06-28-2006, 03:59 PM
Quote:I would have to lean with Hans on this, that interesting as these plates are, we cannot rely too much on the epigraphy for dating.FlaviusCrispus:24edlxxm Wrote:according to perhaps the world's foremost expert in this subject, this firmly dates the inscription to the later first century BC - early first century AD. ……. ….. not "blind guesstimates," but educated ones by knowledgeable people based on a careful study of these intriguing pieces.
Could you please give the name of your "world's foremost expert" because in my years at uni in all the epigraphy classes I followed and in all the epigraphy handbooks I read at the time (mid nineties), there was a always a firm warning not to trust paleography as a datingmethod for inscriptions because it was unreliable and all effort of the epigraphists of the 19th and early 20th century to establish a chronology using letter forms and methods of inscribing were proven useless.
Are you unable to name your “expertsâ€