My research methodology is grounded in a multidisciplinary approach that brings together linguistics, history, epigraphy, and digital humanities, consistently framed within ancient world anthropology, the tradition in which I was academically trained at the Centre for Anthropology of the Ancient World in Siena. A recurring focus on scarcely documented areas and periods has characterized my practice from the start, demanding methodological flexibility and the ability to approach problems from every possible angle. I keep up with digital tools and coding to build meaningful bridges between the humanities and technology. My command of ancient Greek, Latin, Hittite, Luwian, Old Persian, and other minor ancient languages and their scripts, from Luwian Hieroglyphs to Latin cursive, enables me to work directly with original documents. My training and fieldwork as an epigraphist at the Schools of Archaeology in Athens further equipped me with the skills to manage relationships with museums and to apply best practices in document conservation.

My research focuses on the linguistic features of inscriptions in Greek and Anatolian languages. 

What I am working on now

The technical language of naval activities in Classical Athens

Outputs:

Selvi. E. (in press, expected 2026). Military Naval Language in Classical Athens (I). Hauling and Launching Ships: ἀνέλκω, καθέλκω and Related Terms. Scripta Mercaturae 53. 

This article explores the development of military naval technical language in Classical Athens through a diachronic study of the verbs ἀνέλκω and νεωλκέω ‘to haul up onto dry land’ and καθέλκω ‘to launch into the sea’. Drawing from both literary and documentary texts, it argues that lexical specialisation responded to the technological and administrative consolidation of the Athe nian dockyards. While Archaic poetry employs general motion verbs such as ἕλκω and ἐρύω with explicit path complements, the Classical period sees the semantic narrowing of ἀνέλκω and the emergence of καθέλκω as specialised terms for hauling warships into the shipsheds and launching them into the sea. These verbs display clear signs of technicalisation: referential restriction to tri remes, compression of directional complements within a shared procedural framework, preference for telic aspectual forms, and progressive morphological restructuring. In the Hellenistic period, νεωλκέω further codifies the operation by incorporating the institutional domain of the dockyard into the verb itself. The study shows how the language of the Athenian navy both reflects and con tributes to the stabilisation of technical knowledge within a defined community of practice centered on the Piraeus.

Selvi, E. (in press, expected 2026) Edition of the naval papyrus fragment UB Trier S77 18. Muziris. 

This study presents an unpublished Hellenistic papyrus, likely dating to the 2nd century BCE, from the Trier archive. The text contains a number of technical military terms related to the naval sphere, offering new evidence for the study of ancient specialized terminology. The research is conducted in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Patrick Reinard, director of the archive.

Selvi, E. [conference paper] The technical language of Athens’ Naval Inventories: inside the Piraeus’ community of practice. International Conference SVAL. Sociolinguistic Variation in Ancient Languages, Cambridge, 26–28 March 2026.

The technical language of the Naval Inventories, with its specialized vocabulary and distinctive syntactic structures, evolved over a century, offering a rare perspective on change in technolects (Santamaria & Selvi 2025). It features neologisms (e.g., ἀνυπόζωστος, a non-rigged trireme), semantic repurposing of existing terms (e.g., δόκιμα, traditionally used for ‘illustrious men’ but applied to ships and their components), and semantic-syntactic innovations (e.g., telic verbs of movement largely used without starting or ending points), features that presumed a shared contextual knowledge among the community of practice. Some instances of this technolet outside of the inventories will also be discussed. I will focus on Demosthenes’ speech On the Trierarchic Crown (51) before the boule, arguing that his use of terms like περιορμίζω or καθέλκω (51.4), complete with their characteristic inventory-like syntax (e.g., omission of locative complements), deliberately diverges from literary conventions and echoes the administrative technolect of the Piraeus. By invoking this specialized lexicon, Demosthenes indexed not only his own expertise as a trierarch but also his membership in the Piraeus’ community of practice, forging a connection with his audience, among which many were or had been fellow trierarchs, naval officers or part of the θρανίτης λεώς, the citizen-rowers also praised by Aristophanes to win the favour of his audience (Ach. 162-163). This linguistic choice “enregistered” (Agha 2003) the shared identity between the pleader and the members of the boule, framing himself as ‘one of them’: a man who had actually served in the navy. This strategy legitimized his authority on naval matters while activating the audience’s memory of service. 

