Digital Epigraphy Encoding and Information Management

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Published: Jun 17, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/monubasin.8210
Keywords:
Digital Humanities Digital Epigraphy EpiDoc Conservation Cultural heritage Data management
Artemis Chaleplioglou
Abstract

The inscribed text from the past on the stone represents an invaluable source for archaeologists and historians, who play a vital role in preserving and analyzing these inscriptions. Engraved on a durable material accompanying monuments, memorials, and statues or standing by their right, epigraphs are exposed to the same environmental and anthropogenic hazards threatening monuments. Their importance as historical and cultural objects is so well recognized that they retain a prestigious place among all ancient artifacts. They are the first to apply the latest technological breakthroughs for their documentation. This is evident from the application of the invention of photography to the modern use of artificial intelligence deep neural networks in textual restoration. Digitization of inscriptions represents the first step for their preservation, publishing, and dissemination among scholars and the public. However, the second step, their encoding, allows their computational analysis within the linked-data environment by generating machine-readable documents. Herein, we will describe the guidelines of the latest version of the Epigraphic Documents (EpiDoc) in Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Extensible Markup Language (XML) (https://epidoc.stoa.org), a specialized edition for encoding of inscribed ancient text, which deals with the text and the historical context of the epigraph production. The Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy (EAGLE) (https://www.eagle-network.eu/), the Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity (InsAph) (https://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/ala2004/), the Atlas patrimonii Caesaris (https://patrimonium.huma-num.fr/documents/), and the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) (https://epigraphy.packhum.org/) projects will be discussed in the context of the Greek Directorate for the Management of the National Archive of Monuments (https://www.arxaiologikoktimatologio.gov.gr/).

Article Details
  • Section
  • Part III - Digital Techniques and Information Management for Cultural Heritage

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Author Biography
Artemis Chaleplioglou

Department of Archival, Library & Information Studies, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece

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