The
Greek-language inscriptions and
epigraphy
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
are a major source for understanding of the society, language and history of ancient Greece and other Greek-speaking or Greek-controlled areas. Greek inscriptions may occur on stone slabs, pottery
ostraca
An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...
, ornaments, and range from simple names to full texts.
Inscriptiones Graecae
The ''Inscriptiones Graecae'' (IG),
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for ''Greek inscriptions'', project is an academic project originally begun by the
Prussian Academy of Science
The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences () was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer. In the 18th century, when French ...
, and today continued by its successor organisation, the ''Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften''. Its aim is to collect and publish all known
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...
inscriptions from the ancient world. As such it will eventually make all other previous collections redundant.
It is divided by regions.
I/II/III - Attica
IV - Aegina, Pityonesus, Cecryphalia, the Argolid
V - Laconia, Messenia and Arcadia
VII - Megarid, Oropus, and Boeotia
IX - Aetolia, Acarnania, West Locris and Thessaly
X - Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, Scythia, Thessalonica, Lyncestis, Heraclea, Pelagonia, Derriopus and Lychnidus
XIV - Sicily-Italy
Other printed collections
Numerous other printed collections of Greek inscriptions exist.
[Bérard, F., D. Feissel, N. Laubry, P. Petitmengin, D. Rousset, and M. Sève. 2010. Guide de l’épigraphiste: Bibliographie choisie des épigraphies antiques et médiévales. 4th ed. Paris: Éditions Rue d’Ulm.] The following abbreviations are as listed in the preface ''Epigraphical Publications'' to the
Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon:
* ''CGIH'' = Corpus der griechisch-christlichen Inschriften von Hellas: I. Die griechisch-christlichen Inschriften des Peloponnes, Nikos Athanasiou Bees, vol. i, Athens 1941.
* ''CID'' = Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes. I: Lois sacrées et règlements religieux, Georges Rougemont, Paris 1977; II: Les comptes du quatrième et du troisième siècle, J. Bousquet, D. Mulliez, Paris 1989.
* ''CIJud''. = Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaicarum, ed. Jean-Baptiste Frey: vol. i (Europe), Rome 1936 repr.
ew York 1975 vol. ii: Asie-Afrique, Rome 1952.
* ''CISem.'' = Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, E Renan et al., Paris 1881–1951.
* ''Inscr.Perg.'' = Die Inschriften von Pergamon (in ''Altertümer von Pergamon'' viii), ed.
Max Fränkel
Max Fränkel ( Landsberg an der Warthe, 11 March 1846 – Berlin, 10 June 1903) was a German Jewish classical scholar, philologist, epigrapher and librarian.Kleine Schriften - Volume 3 - Page 460 Hermann Usener - 2010 "Die Verwaltung der königli ...
, Berlin 1890–1895; 8(3) = Altertümer von Pergamon viii (3). Die Inschriften des Asklepieions,
Christian Habicht (historian)
Christian Habicht (23 February 1926 – 6 August 2018) was a German historian of ancient Greece and an Epigraphy, epigrapher in Ancient Greek.Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
''Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum'' (''SEG'') (Latin for ''Greek Epigraphical Supplement'') is an annual survey (published by J. C. Gieben, Amsterdam, Netherlands until his death in 2006, now published by Brill) collecting the content of and st ...
, Hondius, Netherlands
Online collections
Over the last 20 years, a growing number of online databases, catalogues and corpora of Greek inscriptions have been created. A selection is offered below:
Searchable Greek Inscriptionsof the
Packard Humanities Institute
The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation, established in 1987, and located in Los Altos, California, which funds projects in a wide range of conservation concerns in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, ...
, including the complete ''
Inscriptiones Graecae
The ''Inscriptiones Graecae'' (''IG''), Latin for ''Greek inscriptions'', is an academic project originally begun by the Prussian Academy of Science, and today continued by its successor organisation, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences a ...
'' corpora
Inscriptiones Graecae homepage in German
Attic Inscriptions Online including English translations
including English translations
in English translation
I.Sicily inscriptions of Sicily
monuments from Phrygia and Lykaonia
IGCyr Inscriptions of Greek Cyrenaica
EAGLE a portal to the inscriptions of the Ancient World, part o
IDEASome other inscriptions are found incidentally in
*
TLG text materials are available online and in CD ROM format
*
Perseus project
The Perseus Digital Library, formerly known as the Perseus Project, is a free-access digital library founded by Gregory Crane in 1987 and hosted by the Department of Classical Studies of Tufts University. One of the pioneers of digital libraries, ...
Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri
Digital resources
Alongside the development of online collections of Greek inscriptions, several projects have created online epigraphic tools for the study of inscriptions.
Epigraphy.info collaborative environment for digital epigraphy
*
Trismegistos Trismegistos (also known as TM) is an interdisciplinary portal of papyrological and epigraphical resources, formerly Egypt and the Nile valley (800 BC-AD 800), now expanding to the Ancient World in general. It derives its name from the famous epithe ...
, portal of papyrological and epigraphical resources
LGPN the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names
*
EpiDoc
EpiDoc is an international community that produces guidelines and tools for encoding in TEI XML scholarly and educational editions of ancient documents, especially inscriptions and papyri.
The EpiDoc Guidelines were originally proposed as a reco ...
, XML text markup for ancient documents
Ubi Erat Lupa image database on ancient stone monuments
Europeana EAGLE Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy
3D digitization of inscriptions
Krateros digital repository for the collections of epigraphic squeezes
GIO translations of Ancient Greek inscriptions into Modern Greek
*
Pythia (machine learning) Pythia is an ancient text restoration model that recovers missing characters from a damaged text input using deep neural networks. It was created by Yannis Assael, Thea Sommerschield, and Jonathan Prag, researchers from Google DeepMind and the U ...
, a deep learning model for the automatic restoration of Greek inscriptions
See also
*
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres).
History ...
*
*
EpiDoc
EpiDoc is an international community that produces guidelines and tools for encoding in TEI XML scholarly and educational editions of ancient documents, especially inscriptions and papyri.
The EpiDoc Guidelines were originally proposed as a reco ...
*
Epigraphy
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
& (Section:
Greek Inscriptions
The Greek-language inscriptions and epigraphy are a major source for understanding of the society, language and history of ancient Greece and other Greek-speaking or Greek-controlled areas. Greek inscriptions may occur on stone slabs, pottery ostr ...
)
*
Leiden Conventions
The Leiden Conventions or Leiden system is an established set of rules, symbols, and brackets used to indicate the condition of an epigraphic or papyrological text in a modern edition. In previous centuries of classical scholarship, scholars who ...
*
Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions
Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions are inscriptions that come from the Arabian Peninsula dating to before the rise of Islam. They were written in both Arabic and other languages, including Sabaic, Hadramautic, Minaic, Qatabanic.
These inscripti ...
*
Pythia (machine learning) Pythia is an ancient text restoration model that recovers missing characters from a damaged text input using deep neural networks. It was created by Yannis Assael, Thea Sommerschield, and Jonathan Prag, researchers from Google DeepMind and the U ...
References
Greek epigraphy
Archaeological corpora
Ancient Greek
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