Opuscula is published by the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome. The annual contains articles within classical archaeology, ancient history, art, architecture and philology, as well as research reviews and book reviews within these subjects. Serving as the main channel for Swedish archaeological research in the Mediterranean, Opuscula strives to provide a strong international academic impact for its peer reviewers, as well as its authors and their research.
Guide for contributors
Including guide for reviewers and style guide for main body of text
Introduction
CONTACT
Submissions, and questions regarding the submission process, should be sent to the secretary of the Editorial Committee of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (ECSI) at secretary@ecsi.se. For questions regarding the editing of manuscripts accepted for publication, contact the ECSI editor at editor@ecsi.se. For further information, see https://ecsi.se.
OPEN ACCESS POLICY AND COPYRIGHT
Authors are obliged to sign an Author’s warranty and copyright assignment form, confirming that copyright holders have been contacted and necessary permissions obtained for publishing all included illustrations.
Text and tables: Starting in 2023 all text and tables in Opuscula are published with immediate open access, under the CC BY licence (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Figures: Permissions for the reproduction of illustrations should be secured for print as well as for electronic and open access versions of the article (permissions should be asked for “non-exclusive, world rights in all languages and media” or, if possible, a Creative Commons license). Copyright credits must always be included in the figure captions.
FEES AND FUNDING
There are no charges for authors. Language revision is provided free of charge for contributions written by non-native speakers. Opuscula is supported by the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome and the Swedish Research Council. The corresponding author receives a pdf-offprint of his/her contribution and one copy of the printed issue free of charge. Authors should contact ECSI’s editor if they want to purchase additional printed copies at a reduced price.
LANGUAGE
Articles and book reviews may be written in English, French, German or Italian. The following rules have been formulated for manuscripts in English, but should also be followed as far as possible for manuscripts in other languages. Submitted manuscripts may be checked for plagiarism.
Submit an article or excavation report
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Peer review: Submitted manuscripts are reviewed in two to three steps. (1) The Editorial Committee initially reads the manuscript to ensure that all required criteria are met and that it follows the guidelines for submissions. (2) The ECSI International Advisory Board is consulted when additional expertise is needed. (3) The manuscript is thereafter sent to two or more external reviewers. Based on the comments and recommendations by the reviewers, the Editorial Committee either accepts, accepts after minor or major modifications, or rejects the manuscript for publication.
The Editorial Committee employs a double-blind process (to the extent that this is possible), i.e. both author and reviewer remain anonymous to the other party. All authors are encouraged to make every effort to uphold the anonymity in the text. This requires removing references to the author in the text and anonymizing the document’s metadata, so that both the file itself and any comments by the author are anonymous. Contact the Editorial Board’s secretary if you need help anonymizing the document’s metadata.
When an article has been accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be provided with the review reports and asked to submit a revised version of the manuscript.
Initial submission: A complete copy of the manuscript should be sent via the journal’s manuscript submission system. All text should be set in Times New Roman, font size 12, spacing 1.5. The submission should include:
1. A separate title page with the title of the manuscript as well as the name of author(s) (if more than one author, the corresponding author should be indicated), academic affiliation, and full address details with email and ORCID. Please note that only contributors who have actually written parts of the text are allowed to be listed as Collaborators, and excavation team members who have not participated in the writing of the text can be acknowledged in a footnote placed after the abstract. If three or more persons are listed as authors, the contribution must include a footnote that outlines which section(s) each author is responsible for. If the text is considered to be the result of a collective effort by three or more authors, this must be expressly stated in a footnote. These acknowledgements/clarifications should be added to the text in the revised submission, after the external review, in order to assure the anonymity of the author(s). AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper. If an author has used this kind of tool to develop any portion of a manuscript, its use must be described in the methods or acknowledgements sections.
2. An abstract of 150 to 200 words, in English.
3. One Word file with the main text, including footnotes, bibliography and lists of tables and figures. Please note that appendices are only to be included if absolutely necessary for the main article.
4. One document (.doc, .pdf, .ppt) with good quality copies of all tables and figures, numbered and set in roughly the intended size for publication. Separate high-resolution picture files should not be sent at this time.
Revised submission: When a manuscript is accepted for publication, a revised version should be submitted, taking into consideration the comments from the external reviewers and the Editorial Committee. The revised submission should conform to the guidelines given below and include:
1. A cover letter indicating the author’s point-for-point response to the review comments, outlining the changes made in the manuscript.
2. A title page (see above).
3. An abstract in English (see above).
4. One Word file with the main text, including footnotes, bibliography and lists of tables and figures. Authors are asked to “track changes” (MS Word) or highlight revised text.
5. At this time, the author should submit high-quality image files, following the guidelines given below. Tables should be submitted in Excel or Word format.
MANUSCRIPT FORMAT
All pages should be numbered consecutively throughout the text. Footnotes should be numbered in one series, placed after the punctuation mark, and formatted according to the style of reference given below. The first footnote containing acknowledgements, special abbreviations, etc., should be referenced by an asterisk at the end of the abstract. Cross-references using page or footnote numbers should be avoided. Tables must be numbered in one series as Tables, all other illustrations in another series as Figures. References to illustrations and tables should be called out consecutively in the text (e.g. Fig. 1 is called out before Fig. 2, etc.), normally within parentheses, thus: (Fig. 3), (Figs 4, 5), (Figs 6–8) or (Table 1), capitalized and italicized.
Greek text should be set with one standard Greek Unicode font, e.g. the New Athena Unicode font. Inscriptions should be bracketed according to the “Leiden system”, as used in standard epigraphical publications.
A complete copy of the final manuscript should be retained by the corresponding author. A manuscript which does not comply with these rules may be returned to the author for revision. As a rule, the author will be sent only the galley proofs for correction. Only printer’s errors can be corrected and no textual changes or additions made. Any such changes may render the author liable for the incurred costs.
ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE REVISED SUBMISSION
Illustrations should be submitted in digital form. The resolution should be at least 300 ppi (greyscale or colour) or 600 ppi (bitmap). The image files should be labelled 01, 02, 03 etc. The type area of Opuscula measures 170 × 220 mm, with a column width of 81 mm. Illustrations must be prepared in such a way that no retouching whatsoever is needed. The scales of drawings, as well as the scales and the orientation of maps and plans must be indicated. Any in-figure captioning or text must follow the Style Guide (see below).
As noted above, it is the corresponding author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce any material protected by copyright. The author must sign and submit the Author’s warranty and copyright assignment form before the manuscript is published.
STYLE OF REFERENCES
Ancient works: Abbreviations for ancient authors and works should follow the list given in S. Hornblower & A. Spawforth, eds 20124. The Oxford Classical dictionary, Oxford. Examples:
Arist. Metaph. 1000a18–26.
Hom. Od. 2.314–317.
IG II2 15, line 87.
Them. Orat. 3.4 (p. 31, ed. W. Dindorf, Leipzig 1832).
Thuc. 6.71.2, 7.14.3–4.
The abbreviations used in H.G. Liddell, R. Scott & H.S. Jones 19409. A Greek–English lexicon, Oxford, or by L’année philologique should be avoided because of their brevity.
Footnotes: Bibliographical citations are to be given only in footnotes (note: not endnotes). Brief citations of ancient authors may, however, be put in the text. Citations will refer to the bibliography at the end of the manuscript.
References in footnotes should consist of the last name of the author(s)/editor(s), the year of publication, and relevant inclusive pages, sections, figures, plates, etc. If there are more than two authors or editors, the first author’s surname should be given followed by et al. When there are two or more works by the same author from one and the same year, these works will be distinguished by the letters a, b, c, etc. after the year. Example:
Åström 1998a, 5, fig. 2.
Marinatos 1940–1941, 132.
Tzedakis et al. 2013.
