical and diachronic development of the (North-West) Semitic languages, esp. biblical Hebrew. At the same time, these texts are also interesting epigraphic texts documenting the spread of the Punic language into the African interior.

Una Idptda eon imenipeioned zapofpcad pn (fan J^moA flaniehieo, Zaachi/a ISMAELGABRIELVICENTE CRUZ JAVIER URCID La lapida recientemente documentada en San Lu-Tlanichico y al este con la ex-hacienda de Noriega casTlanichicoessinduda unode losejemplaresde (Figura l).Su extension superficial es de 400 hecla tradition escrita Zapoteca mas impactantes que tareas cuadradas a una altitud de 1750 metres se conocen hasta ahora. Aunque encontrada fuera sobre el nivel del mar. Cuenta con dos rios. Uno, de un contexto arqueol6gico.su importancia radica llamado El Carbonero, nace a 7 km al oeste del

According to generally accepted estimates, the corpus of Phoenician-Punic inscriptions comprises about 10,000 inscriptions from all the countries of the Mediterranean region. The sheer quantity and scattered nature of the documents, spread over a very wide span of time, have severely affected research and caused considerable difficulties in the knowledge, availability and use of these sources. In order to tackle these problems and to try to resolve them, by making Phoenician texts –presented with rigorous and uniform criteria – available to the academic community, the project called CIP (Corpus Inscriptionum Phoenicarum necnon Punicarum, also known as the PhDB or Phoenician Data Base) came into being. For the first time, this project produce a collection and a critical edition of all the Phoenician and Punic epigraphic documents in the form of a data bank; also include all the available information on every Phoenician epigraphic document considered of interest for correctly understanding them. It presents the relevant data in an ordered and programmatic form, together with graphic and photographic material. The project in question, born from an Italian initiative (CNR) that early on made use of collaboration with a Spanish team (CSIC) is directed by Paolo Xella and co-directed by José-Ángel Zamora. The aim of this article is to document the progress of the project, explaining its objectives and illustrating the criteria underlying the work completed so far [as of 2007].

par Jean-Louis Van Belle.
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En Europe, depuis le milieu du xixe siècle, les signes lapidaires furent qualifiés de marques de tâcheron. Cette appellation s’est répandue et s’est imposée un peu partout. Or, trente ans de recherches nous ont montré que cette dénomination est trop restrictive et bien souvent erronée. Elle recouvre en fait une variété de situations, de statuts sociaux, de contenus à connotation juridique, etc.

Ce livre décrit, textes archivistiques à l’appui – dont il établit pour la première fois un corpus –, la diversité, la pluralité, la multiplicité de sens à donner à ces signes qu’une observation lacunaire a classé, par facilité et faute d’une analyse approfondie, sous un même vocable univoque.
L’auteur y établit la typologie des signes, les différents modes de représentation (en creux, en relief, peints) et ce, dans une optique européenne.

Cet ouvrage est un guide pratique pour connaître le signe lapidaire, son historiographie, sa morphologie et les apports de la glyptographie à l’Histoire. L’ouvrage contient aussi un corpus inédit des sources en Europe, ainsi que la liste des marques des maîtres de carrières belges et des associations momentanées….

Public cible
Toute personne observant des marques lors de visites ou de fouilles, qu'il soit simple curieux ou architecte, restaurateur, responsable d'un Service des Monuments, historien, archéologue et, bien entendu, tout passionné de glyptographie et d'épigraphie.

L'auteur
Docteur en histoire, Jean‑Louis Van Belle est fondateur et président du Centre International de Recherches Glyptographiques  (CIRG) et auteur de nombreuses publications, dont le « Dictionnaire de signes lapidaires de Belgique et du nord de la France »,  ainsi que le « Dictionnaire bibliographique des signes lapidaires de France ».

Détails et table des matières sur http://www.safran.be/proddetail.php?prod=PREC03

The thesis concentrates on computational methods pertaining to ancient ostraca - ink on clay inscriptions, written in Hebrew. These texts originate from the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and dated to the late First Temple period (8th – early 6th centuries BCE). The ostraca are almost the sole remaining epigraphic evidence from the First Temple period and are therefore important for archaeological, historical, linguistic, and religious studies of this era. This “noisy” material offers a fertile ground for the development of various “robust” image analysis, image processing, computer vision and machine learning methods, dealing with the challenging domain of ancient documents’ analysis. The common procedures of modern epigraphers involve manual and labor-intensive steps, facing the risk of unintentionally mixing documentation with interpretation. Therefore, the main goal of this study is establishing a computerized paleographic framework for handling First Temple period epigraphic material. The major research questions, addressed in this thesis are: quality evaluation of manual facsimiles; quality evaluation of ostraca images; automatic binarization of the documents and its subsequent refinement; quality evaluation of binarizations on global and local levels; identification of different writers between inscriptions (two distinct methods are proposed); image segmentation (with improvements over the classical Chan-Vese algorithm); and letters’ shape prior estimation. The developed methods were tested on real-world archaeological and modern data and their results are found to be favorable.

Riassunto: Il contributo verte su tre signacula bronzei rinvenuti a Menorca e Mallorca. L'analisi paleografica ed onomastica così come considerazioni sul testo epigrafico in parte anche simbolico consentono nuove considerazioni circa l'ambito d'uso e la cronologia dei pezzi. Abstract: The contribution focuses on three bronze signacula from Menorca and Mallorca. The palaeographic and onomastics analysis as well as considerations on the epigraphic text partly symbolic allow new considerations about the scope of use and the chronology of the pieces.