Epigraphy and the Media

© The British Academy 2012. All rights reserved. Those with responsibilities for the display of inscriptions in museums and other public places have in recent years been addressing the challenge of how the riches of the ancient texts can be conveyed to a public with little or no knowledge of Latin or Greek. The choice of texts should not ignore the casual messages of daily life from graffiti and painted slogans, nor should the later 'forgeries' of ancient texts or the innocent errors of stonecutters be excluded. Electronic media can bring to life both ancient images and texts, and can help in presenting difficult or incomplete texts. Inscriptions speak directly from the remote past, and meeting the challenge of transmitting their messages to the modern visitor will certainly repay the effort.