Inscriptions

"Proto-historic rock engravings and Lepontic inscriptions at the springs of the river Brembo (Carona,Valcamisana, Bergamo). Preliminary report. Many engraved rocks, which are now studied by the Authors were discovered at Carona, between 2100 and 2400 m above sea level, by two members of the Historical and Cultural Association Valle Brembana. The huge area of the engraved rocks was divided into three sectors: Le Torbiere (LTB), Aga (AGA) and Camisana (CMS). The same iconography is repeated on majority of the rocks; the most frequent themes include many different symbols (as crosses in various typologies, Salomon knots, stars, circles, stairs, etc.), animals, and human figures, both male and female, these last ones represented wearing the typical dress; there are also warriors of various historical periods (13th, 17th century), a lot of modern inscriptions and dates, the oldest one being 1492. The most interesting rock is CMS 1, on which many pre-Roman inscriptions were engraved. They are written in the 3rd-2nd century Lepontic alphabet, and most of them are also in Lepontic language, which is a Celtic dialect. The Authors discuss 11 inscriptions, mostly consisting in names followed sometimes by patronymic; among them the name of the god Poeninus is repeated twice, in nominative and dative cases. Poeninus is the Celtic god of the mountain peaks and passes and a sanctuary was dedicated to him at the Great San Bernardo Pass. Probably the inscriptions must be referred to fulfilled vows by people on their way to the mountain passes. Lepontic inscriptions are not the most ancient engravings
on this rock. There are also a scene with a sort of a priest together with some wolves and a small anthropomorphic figure; they all find good comparisons among the figures of the so called Situlae Art of the 5th century BC. This chronology seems to be confirmed for the figures are covered by the engraved inscriptions, which are therefore an important terminus ante quem. Particularly difficult is defining the chronology of some figures of spears, which could be in tight relation with the Lepontic inscriptions, due to some cases of superimposition that must be confirmed by future analysis."

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.

«مسجد حکیم اصفهان، مسجدی چهارایوانی است که در زمان صفویان بر روی بقایای مسجدی قدیمی از دورۀ دیلمیان ساخته شده و مانند سایر بناهای مذهبی این دوره، از تزئینات زیبا و چشم‌نوازی برخوردار است. عمده تزیینات این بنا شامل کاشی‌کاری‌های معرق است که با رنگ‌های مرسوم در این دوره، زینت‌بخش فضای خارجی مانند صحن و فضای داخلی مانند گنبدخانه مسجد شده‌اند. چنانچه بگوییم مسجد حکیم، بزرگترین گنجینۀ کتیبه‌های "کوفی بنایی" یا همان "مُعَقلی" معماری ایران را به‌لحاظ تعدد و تنوع در خود جای داده است، سخن به گزافه نگفته‌ایم. کمتر بنایی را در تاریخ معماری ایران در دورۀ اسلامی می‌توان یافت که با این میزان از کتیبه‌های متنوع به خط کوفی بنایی آراسته شده باشد. تنوع در کتیبه‌ها، رنگ‌بندی کاشی‌ها، بهره‌گیری از ترفندهای فنی، هندسی و چیدمانی متفاوت در اجرای عبارات کوفی بنایی از جمله نکات شاخص کتیبه‌نگاری‌های این بناست.»

Inscriptions form the most reliable source for the reconstruction of history. In the present paper the authors have discussed nine inscriptions, which were carved on the back side of the bronze images of Jaina Tirthankara. These inscriptions have its own importance because these are the only inscribed bronze images belonging to Jainism so far discovered in the region. Although two of the Hansi hoard images are inscribed with few words only. All these bronzes belong to the Medieval period (12 th-13 th Century A.D.). During this period massive socio-political change took place in the region and these inscriptions can throw light on the various aspects of history of that time.

