The diachronic and synchronic study of the use of language, music and the written record in Middle Eastern society
CBRL has been supporting the following projects:
Corpus of Phoenician Inscription in Cyprus
Dr Robert Allen (formerly CBRL)
The production of three volumes on the inscriptions, textual commentary, glossary, onomasticon, theophoricon’ grammatical sketch of the Cypro-Pheonician dialect, palaeographic charts, bibliography and concordance.
Safaitic Database, Syria (1994-2006)
Dr Michael Macdonald (University of Oxford), with the DGAM of Syria
The Safaitic inscriptions are graffiti carved by nomads on the rocks of the desert in southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia from 1st-4th Century AD. They are the only first-hand source for information about the history, way of life and language of these nomads. This project will create an electronic database of all known Safaitic inscriptions (about 30,000) making it possible to produce new editions of the inscriptions as well as indexes and concordances of their content.
Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Project
Dr Michael Macdonald (University of Oxford), with the DGAM of Syria
Its aims are to (a) identify the sites in southern Syria where Safaitic inscriptions were discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries and to record them accurately on maps. (b) to rediscover and photograph as many as possible of the Safaitic inscriptions copied at these sites by early travelers, so that their readings can be verified before they are entered in the Safaitic Database. (c) to make systematic and comprehensive surveys of each of these sites, and others discovered by the SESP, to record all the epigraphic material present including the large numbers of previously unrecorded texts. There have been four season of fieldwork in which over 4000 inscriptions were recorded and the two-volume final report will be completed in 2006.
The Fones of Cypriot traditional music
Nicoletta Demetriou (SOAS)