BRITISH EPIGRAPHY SOCIETY |
The British Epigraphy Society continues to promote the development of epigraphical studies in Britain vigorously. 1998 saw two gatherings of epigraphers under the Society's auspices.
Robert Parker reports:
"This spring meeting focused on the theme 'Divine Epigraphy'. The CSAD was represented at the meeting by squeezes of IG II2 1496, as well as by some of the regular users of the Centre. The following papers were given: Beate Dignas, 'Buying sacred authority: the sale of priesthoods in Asia Minor' Robert Parker, 'Festivals at the year's turning: the evidence of IG II2 1496' John Healey, 'Formulae in Aramaic memorial inscriptions' Alan Millard, 'Divine epigraphy in the Ancient Near East' Joyce Reynolds, 'The sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Cyrene' Tessa Rajak, 'The synagogue, the church and the epigraphic habit' N.P. Milner, 'Another inscribed oracle at Oinoanda' This was a thoroughly rewarding meeting. The barrier-breaking potential of the Society was well illustrated by the strange sense of familiarity that Greco-Roman epigraphists experienced in listening to John Healey's account of 'Remembered be X' formulae in Aramaic inscriptions: a translinguistic koine was revealed."
The Society's Annual General Meeting was preceded by a colloquium on Numismatic Epigraphy convened by Andrew Meadows of the British Museum. Papers were given by Joyce Reynolds and Michael Crawford, "A New look at Diocletian at Aphrodisias"; David Whitehead, "From Smyrna to Stewartstown: a numismatist's epigraphic notebook"; Chris Howgego and Volker Heuchert, "Language and meaning in Roman Provincial Coin Legends"; and Jonathan Williams, "Commemoration in Roman Coin Legends".
The AGM itself saw the retirement of Michael Crawford as chair. Professor Stephen Mitchell steps into his role. On the BES committee CSAD is now represented by Alison Cooley in place of Alan Bowman.
A successful meeting concluded with reports on current and new projects. It was encouraging that two of these projects brought news of flourishing squeeze collections. Stephen Mitchell drew attention to the material available for study in the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara's squeeze archive, cataloguing of which is now complete. In Cambridge, a Leverhulme Grant has enabled Dr. Onno van Nijf to make much progress in reorganising and cataloguing the Museum of Classical Archaeology's squeeze archive, as reported below. Prof. P.J. Rhodes also reported on the substantial progress that he and Prof. R. Osborne had made on the production of a replacement for the second volume of M.N. Tod's Greek Historical Inscriptions.
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