Public Inscriptions Research Articles

Jezički pejzaž mesta Kovačica

In researching the linguistic landscape of Kovačica, we analyze the linguistic diversity of this multicultural town with a focus on both official and public inscriptions. The aim was to ascertain how minority language policies regulate public language use, as well as to examine whether one of the languages is more dominant than the other and whether a certain language is used for certain domains. The research corpus consisted of 152 photographs and accompanying notes taken during fieldwork. Through a detailed analysis of the corpus, we come to the conclusion that the linguistic landscape of the town of Kovačica is diverse and in accordance with the structure of the population and the languages that are in official use in the territory of the municipality of Kovačica. Regarding official inscriptions, we notice that Serbian, as the official and majority language in the Republic of Serbia, is more dominant than Slovak, except for some situations, for example street names and inscriptions on local historical monuments. On the other hand, the Romanian and Hungarian languages appear only on official signs as a feature of a multinational municipality in which four languages are in official use, which means that those two languages do not appear in other domains of the language landscape of Kovačica. In addition, English is becoming more prevalent in the official language landscape of Kovačica, especially in the tourist sector, which reflects the impact of globalization and the need to communicate with a wider international audience. When public written signs are concerned, our analysis shows the indisputable dominance of the Serbian language, which indicates a tendency towards monolingualism in the public space. In addition, there are occasional deviations in the spelling and correct use of both the Serbian and Slovak languages in the public space. Overall, the linguistic landscape of Kovačica reflects the town's rich traditional culture and confirms that the official use of languages is in line with Serbian legislation, but the private sphere does indicate a gradual shift from multilingualism towards monolingualism.

Imperial Remnants of a Contested Alpine Border Region: Encountering Bolzano’s Ambiguous Monuments

Italian cities are full of public inscriptions and monuments that praise not only fascism but also its brutal expansionist wars. This situation is especially true in Bolzano, the capital of a formerly contested border region in the north of the country, where such symbols were crucial to claim political and cultural domination over conquered territories – not only in the Mediterranean and Africa, but also within Italy’s own national borders. This essay examines monuments, street names and other material legacies of fascist imperialism in Bolzano and reflects on the meaning given to them by the fascist regime at the time of their erection. It reveals why these symbols were placed at specific points in the city as imperial landmarks and questions the regime’s representative intentions behind it. This essay intends to provide a historical starting point for an overall examination of imperial monuments in Bolzano and, based on this, to enable research on their reception history in further studies. To this end, it examines articles from fascist South Tyrolean newspapers reporting on the inauguration ceremonies of the monuments. In addition, fascist laws and city government protocols provide information about the political ethos under which the regime erected them. Finally, the imperial remnant’s symbolic content will be analysed and compared with the research literature on Italian colonialism and its wars of aggression.

İstanbul Street Rhythms: A Field Guide to Short Expressive Ensembles

This article presents the field guide as an alternate format to the anthology in documenting short literary expressions. Anthologies often isolate, collect, and remove literary forms from their habitats by representing them in a book, altering the context by which short literary expressions can be interpreted. After the Gezi Park protests in İstanbul in 2013, several print and electronic anthologies documented public expressions, yet these books offer no or only vague mention of location. Through Henri Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis: Space Time and Everyday Life, I emphasize the rhythms of the street that are interrupted by public expressions. After a review of Lefebvre’s work on rhythms, I offer digital annotation techniques to map the material and medium of public inscriptions of one neighborhood of Kadıköy, İstanbul called Rasimpaşa, a district historically called “Yeldeğirmeni” or “The Windmill.” The focus on public graffiti, street art, posters, signs, stickers, or other verbal traces in public space allows for an expansion of the concept of “short literature” to include their lived habitats as rhythmic ensembles.

