Articles by Subject

This paper describes the objectives and methodological approaches of the project ‘IN-ROME – The INscribed city: urban structures and interaction in imperial ROME’. The project aims at mapping as comprehensively as possible a wide range of activities that shaped both the physical environment and the relationships between its inhabitants. Focussing on the time period between the 1 st century BCE and the 3^rd century CE, and on the area outside the 4^th century BCE ‘Servian’ Walls up to about the 9^th mile of Rome’s consular roads, it draws on archaeological, literary and archival sources. In addition, and crucially, it aims to virtually re-contextualise c. 50,000 inscriptions in the Epigraphic Database Roma with a known provenance from the area, thus restoring agency to the archaeological landscape. To this end, a new webGIS is being developed that allows for the topographical visualisation of all relevant data.

Focusing on Late Antique epigraphic and architectural artifacts preserved in Italian and Greek contexts – starting from the research project ‘Ravenna and its Late Antique and Medieval Epigraphic Landscape’ – this study assesses the effectiveness of Structure from Motion (SfM) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) in generating 3D models suitable for sharing as open data within digital collections. The analysis compares the speed and accessibility of SfM and LiDAR in producing reconstructions, as well as their precision in capturing engravings and decorations. In fact, the research project on Epigraphy from Ravenna, under the guidance of Prof. S. Cosentino at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, aims to digitize inscriptions in Ravenna spanning from 402 to 1441. A key project objective is to establish a digital platform that

The Open Digital Epigraphy Hub (EpiHub) is an open access digital platform developed to streamline accessibility and organization of resources in digital epigraphy. Created within the Humanities and Cultural Heritage Italian Open Science Cloud (H2IOSC), EpiHub addresses the fragmented landscape of digital epigraphic resources, which span disciplines like linguistics, philology, and archaeology. Offering a comprehensive catalogue of national and international resources – such as datasets, digital tools, geographical and chronological gazetteers, dictionaries, and text-processing software – EpiHub structures these assets through descriptive metadata to facilitate discoverability and usability for researchers and practitioners across diverse cultural and temporal scopes. The platform’s flexible back-end architecture supports efficient data management and real-time updates to enhance front-end accessibility, organizing resources by thematic collections and allowing advanced searches based on specific epigraphic needs, such as language, geographic region, or historical period. Emphasizing FAIR principles, EpiHub standardizes metadata and controlled vocabularies to foster broader interoperability and data reuse across research projects. Integrated with related H2IOSC resources, including H-SeTIS and DHeLO, EpiHub aims to become a central resource, continuously enriched to support collaboration and innovation within the digital epigraphy community.

In the field of Cultural Heritage, the technological advances of recent years have enriched and optimised the possibility of documenting and studying ancient graffiti with a wide range of low-cost and non-invasive methodologies. The most popular are digital photogrammetry SfM (Structure from Motion) and RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) methodologies. The RTI is a powerful tool that, through the use of open source software, enables the documentation of data that are difficult to visualise, facilitating the recognition of traces and marks on the surface of objects. On the other hand, the SfM 3D models are increasingly replacing documentation with traditional photographs. This ‘almost excessive’ production of three-dimensional models is not often accompanied by an adequate exploitation of all their potential uses. This research aims to investigate the possibility of using a high-resolution 3D model for the implementation of virtual RTI processing, a hybrid method that combines 3D, virtual manipulation and 2D technologies in a fast and intuitive workflow suitable for the documentation of a wide range of archaeological monuments. The process sees the 3D model from the SfM survey being illuminated and photographed in a virtual dome in the open source Blender environment; therefore, the images generated are processed with RTI Builder software.

The Linked Open Ogham Data Project was set up in 2019 by the Research Squirrel Engineers Network and supported by the Wikimedia Germany Open Science Fellows Program in 2020/2021. In 2022 an Ogham survey was done in Ireland to record Ogham stones in the field and museums. The project aims at providing and integrating Ogham Data in community hubs such as Wikidata and Open Street Map (OSM). This paper shows a hybrid Ogham LOD workflow, based on the idea of Open Science, Open Software, Open Data and the FAIR principles to create re-usability and modular IT infrastructure with community standards and commonly-used interfaces. Furthermore, the paper shows examples of Ogham stones from the Dingle and Iveragh Peninsulas in OSM and gives a deeper insight into the inscriptions and mentioned Ogham-specific formula words and names.