Always cite the first and last page referred to, thus: 76–81, not 76ff. The use of f. is allowed, thus: 76f. for 76–77. All numbers for pages and columns should be written in their entirety, thus: 120–134, not 120–34. The abbreviations n., nn., fig., figs, pl., pls, no., nos should be used. When referring to figure, catalogue and table numbers within your own article, please capitalize and italicize, in both text and footnotes: Fig. 3, Figs 4–5, No. 12, Nos 8–11, Table 2, Note 11. References within a footnote should be separated by a semicolon. Expressions such as op. cit., loc. cit. and ibid. are allowed only within a footnote to refer to a reference cited immediately before it within that same footnote. They are not to be used in a footnote to refer to a reference in a previous footnote. Such expressions should not be italicized. Use p., pp., col., cols only when necessary for clarity.
The author and year abbreviations are not obligatory in the case of excavation reports and standard reference works of different kinds, for which special abbreviations are in general use: see the list of American Journal of Archaeology at www.ajaonline.org. Examples:
Agora V = Robinson, H. 1959. The Athenian Agora. Results of excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens V. Pottery of the Roman period. Chronology, Princeton, New Jersey.
OlForsch II = E. Kunze 1950. Olympische Forschungen II. Archaische Schildbänder, Berlin.
Footnote references to illustrations and brief entries in corpus works and encyclopaedias should be made in the following way:
CMS II.3, no. 51.
CVA Karlsruhe 1, pl. 1:1 (Deutschland 7, pl. 299).
LIMC VI (1992), 575, s.v. Minotauros, no. 6 (S. Woodford).
RE XV.2 (1932), 1907–1927, s.v. Minos (F. Poland).
Bibliography: Articles end with a bibliography in alphabetical order by last name of first author and in chronological order by year of publication under each author, giving all single-author entries first, then dual-author entries where the author is the lead author, then multi-author entries where the author is the lead author. Where there are several multi-author (3 or more) entries for the same lead author that would be referred to by et al. in the footnotes, these are ordered chronologically. If the same year is given for several entries with the same lead author, then they are ordered alphabetically according to the surname of the second (or even, if necessary, third) author within that year.
Abbreviations of titles of well-known periodicals and standard reference works should be used, and should follow the list at www.ajaonline.org.
The full citation of a book or monograph should comprise the following: author’s last name and initial(s), co-authors (if any), year of publication, title of work including subtitle (both title and subtitle in italics), name of the series or collection if numbered (within brackets, not italics), place of publication, and (if provided) DOI. Examples:
Ahlberg, G. 1971. Prothesis and ekphora in Greek Geometric art (SIMA 32), Gothenburg.
Wells, B. 1983. Asine II. Results of the excavations east of the Acropolis 1970–1974, fasc. 4. The Protogeometric period, part 2. An analysis of the settlement (ActaAth-4º 24:4:2), Stockholm.
The full citation of an edited volume (collection of articles, Festschrift, conference proceeding, etc.) should comprise the following elements: editor’s/editors’ name(s) followed by “ed.” or “eds”, year of publication, title of volume including subtitle (both title and subtitle in italics), name of series or collection if numbered (within brackets, not italics), place of publication, and (if provided) DOI. Example:
Starnini, E. ed. 2013. Unconformist archaeology. Papers in honour of Paolo Biagi (BAR-IS 2528), Oxford. https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407311463
Wallensten, J. & M. Haysom, eds 2011. Current approaches to religion in ancient Greece. Papers presented at a symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 17–19 April 2008 (ActaAth-8º 21), Stockholm.
The full citation of an article in a periodical should comprise the following elements: author’s last name and initial(s), year of publication, title of the article within single inverted com- mas, the full or abbreviated name of the journal (italics), the volume number in Arabic numerals (for legibility, not Roman), first and last page numbers of the article, and (if provided) DOI. Long articles in encyclopaedias can be treated as articles. Examples:
Demakopoulou, K., N. Divari-Valakou, P. Åström & G. Walberg 1996. ‘Excavations in Midea 1994’, OpAth 21, 13–32.
Karo, G. 1937. ‘Tiryns’, RE VI A:2, 1453–1467.
Van der Meer, L.B. 2002 . ‘Travertine cornerstones in Ostia. Odd blocks’, AJA 106:4, 575–580. https://doi.org/10.2307/4126217
When a volume of a periodical was printed after the year for which it was published, the actual year of publication should be given within brackets preceded by the abbreviation pr. (= printed) or publ. (= published). Example:
Verdelis, N.M. 1963 (pr. 1965). ‘Neue geometrische Gräber in Tiryns’, AM 78, 1–62.
