LATEX as a tool for the typographic reproduction of ancient texts Apostolos Syropoulos Greek TEX Friends Group 366, 28th October Str. GR-671 00 Xanthi, Greece Abstract Modern digital typography makes it possible to reliably reproduce ancient texts. In the TEX world, one usually employs a macro package and one or more Post- Script fonts in order to accomplish his/her task. Here we briefly describe some tools that have not been described in the literature and then we give our own re- sponse to the important question regarding the suitability of the LATEX tools that are available for the reproduction of ancient texts. More generally, we are also concerned about the suitability of our typesetting enginees to handle demanding typographic problems. Naturally, an answer cannot be definitive, nevertheless, we conclude that the tools and typesetting engines have provisions to handle all possible forms of ancient documents. 1 Introduction been designed to tackle. We conclude with a short discussion regarding our future projects. The reproduction of ancient texts is an important is- sue, mainly because by digitally reproducing ancient 2 From ancient Greece through ancient documents we can preserve our cultural heritage. In- Meso-America to medieval Iceland deed, digital typography is about culture and art as The great island of Crete was the site of the Minoan much it is about science and technology. And it is civilisation. On this island Cretans developed their not surprising that many T X experts have devoted E various writing systems, including Linear A and Lin- much time and energy to develop a number of tools ear B. Before these scripts gained widespread use for the typesetting of ancient scripts. For instance, and acceptance, a hieroglyphic script was in use. To Peter Wilson and the present author have created a the best of our knowledge, this script has not been number of such tools, which are partially described deciphered yet. Also, on the famous Disk of Phaistos in [1, 2, 3]. Obviously, these tools cannot cover all is inscribed a text in an undeciphered script. Wilson possible cases, but are good enough for most tasks. has created a font and a LAT X package to typeset However, the really important question is whether E Linear B documents, whilst the present author de- tools such as these can be used to digitally reproduce veloped a font and a LAT X package that can be used any ancient document. Naturally, an answer to this E to typeset Linear A tablets. question cannot be definitive, nevertheless, as it will be demonstrated later on, it seems that these tools 2.1 The Disk of Phaistos can be used to reproduce any ancient document. The purpose of this article is not only to show The present author and Stratos Doumanis have cre- that modern typesetting tools can be used to repro- ated a font and an accompanying LATEX package, duce many ancient documents, but also to describe named phaistos, that can be used to digitally re- a number of tools that have not been described in produce both sides of the Disk of Phaistos. The the literature so far. For this reason, we will de- package provides access to the glyphs of the Phais- scribe the tools developed to typeset the symbols of tos font, via commands of the form \PHxxxx. The the disk of Phaistos, the symbols of the Linear A xxxx part of the name follows the “Phaistos Con- script, the symbols of the Epi-Olmec script, and the Script Unicode Standard”(http://www.evertype. staves used in medieval Iceland. In addition, we will com/standards/csur/phaistos.html. The list of briefly discuss our project to provide support for the glyph access commands is shown in Table 1. Cretan hieroglyphics. In the next section we will review the type- 2.2 Linear A setting tools for various scripts that have not been The package LinearA provides access to the fonts described in the literature. Then we will discuss LinearA and LinearACmplxSigns, which contain both whether these tools solve the problem they have the simple and compound symbols of the Linear A TUGboat, Volume 27 (2006), No. 2 — Proceedings of the 2006 Annual Meeting 181 Apostolos Syropoulos \PHshield = L j \PHpedestrian = A \PHbeehive = X \PHvine = \PHclub = M \PHship = Y \PHpapyrus = k \PHplumedHead = B \PHmanacles = N \PHhorn = Z \PHrosette = l \PHtattooedHead = C \PHmattock = O \PHlily = m \PHhide = a \PHcaptive = D \PHsaw = P n \PHbullLeg = b \PHoxBack = E Q o \PHchild = \PHlid = \PHcat = c \PHflute = \PHboomerang = R \PHram = d \PHwoman = F \PHgrater = p G S \PHeagle = e \PHhelmet = \PHcarpentryPlane = \PHstrainer = q \PHgaunlet = H \PHdove = f \PHdolium = T r \PHtunny = g \PHsmallAxe = \PHtiara = I \PHcomb = U \PHbee = h \PHwavyBand = s \PHarrow = J \PHsling = V \PHplaneTree = i \PHbow = K \PHcolumn = W