For the first time in the history of Venetian archaeology, this paper presents the innovative potential of the application of a non-invasive digital technique for the extensive measurement of reused sculpture (spolia) preserved in Venice and its lagoon, both in architectural contexts and as freestanding structural elements. The sample measurements were carried out to get precise digital representations of archaeologically and epigraphically meaningful items, such as ancient columns, capitals or inscriptions, which are reused in the facades of palaces on the Grand Canal, as well as inside and outside Venetian churches and bell-towers. In most cases, measurements were taken for the first time; it was also possible to test the functions of the device over considerable distances, even greater than 50 m, thus obtaining the measurement of artefacts that are difficult to access. Finally, the provision of a very detailed dataset made it possible to set up a broader, albeit still embryonic, study of the proportions of ancient artefacts, especially inscriptions.

An epigraph is a complex historical document, whose significance is fully acknowledged only if its textual features (script, language, content, etc.) are studied in combination with the contextual information (on the textual support and its provenance). This is the reason why digital epigraphy lies at the crossroads of different disciplines applying ITs to textual and material sources, such as digital philology, computational linguistics, and computational archaeology. The specific interests and methods of those disciplines have exerted an influence on digital epigraphy, which is apparent in the documentary vs statistical approaches applied over time to the electronic treatment of the (re)source ‘inscription’. The aim of the paper is to trace those trends in the application of qualitative vs quantitative methods in the history of studies of digital epigraphy, highlighting the main moments of change, until the most recent developments.

This paper presents a historical and epigraphical survey of the inscriptions from Doclea. Due to devastation and inadequate protection by the relevant institutions, a large number of inscriptions have disappeared or have been destroyed by the local population and irresponsible researchers. Bearing that in mind, every new inscription is important for understanding the history and everyday life in Roman Doclea.

The rich epigraphic heritage of the Castello Ursino Civic Museum of Catania has been studied by the EpiCUM project that encoded it in EpiDoc TEI XML, an XML based standard digital representation for cultural heritage contents. The project made the epigraphic heritage available in a digital museum: under the guise of the ‘Voci di Pietra’ exhibition, a selection of epigraphs were presented, implementing innovative presentation modalities thanks to a smart use of technological and digital means. Information contained in the epigraphs was semantically reorganized in a unique homogeneous container, the EpiONT ontology, constructed according to the Linked Open Data paradigm and to consolidated international standards. The encoding of the ancient texts, by the TEI standard and its EpiDoc subset, is wedded to the paradigmatic semantic web model for museums and cultural heritage. The EpiONT ontology is currently populated by 580 epigraphs collected in the Castello Ursino Civic Museum. Designed according to the CIDOC CRM standard, it makes use of the SKOS vocabularies of the EAGLE project concerning material, execution technique, type of inscription, and type of support of an epigraph. The EpiONT ontology additionally can handle any uncertainty in the origin and place of discovery of the epigraphs.

PAThs - Tracking Papyrus and Parchment Paths: An Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature (P.I. Paola Buzi) is an ERC Advance project based at the Sapienza University of Rome. It focuses on compiling a catalogue of literary manuscripts in Coptic language, organized by their archaeological and geographical contexts. The Atlas is an open access publishing platform, built on the top of open source technologies and backed up by a web database based on Bradypus system, a MIT licensed RDBMS highly specialized in the management of archaeological and other cultural heritage data. The Atlas and the web database are being constructed to become a linking hub for automated access to the data by third party software and other applications. Specific interconnecting output formats (mainly RDF) are being developed to link this platform to other collaborative systems (such as those developed by Pelagios Commons) utilizing geographical representation, i.e. places, as a common reference point.

The study of epigraphical and archaeological evidence related to a specific topic, in this case infant mortality, has led to the creation of a geo-referencing project in order to collect, store and analyze information about the young deceased and their families. This paper presents a geo-referenced storage and management system that combines both open source software as QuantumGIS and PgAdmin. The use of a RDBMS has been implemented and purposively structured, taking into account the content and the form of the inscriptions studied.

The paper provides an overview of the digital tools developed as part of the Ebla Digital Archives Project, which aims to offer a digital edition of roughly 3,000 cuneiform tablets from ancient Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh, in western Syria), dated to the middle of the third millennium BCE. The Ebla archive is the oldest one in the history of mankind, for which extensive information concerning the primary setting of the documents is available. The archaicity of the writing system, combined with the inherent difficulties in reconstructing languages from the remote past (Sumerian, Akkadian, Eblaite), pushes us to rethink the strategies to properly digitally capture the complexity of these sources, of invaluable historical significance: administrative documents, literary texts, vocabularies, letters, etc. We tackled the problem through the development of a PostgreSQL database, which is populated by ad hoc Python scripts that parse input transliteration files, which in turn are encoded using a shallow mark-up language. The individual steps in such workflow are discussed, as well as the benefits in terms of advanced queries for information retrieval that such approach offers.