บทความนี้ศึกษาเกี่ยวกับจารึกภาษามอญโบราณที่พบในภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือของประเทศไทย ภาษามอญเป็นภาษาหนึ่งในตระกูลภาษามอญ-เขมร และเป็นภาษาที่ชนชั้นปกครองได้ใช้ในเมืองต่างๆ ในประเทศไทยในสมัยโบราณ ทั้งในภาคกลาง ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ และภาคเหนือ ในบทความนี้จะมีการอธิบายรูปแบบอักษรที่ใช้เขียนจารึกภาษามอญโบราณที่พบในภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ ซึ่งจารด้วยรูปแบบอักษรหลังปัลลวะ ซึ่งได้ใช้ในช่วงพุทธศตวรรษที่ 13-15 ถึงแม้ว่าจารึกภาษามอญโบราณจากภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือส่วนใหญ่จะไม่ปรากฏปีศักราช ยังมีจารึกชิ้นหนึ่งซึ่งปรากฏปี 693 มหาศักราช หรือปีพุทธศักราช 1314
จารึกภาษามอญโบราณที่พบในภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือปรากฏอยู่บนวัตถุโบราณบางประเภทคือหินและดินเผา ตัวอย่างเช่น จารึกบนหินมีทั้งใบเสมาและพระพุทธรูปยืน จารึกบนดินเผามักจะเป็นพระพิมพ์ ซึ่งอาจเขียนตัวอักษรลงในเนื้อดินหรือเขียนด้วยหมึกสีแดง ในบทความนี้ จะนาเสนอจารึกตามสถานที่พบ ซึ่งกระจัดกระจายทั่วภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ ได้มีการพบจารึกภาษามอญโบราณในหลายจังหวัด ได้แก่ จ.นครราชสีมา จ.มหาสารคาม จ.ชัยภูมิ จ.ขอนแก่น จ.กาฬสินธุ์ จ.อุดรธานี และ จ.สกลนคร บทความนี้จะอธิบายจารึกที่พบตามแต่ละสถานที่ พร้อมเสนอคาอ่านและคาแปลจารึกบางชิ้นเพื่อเป็นตัวอย่าง นอกจากนี้ มีจารึกบางชิ้นซึ่งถูกพบใหม่และผู้วิจัยยังไม่ได้ศึกษา พบที่ จ.เพชรบูรณ์ และ จ.นครพนม และยังมีจารึกภาษามอญโบราณอีกซึ่งพบในประเทศลาว
บทความนี้จะกล่าวถึงอุปสรรคบางเรื่องที่มีอยู่ในปัจจุบันเกี่ยวกับจารึกภาษามอญโบราณ อุปสรรคดังกล่าวเกี่ยวข้องกับสถานที่เก็บรักษาวัตถุโบราณในสมัยปัจจุบัน และระบบทะเบียนของพิพิธภัณฑ์ ท้ายบทความนี้ปรากฏรายชื่อจารึกทั้งหมดที่ได้ศึกษาในงานวิจัย วัตถุโบราณที่นามาศึกษามีจานวน 62 ชิ้น ซึ่งมีจานวน 36 ชิ้นที่ยืนยันได้แล้วว่าเขียนเป็นภาษามอญโบราณ อีก 24 ชิ้นพิจารณากันว่าอาจเขียนเป็นภาษามอญโบราณ และอีก 2 ชิ้นเคยมีการกล่าวกันว่าเป็นภาษามอญโบราณ แต่ในงานวิจัยนี้ได้พิจารณาว่าอาจเขียนเป็นภาษาสันสกฤต

Introduction

It is safe to claim that Goharshad Mosque of Mashhad is the most famous building in Iran that has survived from Timurid Dynasty.  It was built under the patronage of Goharshad, the wife of Shah Rukh, and the supervision of Baysonqor, the son of Shah Rukh and Goharshad. The architect of the edifice was Ghavam-al-Din Shirazi, the most famous Iranian architect. It has also earned the respect of the Shiites due to its proximity to Imam Reza shrine complex and currently serves as one of the prayer halls within the shrine. Additionally, Goharshad Mosque of Mashhad is a rare Timurid building which has completely retained its original structure and most of its ornament after almost 600 years despite the architectural changes occurred in the shrine and numerous events such as several severe earthquakes, violent attacks of Uzbeks to Mashhad in the sixteenth century, and bombings by troops of the Russian Empire in 1911. Goharshad’s distinctive features accompanied by the specific style of Ghavam-al-Din in architecture have enhanced its reputation. 