A Computational Analysis of Multilingual Documents from Anatolia 

(University of Verona, Plurilingualism in Anatolia Project, 02/2024-12/2025)

I am investigating the textualization and historical significance of different languages in the cuneiform archives of Hattusa, with particular attention to phonetic and phonematic representation and the transmission of texts in multilingual contexts. Our study integrates traditional philology and history with computational approaches, applying automated data collection and machine learning to Hattian documents. First, using the syllabogram as the unit of analysis, we examine patterns such as scriptio plena and scriptio geminata through digital parsing and quantitative modeling. Building on this foundation, we are now exploring the transmission of texts in the multicultural archives of Hattusa through innovative applications of n-gram and clustering analysis.

Publications in press: (1) Computational approaches to orthographic variability in cuneiform bilinguals: The case of scriptio plena in Hattian.  

(2) Transmission in Hittite Times: Tracing Textual Reworking and the Circulation of Texts in the Multilingual Archives of Hattusa through N-gram Clustering. 

My broad research interests

• History of technical knowledge and technical languages, especially naval and military 

• Plurilingualism and multiculturalism in ancient Anatolia, from the Bronze to the Hellenistic Age

• Digital methodologies for History, Classics and Linguistics

• Formation and evolution of Greek and Anatolian alphabets 

• Mycenaean Greek and Linear B script

Conference and Talks 

2025

• [invited] Social Network Analysis and epigraphy: exploring multiculturalism and multilinguism through networks. 10/11/2025, The Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture, Groningen University. 

• [invited] It's all Greek to me: assessing the intelligibility of minority languages in Pamphylia with the Levenshtein algorithm. 6/11/2025, Center for Language and Cognition (CLCG) - Groningen, Language Diversity Research Group, Groningen University. 

• Barbarophones or Hellenophones? Assessing Pamphylian Intelligibility with the Levenshtein algorithm. 26/06/2015. 11th International Colloquium in Ancient Greek Linguistics - Université Côte d'Azur, Nice.

• [invited] Variability in Hattic texts: computational tools and approaches. 5-6/06/2025. Studies on translations and tradition of plurilingual texts in Hittite Anatolia Workshop - Università di Pavia (with Prof. Dr. A. Rizza)

•  [invited] Alphabets on the periphery: the reinterpretation of the corpus doctrinae on the edges of the Greek world. 28-29/04/2025, LautSchrift Sprache Conference, Île d'Oléron (with Dr. A. Santamaria).

• Multivariate SNA and linguistic choices: an analysis of funerary inscriptions from Hellenistic Pamphylia. 03/04/2025, IX Epigraphy.info Workshop, University of Aarhus. 

• From conquest to cohesion: Linguistic data for understanding conflict dynamics in Hittite Anatolia. 24-29/03/2025, Kiel Conference - Scales of Social, Environmental & Cultural Change in Past Societies, University of Kiel. 

• [invited] L'antroponomia nell'Anatolia ellenistica: contatti e divergenze fra greco panfilio e sidetico. 24/01/2025, Giornata di studi su Scrittura, lingua e società nel Mediterraneo Orientale antico, Università di Verona (with Prof. Dr. A. Rizza). 

2024

• Le basi aggettivali in hurrita: verso una prospettiva tipologica. 4-5/11/2024. Cantieri d'Autunno 2024 - Sezione di Orientalistica, Università degli Studi di Pavia. With Dr. Fabio Bastici (Pavia) & Alessandro Rossi (Roma La Sapienza).

• Prospettive tipologiche nell’analisi delle radici aggettivali in hurrita. 24-26/10/2024. LVIII Convegno della Società Italiana di Glottologia: La storia, le storie e la linguistica - Sapienza Università di Roma. With Dr. Fabio Bastici (Pavia) & Alessandro Rossi (Roma La Sapienza).

• Language Choices and Identity Reflections in Hellenistic Pamphylia: A Social Network Analysis of Funerary Inscriptions. 19/07/2024, Language and Identity in Antiquity, Université de Lausanne.

• Pausanias’ Erythrai. Indigenous elements in foundation myths of Hellenistic and Imperial Age Asia Minor. 9-12/07/2024, Panel ‘Pausanias from Different Perspectives’ - 15th Celtic Conference in Classics, University of Cardiff.