Over the past few decades an intense discussion has taken place among scholars about the important role that instrumentum inscriptum plays in the reconstruction of various aspects of Roman social and economic history. One of the key issues is the definition of the criteria for publication and digital cataloguing of this class of materials, which includes various types of objects (amphorae, lamps, fine ware pottery, building materials, etc.) and inscriptions (stamps, tituli picti, graffiti ante or post cocturam). This paper presents a proposal for cataloguing fictile instrumentum inscriptum through a relational database which takes into account both the archaeological and epigraphical aspects of this kind of documents, while also paying particular attention to possible prosopographical comparisons with lapidary epigraphy. The collection of these data allows the user to pursue socio-economic research on the basis of different criteria, which can be variously combined: geographical, typological, prosopographical and chronological. Three case studies proved the effectiveness of this tool both for analytical and statistical studies.

On 9 May 2016 a group of core partners of the EAGLE project founded IDEA - The International Digital Epigraphy Association in order to maintain, perpetuate and improve this ground breaking project. IDEA represents the most fluid, lean, and efficient way to preserve EAGLE’s legacy and it will carry forward the work established by the EAGLE former partners. The goal of the association is to promote the use of advanced methodologies in research, study, enhancement, and publication of “written monuments”, beginning with those of antiquity, in order to enhance their knowledge at multiple levels of expertise, from that of specialists to that of the occasional tourist. Furthermore, scope of the association is to expand and enlarge the results of EAGLE providing a sustainability model to ensure the long-term maintenance of the project results and to pursue its original aims. IDEA first General Assembly was held in Pisa on 28 September 2016.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.

This article focuses on the preliminary results of a CNR-ISMA ongoing project for the digital edition of Linear B texts, having the ultimate goal of providing scholars, and all those who are interested in the Mycenaean world, with an updated edition of these documents. LiBER (Linear B Electronic Resources) is a document management system which is able to process a variety of materials, such as the logo-syllabic script preserved by these ancient records and their physical supports, as well as to project all relevant data into a dynamic archaeological map. In particular, LiBER has been designed to manage structured texts and all the information available about their chronology, paleography and spatial distribution. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the general philosophy which lies behind the conception of this kind of enterprise and the solutions adopted for the encoding of this specific logo-syllabic script - by exploring drawbacks and potentials of descriptive markup languages and a database driven approach - and for the representation of data through dynamic maps.

Simple photogrammetric data capture methods and equipment are able to measure accurate dense point clouds and detailed high geometric quality Digital Surface Models (DSMs) can be generated out of them. These products are frequently applied to the recording of rock art. However, their potential is not just limited to documentation and their use can be extended to perform analytic tasks. This paper describes the authors’ first experiments in the morphometric analysis of an engraved surface (an epigraph), based on a DSM generated from photogrammetric data. Slope and curvature models were derived from this DSM and used to identify and extract some structural features of the carvings, much in the same way as topographic landscape features can be identified on a terrain DEM.

The ever increasing presence of websites dedicated to antique numismatics and in particular to auctions of coins has raised the question of how this kind of material should be handled and the need to create highly specialised websites on a scientific level capable of monitoring, examining and organising the bulk of material circulating on the Internet. As far as Phoenician and Punic coinage is concerned, ISCIMA is in the process of setting up on-line a complete and thorough computerised database which is also part of its advanced studies program related to the early Italic civilisation of the Mediterranean basin. This streamlined database will group together all the websites dealing with Phoenician and Punic coins and provide a scientific bibliography of all the material concerning this subject.

By editing the Monumenta Linguae Messapicae (Wiesbaden 2002), realised between 1996 and 1999 at the University of Tübingen as part of a DFG Project, a new software, developed and widely used in the archaeology field, was for the first time improved for epigraphic aims: the Bonn Archaeological Software Package (BASP). In detail, the 'seriate' tool, which is included in the Package, enables the chronological ordering of inscriptions coming from defined contexts, sequencing the Units (=Inscriptions) by a principle of association of similar letter types. A chronological oriented track chart ('Streugraphic') is the result of the processing, where single epigraphic phases can be distinguished and observed: each phase can moreover be dated, if acceptable dating sources are available for some items. The new software tool can open interesting research output for Epigraphy, since it makes possible the drawing of chronological grids of inscriptions by stable coordinates. Furthermore, the insertion of new inscriptions in the chart and their relative chronological assignment can easily be obtained with the new method.