The full citation of an article in a collection, which is not a periodical, but a Festschrift, a volume of miscellanea, yearbook, conference proceedings etc., should comprise the following elements: author’s last name and initial(s), year of publication, title of the article within single inverted commas, the word “in” followed by the title of the volume (italics), name of the series or collection (if applicable, within brackets, not italics), “ed.” or “eds” followed by editor’s/editors’ name(s) with initial(s), place of publication, page numbers of the article, and (if provided) DOI. The collection in which the article appears will not get its own separate entry in the bibliography unless it is specifically cited in the text and/or footnotes. Examples:
Forstenpointner, G., A. Galik & G.E. Weissengruber 2013. ‘The zooarchaeology of cult. Perspectives and pitfalls of an experimental approach’, in Bones, behaviour and belief. The zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practice in ancient Greece and beyond (ActaAth-4º 55), eds G. Ekroth & J. Wallensten, Stockholm, 233–242. https://doi.org/10.30549/actaath-4-55-17
Galli, M. & T. Ismaelli 2019. ‘La casa di Publio Cornelio Scipione Africano’, in Cartago. Il mito immortale, eds A. Russo, F. Guarneri, P. Xella & J.A.Z. Lópes, Rome, 204–206.
For Ph.D. theses, etc.:
Olsson, R. 2015. The water-supply system in Roman Pompeii, Lic. thesis, Lund University.
Tobin, F. 2015. The chamber tombs of San Giovenale and the funerary landscapes of South Etruria, Ph.D. thesis, Uppsala University.
For citation of electronic sources, pages on the internet, CD-ROMs and similar electronic publications, see http://www.ajaonline.org/submissions/references (under Sample References to Electronic Media). The date of accession is not needed.
POINTS TO NOTE
Where ‘Main author’s surname + et al.’ would be used in the footnotes, in the bibliography all authors’ names must be given.
In the bibliography, the number of the edition should, when relevant, be given in connection with the year of publication by means of a small, superscript number. Example:
Cook, R.M. 19973. Greek painted pottery, London.
Titles of books and articles should not be capitalized. Only such words as are normally capitalized in ordinary text should be capitalized in a title, for example “Late Bronze Age”, “Hellenistic”, “Archaic”, “the Roman Empire” and so on.
A full stop is used as separator between heading and subheading. Colons or dashes are to be used only if actually printed in the original publication. Example:
MacKinnon, M. 2013. ‘“Side” matters: Animal offerings at ancient Nemea’, in Bones, behaviour and belief. The zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practice in ancient Greece and beyond (ActaAth-4º 55), eds G. Ekroth & J. Wallensten, Stockholm, 129–147. https://doi.org/10.30549/actaath-4-55-11
Parker, R. 1996. Athenian religion. A history, Oxford.
As noted above, the bibliography should include Digital Object Identifiers (DOI). These are placed at the end of each bibliographical reference. For examples, see above.
Roman numerals should be avoided. They are to be used only:
1. to cite the volumes of modern works (especially in excavation publication series, such as Corinth, Kerameikos, Tiryns) and the volumes of collections (such as IG, CIL, CAH, RE) in connection with which the use of Roman numerals has become established Volume numbers should not be italicized.
2. to give references to works in which pages or plates are numbered with both Roman and Arabic numerals. In all other cases Arabic numerals are to be preferred.
Place of publication is given in anglicized form where there is one, e.g. Rome (rather than Roma), Gothenburg (rather than Göteborg), Munich (rather than München). If a US state name is given in the place of publication, this should be written out in full, e.g. California rather than CA.
Submit a book for review
The Editorial Committee of Opuscula invites publishers to submit appropriate books for review. Publishers should contact secretary@ecsi.se. Publishers that have submitted a work reviewed will receive a pdf off-print of the review.
