Information technologies for epigraphy and cultural heritage. Proceedings of the first EAGLE international conference

This peer-reviewed volume contains selected papers from the First EAGLE International Conference on Information Technologies for Epigraphy and Cultural Heritage, held in Paris between September 29 and October 1, 2014. Here are assembled for the first time in a unique volume contributions regarding all aspects of Digital Epigraphy: Models, Vocabularies, Translations, User Engagements, Image Analysis, 3D methodologies, and ongoing projects at the cutting edge of digital humanities. The scope of this book is not limited to Greek and Latin epigraphy; it provides an overview of projects related to all epigraphic inquiry and its related communities. This approach intends to furnish the reader with the broadest possible perspective of the discipline, while at the same time giving due attention to the specifics of unique issues

Crossing Experiences in Digital Epigraphy: From Practice to Discipline

Although a relevant number of projects digitizing inscriptions are under development or have been recently accomplished, Digital Epigraphy is not yet considered to be a proper discipline and there are still no regular occasions to meet and discuss. By collecting contributions on nineteen projects – very diversified for geographic and chronological context, for script and language, and for typology of digital output – this volume intends to point out the methodological issues which are specific to the application of information technologies to epigraphy. The first part of the volume is focused on data modelling and encoding, which are conditioned by the specific features of different scripts and languages, and deeply influence the possibility to perform searches on texts and the approach to the lexicographic study of such under-resourced languages. The second part of the volume is dedicated to the initiatives aimed at fostering aggregation, dissemination and the reuse of epigraphic materials, and to discuss issues of interoperability. The common theme of the volume is the relationship between the compliance with the theoretic tools and the methodologies developed by each different tradition of studies, and, on the other side, the necessity of adopting a common framework in order to produce commensurable and shareable results. The final question is whether the computational approach is changing the way epigraphy is studied, to the extent of renovating the discipline on the basis of new, unexplored questions

AIUCD2017 - Book of Abstracts

Questo volume raccoglie gli abstract degli interventi presentati alla conferenza AIUCD 2017. AIUCD 2017 si è svolta dal 26 al 28 Gennaio 2017 a Roma, ed è stata verrà organizzata dal Digilab, Università Sapienza in cooperazione con il network ITN DiXiT (Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network). AIUCD 2017 ha ospitato anche la terza edizione dell’EADH Day, tenutosi il 25 Gennaio 2017. Gli abstract pubblicati in questo volume hanno ottenuto il parere favorevole da parte di valutatori esperti della materia, attraverso un processo di revisione anonima sotto la responsabilità del Comitato di Programma Internazionale di AIUCD 2017

AIUCD2017 - Book of Abstracts

Questo volume raccoglie gli abstract degli interventi presentati alla conferenza AIUCD 2017. AIUCD 2017 si è svolta dal 26 al 28 Gennaio 2017 a Roma, ed è stata verrà organizzata dal Digilab, Università Sapienza in cooperazione con il network ITN DiXiT (Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network). AIUCD 2017 ha ospitato anche la terza edizione dell’EADH Day, tenutosi il 25 Gennaio 2017. Gli abstract pubblicati in questo volume hanno ottenuto il parere favorevole da parte di valutatori esperti della materia, attraverso un processo di revisione anonima sotto la responsabilità del Comitato di Programma Internazionale di AIUCD 2017

Investigating Linked Data Usability for Ancient World Research

Linked Data technologies are used to describe and connect entities, based on features they have in common. Rich semantic descriptions, disambiguation capabilities, and interoperability allow investigation of new research questions and reveal previously undiscovered relationships. However, previous studies have shown that uptake of Linked Data among Humanities researchers has, thus far, been low, partly due to usability issues with the resulting tools and resources. I therefore set out to investigate how their usability might be improved, and how Linked Data technologies might most effectively be integrated with existing research methods. My study focused on the Ancient World, where Linked Data implementation seems to be higher than in other Humanities disciplines, and involved a survey and interviews to elicit user and producer needs from researchers in this subject area. I start this thesis by introducing and contextualising my research topic in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, I consult existing literature and datasets to discuss Linked Humanities Data implementation, its advantages, and current barriers. Chapter 3 provides an outline of my survey and interview methodologies, while Chapter 4 presents initial survey analysis and identifies themes for discussion in the subsequent chapters. Chapter 5 focuses on five research methods already embedded in the practices of Ancient World researchers, where Linked Data could effectively be integrated: Discovering, Gathering, Data Recognition, Annotating, and Visualization. In Chapter 6, I explore the user experience more broadly, including aspects such as interface design, reliability, and data quality. Chapter 7 then discusses areas of the production process that affect Linked Data usability: training, collaboration, user-centred design, documentation, access, and sustainability. My findings form the basis of a series of recommendations in Chapter 8, which focus on teamwork, openness and transparency, extensibility, user consultation, discoverability, sustainability, and communities, culminating in a Five-Star Model for Linked Humanities Data Usability.</i

Writing Beyond Pen and Parchment Inscribed Objects in Medieval European Literature

In the Middle Ages, writing was not confined to manuscripts, but inscribed in the broader material world, in textiles and tombs, on weapons or human skin. This volume presents the first comparative overview of text-bearing artefacts in medieval German, Old Norse, British, French, Italian and Iberian literature and offers a fresh perspective on the medieval world that takes seriously the vibrancy of matter as a vital aspect of textual culture

