Digital strategies to revive a Bronze Age Aegean Script (seminar this Friday)

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Gabriel Bodard

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Jul 15, 2025, 2:19:19 PMJul 15
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Sort It, See It, Say It. Digital strategies to revive a Bronze Age Aegean Script
Ester Salgarella (University of Aarhus)

18 July 2025, 17:00–18:15 BST 
Senate House MakerSpace (room 265), Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU


Join live online at: https://youtu.be/ykCEYh_I1A0

A Bronze Age script of the Aegean family, ‘Minoan’ Linear A (ca. 1800-1450 BCE) may not be known to many a reader, except by name. Perusing the cumbersome, five-volume, old-fashioned corpus (GORILA), as well as mastering the prior knowledge necessary to interpret Linear A inscriptions still falls within the purview of specialists.
This paper aims to present three digital strategies I have been developing to revive and enliven the kaleidoscopic nature of this script and the objects it is attested on, and to disseminate its knowledge beyond academia with a view to engaging a wider (educated, yet not specialist) audience.
  • Sort It – LAIF – Linear A Inscription Finder
How to sort (and sort out) Linear A inscriptions? LAIF (under construction) is a digital catalogue of all extant Linear A inscriptions, for ease of information retrieval, processing and analysis, aimed at specialists and amateurs alike.
  • See It – SigLA – The Signs of Linear A: A Palaeographical Database
Once sorted, where to see Linear A inscriptions? Open access, digital, usable within and beyond academia, SigLA (2020) is a substantial academic contribution to knowledge and a major public benefit. Like never before, all users (specialists and not) can now see and engage with interactive Linear A inscriptions (line-drawings by Salgarella), and read signs and words by themselves.
  • Say It – Aegean Connections
Once sorted and seen, what to say about the wider historical context in which Linear A inscriptions were used? Growing public interest in Aegean scripts, coupled with paucity of reliable open-access resources, encouraged me to start a Podcast on Aegean Studies (2024-ongoing) to bridge the gap between academics and the general audience.





-- 
Dr Gabriel BODARD (he/him)
Reader in Digital Classics

Director of Studies (research): Digital Humanities Research Hub
Director of Studies (research): Institute of Classical Studies

Mailing address:
  Institute of Classical Studies
  University of London
  Senate House
  Malet Street
  London WC1E 7HU
 
Due to new IT security rules, I am currently not able to read or reply to email outside of office hours, or while travelling or working from home. This may result in slower replies than usual.

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