Inscriptions and Dates
Organized by Gil Renberg (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
The American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy invites submissions for a panel to be held during the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies in Washington, D.C. As we have been reminded by the recent and well-publicized discovery of a simple charcoal graffito at Pompeii that potentially shifts the city’s destruction from August to autumn of 79 C.E., even the most minor of epigraphical texts can have a significant impact on issues of historical dating, and the history of Greek and Latin epigraphy is filled with examples of inscriptions great and small that have done so. But before one can employ an inscription in a historical inquiry it is essential for epigraphers to be satisfied as to its date – which sometimes is clearly written on the stone, but other times requires the deciphering of poorly preserved text or the weighing of paleographical probabilities (e.g., dating by letterforms, letter-cutters, archaization), or else the analysis of clues such as nomenclature or archaeological context. This panel will be devoted to papers pertaining to dating inscriptions and dating by inscriptions, and thus abstracts on a range of topics will be welcome, from studies of how epigraphers of the past resolved particular problems, to issues concerning previously published texts on stone, walls, ostraca, and other objects, to the dating of freshly discovered materials.
Abstracts will be evaluated anonymously by members of the ASGLE Executive Committee and external readers, and should not be longer than 650 words (bibliography excluded): please follow the SCS “Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts.” All Greek should either be transliterated or employ a Unicode font. The abstract should be sent by e-mail as a Word or PDF file that does not include your name by March 18, 2019 to Gil H. Renberg at grenberg2@unl.edu.