• [Invited] Plurigrafismo e plurilinguismo nell’Asia Minore ellenistica. 14/06/2024, Testi e Testualizzazione: mise en page e mise en texte nel Vicino Oriente Antico, Università di Verona.

• [Invited discussant] Basic adjectives in Hurrian. 21/02/2024, Università di Pavia. Keynote lecture: F. Plank, Discussants: M. Giorgieri, A. Rizza, F. Bastici, E. Selvi.

2023

• [Invited] Alphabets in contact: an anthropological approach to the transmission of the alphabet from Greece to Anatolia. 14/03/2023, Museo di Antalya.

• Due decreta navalia dal Pireo. IG I³ 153 e 154 e la gestione delle strutture portuali nella seconda metà del V secolo. SAEG VIII – Seminario Avanzato di Epigrafia Greca, Università degli Studi di Perugia. (Abstract accettato e inserito nella programmazione dell’evento e degli atti, intervento non tenuto per motivi di salute).

2022

• [Invited] Graeco-Anatolian Pamphylia. Data from regional onomastics. 09-10/12/2022, Anatolian Interactions. Criss-cross contacts and cultural dynamics in the first millennium BCE, University of Trento.

• [Invited] Shaping the Pamphylian Alphabet through interference and isolation: the representation of the glides. 24-25/03/2022, PaLAC Workshop – Languages and Cultures in Contact in the Ancient Mediterranean, University of Verona (with A. Santamaria, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna).

• Aspect and Actionality in Archaic and Classic Attic Epigraphs at a Syntax-Semantic Interface. 15-18/06/2022, ICAGL – International Colloquium on Greek Linguistics. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (with A. Santamaria, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna).

2021

• Aspetto e azionalità nel lessico navale militare. Possibilità per l'integrazione dei cataloghi frammentari del IV secolo. 15/12/2021, Colloquio invernale - Scuola Archeologica Italiana ad Atene.

• A Story without an End. The Never Reached Systematization of the Pamphylian Alphabet. 21-23 October 2021, 13th International Workshop on Writing Systems and Literacy - AWLL13: On the systematic nature of writing systems, University of North Carolina, USA.

2019-2020

• Building a Borderland: Tales and Traditions on Greek Pamphylia. 15-17/10/2020, 2nd International Conference for Postgraduate Students and PhD Candidates in Classics ''Discourses about Otherness: Forms of the Other in Ancient Greek and Latin Literature.'' Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

• The crews of the Sicilian Expedition. An analysis of the sources for the rowers’ social status in the 5th cent. B.C.E. 10/10/2019, 10th MA and PhD Philology Candidates Conference Faculty of Philology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

• A Linguistic and Philological Analysis for a Revisitation of the Mycenaean e-re-ta Tablets. 14/05/2019, Mezinárodního setkáni mladých lingvistů. Filozofické fakulty - Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci. With A. Santamaria, Università di Bologna.

• Social status and roles in the Mycenaean navy. 23/01/2019, Post-graduate Work in Progress Seminars, Dept. of Greek and Latin - University College London.

• Status sociale e ruolo nella flotta militare micenea di ki-ti-ta, me-ta-ki-ti-ta e po-si-ke-te-re. 11/12/2018, Classicamente – Dialoghi Senesi sul Mondo Antico, Centro di Antropologia del Mondo Antico. Università degli Studi di Siena.

Epigraphic fieldwork (archaeological sites and museums)

• Thracian inscriptions in Alexandropouli and Komotini, November 22nd - December 7th 2025, with Dr. Andrea Santamaria (CAU Kiel).

• Athenian naval inscriptions in the Epigraphic Museum of Athens II, August 1st - August 31st 2023, with the École française d’Athènes.

• Cretan Hieroglyphs and Linear A seals and sealings in the Heraklion Museum and the archaeological sites of Myrtos Pyrgos, Archanes, Vassilikì and Haghia Triada (Crete, Greece), 15th-30 April 2023, with Dr. Andrea Santamaria (Bologna). 

• Pamphylian inscriptions in the Antalya Museum and the archeological sites of Aspendos, Perge, Sillyon and Termessos (Turkey), March 1st-March 30th 2023. 

• Athenian naval inscriptions in the Epigraphic Museum of Athens I, September 1st - December 20th 2021, with the Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene.