8th AIUCD Conference 2019 Udine, January 22 – 25, 2019
Digital Humanities and “Niche” Research Fields: The Case of Ancient Arabian Epigraphy
Irene Rossi Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico Dipartimento Scienze Umane e Sociali, Patrimonio Culturale Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Roma [email protected] 1. Pre-Islamic Arabia and its epigraphic heritage
Ancient North Arabian Aramaic
Incense tree (Boswellia Sacra) Ancient South Arabian 1.1 Ancient South Arabian inscriptions Cursive script
Minaic
Sabaic
Qatabanic Hadramitic 1.2 Ancient North Arabian inscriptions
Taymanitic Safaitic
Dadanitic Hasaitic 1.3 Aramaic inscriptions
Nabataean graffiti from Hegra
Transitional Nabataeo-Arabic script Aramaic inscription from the Gulf region 2. A niche research field
The digital Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions (2001-2013) - University of Pisa
Some paper collections of pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions Digital projects since 2010s Grant: ERC – Advanced Grant, 7th Framework programme Duration: 5 years (2011-2016) Principal Investigator: Alessandra Avanzini Host institution: University of Pisa – Dip. Civiltà e Forme del Sapere Additional participant: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Objective: study, digitization and open access publication of the whole corpus of pre-Islamic inscriptions from the Arabian peninsula Post-grant coordination: University of Pisa; CNR-DSU & RSI 3.1 Modelling: hybrid DB/XML system
XML-based CSAI archive
Challenge 1: technologies for the digitization of epigraphic corpora whose study is in progress DASI model • lexicon
Lexicon
1.1 Design of a model valorizing the double nature of the epigraphic source Economy: cataloguing of several texts inscribed on the same support Workflow: specialists of different disciplines autonomously contribute to specific entities Research: enhancement of the studies on material culture and history of art Heritage preservation and dissemination: digital recording of museum collections (of both inscribed and non-inscribed artifact)
Support bearing two distinct texts Inscribed vs non-inscribed object
1.2: Text in context: enhance the study of the text-bearing objects in absence of thesauri and repertoires The destruction of the Regional Museum of Dhamār
1.3: Digitally preserve and make accessible a heritage at risk DASI data entry interface and textual editor module (XML)
Encoded phenomena layout phenomena editorial and apparatus symbols/special signs onomastics transcription phenomena criticus interventions textual portions grammar
1.4: Critical edition of texts: integration of an XML editor module 3.2 Harmonization and interoperability
Phenomena DASI EpiDoc K-P SEG Leiden+
Uncertainreading () ạḅ ạḅ ạḅ
+++ [n. of … [n. of .3 [n. of [.], [..], […], characters, characters, characters, Illegible text [….], [… …] three in this three in this three in this case] case] case]
[------] lost1lin. Lacuna (lines) [… …] ------lost?lin.
Text – Epidoc encoding of onomastics and representation of uncertain reading
Challenge 2: compliance with standards (text annotation, metadata) VS legacy data and specific tradition of studies DASI TERM SUB-TERM DEFINITION MATCH typical of the Qatabanian area, they are constituted by an inscribed aniconic stela base supporting an upper and plain slab. The top can be either convex AAT: stelae [ID: or concave 300007023] particular and homogeneous group from the Jawf area and few with eyes or stylized face EAGLE: Stele Stela samples from Qataban, representing eyes or a schematic facial outline [http://www.eagle- with figure in relief isolated human or animal figures, usually realized in high relief network.eu/voc/objty p/index.php?tema=25 with narrative scene decorated by narrative scenes, usually composed by multiple 0] elements depicted in low relief refined by a decorated framework in low-relief with abstract-figurative with framework elements or with geometric motifs, associated in various and different combinations Metadata – «Support type» vocabulary mapping with Getty – AAT and EAGLE – Object Type. The stelae example 3.3 Lexicography and text analysis
DASI lexicon model
Challenge 3: study of under-resourced languages DASI lexicon interface
3.1 Methodology and tools for compiling lexica of stereotypical corpora KALAM – A word analyser for Sabaic (R. Ruzicka - Austrian Academy of Sciences)