Submit a book review
Opuscula invites reviews that combine a succinct presentation of the aims, organization, main results/theses, and scholarly context of the work in question with a reasoned appraisal of its scholarly qualities, including statements of strengths and weaknesses. Opuscula does not print replies or responses to reviews.
Book reviews submitted are reviewed by members of the Editorial Committee before being accepted for publication or rejected.
SCOPE AND FORMAT
A complete copy of the book review should be sent via the journal’s manuscript submission system.All text should be set in Times New Roman, font size 12, spacing 1.5.
Individual works normally receive up to 1,500 words; for reviews of multiple items, 2,000–4,000 words suffice, depending on the publications in question. Long quotations should be avoided.
The review should be preceded by a heading in standard Opuscula format, listing the book to be reviewed, place of publication, publisher, year of publication, number of pages and illustrations, ISBN number and DOI:
G.R. Boys-Stones, ed., Metaphor, allegory, and the Classical tradition. Ancient thought and modern revisions, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2003. x + 305 pp. ISBN 0-19-924005-1. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240050
M. Leonard, Athens in Paris. Ancient Greece and the political in post-war French thought (Classical Presences), Oxford: Oxford University Press 2005. 288 pp. ISBN 0-19-927725-7. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199277254.001.0001
At the end of each review, authors should supply their name, academic affiliation, mailing address and email address.
Avoid footnotes and lists of works (except in a review article). References should be kept to a minimum and inserted into the text, as follows:
A large number of Levantine amphorae suggested an increased exchange with this area at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (p. 173).
The author (ch. 3) emphasizes the need for additional work in this area, but concludes that preliminary results suggest a rapid decline in the 4th century BC.
In short, the results further strengthen the initial interpretation by G. Nordquist in OpAth 27, 2002, 121.
Style guide for main body of text
A. SPELLING
A.1. Standard British English should be used (i.e. that variety used in the United Kingdom and Ireland), unless the author is a native speaker of another variety of English (e.g. American English, Australian English, Canadian English). For spelling, follow the Oxford English dictionary (OED).
A.2. Proper names always retain their “home” spelling if there is a difference in spelling in different varieties of English: Sydney Harbour and Pearl Harbor, Ministry of Defence (UK) and Department of Defense (US)
A.3. Words with -ise/-ize: always use the –ize form, g., symbolize, organization, recognized, but there are exceptions to the rule where the –ise spelling is compulsory: advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, dis(en)franchise, disguise, enfranchise, enterprise, excise, exercise, franchise, improvise, incise, merchandise, prise [open], revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise
A.4. Words with -yse: analyse, paralyse and their formations (e.g. paralysis) always take the –se ending in British English.
A.5. Modern place names. Use the name that is most appropriate for the time period under discussion, and ensure consistency of that use throughout the manuscript. If there is a modern English version of a place name that is universally understood, use that in the manuscript rather than the modern local name: Naples (rather than Napoli), Athens (rather than Athina), Aleppo (rather than Halab)
When discussing places where there is a modern English name as well as the modern local name for the place, but neither is more prominent in common international use, give the alternative name in brackets at first use: Leuven (Louvain)
Ensure that the same name choice is used consistently throughout the manuscript.
A.6. Ancient names In the descriptive text (as opposed to quotations), always write Greek names using Latin letters: Ephesos (rather than Ἔφεσος)
For ancient place names that have a different modern name, use whichever is more appropriate in the context, and on its first use provide the alternative name following in brackets: Naples (Neapolis) or Neapolis (Naples)
Possessives of ancient names are dealt with in the Apostrophes section of the Punctuation section below (C.9).
B. USE OF ITALICS, FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES
B.1. Italicize single words and short phrases in a foreign language that are not in common English use: in situ, inter alia, terminus post quem, vel sim., vice versa, topiarii, trapezomata
B.2. The following Latin words and abbreviations are considered to be in regular English use, and do not need italicization: cf., e.g., etc., i.e., passim, per se
cf., from the Latin confer, is used in the sense of “compare”. As such, it can be used both for comparing conflicting views, or in footnotes in the sense of “see”.
Exceptions that are italicized are c. (see also F. Dates 9 for c. = circa), et al. and sic. This last example is used where editorial clarification is needed within a quotation, and is presented italicized within square brackets to differentiate it from the quoted text (see also C. Punctuation 5).