Contextualising ritual practice in later prehistoric and Roman Britain

For much of the twentieth century, Romano-Celtic syncretism has been considered an unproblematic fusion of polytheistic belief systems assumed to preserve prehistoric Celtic religion and yet also provide a key form of evidence for the assimilative process of Romanisation. However, given the abrupt disjunction in ritual practice and especially changes in material form, Chapter 1 proposes that the evidence from the Roman period and its relationship to pre-conquest religion needs to be re-evaluated, not assumed. A reconsideration of syncretic or 'native' religion in Roman Britain will be accomplished by focusing on the usual categories of Roman period artefactual evidence, including iconography, inscriptions, ritual sites and votive offerings. The wealth of religious material from the frontier zones of Central Britain will be repositioned within a discussion of ritualised practices, hybridised identities and contextualised landscapes. Chapter 2 will outline how the study of the Roman conquest and colonisation of Britain has affected the study of religion and especially Romano-Celtic syncretism. Previous approaches will be reviewed, as well as the implications of post-colonial theory. Chapter 3 will develop a holistic methodology for studying ancient religion building on theoretical approaches of contextualisation, ritualisation and hybridisation. The general tendency in archaeological discourse to separate the evidence for ritual practice and religion from the wider socio-cultural background compounds the specific problems arising from imperial colonisation and ethnic dichotomies. Considering the socioeconomic, socio-political and landscape context of ritual practice provides an integrated methodology for interpretation that has the potential to over-ride dichotomies such as Roman and Native or ritual and practical. Chapter 4 will begin with one of the timeless interpretations of ancient religion, which is a concern with fertility. This paramount ritual motivation is often framed in general terms, but this chapter will demonstrate that more specific interpretations can be offered by examining the socio-economic context of ritual practice. The relationship between sheep husbandry, pastoralist production and iconographic expression in Roman Britain will help contextualise the fertility interpretation of the genii cucullati, associated matres, and the divine couple of Mercury and a goddess with a vessel. Chapter 5 considers the regionalised distribution of votive altars dedicated to the local deities of the Hadrian's Wall frontier zone. A case study of inscriptional practice on the 61 votive altars dedicated to the variously spelled theonym of Vitiris will explore identity and the socio-political context of ritual practice. Discussions of religion in Roman Britain barely consider Vitiris despite being the most popular local cult from the frontier zone and in terms of inscriptional evidence second only to Jupiter for all of Roman Britain. A floruit in the late second and early third century AD and the multi-cultural milieu of the northern frontier provide the socio-political context for the local cult of Vitiris. Chapter 6 considers the landscape context of ritual practice and evidence for votive deposition from both pre-and post conquest Central Britain. The landscape context of votive deposits, especially votive altars, and other 'stray' finds from non-military contexts, have not received great attention from Roman studies. A reliance on classical and early medieval texts has led to interpretations of Celtic religion as a natural religion with frequent emphasis on the essential sacred nature of water. A frequent focus on watery contexts in the archaeological study of hoarding and votive deposition has also created binary distinctions in interpretation between wet and dry contexts. However, there would have been considerably more complexity to the bodies of knowledge associated with these important ritualised practices. A variety of spatial scales will be used to contextualise material culture that has often been labelled as 'stray' finds. Examining this material through wider, regional, topographic and hydrographic analysis will allow more to be said about the context of deposition, and show the long-term ritualisation of the landscapes of Central Britain. The final chapter will summarise the inter-dependence of, and interaction between, society, the economy, and the landscape, generating the holistic methodological approach of vernacular religion. As befits a wide-ranging study of religious material in an imperial context, Chapter 7 will shift to a British and western provincial scale in order to place the local and regional case studies into their wider context. The contextual categories allow analysis to shift from everyday socio economic practices, to life-span concerns and identity construction of socio-political context, to the landscape and longue duree. Following these themes from prehistory into the post-conquest period will acknowledge not just continuity, abandonment and assimilation, but also adaptation, innovation, and renovation; renewal as the complex "reconciliation of tradition and innovation" (Woolf 2001a: 182). Through a careful critical evaluation of vernacular religion, Roman archaeology has a chance to move beyond the dichotomies of religious syncretism - not by using vernacular descriptively as a simple replacement of 'native', but by considering the context specific processes of hybridisation and ritualised practice

Roman lead sealings

This thesis is based on a catalogue of c.1800 records, covering over 2000 examples of Roman lead sealings, many previously unpublished. The catalogue is provided with indices of inscriptions and of anepigraphic designs, and subsidiary indices of places, military units, private individuals and emperors mentioned on the sealings. The main part of the thesis commences with a history of the use of lead sealings outside of the Roman period, which is followed by a new typology (the first since c.1900) which puts special emphasis on the use of form as a guide to dating. The next group of chapters examine the evidence for use of the different categories of sealings, i.e. Imperial, Official, Taxation, Provincial, Civic, Military and Miscellaneous. This includes evidence from impressions, form, texture of reverse, association with findspot and any literary references which may help. The next chapter compares distances travelled by similar sealings and looks at the widespread distribution of identical sealings of which the origin is unknown. The first statistical chapter covers imperial sealings. These can be assigned to certain periods and can thus be subjected to the type of analysis usually reserved for coins. The second statistical chapter looks at the division of categories of sealings within each province. The sealings in each category within each province are calculated as percentages of the provincial total and are then compared with an adjusted percentage for that category in the whole of the empire. The final chapter is based on the iconography found in the impressions on the sealings. This includes the styles of imperial portraits, deities, animals, inanimate objects, designs which may come from outside of the empire, similar impressions on other items, epigraphic styles and possible examples of matrices