CHALLENGES - problematic tokenization and analysis of Semitic text (ambiguous morphology; lexical unit not always corresponding to orthographic unit; word formation rules based on root&pattern mechanism) - fragmentary nature of the epigraphic sources - paucity of established linguistic reference tools for the languages of Ancient Arabia 3.2 Manual vs automated approach Textual search on DASI front end site
3.3 Combined queries (text+metadata of different entities) for analysis of text in context Encoding of textual variants (of reading/interpretation) translation: «… by his king((oracle))((lord)) …» text: … b-mlk((mlʾ))((mrʾ))-hw … encoded: … b
Search for variants: not only as single words, but also in a specific context
text: w1 w2 ((w2.1))((w2.2)) w3
Possible versions of the text: text1: w1 w2 w3
text2: w1 w2.1 w3
text3: w1 w2.2 w3
3.4 Encoding of variation – retrieval of variants in textual context Example of epigraphic text and translation(s) on DASI front end site
3.5 Providing translations 3.4 Teaching
DASI records inserted by a student of the course “Laboratorio di epigrafia sudarabica” at the University of Pisa
Challenge 4: foster learning by digital practice with user-friendly tools The curated edition published at http://dasi.cnr.it/index.php?id=dasi _prj_epi&prjId=1&corId=0&colId=0 &navId=31760239&recId=9030
4.1 Engage students in niche disciplines 4. Prospects
Recent research on Digital Epigraphy and Ancient Near Eastern textual heritage 4.1 DASI gazetteer
Project: MAPARABIA - Mapping Ancient Arabia for enhancing knowledge and shifting paradigms Funding: ANR aapg 2018 – Project de recherche collaborative (4 years) PI: Jeremie Schiettecatte (CNRS-UMR 8167 – Orient et Méditerranée) Partners: CNRS-UMR 5133 – Archéorient; CNR Rome; Università di Pisa Outputs: web-GIS, gazetter of place names, historical atlas, online encyclopaedia of Ancient Arabia
Place names in the texts Information on archaeological sites 4.2 DASI as an aggregator Thank you
Project director Geographic data Prof. Alessandra Avanzini Jérémie Schiettecatte (scientific coordinator, CNRS-UMR8167 Orient & Scientific coordinator Méditerranée) Alessia Prioletta (May 2011 - July 2015) Annamaria De Santis (University of Pisa) Irene Rossi (January 2017 - ongoing) Participant scholars Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions Alessio Agostini (Università La Sapienza, Roma) University of Pisa Prof. Christian Julien Robin (CNRS-UMR8167 Orient & Méditerranée, Alessandra Avanzini, Maria Gorea, Khaldon Noman, Costanza Odierna, Paris; Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris) Alessia Prioletta, Irene Rossi (epigraphy) Fabio Betti, Chiara Condoluci, Alessandra Lombardi, Alexia Pavan Technical project (archaeology) Scuola Normale Superiore Daniele Mascitelli (Arabic epigraphy and language) Prof. Amos Bertolacci (scientific coordinator) Giulia Buono, Cleto Carbonara, Clara Mancarella, Cristina Pappalardo, Umberto Parrini (technical supervisor) Carlotta Rizzo (students) Daniele Marotta (technical coordinator) Annamaria De Santis, Irene Rossi (digital epigraphy) Annamaria De Santis (technical support and dissemination), Irene Rossi Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (technical support) Irene Rossi (epigraphy, digital epigraphy) Enrico Caruso, Gianfranco Di Tota, Matteo Gallo (IT developers) Mirko Delcaldo (web design) Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia University of Oxford DASI system is currently maintained by the CNR-Dipartimento Scienze Prof. Jeremy Johns (project supervisor) Umane e Sociali, Patrimonio Culturale with the technical support of the Michael C.A. Macdonald (scientific coordinator) CNR-Reti e Sistemi Informativi. María del Carmen Hidalgo-Chacón Díez, Ali Al Manaser (epigraphy) Daniel Burt (IT developer), Jennifer Brooke Lockie (technical support) Crispin Smith (doctoral student) Acknowledgements Corpus of Nabatean Inscriptions The research leading to the results presented in this paper has CNRS-UMR8167 Orient & Méditerranée received funding from the European Research Council under the Laïla Nehmé (scientific supervisor) European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007- Yann Gayet 2013)/ERC grant agreement n° 269774. Corpus of Aramaic Inscriptions Université de Paris VIII Maria Gorea