B.3. Do not use Latin words or phrases when an English equivalent is available: namely instead of viz., in a class of its own instead of sui generis
B.4. Diacritical marks should be used, even in words in common use in English: roman à clef, raison d’être, façade, élite
C. PUNCTUATION
C.1. Full stops. If a sentence ends in an abbreviation that takes a full stop, or a quotation that ends with a punctuation mark such as a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark, then no further full stop is needed: Oscar Wilde said “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
Ellipses (omission marks, indicating where text has been left out) are formed by a group of three full stops with no space between them, with a space on either side of the group: The reviewer felt that the play “never took flight … the performances were pedestrian at best.”
Where a sentence ends in an ellipsis (usually due to a quotation), no terminal full stop is necessary.
C.2. Colons. With a few exceptions, the part of a sentence that follows a colon always starts with a lower case letter. The exceptions are when the following word is a proper name, when the colon is at the end of a section heading, and sometimes in the citation of book titles, and article and chapter titles. There is no space between the colon and the end of the preceding word.
C.3. Semicolons. As with colons, question marks, etc., there is no space between the semicolon and the end of the preceding word.
C.4. Commas. For clarity, avoid using too many commas in a sentence. If necessary, break the sentence into shorter sentences. In a series of three or more items, a comma stands for an “and” or an “or”: The excavation report dealt with finds including animal bones, metal objects, ceramic objects and glass objects.
A comma before the final item may be necessary for clarity: They ordered a kebab, fish and chips, and meatballs.
A comma is used before “etc.” in a series: The group was made up of workers such as plumbers, electricians, builders, etc.
C.5. Brackets. Parentheses/round brackets (…) are used for parenthetical statements and references within the main body of the text. Where the sentence ends with a closing parenthesis, the full stop is placed outside the parenthesis: The emperor had been successful in earlier campaigns (for instance, the First Dacian War).
Square brackets […] are used where additional editorial clarification is needed in a text: Falconer argued that he [Bennett] was wrong in this respect. Parker wrote “I enlisted in the army as there was a wart [sic] on.”
C.6. Question marks. There is no space between a question mark and the preceding word. A sentence that ends in a question mark does not require a following full stop.
C.7. Exclamation marks. Avoid their use, as exclamatory expressions are not appropriate for formal academic texts.
C.8. Quotation marks/inverted commas. In the main body of text, all quotation marks/inverted commas should be double, unless: a) another quotation is made within the quoted text, in which case the inner quotation takes single inverted commas, or b) reference is made to the title of an article in a journal or newspaper, or the title of a short story, poem, song, essay, or monologue: this goes within single inverted commas.
If the quotation ends with a concluding punctuation mark (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark) and is at the end of a sentence, then no further full stop is needed: She stated that “We will never understand the full complexity of the situation.”
If the quotation does not have such a concluding mark, then place a full stop after the quotation mark: He stated that this was a case of “crowd mentality”.
C.9. Apostrophes. The apostrophe is used to denote possessive relationships or to denote where letters have been removed to make an abbreviated form of the word: it is often misused, by native and non-native English speakers alike, so care is needed in its use.
possessive: its (note: no apostrophe), a musician’s banjo, a girls’ school
contraction: it’s = it is, they’re = they are
Note that plurals of abbreviations do not take apostrophes: CDs, UFOs, Ph.D.s
For personal names ending in s, both modern and Classical, just an apostrophe is used for the possessive form, unless the name in the possessive form is pronounced with an extra s. Hence Mars’ statue, Lepsius’ surveys, Euripides’ plays, but Jones’s book, St Thomas’s Church, Jesus’s teachings.
