The STONE-MASTERS project (Masters of the stone: The stonecutters’ workshops and the rise of the late antique epigraphical cultures (third – fifth century AD), funded from an ERC Starting grant (2022–2027), in the Department of Ancient History, Faculty of History, University of Warsaw invites applications for four 48-month full-time positions.

The main objective of the STONE-MASTERS project is to provide a complex answer to the question about the reasons for the great transformation of Roman commemorative traditions in the realm of epigraphy. In order to pursue the matter further, an atlas illustrating a highly regionalized network/stemma of workshops identifying places of origin for all the inscriptions from the third–fifth century will be built in the project framework. The methodologies of workshop studies developed for other crafts and periods (in particular for early Greek vase painters, and for scribes and scriptoria) will be adapted to the needs of the Graeco-Roman epigraphy. These actions will bring to light the actual actors behind the production of epigraphy – artisans and workshops – as primary agents of top-to-bottom cultural transfer and, in consequence, will shape a whole new understanding of bringing elitist culture to the middle and lower echelons of the society.

The open positions are

• Research assistant (predoc) – Eastern Roman Empire
• Research assistant (predoc) – Western Roman Empire
• Postdoc – Eastern Roman Empire
• Postdoc – Western Roman Empire

Applications from early career researchers specializing in epigraphy, history of art, and archaeology are especially welcome.