Мировоззренческий диалог или параллельное развитие мысли: античные параллели к Книге Кохелета 12:7

The article deals with the ancient parallels of the fifth century B.C.E. to Qoh. 12:7 (“And the dust shall return to the earth, which it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it”). First of all, these parallels include passages from Euripides: “That which is of the earth returns to the earth, the same which is born of the etheric seed returns to the heavenly pole” (“Chrysippus”; 839, 8–11 [ed. Nauck]); “the spirit is to the ether (πνεῦμα μὲν πρὸς αἰθέρα), and the body to the earth” (“The Suppliants,” 533–534; see also: fr. 971 [ed. Nauck]). Another parallel to Qoh. 12:7 is found in an Attic public inscription commemorating the Athenian soldiers killed at Potidaea (432 B.C.E.): “The ether took (their) souls, [the earth (took)] the bodies...” (IG I³, 1179, eds. Kirchhoff et al.). This view correlates with Empedocles’ assertion that there is neither birth (φύσις) nor death, but only the mixing and subsequent separation of mixed elements (cf.: B 8–9, 11, 15 [DK]), and the idea of Anaxagoras, who said that “birth and death are tantamount” to “change (ἀλλλοιοῦσθαι) only” (Arist. GC I, 314a.14–15). In Euripides’ tragedy “Helen”, the heroine expresses the idea that all “mind” (ὁ νοῦς) “does not live” on the death of the body, it dies “in immortal ether”; but in ether the “immortal” γνώμη which the “mind” of man “possesses” persists. In analysing these fragments, the author concludes that one would rather assume a parallel development of the concepts of the afterlife in the Mediterranean region, rather than a direct influence of Hellenic religious doctrines on Jewish thought or a philosophical dialogue between Judaeans and Hellenes at the time the Book of Qoheleth was written.

A Study of the Public Inscriptions in Veliko Tarnovo as Products of Different Types of Literacies

The book explores the linguistic cityscape of Veliko Turnovo focusing on the multimodal aspects of the signs that make the landscape. Special attention is paid to double writing (using two languages – Bulgarian and English), which is manifested in the landscape in its two basic modes – “mirror imaging”, where the two languages are clearly visible and translanguaged (mixed) writing, where features of the two languages are blurred. These two modes of writing are related to the two main functions that signs in the landscape perform – informative and symbolic.

Мixed English-Bulgarian Inscriptions in Local Public Space

The article focuses on the process of mixing languages (translanguaging) in the public inscriptions of Veliko Turnovo. There are two main principles that presuppose the occurrence of mixed inscriptions and that structure the local landscape – the presentation-of-self principle and the good-reasons pricniple. In this context translanguaged writing reflects the deliberate manipulation of the features of the two languages – English (in its variety as a global language) and Bulgarian (the local code) to produce hybrid language forms that evoke different connotations. The ethnographic analysis is carried out within the theoretical framework of Linguistic Landscaping Studies with a special focus on the indexability of the material world, code preference and feature analysis.

Crossings: The Poetics of Public Inscription in the Work of Cecilia Vicuña and Lotty Rosenfeld

Crossings: The Poetics of Public Inscription in the Work of Cecilia Vicuña and Lotty Rosenfeld

‘Rahman’ before Muhammad: A pre-history of the First Peace (Sulh) in Islam

AbstractThis article examines how the divine epithet ‘Rahman’ was invoked in public inscriptions and oaths in pre-Islamic Yemen. Between the first and the sixth centuries ce, with the spread of Christianity across the Roman empire and Abyssinia, and the subsequent rise of Jewish and Christian kingdoms in southern Arabia, the use of ‘Rahman’ was gradually biblicized. By tracing this history, this article opens a window into the use of this theonym in the Quran and the controversy surrounding its use in the first formal treaty in Islam, the Peace Treaty (Sulh) of Hudaybiyya.

Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection by Richard Hunter

Reviewed by: Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection by Richard Hunter Sara Kaczko Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection. By Richard Hunter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics). 2022. Pp. 294. The volume provides a commentary on eighty-one private inscribed funerary Greek epigrams from the archaic period through later antiquity. The texts are organized by gender consistent with Hunter's focus on the Hellenistic and imperial periods, with eleven epigrams down to the fifth century b.c.e., a dozen from the fourth century b.c.e., three dozen from the Hellenistic period, and twenty-two from the imperial era. In fact, epigrams down to the fifth century b.c.e. seldom show gendered differences in style or formulation (aside from references to death in battle). Public inscriptions are excluded, partly owing to Hunter's emphasis on poetic language celebrating the "ethical" and familial virtues of the deceased, though this language is characteristic of epigrams from the Hellenistic period onwards, with intimations of it in the fourth century b.c.e., rather than being an original defining characteristic of the genre. Also, public inscriptions, often being stylistically more elaborate than coeval private inscriptions, would offer valuable comparanda (e.g., CEG 4, 6, and 10 for Athenians fallen in battle; SEG 56.430, the new epitaph for the fallen at Marathon; and SEG 41.540, the polyandrion at Ambrakia). At any rate, anthologies require selection, and these are the criteria used for this volume. Five introductory chapters precede the commentary. The first provides definitions and context, including the differences between inscribed and literary funerary epigrams and the size of the corpus relative to that of prose funerary inscriptions, and describes the scope of the book. The second chapter addresses stylistic considerations, focusing on poetic models from Homer to tragedy (especially in fourth-century b.c.e. Attica) and on their language. This language is described as a negotiation between, as well as a blend of, poetic models (again, mostly Ionic-epic) and epichoric features. Hunter's remarks on the ostensibly limited local flavor of the dialect include the observation that Hellenistic epigrams favor the contemporary koine and seem not to display a marked Doric language, unlike the Doric of Theocritus' idylls. However, in the archaic and classical periods, Homeric features were adapted to the epichoric dialect precisely because of the strength of the local context. Also, the Doric flavor of Theocritus' verse was a literary mannerism in a period when the koine was, in many areas, including Doric ones, the "local" dialect, i.e., the language in common use. In other words, the expectation of a strong Doric flavor in a poetic composition is valid for some literary texts, but not for both literary and epigraphic poems. Overall, the chapter rightly stresses that in epigrams the linguistic and dialectal features vary, and that Doric features are found in both verse-inscriptions and literary funerary poems in non-Doric and Doric areas. The third chapter addresses the authors of the epigrams, whether they were members of the family or friends of the deceased. Alternatively, stonemasons may have provided the services of professional poets or ready-made poems for adaptation to individual circumstances, and pattern books, which have been invoked to explain strong similarities in funerary epigrams across the centuries and parts of Greece,1 may also have been in use. [End Page 368] In any case, Hunter correctly stresses the importance of oral memory and transmission. Also considered here is how the stonecutter received instructions regarding the epigram to be inscribed, whether directly from the poets, from intermediary figures (entrusted with the ordinatio), or from patrons, and whether these instructions were in written or in oral form, scenarios that may have consequences for the accuracy of the text. The extent of the errors in the inscribed epigrams and the claim that literary epigrams are more accurate both seem somewhat overstated. In inscribed epigrams there are, indeed, instances of correction, which indicate that accuracy was valued, and mistakes are also found in the literary transmission. For instance, the dialectal features of epigrams and of archaic and classical poetry are often banalized, especially when the...

Urbanism in Archaic Rome: The Archaeological Evidence

The ancient literary tradition, together with piecemeal archaeological evidence, has conventionally served as a basis for investigating the origin of the city of Rome. This study aims to counterbalance earlier studies by using archaeological evidence as the main data of the examination, particularly new archaeological discoveries and scientific studies. The archaeological record from early Rome shows that urbanization was a gradual process taking place over several centuries. However, from the wide range of archaeological material studied in this article, it is evident that an intense wave of urbanization emerged in Rome in the archaic period. Certain features conventionally attributed to cities, such as population growth, monumental architecture, urban planning, networks, public inscriptions, and craft specialization, are visible in the archaeological material from the sixth and early fifth centuries bc.