Table 1: Glyph access commands provided by the phaistos package. script. The term compound symbol denotes a sym- The various glyph access commands are shown in bol that consists of two or more simple symbols. Table 3. The Epi-Olmec people of Meso-America For example, the compound symbol is composed used the vigesimal numbering system (i.e., a base 20 of the symbols C and ;. The two fonts contain 389 numbering system). The package provides two com- glyphs and since there are no “official” names for the mands to generate Epi-Olmec numerals, which are various glyphs, the glyph access commands have the identical to the numerals employed by the Mayan following general form: \LinearALLLL, where LLLL people. Specifically, the command \vigesimal type- is a roman numeral. For example, this Linear A sets a number on a horizontal line, while the com- text: mand \StackedVigesimal typesets the same nu- meral on a vertical line, which is the historical way *!C; that the Epi-Olmec people wrote numbers. was typeset with the following commands: For example, the command \vigesimal{2006} \LinearAXXIX{\LinearAXLIII}{\LinearAXXXIV}% produces the symbols ¨˝, while the com- \LinearALXVIII{\LinearALX}{\LinearAIV}% mand \StackedVigesimal{2006} produces: {\LinearAXXII}% ¨ Each command is defined using the \xspace com- mand, and thus we need to surround the various ˝ commands with curly braces to avoid the produc- tion of extra white space. If a user does not want to 2.4 Icelandic refer to individual glyphs and worry about spacing, he/she can employ the following redefinition after The package icelandic provides access to the font the command that includes the LinearA package: icelandic. This font contains the Icelandic runes as well as most of the Icelandic sorcery and witchcraft \let\xspace\relax staves. The letters can be accessed by simply typing In Table 2 the reader can see the glyph access com- the lowercase Latin equivalent (see Table 4). mands provided for the simple symbols of the Lin- For example, the following text: was typeset ear A script. Of course it would be nice to have this with the input ‘island’: as a package option, and it is planned for inclusion in a future release. ᛁᛋᛚᚨᚾᛑ 2.3 Epi-Olmec To typeset the staves, one uses commands sim- The epiolmec package provides the necessary com- ilar to those provided by the LinearA package (see mands to typeset Epi-Olmec texts and numerals. Table 5). 182 TUGboat, Volume 27 (2006), No. 2 — Proceedings of the 2006 Annual Meeting LATEX as a tool for the typographic reproduction of ancient texts \LinearAI = \LinearAXLVI = - \LinearAXCI = Z \LinearACXXXVI = \LinearAII = \LinearAXLVII = . \LinearAXCII = [ \LinearACXXXVII = \LinearAIII = \LinearAXLVIII = / \LinearAXCIII = \ \LinearACXXXVIII = \LinearAIV = \LinearAXLIX = 0 \LinearAXCIV = ] \LinearACXXXIX = \LinearAV = \LinearAL = 1 \LinearAXCV = ^ \LinearACXL = \LinearAVI = \LinearALI = 2 \LinearAXCVI = _ \LinearACXLI = \LinearAVII = \LinearALII = 3 \LinearAXCVII = ` \LinearACXLII = \LinearAVIII = \LinearALIII = 4 \LinearAXCVIII = a \LinearACXLIII = \LinearAIX = \LinearALIV = 5 \LinearAXCIX = b \LinearACXLIV = \LinearAX = \LinearALV = 6 \LinearAC = c \LinearACXLV = \LinearAXI = \LinearALVI = 7 \LinearACI = d \LinearACXLVI = \LinearAXII = \LinearALVII = 8 \LinearACII = e \LinearACXLVII = \LinearAXIII = \LinearALVIII = 9 \LinearACIII = f \LinearACXLVIII = \LinearAXIV = \LinearALIX = : \LinearACIV = g \LinearACXLIX = \LinearAXV = \LinearALX = ; \LinearACV = h \LinearACL = \LinearAXVI = \LinearALXI = < \LinearACVI = i \LinearACLI = \LinearAXVII = \LinearALXII = = \LinearACVII = j \LinearACLII = \LinearAXVIII = \LinearALXIII = > \LinearACVIII = k \LinearACLIII = \LinearAXIX = \LinearALXIV = ? \LinearACIX = l \LinearACLIV = \LinearAXX = \LinearALXV = @ \LinearACX = m \LinearACLV = \LinearAXXI = \LinearALXVI = A \LinearACXI = n \LinearACLVI = \LinearAXXII = \LinearALXVII = B \LinearACXII = o \LinearACLVII = \LinearAXXIII = \LinearALXVIII = C \LinearACXIII = p \LinearACLVIII = \LinearAXXIV = \LinearALXIX = D \LinearACXIV = q \LinearACLIX = \LinearAXXV = \LinearALXX = E \LinearACXV = r \LinearACLX = \LinearAXXVI = \LinearALXXI = F \LinearACXVI = s \LinearACLXI = \LinearAXXVII = \LinearALXXII = G \LinearACXVII = t \LinearACLXII = ¡ \LinearAXXVIII = \LinearALXXIII = H \LinearACXVIII = u \LinearACLXIII = ¢ \LinearAXXIX = \LinearALXXIV = I \LinearACXIX = v \LinearACLXIV = £ \LinearAXXX = \LinearALXXV = J \LinearACXX = w \LinearACLXV = ¤ \LinearAXXXI = \LinearALXXVI = K \LinearACXXI = x \LinearACLXVI = ¥ \LinearAXXXII = \LinearALXXVII = L \LinearACXXII = y \LinearACLXVII = ¦ \LinearAXXXIII = \LinearALXXVIII = M \LinearACXXIII = z \LinearACLXVIII = § \LinearAXXXIV = ! \LinearALXXIX = N \LinearACXXIV = { \LinearACLXIX = ¨ \LinearAXXXV