One of the aspects of Goharshad Mosque which should be emphasized in studies is its inscriptions. There is a wide range of inscriptions by different calligraphers in this mosque which demonstrate the evolution of epigraphy from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. The main inscription of Maqsoore Iwan, transcribed by Baysonqor, is one of the most famous inscriptions of thuluth script in Iran.  The inscription has earned a great reputation because of its scribe, in addition to its highly artistic quality. Only when we realize that it is the sole remaining work of Baysonqor can we appreciate the importance of this inscription. Although only the first third and the last third of the inscription have survived, what is remained lives up to its reputation. There are also other remarkable inscriptions related to the renovation of the Mosque in the Safavid and Qajar periods transcribed by Muhammad Reza Emami, Muhammad Hossein-e Shahid, and others.

However, it is beyond doubt that we need a standard method based on local principles in order to conduct scientific research into the styles and evolution of epigraphy from an aesthetic point of view. The history of epigraphy and its specific role in the history of art and architecture as a subject matter have been considered in some studies such as The Monumental inscriptions from early Islamic Iran and Transoxiana by Sheila.S. Blair. That said, a review of the studies on epigraphy in the Islamic art and architecture reveals that firstly, inscriptions almost always have been considered as the architectural and historical documents and secondly, the scholars who have studied the artistic features of some of the inscriptions have not used a standard practical method which can be followed for other inscriptions. Therefore, we still seem to be in the early stages of studies because there is no standard classification according to the general features of inscriptions; a classification whose main focus is on the visual relationship between the inscription and the architectural elements or the composition of script in the inscription. There is only a simple classification according to the main scripts: Kufic, thuluth, and Nastealiq. Nevertheless, in rare studies such as Atlas-e Khat by Habib-Allah Fazaeli a classification of kufic inscriptions is proposed according to the various forms of letters. Also, Adolf Grohman in The Origin and Early Development of Floriated Kufic has done a careful study on the development of letters and ornaments of floriated Kufic; yet both Fazaeli’s and Grohman’s work only emphasize on Kufic inscriptions and not other kinds of inscriptions. Thus, as far as epigraphy studies are concerned, it is of the utmost importance to propose a detailed classification of inscriptions according to the local principles.

The main subject of this book is to introduce and do detailed research on all the inscriptions of Goharshad Mosque; but since almost all of them are in thuluth script and there is no standard method for thuluth inscriptions, a special one had to be devised in order to study and introduce the inscriptions based on their aesthetical features. Of course, similar to other studies, the technical and historical features have also been reviewed.

Firstly, it is critical that a detailed classification of the inscriptions according to the concept of text and its relation to the building, and the composition of scripts be presented. As a result, the texts are classified into two main groups, namely “religious texts”, “construction texts”-providing information about the construction-, and a subordinate group “religious- construction texts”. As far as the relation between epigraphy and architecture is concerned, inscriptions are classified into three main groups, that is “Tumari”, “Lowhi”, and “Ghab-bandi”. “Tumari” refers to the famous form of inscriptions similar to a scroll and contains a very long text. On the other hand “Lowhi” consists of inscriptions whose frames are medallion-like or geometrical
with a very short text and are commonly installed on different parts of the building; and “Qab-bandi” refers to those inscriptions with a square or rectangular frame and a short text. The other classification is related to the composition of script in the inscription, only used for “Tumari” inscriptions, and includes “Satri”(single-lined), “ Do-Tabaqe” (double-lined)”, “Madar-o-Bache” (composed of two different scripts), “Moqtaren” (overlapped lines), “Do-Tabaqe-Kamarbandi” (composed of two lines separated by a long horizontal letter).

