A postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ancient History, Faculty of History, University of Wa

The main objective of the STONE-MASTERS project is to provide a complex answer to the question about the reasons for the great transformation of Roman commemorative traditions in the realm of epigraphy. In order to pursue the matter further, an atlas illustrating a highly regionalized network/stemma of workshops identifying places of origin for all the inscriptions from the third fifth century will be built in the project framework. The methodologies of workshop studies developed for other crafts and periods (in particular for early Greek vase painters, and for scribes and scriptoria) will be adapted to the needs of the Graeco-Roman epigraphy. These actions will bring to light the actual actors behind the production of epigraphy artisans and workshops as primary agents of top-to-bottom cultural transfer and, in consequence, will shape a whole new understanding of bringing elitist culture to the middle and lower classes.

Due to the complexity of the main task, the following sub-goals have been defined and marked on the project timeline:

1: Identifying workshops and artisans involved in the making of ordinary inscriptions between the third and fifth century AD.

2: Identifying the authors of inscribed texts, which includes Sub-goal 2a: identifying authors of unique texts: e.g., poems written to order, funerary epigrams, legal texts, etc.; and Sub-goal 2b: identifying and reconstructing the contents of  model textbooks used by stonecutter workshops in order to compose mass-produced inscriptions.

3: Building a digital instrument, the Digital Atlas of Workshops in Epigraphy (DAWE), to contextualize different types of evidence (on people, workshops, model textbooks, time and geographical range of their occurrence) and to track correlations.

4: Assessing the impact of the changes taking place in the workshop culture of the third-century and later on the Romans approach towards imaging their own past.

The successful candidate will be trained to use digital tools and programs developed specifically for the project.

• Gathering the epigraphical data from the Eastern Later Roman Empire, filtering the meaningful evidence and inputting the evidence into the Digital Atlas of Workshops in Epigraphy (DAWE).
• Binding different elements of ornamentation, signatures, and formulae into styles and workshops.
• Gathering information on quarries and stone trade routes.
• Co-organization of project events (panels, conferences, workshops).
• Co-editing two volumes: one with proceedings of the conference on the methodological aspects of linking workshop studies in different disciplines, the other with proceedings of the closing conference on the role of artisans as agents of top-to-bottom cultural transfer, and their role in great cultural leaps.
• Publication of papers relevant to the topic of the project in international journals, under the guidance of the Principal Investigator.
• Participation in globally attended congresses and international seminars pertinent to the project scope, as well as in workshops and summer schools organized on the project.

• Participation in the weekly team meetings (in person or via video communicators) discussing the work progress.