Crossreads: text, materiality, and multiculturalism at the crossroads of the ancient Mediterranean 7th cent. BCE - 7th cent. CE

gualtherus1624 cover

The frontispiece from Georg Gualtherus early epigraphic study of Sicily, published 1624. Courtesy of Arachne, University of Cologne

In the first year, three post-doctoral researchers, Ilenia Gradante, Valentina Mignosa, and Simona Stoyanova will work with the PI, Jonathan Prag, to develop the digital corpus covering 1,500 years (7th cent. BCE – 7th cent. CE). Thereafter, Crossreads will expand the potential multilingual corpus through three sub-projects:

  1. In years 2-4 a post-doctoral researcher in historical linguistics will work with the project team to develop the linguistic annotation and analysis of the corpus, with a view to tracing linguistic contact and interference on the island across antiquity.
  2. In years 2-5 a post-doctoral researcher in petrology will work with the project, supported by Professor Paolo Mazzoleni and Professor Germana Barone of Catania University, to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the stones used in monumental epigraphy on the island, with a view to illuminating the socio-economic costs and ambitions involved in the monumentalization of texts.
  3. In years 3-5, a post-doctoral researcher in epigraphic palaeography will work with the project, supported by members of the King’s Digital Lab (KCL) to develop a version of the Archetype platform to enable systematic analysis of the writing systems in use on the island in antiquity.

The combination of data and approaches promises to yield new insights into the cultural interactions at the heart of the Mediterranean, between the Greek East and the Latin West, North Africa, indigenous voices, and others.

Project Advisory Board:

Gabriel Bodard, Reader in Digital Classics, Institute of Classical Studies - School of Advanced Study, London

Alison Cooley, Professor of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick

Wolfgang de Melo, Professor of Philology, University of Oxford

Tom Elliott, Associate Director of Digital Programs and founder of the EpiDoc community, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World,  NYU

Francesco Mambrini, Researcher in Glottology and Linguistics, Università Cattolica, Milan

Alex Mullen, Associate Professor, Department of Classics and Classical Archaeology, University of Nottingham, Fifty Pound Fellow All Souls, Oxford, PI LatinNow (ERC)

Peter Stokes, Reader in Digital Humanities, King's College London

Marja Vierros, Associate Professor, Greek Language and Literature, University of Helsinki