Studying epigraphy based on classification helps us to understand its evolution over time. For instance, this study reveals that “Madar-o Bache” is a common style of composition in the Timurid period, which is replaced by “Do-Tabaqe-Kamarbandi” in the early years of the Safavid period.

Furthermore, in order to measure the calligraphic quality of inscriptions we need to establish some other criteria. Therefore, old Persian texts were reviewed so as to elicit aesthetic principles of epigraphy and calligraphy. Eventually, the elicited principles were grouped into two main categories: “Tashkil” (principles related to the form of letters) and “Vaz`e” (principles related to the composition of letters and words). Each category has a range of subordinate principles applied to measure the quality of inscriptions of Goharshad Mosque.

Bulgarian Runic Inscriptions in Europe during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
The Bulgarian runic script is the first in time and a separate branch of the Orkhon-Yenisei runic script. Inscriptions of the Bulgarian runic script are left from the Yenisei to Central Europe, such as: Грешен съм, Тангра; Държавата на Дуло; Да пие Аспарух; Блюдото, от което да се храни Аспарух; Гробът на Кърчи - да го поменем; Надгробният камък на старейшина Джугутур, годината, когато той беше поставен, е Козирог, м. Десети Погребението чрез кремация на княз Йогюн, ние ти намерихме нов другар, застани пред Бога.

Digital communication technologies have greatly influenced and expanded the way humans interact. The progress of information technology has opened wider opportunities for communication. Social networks have become the modern-day social communities connecting people from different parts of the globe, sharing images and videos on these platforms. By creating virtual communities, digital communication has expanded the scope of communication eliminating barriers. We aim to make further progress in this arena by describing an image in the form of audio to visually impaired people. A certain section of differently abled people is unfortunately isolated from this world. Inorder to combat this issue we have come up with a system that describes an image shown in the form of plain text using an encoder-decoder architecture and is integrated with an end-to-end lexical articulator which produces a vocal description of the given image.

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.

Kütahya was perhaps the most important center of Armenian ceramic production in post-Medieval times.  Many of the thousands of surviving early eighteenth-century pieces, including a special order for some 10,000 tiles destined originally for the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, now in the Armenian Monastery of St. James, are inscribed in Armenian.  In the early twentieth century, many of these objects, including two dated and signed examples of the early sixteen century in blue and white, the oldest dated ceramics executed within the Ottoman Empire, were thought to be the work of Turkish ceramists patronized by well to do Armenian patrons, despite the quite clear inscriptions by the Armenian craftsmen themselves.  The variety and popularity of this Kütahya ware has had renewed interest in both Turkey and abroad.  The article is an overview o the history of Armenian Kütahya ceramics and its continuation after the genocide in Jerusalem.

Si tratta di una critica alla tesi di O. Banti, il quale nel suo saggio "A proposito del Iohanne magistro edificante 'architetto' del Campo Santo di Pisa", in Critica dell' Arte (2014) 2015 sostiene che le epigrafi datassero dalla prima metà del Cinquecento e che si tratterebbe dunque di false epigrafi. Per la presentazione ho esaminato una scelta di argomenti per confrontarli a una serie di epigrafi medievali (soprattutto dei secc. XII e XIII) di Pisa e del contado. Grazie a questo confronto (che Banti non fa) posso mostrare che le tre epigrafi del Camposanto possono essere coeve con l'inizio dell'edificio del Camposanto, cioè a partire dall'anno 1277 in poi. Da un punto di vista stilistico le daterei non dopo la prima metà del Trecento.

