Photo: Kaja Harter-Uibopuu

Funerary inscription of Aurelius Artemon and Aurelius Philemon, 3rd cent. CE, marble block, covered by paper during the taking of a squeeze.

Ancient Miletus and its sanctuary of Apollo at Didyma are extensively inscribed urban spaces. Thousands of inscriptions survive from these sites, ranging from monumental public decrees and honorific texts to graffiti, tile stamps, funerary inscriptions, and other everyday forms of writing.

Together, these written artefacts document more than a millennium of political, social, religious, and economic life in western Asia Minor.

This project documents the epigraphic heritage of Miletus and Didyma by studying inscriptions not only as texts, but as material objects embedded in specific archaeological and spatial contexts. Combining fieldwork, digital documentation, and historical analysis, it explores how inscriptions were produced, displayed, perceived, reused, and preserved within the urban fabric of the city and the sacred environment of the sanctuary. In doing so, the project contributes to a broader understanding of inscriptions as written artefacts whose meaning derives from the interaction of text, materiality, location, and social practice. This perspective resonates strongly with the CSMC’s wider interest in the life cycles of written artefacts and the relationships between writing, materiality, and cultural memory.

A central component of the project is the documentation and edition of newly discovered inscriptions from ongoing excavations at Miletus and Didyma. Each year, archaeological work continues to bring to light previously unknown written artefacts, often preserved only in fragmentary form. These finds are documented through close autopsy, epigraphic analysis, and collaboration with archaeologists working on the excavations. At the same time, the project revisits inscriptions discovered during earlier campaigns, many of which were recorded under difficult conditions or according to standards that no longer reflect current epigraphic practice. Through renewed examination and the application of advanced imaging techniques such as high-resolution photography and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), previously unread or misunderstood details can often be recovered.

The project also investigates the material and visual dimensions of inscribed objects. Inscriptions are approached as artefacts whose significance extends beyond the words they contain. Questions of visibility, legibility, colour, monumentality, and reuse are therefore central to the research. How were inscriptions designed to attract attention in public spaces? How did later generations engage with inscribed monuments and building blocks? What traces of ancient practices of reading and viewing can still be identified today? By examining inscriptions within their archaeological settings and connecting them with other categories of material evidence, the project seeks to reconstruct the dynamic relationships between writing, space, and society.

A further objective is the integration of the Milesian and Didymean material into sustainable digital research infrastructures. Newly documented inscriptions are incorporated into the Epigraphic Database of Asia Minor (EDAK) and linked with archaeological field databases, creating an interconnected resource that combines textual, material, and contextual information. This digital environment facilitates interdisciplinary research while ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of the epigraphic record.

By bringing together archaeological fieldwork, epigraphic scholarship, digital methods, and written artefact studies, the project offers new perspectives on one of the most important inscriptional landscapes of the ancient Mediterranean. It illuminates how writing shaped public life in a major Greek city and its sanctuary, while also contributing to broader discussions about the materiality, transmission, and cultural agency of written artefacts.

People

Project Lead:

• Kaja Harter-Uibopuu

Duration

• 2026–2029