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Paleo-European languages and writings: challenges and perspectives of study

Between March 13 and 15 2019, the colloquium Paleo-European languages and writings: challenges and perspectives of study took place in Rome. The meeting has been remarkable for two reasons. In the first place, for the first time it has meant the celebration of a scientific meeting specifically focused on Paleo-European languages and scriptures, serving to confront specialists from all over Europe, methodologies and problems. In this way, we fulfilled the objective of the AELAW network to coordinate European research on the issue, overcoming national and regional frameworks and thus laying the foundations of a deeper collaboration. Secondly, the colloquium is one of the last events organized by AELAW, an excellent way to culminate the efforts of recent years.

The colloquium was held for three days. The first two took place in the Spanish School of History and Archeology in Rome, with a series of sessions focused on specific territorial areas with communications in congress format and which served to indicate the situation of research in each of the regions and spaces. At the end of Thursday 14th we could enjoy of a guided tour in the Epigraphic Museum in the Baths of Diocletian. On the third day the colloquium was moved to the Etruscan Museum in Villa Giulia, adopting a more dynamic format. There were three round tables, this time organized by chronologies, serving to jointly expose the development of different European epigraphic cultures, including Latin. The highlight of the colloquium was the visit to the Etruscan Museum with such a guide as Dr. Enrico Benelli.

The colloquium has been a success, putting together the results and challenges of research on languages and ancient European writings. The results will be collected in a book that is expected to be ready next year. From AELAW we want to thank all the participants and attendees for their collaboration and especially to José Ángel Zamora and Valentino Nizzo for having kindly facilitated the venues for the colloquium. And although the colloquium is one of the last actions of AELAW, there are still many pending challenges and a lot of work to be done, so we expect that the collaboration started will continue in the future. This is only the beginning of a beautiful friendship!