Vipsania Agrippina seems to have played an important role in the dynastic as well as ideological field - being a daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Caecilia Attica. She gave birth to a descendant of the Julio-Claudian House and linked the old republic to the new one.
Her engagement (at a very young age) and later her marriage to Tiberius Claudius Nero linked in the first place her maternal grandfather Titus Pomponius Atticus with Tiberius' stepfather, Augustus. But moreover it also linked the plebeian Vipsanii to the patrician Claudii.
As mother of Drusus (from her marriage with Tiberius) she provided Augustus with a (adoption) grandson, who would adopt Tiberius, after Tiberius' adoption of Germanicus, the oldest son of his brother Drusus.
The second marriage of Vipsania Agrippina - with Gaius Asinius Gallus - also seems to have been favourable to Augustus, because it linked the Asinii to the Julio-Claudian house. The children from this marriage would, for their part, enter the political stage.
And through her the cognomen Agrippa was continued. One of her sons received this cognomen and a granddaughter beared the cognomen Agrippina.
She was honoured as mother of Drusus and grandmother of his twins. After her death her portrait occured in various parts of the empire and possible even on coins. She also seems to have been taking a prominent place on the Ara Pacis as wife of the consul of that year (Tiberius Claudius Nero), whoms colleague (Publius Quinctilius Varus) was married to her (half) sister.
She is, according to Tacitus, the only one of Agrippa's children who died a natural death, because she succeeded - in spite of her connections with the imperial family - to stay out of the restless waters of power. With her died one of the most prominent ladies of the late republic.

ABSTRACT This article concerns pottery that was used as a writing tool in the ancient period. The pottery which bears inscription on them reflects the material culture created by the ancient people. This group of pottery also brings a new dimension to the historical geography. The inscribed pottery is an important source for achieving direct evidences from the excavation site.

Mesopotamia is a region in the Middle East, situated in a basin between two big rivers-the Tigris and the Euphrates. About 5,500 years ago, much earlier than in Egypt, ancient civilization began, one of the oldest in the world. Continuous development was an important factor of everyday life. A warm climate, fertile soil, mixed with the sediment of flowing rivers and perhaps even the first oak all. A deficit of stone for building shelter was an impediment that the Sumerians faced, but from this shortage they found the perfect solution for their construction-brick. Shelter, homes and other buildings were built from material available in the area, such as clay, cane, soil, mule. Sumerians mastered the art of civic construction perfectly. They raised great buildings, made of bricks (Ziggurats, temples, and palaces) richly decorated with sculptures and mosaics. In this article I will focus on the most interesting time period in my opinion-when brick appeared, I will comment upon the process of production and the types of the brick used in Mesopotamia. It should be noted that the form we know today has been shaped by the cultural and social influences of many peoples who have successively settled these lands, continuing to a large extent the cultural heritage of the former.

The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of the use of the Latin alphabet to write the so-called fragmentary languages of Italy and Western Europe during Antiquity. The Latin alphabet was created from an Etruscan model to write Latin, but was also used to record texts in other languages: Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian, the minor Italic dialects, Faliscan, and Venetic in Italy; Gaulish in the Gauls and other provinces in the north of Europe; and, finally, Iberian, Celtiberian, and Lusitanian in the Iberian Peninsula. The use of the Latin alphabet to write the so-called fragmentary languages represents a step before complete Latinisation. In some regions the types of inscriptions analysed here are not simply intermittent uses of the alphabet to write the local language, but rather, there was genuine thought about the appropriateness of the system and, consequently, some changes were made such as the creation of new signs, the use of others that come from the epichoric alphabet, and also the development of some distinctive orthographic norms.

El objetivo de este trabajo es ofrecer una síntesis sobre el uso del alfabeto latino para escribir las denominadas lenguas fragmentarias de Italia y el occidente de Europa durante la Antigüedad. El alfabeto romano fue creado a partir del etrusco para escribir el latín, pero también fue utilizado para escribir otras lenguas como el etrusco, el osco, el umbro, los dialéctos itálicos menores, el falisco y el venético en Italia; el galo en las Galias y otras provincias del norte de Europa; y, finalmente, el ibérico, el celtibérico y el lusitano en la península Ibérica. El uso del alfabeto latino para escribir las lenguas fragmentarias representa un paso en la completa latinización de Italia y las provincias occidentales. En algunas regiones se produce una verdadera adaptación del alfabeto que incluye la creación de nuevas letras, uso de otras procedentes de la escritura epicórica y el desarrollo de nuevas normas ortográficas. Palabras clave: Alfabeto latino. Latinización. Romanización. Lenguas fragmentarias. Epigrafía epicórica. Bilingüismo. Contactos lingüísticos. Sistemas de escritura.

