Epigraphic database Heidelberg

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The Epigraphic Database Heidelberg (EDH) is a project for the collection and presentation of Latin inscriptions . It was founded in 1986 by Géza Alföldy as part of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz program and has been a research center of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences since 1993 after interim funding from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (1991/93) . The database is located at the Department of Ancient History and Epigraphy at Heidelberg University . The funding will expire in 2020, the nature and financing of a possible follow-up project are still unclear.

concept

The job of the Heidelberg Epigraphic Database is to make as many Latin inscriptions from the Roman Empire as possible accessible on the Internet using a free database and thus to create an easily accessible basis for researching the epigraphic sources. The database meets the highest scientific requirements through careful recording and text-critical processing of the sources. The main focus is on the Latin inscriptions, and to a lesser extent bilingual (especially Latin-Greek) and Greek texts. The epigraphic evidence, which is written in abbreviations, is difficult to decipher due to its state of preservation and is often only preserved in fragments, is reproduced in the EDH with resolutions and additions and can be combined with other research-relevant data (including location, dimensions, dating, bibliography, socio-historical Classification), with photographs or with drawings. The database is constantly being expanded and updated. Within the framework of the internationally coordinated database portal europeana- EAGLE ( Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy), work is continuing to merge the relevant epigraphic database projects with the aim of making as far as possible all Latin and Greek inscriptions of antiquity accessible via a common search mask. As part of a division of labor agreed in 2003, the EDH is responsible for processing Latin and bilingual inscriptions from the (non-Italian) provinces of the Roman Empire with the exception of Spain.

In addition to its purely scientific mandate, the project staff see it as an important task to make it easier for the interested lay public to access the ancient genus of sources of inscriptions. The user-friendly online presentation takes this into account as well as various activities on project days , science nights, days of the open monument or epigraphic teaching units in grammar school Latin lessons.

construction

The EDH consists of the four sub-databases:

  • Epigraphic text database
  • Epigraphic Bibliography Database
  • Epigraphic photo library database
  • Epigraphic geography database

The database currently (as of August 2018) contains around 76,000 inscriptions. The complete text database with all available information on inscription text and inscription carrier has been accessible on the Internet since 2002, after a part of the entire database could be queried online since 1997. In 2003 it was possible to enter data online in the EDH, making it technically possible for scientists without their own database to make their epigraphic data accessible on the Internet from any location via the EDH in the form of an external collaboration. The two other sub-databases went online: in 2004 the epigraphic bibliography database with currently around 15,000 records and in 2007 the epigraphic photo library database with currently around 37,000 records. In 2012 the Epigraphic Geography Database was put into operation with currently 26,000 entries. All four sub-databases are constantly updated and expanded. In particular, the joint presentation of the inscription text and illustration enables the user to directly confront the reading and the original.

literature

  • Andreas Dafferner, Francisca Feraudi-Gruénais, Heike Niquet: The Epigraphic Database Heidelberg. In: Manfred Hainzmann, Christoph Schäfer (Ed.): Old history and new media. For IT use in antiquity research (= computer and antiquity. Volume 5). Scripta-Mercaturae-Verlag, St. Katharinen 2000, ISBN 3-89590-092-3 , pp. 45-65.
  • Christian Witschel : The Epigraphic Database Heidelberg (EDH). In: Volker Sellin , Eike Wolgast , Sebastian Zwies (eds.): The research projects of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8253-5569-2 , pp. 227-232.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Francisca Feraudi-Gruénais, Frank Grieshaber: Digital Epigraphy at a Crossroads? / Digital Epigraphy at a crossroads? Conference contribution from November 10, 2016 ( doi : 10.11588 / heidok.00022141 ).