Writings on the wall: powerful inscriptions in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands

This article investigates public textual inscriptions in China’s Naxi minority region and the role they play in projecting power. Cliff inscriptions in Chinese minority areas may be an attempt to enforce the hegemonic project of the “civilizing centre,” which sees Han culture as a civilizing force on the “barbarians” that live in China’s border provinces. Despite the nominal equality of China’s ethnic minority groups, the language and writing system of the Han majority occupy an undeniably privileged position in the country’s linguistic hierarchy. But powerful writing does not necessarily have to emanate from the centre of political control, and I argue that there are examples of graphic pluralism where the hierarchy is upturned. One such example of powerful, informal public text acts are the graffiti found on the walls of a cave in an ethnically Naxi township of Baidi in Yunnan province. The most powerful and prestigious graffiti inscriptions are those that are written in the native Naxi logographic script. An analysis of these inscriptions may help to reveal the social implications of writing in heterographic situations, showing how the ritual act of writing Naxi inscriptions on the wall inculcates Naxi values and suggests that China’s linguistic hierarchy is not immutable.

City Walk or Booklore?

Abstract This article offers a critical inquiry of the compilation of inscriptions and their transmission through books and manuscripts. It focuses on a bundle of hand-written slips which record about fifty-two inscriptions from early modern Brussels and which offers a glimpse on the preparatory work for publishing a town description or history. Its title suggests that the authors have used the peripatetic method, an approach in which an author, in the course of a stroll around a place, lists and describes any interesting buildings and sites he encounters. The method seems very appropriate when it comes to collect the texts of public inscriptions in a city or town, since it is generally thought that such texts on buildings could be read by every passer-by. Yet, nonetheless the authors of the Brussels’ compilation certainly recorded texts while walking around in town, they apparently copied texts from existing books as well.

Epigrafía pública y defixiones: paradigmas (y paradojas) del Occidente Latino

This paper falls into two main sections. The first deals with the defixio and its traditional definition as an example of so-called private inscriptions. Unlike public epigraphs, which were monumental, crafted by professionals, intended for display, and had (mainly) a commemorative function, defixiones (whether written by magoi or amateurs) are usually considered to be among Antiquity’s most private texts. Nevertheless, curse tablets and public inscriptions share a very important feature: both contained messages meant to endure. This specific feature brings us to the second section of this article, which discusses the influence of public inscriptions on curse tablets: to what extent are defixiones a reflection of monumental epigraphy? Aspects such as the ordinatio of the text, the media employed or the way they were displayed (even inside a tomb) are analyzed in this regard. In an attempt to answer these questions, three publicly displayed curse tablets are discussed in depth.

Public Inscriptions and Manchu Language Reform in the Early Qianlong Reign (1740s–1760s)

Public Inscriptions and Manchu Language Reform in the Early Qianlong Reign (1740s–1760s)

The Epigraphic Landscape of Athens: Public Inscriptions and Urban Space in Hellenistic Athens

The two case studies here collected provide the occasion for presenting the research work carried out by The Epigraphic Landscape of Athens Project, focused on the relationship between public epigraphy and urban spaces in ancient Athens. The first part, by Chiara Lasagni, focuses on the honorary decrees and statues voted by the Athenian Demos in the years 287-262, and attempts to outline some key coordinates about the epigraphic and ideological landscape produced after the revolt from Demetrius. The second part, by Stefano Tropea, deals with the evolution of the epigraphical landscape of the Athenian asty in the decades from the battle of Pydna of 168 to the second half of the I c. BC.

Roman conquest of the Sarajevo Region and its consequences on the example of urbanism and Early Christian (Late Antique) architecture

Observed from the Roman perspective, the territory of the modern capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its wider area was a deep and inaccessible heartland of Illyricum, subsequently the Roman province of Dalmatia. This territory had been conquered by the Romans for many decades, as evidenced in the works of GrecoRoman authors. Based on the analysis of source materials and the critical approach of the modern literature, in this paper, the authors have offered a chronological review of Roman conquests of the Sarajevo Region. Following the military and political events that refer to the oldest population of the Daesitiates, that we know by name, in the period of 33 BC to AD 9, we have established the conquest phases of the upper course of the Bosna River and the valleys of Željeznica and Miljacka Rivers. The second part of the paper lists all the arguments why Roman itineraries and other geographic sources do not mention the Roman settlement near Ilidža or the administrative unit (municipium) whose territory included the Sarajevo Region. The issue of administrative development of municipium Aquae was interpreted through a critical analysis of the epigraphic monuments. In this context, we paid attention to the name of this municipal unit. By comparing the text carved on two epigraphic monuments that holds the name of the municipal unit of Aquae, it was determined that we need to give precedence to the name carved on the base of the statue of Emperor Diocletian (AD 284-305) because this inscription belongs to the category of public inscriptions unlike the inscription found on a tombstone of a member of local elite in Krivoglavci. In addition, the second part of the paper analyses the Early Christian architecture found in the Sarajevo Region. The analysis includes the period from the 4th to the 6 centuries AD, and in its final part, it will offer certain guidelines regarding the Christianization process and the earliest Church organization in this region for the purpose of posing new questions that will assist in finding a solution to this important problem in future research.

Inscribing indigeneity: Ethnolinguistic authority in the linguistic landscape of Amazonian Ecuador

Abstract This article takes a linguistic anthropological approach to analyzing multilingualism in the linguistic landscape of the Amazonian city of Tena, Ecuador, a key locus of indigenous Kichwa language revitalization, identity formation, and politics. Following recent scholarly reconsiderations of multilingual linguistic landscapes as sites of ideological contestation and performative display, I seek to expand on the foundational concept of ethnolinguistic vitality. Building on an analysis of shifting materiality and semiotics of bilingual Kichwa-Spanish hospital signs, I argue for the use of longitudinal and deep ethnographic study of public sign-making in progress to identify oppositional struggles over ethnolinguistic authority, or control of authorship in displays of ethnolinguistic presence. In Tena, Kichwa-language signage represents a new venue for the decolonization of politics, the performance of indigeneity, and the centralization of state power, which are expressed through competing visions by agents with distinct ideological orientations toward language. I submit ethnolinguistic authority as a critical concern for the ethnographic study of public inscriptions of minority languages, which reflect contrasting ideologies of language, notions of group identity, and claims to representational sovereignty.

Some Remarks on the Language of Modern Tajik Public Inscriptions (Part III)

Some Remarks on the Language of Modern Tajik Public Inscriptions (Part III)

VOX POPULI, VOX DEORUM? ATHENIAN DOCUMENT RELIEFS AND THE THEOLOGIES OF PUBLIC INSCRIPTION

This article argues that, by concentrating on a reading of the depictions of deities on the Athenian document reliefs as symbolic representations of states rather than as divinities, previous scholarly approaches to them have failed to explore the role they ascribe to the gods in collective decision-making and the exercise of public authority. This article resituates the interpretation of these monuments in the context of other monuments depicting the gods and recent approaches to them, and the other ways in which public inscriptions, both at Athens and elsewhere, make reference to divine actors, through their erection in sacred spaces and the use of thetheoiheading. It then examines the range of possible readings of the relationship between divine agency and political decision-making which these monuments privilege and argues that they reflect a conventional understanding that, in general, Athenian decision-making was underpinned by the gods.

A Civic Alternative to Stoicism: The Ethics of Hellenistic Honorary Decrees

This article shows how the public inscriptions of Hellenistic poleis, especially decrees in honor of leading citizens, illuminate Greek ethical thinking, including wider debates about questions of central importance for Greek ethical philosophers. It does so by comparing decrees' rhetoric with the ethical language and doctrines of different ancient philosophical schools. Whereas some scholars identify ethical views comparable to Stoic ideas in Hellenistic decrees, this article argues that there are more significant overlaps, especially in decrees from Asia Minor dating to after 150 BC, with fourth-century BC ethical philosophy, especially Aristotle's, and its Hellenistic continuators. The overlaps between decrees and philosophers' approaches had complex, diverse causes (section 4), probably sometimes including philosophical education and influence. Comparison of philosophy and epigraphy shows that, in the same way as the polis continued to flourish after Chaironeia, critical reflection about the ethical foundations of civic life also remained vibrant, among both philosophers and citizens.