This seminar will will be followed by an IMCC drinks reception. This is both an opportunity for the IMCC seminar audience to speak to Prof. Wilson and others present after his talk, and a chance for Oxford colleagues interested in multimodal analysis to meet in person and engage in discussions of research questions of relevance to IMCC community more broadly.
Speaker: Prof. Andrew Wilson, University of Oxford
About Prof. Andrew Wilson: Andrew Wilson is Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He has excavated in Italy, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Cyprus and Morocco. His research interests include the economy of the Roman Empire, ancient technology, ancient water supply and usage, Roman North Africa, and archaeological field survey.
Abstract: This paper examines how the visual format of inscriptions might be used to convey information beyond purely their textual content. It examines several groups of Latin inscriptions from Roman North Africa — and in particular from the towns of Mactar and Timgad — of the 3rd century AD that are written not in the usual lapidary capitals but in a rounded, "uncial" script similar to that known from later parchment manuscripts. The texts in the different groups all share some of the same characteristics, and I argue that the use of the uncial script is not, as has generally been assumed, an indicator of a late date, but instead is a deliberate choice used to make a claim about the literary sophistication and culture of those being honoured or commemorated by the inscriptions. The twin modalities of text and the script in which it is written thus work together to construct a larger message. (Knowledge of Latin is *not* required to follow the talk!)