C.10. Forward slashes. When a forward slash is used to separate two items, do not leave a space on either side of the slash: sheep/goat
D. USE OF CAPITALS
D.1. Proper names are capitalized but ordinary nouns are not. Organizations, geographical areas and periods are capitalized: National Bank of Sweden, Western Mediterranean, Central Greece, Bronze Age, Hellenistic, Late Geometric, Neolithic, East Mediterranean
D.2. Titles of books, monographs and articles are not capitalized: In Greek painted pottery by R.M. Cook, seven of these examples are illustrated
nor are seasons, cardinal (compass) points, or positions: spring, summer, autumn (note: not “fall”, an Americanism) and winter; north, south, east, west; director of the Swedish Institute at Athens, professor of Classics, king of Sweden
but personal titles are capitalized: Prof. Waldenström, Dr Miller, Archbishop Sparre, King Frederick III
E. NUMBERING
E.1. In the body of the text and in footnotes, numbers 1–12 are written out in full (one, seven, twelve) but those over twelve as Arabic numerals (25, 178). There are some exceptions to this rule:
a.) A sentence should never begin with a number given as an Arabic numeral. Write the number out in full or precede it with “A total of ” or a similar phrase. In these rare instances when numbers are written out in full, compound numbers are hyphenated: seventy-two, three hundred and twenty-four
b.) Weights and measurements, ratios, percentages, etc., given within the text should always be written in Arabic numerals.
c.) In lists or tables, give all figures in Arabic
E.2. Roman numerals should be avoided, unless in references (see above), or referring to monarchs.
E.3. Whole numbers of four or more digits are delineated by a comma, not a point: 1,458 instead of 1458, 86,884 instead of 86884, 3,854,943 instead of 3854943
E.4. The number of digits given for a measurement should represent the level of precision used. Thus: 15 m indicates that the length could only be measured to the nearest metre; 15.0 m to the nearest decimetre, 15.00 m to the nearest cm. A consistent level of precision is preferrably used throughout the manuscript.
E.5. For percentages, use % rather than writing out per cent in full, with no space between the figure and the % symbol: 56%
E.6. Ranges. Where a range is written out in full, always repeat symbols and multiples: 800˚ C to 1,200˚ C, five thousand to ten thousand
Where the range is separated by a dash, use a closed-up en dash (i.e., an en dash with no spaces on either side of it), and do not repeat the symbol, giving it with one example only: 800–1,200˚ C, $5,000–10,000
F. DATES
F.1. BC and AD are the preferred usages (note, not BCE/CE). AD always precedes the date whereas BC follows it, in both cases with a space between the date and the BC/AD. Neither is followed by a full stop; the exception is when BC occurs at the end of a sentence: 31 BC, AD 1256
BC and AD should always be given when it is not clear from the context and/or there is the possibility of ambiguity or confusion over which applies.
F.2. Centuries are always given in numerals rather than written out in full, and in both cases BC and AD follow the date: 4th century BC, 16th century AD; second half of the 2nd century, 3rd to 5th centuries AD
Century is never abbreviated to cent. or c. in the main body of the text. It is allowed in tables or figures, but only if space is limited.
Note the following hyphenations: early 12th century, mid-12th century, late 12th century
Century when used adjectivally is hyphenated: 17th-century building, early 14th-century travellers, but note mid-19th century porcelain, not mid-19th-century porcelain
F.3. No comma in dates of thousands of years: 1050 BC, AD 1478
F.4. No apostrophe is used when referring to decades: 1840s (not 1840’s)
F.5. If just the month and year are given, no comma is needed between the two: December 2012 (not December, 2012)
F.6. Dates given to day, month and year are always written out in full in the day-month-year formation: 14 January 1945 (not 14th January 1945; January 14, 1945; 14/01/1945; 01/14/1945 [as in US usage]; 1945-01-14)
F.7. If the day of the week is also given, it should be separated by a comma: Wednesday, 10 October 1962
F.8. For date ranges, always use a closed-up en dash and repeat the decade and the century in the second date: 410–398 BC, AD 96–99, 1851–1854, 1940–1945, 876–902, 1999–2001, 2020–2022
Where part of a date or date range is uncertain, use a forward slash to delineate the uncertain dates: AD 44/5, 260/50–240/30 BC, 137/6–132 BC, 6500–3300/3000 BC
F.9. If a date is approximate, use for circa. It should be italicized, with no space between the c and the full stop, and leaving a space between c. and the date: c. 875 BC
G. ABBREVIATIONS
G.1. If an abbreviation which is not in common use is used, the full version of the word(s) must be given at first use, preceding the abbreviation, so that the meaning of the abbreviation is clear.
