Digital Epigraphy Encoding and Information Management

EasyChair Preprint 14506

Abstract

The inscribed text on the stone from the past represents an invaluable source for archaeologists and historians. Engraved on a durable material accompanying monuments, memorials, and statues or standing by their own 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 the prestigious place among all ancient artifacts to be the first in applying the latest technological breakthroughs for their documentation. This is evident from the application of the invention of photography as early as it was discovered in 19th century to the nowadays use of artificial intelligence deep neural networks in textual restoration when it is necessary. Digitization of inscriptions represents the first step for their preservation, publishing, and dissemination among the scholars and the public. However, it is the second step, their encoding, that 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/).

Keyphrases: Epigraphy, Library Information Science, Text Encoding Initiative, digital humanities

@booklet{EasyChair:14506,
  author    = {Artemis Chaleplioglou},
  title     = {Digital Epigraphy Encoding and Information Management},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 14506},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2024}}