A project for a Demotic Inscriptions on Ostraka Database is being carried out in collaboration between ILC/CNR (Pisa), the Department of Electronic Engineering (Calabria University) and the Department of the Ancient World History (Egyptological section, Pisa University). The aim of the project is to analyse the digital colour images of demotic texts on ostraka (Medinet Madi, in Fayyum region) with the aid of computational tools. The module described in the paper is a neural component able to learn the graphical features of each demotic symbol, which has been previously segmented in the images thanks to a semiautomatic procedure. A specific neural network tries to recognize the text written in the images linking the symbols segmented within the ostraka images database to the correspondent symbols available on a virtual keyboard. The graphical interface is particularly useful for teaching and research activities on this type of archaeological documentation.

The case of the peculiar kind of jewellery with coins made by the XIX century Castellani manufactory from Rome, is the reason why a program of data elaboration has been implemented, to manage a quantity of written information (archives and figurative and technical descriptions) together with images: five different sheets are needed to join all the main elements. On this basis, an analogous database can be developed to investigate texts such as the XVI century manuscript by Pirro Ligorio, where coins are used to write a historical prosopography illustrating by means of drawings the history of the most famous old men. However, the coins are not always reproduced in the right way or the same coin is used on different occasions: a program like this can detect these cases. Computer analysis together with traditional humanistic research, will achieve, on a historical basis, remarkable results.

Three different scripts, Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B are attestated in the Aegean between 2200 and 1200 BC The first two of these scripts, Hieroglyphic and Linear A are still undeciphered. The best possibilities of decipherment seem to be linked with Linear A, a script which is very near to the Linear B deciphered by M. Ventris in 1952. In fact more than 80% of the syllabic signs of Linear A are common to Linear B.A systematic comparison between the position of each sign common to Linear A and Linear B will probably give us the possibility to improve the phonetic value of the Linear A signs and so permit to read Linear A. Such a work can only be done with the assistance of the computer.

P.E.T.R.R.A.E. Hispaniarum, The general project PETRAE, developed at the Centre Pierre Paris, is a recording programme of Greek and Latin inscriptions. Its aim is the computer-based management of all information regarding inscriptions, such as monument, text, bibliography, and the creation of indices. All information recorded in the database can be performed by queries and retrieved; they can also be prepared in a few seconds for printing in RFT format. The programme permits also the management of inscription images. The programme PETRAE Hispaniarum is a PETRAE sub-programme. Its final aim is the collection in a single database of all inscriptions relevant to the Iberic peninsula. The database is implemented with the assistance of a series of Spanish, Portuguese and French research centres. The recording system is completely decentralized and allows each research centre to operate individually. The PETRAE equipe has already published four works in traditional form (but using computerised editorial techniques), one of which forms part of the PETRAE Hispaniarum collection.

The aim of this paper consists in analysing family-structure in a Roman community (Ariminum) using epigraphical data. Patriarchal extended family (typical of Mediterranean area) was absent in Roman age and besides we note the presence of nuclear family. Ariminenses had few children. It depends on several factors; for instance, on a high death-rate at birth, on a temporary situation of sterility in consequence of prolonged nursing, birth-control, food, living standards. Death-rate is high in the age-band 16-30 years, but only 10% of the documents contain biometric data, whose presence is closely related to the reader's emotions it could stir up.

This paper deals with the theoretical aspects of the manufacturing of study models through computer database programs for the instrumentum domesticum, especially in the field of Roman amphora stamps epigraphy. The stamps from the Dressel 20 amphora (Spanish olive-oil typology), of which we have thousands of examples spread principally over Rome and Western Europe, have been used as documentary information to compose the theoretical criteria. The proposed concepts for the study of stamps are the following: the "concept structure", which serves to codify and group the stamps according to their graphical image; the "concept codex" aims to codify and analyse the present elements on every stamp; the "concept family of stamps" allows to relate family groups of stamps (like variants of individuals, a workshop, or a production region). The proposed model can be used for every type of amphora stamp. We, however, recommend to principally use it on the information obtained from workshop regions, the only site from which we can decipher the complex meaning of the stamp text.

In ancient Roman world the monumental stone inscriptions had always an harmonic proportion. The metric measurement cannot define the train of their preparation; but the careful lay-out standard surely obeyed - perhaps also spontaneously - to some exact rules of the proportion (e.g. Hambidge's "dynamic symmetry", valid in some artistic fields) aimed at the primary purpose of all epigraphical expressions: the most efficacious communication. Some examples, mathematically verified by CILEA, are sown here.

