The study of inscriptions is critical for anyone seeking to understand the Roman world, whether they regard themselves as literary scholars, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, or religious scholars. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy is the fullest collection of scholarship on the study and history of Latin epigraphy produced to date.

This book provides a general survey of all the inscriptional material in the Sanskrit, Prakrit, and modern Indo-Aryan languages, including donative, dedicatory, panegyric, ritual, and literary texts carved on stone, metal, and other materials. This material comprises many thousands of documents dating from a range of more than two millennia, found in India and the neighboring nations of South Asia, as well as in many parts of Southeast, central, and East Asia. The inscriptions are written, for the most part, in the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts and their many varieties and derivatives. Inscriptional materials are of particular importance for the study of the Indian world, constituting the most detailed and accurate historical and chronological data for nearly all aspects of traditional Indian culture in ancient and medieval times. Richard Salomon surveys the entire corpus of Indo-Aryan inscriptions in terms of their contents, languages, scripts, and historical and cultural significance. He presents this material in such a way as to make it useful not only to Indologists but also non-specialists, including persons working in other aspects of Indian or South Asian studies, as well as scholars of epigraphy and ancient history and culture in other regions of the world.

" In short, this is a reference work of the best kind. For the beginner, it is indispensable. And for those who already know something about its subject matter, the book is in many ways useful, informative, and interesting. We all owe a debt to the author] for undertaking this significant project, and for completing it so well." - Michael Peachin, Classical World " . . . provides invaluable road maps for non-epigraphers faced with passages of inscribed Greek." - Graham Shipley, Bryn Mawr Classical Review Greek inscriptions form a valuable resource for the study of all aspects of the Greco-Roman world. They are primary witnesses to society's laws and institutions, religious habits, and language. This volume provides students with the tools to take advantage of the historical value of these treasures. It examines letter forms, ancient names, and ancient calendars, knowledge of which is essential in reading inscriptions of all kinds. B. H. McLean discusses the classification of inscriptions into their various categories and analyzes particular types of inscriptions, including decrees, honorary inscriptions, dedications, funerary inscriptions, and manumissions. Finally, McLean includes special topics that bear upon the interpretation of specific features of inscriptions, such as Greek and Roman administrative titles and functions.

This book advances our understanding of the place of Latin inscriptions in the Roman world. It enables readers, especially those new to the subject, to appreciate both the potential and the limitations of inscriptions as historical source material, by considering the diversity of epigraphic culture in the Roman world and how it has been transmitted to the twenty-first century. The first chapter offers an epigraphic sample drawn from the Bay of Naples, illustrating the dynamic epigraphic culture of that region. The second explores in detail the nature of epigraphic culture in the Roman world, probing the limitations of traditional ways of dividing up inscriptions into different categories, and offering examples of how epigraphic culture developed in different geographical, social and religious contexts. It examines the 'life-cycle' of inscriptions - how they were produced, viewed, reused and destroyed. Finally, the third provides guidance on deciphering inscriptions face-to-face and handling specialist epigraphic publications.

This volume presents epigraphic research using digital and computational tools, comparing the outcomes of both well-established and newer projects to consider the most innovative investigative trends. Papers consider open-access databases, SfM Photogrammetry and Digital Image Modelling applied to textual restoration, Linked Open Data, and more.

Epigraphic Evidence is an accessible guide to the responsible use of Greek and Latin inscriptions as sources for ancient history. It introduces the types of historical information supplied by inscriptional texts and the methods with which they can be used. It outlines the limitations as well as the advantages of the different types of evidence covered. Epigraphic Evidence includes a general introduction, a guide to the arrangement of the standard corpora inscriptions and individual chapters on local languages and native cultures, epitaphs and the ancient economy amongst others.

This is a much-needed textbook for students of epigraphy and an up-to-date reference work for scholars. Central to the work are its photos. Professor Gordon presents 100 Latin inscriptions arranged in chronological order and illustrated by the best available photographs. The inscriptions, which range in date from the sixth century B.C. to A.D. 525, are collated with standard texts and are accompanied by translations and full annotation. They are preceded by an original introduction dealing with important aspects of Latin epigraphy and followed by several appendices on such special topics as Roman numerals. The photographs of these inscriptions reveal the close relationship between Latin inscriptions and our present-day type fonts by way of the humanistic hand of fifteenth-centry European scholars. This book will be of interest not only to students and scholars of epigraphy but to those interested in the history of typography as well.

The unique relationship between word and image in ancient Egypt is a defining feature of that ancient culture's records. All hieroglyphic texts are composed of images, and large-scale figural imagery in temples and tombs is often accompanied by texts. Epigraphy and palaeography are two distinct, but closely related, ways of recording, analyzing, and interpreting texts and images. This Handbook stresses technical issues about recording text and art and interpretive questions about what we do with those records and why we do it. It offers readers three key things: a diachronic perspective, covering all ancient Egyptian scripts from prehistoric Egypt through the Coptic era (fourth millennium BCE-first half of first millennium CE), a look at recording techniques that considers the past, present, and future, and a focus on the experiences of colleagues. The diachronic perspective illustrates the range of techniques used to record different phases of writing in different media. The consideration of past, present, and future techniques allows readers to understand and assess why epigraphy and palaeography is or was done in a particular manner by linking the aims of a particular effort with the technique chosen to reach those aims. The choice of techniques is a matter of goals and the records' work circumstances, an inevitable consequence of epigraphy being a double projection: geometrical, transcribing in two dimensions an object that exists physically in three; and mental, an interpretation, with an inevitable selection among the object's defining characteristics. The experiences of colleagues provide a range of perspectives and opinions about issues such as techniques of recording, challenges faced in the field, and ways of reading and interpreting text and image. These accounts are interesting and instructive stories of innovation in the face of scientific conundrum.

This volume contains the papers presented during 'Off the Beaten Track - Epigraphy at the Borders' (24-25 September 2015, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy), the sixth in a series of international events planned by the EAGLE, Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy international consortium.