This chapter takes a fresh look at the Roman-Carthaginian Treaties in Polybius 3. The treaties have been discussed from almost every possible historical angle. Their function in Polybius' narrative, by contrast, has hardly received any attention at all. This is surprising because the structure and design of this part of Polybius' narrative is extremely peculiar: there are not many passages in ancient historical writing that feature such a large number of verbatim citations of documents and Polybius even interrupts his suspenseful account of the Roman declaration of war to the Carthaginians to insert his citation and analysis of the treaties. In this paper I argue that this design is deliberate (and not clumsy or irritating, as it has sometimes been characterised in the scholarly discussion): Polybius is presenting exactly the kind of well-founded knowledge of the legal situation that the Romans in 218 lacked and that remained contentious in his own time, at precisely that point of the narrative (at the encounter in Carthage) when the Romans would have needed it most. Moreover, I argue that the entire design and structure reflects the process of Greek interstate arbitration as it is documented on several inscriptions, and I explore the implications of the interdiscursive relationship between Polybius' narrative and diplomatic discourse and inscriptions in terms of Polybius' self-definition and self-presentation as a Greek historical narrator and aner pragmatikos writing Roman history in Rome.

Le projet de recherche Police pour les Inscriptions Monétaires (PIM) a pour objectif la création d’outils adaptés pour retranscrire les informations contenues dans les inscriptions monétaires, au-delà de leur contenu sémantique. Les informations textuelles et les caractéristiques graphiques présentes sur une monnaie peuvent fournir de nombreuses informations concernant son origine et la société dans laquelle elle a été frappée. Mais jusqu’à aujourd’hui, aucune fonte numérique ne pouvait retranscrire à la fois intégralement et fidèlement les inscriptions monétaires.

Ce billet, publié sur le blog de la BnF, vise d’abord à retracer la genèse du projet ainsi que les grandes étapes depuis l’annotation des monnaies de la BnF jusqu’à la réalisation des fontes.

The practice of relic establishment was the most significant element of Buddhist religious culture in Gandhāra from the second century BCE to the second century CE.  The ritual architecture encapsulated in relic inscriptions pivots around ontological identifications which instantiate the relics as a body of the Buddha which has beneficial efficacy.
The research proposition—that new insights might be accessible through pattern analysis of formulaic sequences—indicated an ambitious infrastructure proposition.  The dissertation is a cascading program of projects to develop the foundational models, supporting platforms and enabling methodologies required to implement formulae structures and formula analysis across the corpus.  The dissertation arc returns, equipped with that infrastructure, to the characterisation of the ritual architecture of relic inscriptions.
The design and development of a platform of the scale of READ—the philological platform developed in consortium—required the deployment of a research consulting framework.  The methodologies, toolkits, and defining role of a research consultant, were exercised in a suite of consulting solutions and corpus projects.
The inherent constraints of a conventional centralised architecture necessitated the design of a corpus development framework.  The encapsulation of the TextBase methodology in READ Workbench—an Open SaaS portal—crystalizes a sustainable solution architecture for collaborative corpus development in the philological domain.
The infrastructure suite was deployed in the development of a reconstituted relic inscriptions corpus, and the implementation of a synthesized syntactic and semantic formula ontology.  The detailed analysis of formulae type, alignment and inflection produced new translations of critical passages, a ritual architecture hypothesis and a novel view of the ontological status of relics and bodies of the Buddha grounded in Gandhāran Buddhism.