Beside the publication of the whole texts according homogeneous groups with different glossaries, the program of Hurrian inscriptions Corpus (ChS) is aimed at assembling in transcription form all the cuneiform texts in Hurrian languages from the imperial archives of Bogazkoy (Part I) and from the other archives of the Ancient Near East (Part II). For this reason a software called GHISA (Glossario Hurrico, Ittito, Sumerico ed Accadico) has been created; this permits the elaboration of texts and the production of glossaries and thesauri of the various languages included in the texts (Hurrian, Hittite, Sumerian and Akkadian). The first output of the glossary and the thesaurus will be presented in alphabetical order (function "A" automatic), and following a morphological basis (function "R" reasoned) which can be continually updated. The collection of the whole transliterated material, as well the glossaries, will be published in the volumes of the Hurrian Corpus, while the thesauri will be a consultation tool for textual analysis and linguistic interpretation.

The CAIE project aims to create a database collecting all the Etruscan monuments with inscriptions and to give, at the same time, critical importance not only at the text but also at the extra-linguistic context (i.e. elements regarding the origin and characteristics of the inscribed object, graphic peculiarities etc.). The purpose is a new and complex collection of Etruscan texts which, taking advantage of the power of computer databases, can deal at the same time with both information about the monument and its inscriptions; therefore, the program FUL/TEXT has been chosen, as an Information Retrieval System, duly adapted to the graphic particularities of the Etruscan language. At present about 5000 out of 10,000 so far known documents have been already recorded on file.

Commencing with a review of the application of information processing to epigraphy, the use of image analysis and pattern recognition for the identification of epigraphic workshops is proposed. The project consists of the following steps: a) the collection of coeval documents from one and the same region (e.g., an ancient community); b) the extrapolation of single characters to be superimposed on the same texts in order to proceed to a statistical analysis of variations; c) the development of an “average” pattern; d) the superimposition (manual or automatic) of the pattern within the single texts, so as to ascribe them to the different workshops. An application of the method by the Centre for Textual Studies, Oxford, is described. The application allows rapid access to the PHI CD-ROM, developed and distributed by the Packard Humanities Institute, Los Altos, California.

CThe “Giunone” project concerns the implementation of a numismatical database, designed to become a valid tool for researchers in the field of numismatics and coin collection history. The database was built in conformity with the entity-relationship model and is used in this phase under a Unix System. The task of data entry can be carried out by different people using a programme that works on IBM computers.

The authors present the “CAIE” project, carried out at the Istituto per l'archeologia etrusco-italica of the Italian CNR. The aim of the project is the computerisation of the Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae, with the use of an Information Retrieval System, and the association between texts and archaeological and epigraphical information, such as place and way of finding, support object, technical characteristics, chronology and bibliographical references. The choice of the program FUL/TEXT, implemented for IBM PC, is related to the facility of organising the data both in fixed fields, useful for recording archaeological and epigraphical information, and in free format, useful for recording texts. A personalisation of the program was also implemented, above all for solving the problems presented by the Etruscan language. Data bank consultation is foreseen and will allow interrogations to be made also by unspecialised users.

This paper presents the computerised epigraphical form which has been used for the cataloguing of the Roman brick stamps in the collection of the Vatican Museums. It has been structured on the basis of the form used for the cataloguing of the Lapidary Collections of the Museo Nazionale Romano. Following the acronyms of the entries, represented by an abbreviation of four letters, this form gives a series of answers written in capital letters, one of these to be chosen depending on each specific case; they are followed by blank spaces destined to contain different data, especially numerical. With the formalised recording of the data through an editor, it is possible to create statistical indices (KWIC and other types) through two programs called S.I.D.E.R.A. and « Epiglossa », written for this purpose.

Un Colloque 'Epigraphie et Informatique' s'est tenu à l'Université de Lausanne les 26 et 27 mai 1989 sous le haut patronage de l'AIEGL (cf. compte rendu in Epigraphica LI, 1989, p. 275-279). A l'issue du colloque, le bureau de l'AIEGL et les partecipants ont désigné une commission chargée de recueillir des reinsegnements sur l'utilisation de l'informatique dans les recherches conduites acutellement en épigraphie grecque et latine.

The dominant method of working has changed and is changing at an ever-increasing speed, also for the epigraphists: many computer applications are today available to process epigraphical data. This article provides a rapid survey of the major types of computer based projects in epigraphy. The procedure currently used at Bologna is explained here: its purpose is to produce an index of forms in Roman inscriptions. Data entry is still in progress, through the application of a set of utilities that has been written, to allow a two way transfer of data between WS and dBase III.