G.2. Contractions which omit the middle part of the word and end in the same letter as the complete word are not followed by a full stop. This group includes plural –s: Doctor = Dr, Mister = Mr, Madame = Mme, Saint = St, Mt = Mount, volumes = vols, pls = plates
G.3. Truncations which miss out the letters at the end of the word are followed by a full stop and a space: c., Prof. A. Brown, p. 87, vol. 45, Ph.D., M.A.
G.4. Exceptions include units of measurement: 18 mm, 5 cm, 14 m, 17 km, 59 g, 146 kg, 93 m², 472 masl (see also H. Units of measurement 1, 2)
and cardinal and intercardinal points: N, SW, NNE
G.5. When written in capitals, full stops between the letters are not used for either acronyms (words formed of the first letter[s] of a series of words, and pronounced as a word, g., AIDS, NATO) or initialisms (words formed of the first letter[s] of a series of words, with each separate letter pronounced, e.g., BBC, UK, US, USSR, VHS).
G.6. First, second, third, fifteenth, should be written out in full in the text, rather than abbreviated to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 15th, etc. The exception to this rule is when referring to centuries (e.g., 2nd century BC, 6th century AD); the abbreviations st, nd, rd, th, etc. are not written as superscript: 1st century AD (not: 1st century AD)
G.7. Always use a symbol rather than writing out in full in the following cases: ˚ C (not degrees Celsius), % (not per cent)
G.8. Avoid the use of the ampersand in text unless it is used in an official title or a quotation.
H. UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
H.1. The values of measurement such as length, weight, temperature, should always be given as numerals rather than written out, and in metric units (unless the reference is to historic units of measurement). If imperial measurement equivalents are given, these should follow in parentheses. Always abbreviate the units of measurement, with no following full stop, and a space between the figure and the unit: 18 mm, 5 cm, 14 m, 17 km, 59 g, 146 kg, 93 m²
The exception is for temperature, where there is no space between the degree symbol and the preceding figure, and a space between the degree symbol and the centigrade symbol: 36˚ C
H.2. Do not give measurements of artefacts in metres: 32 cm rather than 0.32 m
The exceptions are larger objects such as architectural elements, where a measurement given in metres is more appropriate.
H.3. For archaeological features and artefacts, always give the three dimensions: length, width/breadth and height/depth, apart from circular or spherical features or artefacts, where the dimensions are given in diameter and height/depth.
I. USE OF HYPHENS
I.1. Hyphens are used in several ways, including to join attributive compounds: well-kept gardens; a 2nd-century AD inscription
to avoid misunderstandings: more-important discoveries as opposed to more important discoveries, deep-blue sea as opposed to deep blue sea
to separate similar letters in a word to aid comprehension and/or pronunciation: co-operation, co-ordinate, Kinross-shire
I.2. For words prefixed with “re” to describe a repeated or renewed action, a hyphen is not used unless ambiguity is caused by their omission, or if the word after “re”begins with an e: redating, redraft, reorder, but note re-cover (a chair) and recover (a lost item), re-signs (a contract) and resigns (from a position); re-evaluate, re-excavate
I.3. Intercardinal points, when written in full, are hyphenated and not capitalized: north-west, south-eastern
I.4. In these rare instances when numbers are written out in full, compound numbers are hyphenated: seventy-two, three hundred and twenty-four
J. COMMON MISTAKES TO BE AVOIDED
J.1. Fewer and less: a general rule of thumb is: if it can be enumerated, use "fewer"; if it can’t, use "less”: fewer coins, fewer years, fewer people, less influence, less poverty, less wear. “There are fewer jewels on the later brooches”, “There is less jewelling on the later brooches”.
J.2. “A number of vessels were” is preferred, rather than “A number of vessels was”, i.e. “A number + plural noun” governs a plural verb (but “The number of vessels was” i.e. “The number + plural noun” governs a singular verb).
Guide for contributors last updated September 2025
