![EpiDoc Logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/EpiDoc_Logo.JPG)
EpiDoc is an international community that produces guidelines and tools for encoding in
TEI XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...
scholarly and educational editions of ancient documents, especially
inscriptions and
papyri.
The EpiDoc Guidelines were originally proposed as a recommendation for Greek and Latin epigraphy in 2000 by scholars at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
: Tom Elliott, the former director of the Ancient World Mapping Center, with Hugh Cayless and Amy Hawkins. The guidelines have since matured considerably through extensive discussion on the community mailing list (Markup) and other discussion fora, at several conferences, and through the experience of various pilot projects. The first major epigraphic projects to adopt and pilot the EpiDoc recommendations were the Inscriptions of
Aphrodisias
Aphrodisias (; grc, Ἀφροδισιάς, Aphrodisiás) was a small ancient Greek Hellenistic city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Anatolia, Turkey. It is located near the modern village of Geyre, about east/inland from the ...
and
Vindolanda Tablets
The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (they have since been antedated by the Bloomberg tablets). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern fro ...
Online in 2002–4, and the guidelines reached a degree of stability for the first time in that period.
EpiDoc has since been adopted as the native format for the Greek
Papyrology
Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...
site, Papyri.info. The EpiDoc
schema
The word schema comes from the Greek word ('), which means ''shape'', or more generally, ''plan''. The plural is ('). In English, both ''schemas'' and ''schemata'' are used as plural forms.
Schema may refer to:
Science and technology
* SCHEMA ...
and guidelines may also be applied, perhaps with some local modification to related palaeographical fields including
Sigillography
Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name, sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies the wax, lead, clay, and other seals used to authenticate archival documents. It investigates not only aspects of the artistic design a ...
, and
Numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.
Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...
.
The EpiDoc community maintains the Guidelines and other tools, offers support through the mailing list and other fora, and runs several training events per year.
Guidelines and Schema
The EpiDoc Guidelines are available in two forms:
# the stable guidelines, released periodically
# the source code, available in its most up-to-date form in the EpiDoc SourceForge repository. The Guidelines source files are a series of XML documents, plus XSLT to transform them to the web version.
The EpiDoc Schema is also available in two forms:
# the latest stable version of the schema, which may be linked to directly by XML documents.
# the source code (a
TEI ODD), available in its most up-to-date form in the EpiDoc SourceForge repository.
Tools
Other tools developed by and for the EpiDoc community include:
* The EpiDoc Reference Stylesheets (XSLT), available from the EpiDoc GitHub repository. These stylesheets are also used to deliver the online Guidelines.
* EFES (EpiDoc Front-End Services): an "out of the box" software package for the publication of EpiDoc collections.
* Transcoder: a Java tool for converting between Beta Code, Unicode NF C, Unicode NF D, and GreekKeys encoding for Greek script on the fly.
Transcoder
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Projects
Ancient Inscriptions of the Northern Black Sea
King's College London
Concordia
King's College London and New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
Inscriptions of Aphrodisias
King's College London, UK
Inscriptions of Roman Cyrenaica
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091218163746/http://ircyr.kcl.ac.uk/ , date=2009-12-18 , King's College London, UK
Integrating Digital Papyrology
( Duke University, Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, Heidelberg University
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...
, King's College London, University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
)
US Epigraphy Project
Brown University, Providence RI, USA
Vindolanda Tablets Online
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
, UK
Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua XI
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
, UK
Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campā
École française d'Extrême-Orient
The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in w ...
Epigraphic Database Heidelberg
Fuller list of projects maintained at:
* https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/EpiDoc
Bibliography
* Fernando-Luis Álvarez, Elena García-Barriocanal and Joaquín-L. Gómez-Pantoja, 'Sharing Epigraphic Information as Linked Data', in (eds. Sanchez-Alonso & Athanasiadis), ''Metadata and semantic research'' (Springer 2010), pp. 222–234. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-642-16552-8_21 (PAYWALL) (accessed 2011-01-06)
* Lisa Anderson and Heidi Wendt, 'Ancient Relationships, Modern Intellectual Horizons: The practical challenges and possibilities of encoding Greek and Latin inscriptions.' In ed. M.T. Rutz & M.M. Kersel, ''Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics.'' Oxbow Books, 2014 (Joukowsky Institute Publication 6). Pp. 164–175.
* Alison Babeu, 'Epigraphy', ''"Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day": Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classicists Draft Version 1.3—11/18/10'', pp. 73–89. CLIR, 2010. Online at: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub150
* Roger S. Bagnall, 'Integrating Digital Papyrology', presented at ''Online Humanities Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come'', University of Virginia, March 26–28, 2010. Available: http://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/29592 (accessed 2011-01-06)
* Monica Berti (2015). "The Linked Fragment: TEI and the Encoding of Text Reuses of Lost Authors." _Journal of the TEI_ 8 (2014–15). Available: http://doi.org/10.4000/jtei.1218
* Gabriel Bodard, 'The Inscriptions of Aphrodisias as electronic publication: A user's perspective and a proposed paradigm' in ''Digital Medievalist'' 4 (2008), available http://doi.org/10.16995/dm.19 (accessed 2011-01-06)
* Gabriel Bodard, 'EpiDoc: Epigraphic Documents in XML for Publication and Interchange', in (ed. F. Feraudi-Gruénais) ''Latin On Stone: epigraphic research and electronic archives'' (Lexington Books, 2010), pp. 101–118.
* Gabriel Bodard, 'Digital Epigraphy and Lexicographical and Onomastic Markup'. Pre-press available: http://www.stoa.org/archives/1226 (accessed 2011-01-06)
* Bodard, G and Stoyanova, S. 2016. "Epigraphers and Encoders: Strategies for Teaching and Learning Digital Epigraphy." In: Bodard, G & Romanello, M (eds.) ''Digital Classics Outside the Echo-Chamber: Teaching, Knowledge Exchange & Public Engagement'', Pp. 51–68. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bat.d.
* Gabriel Bodard and Polina Yordanova. 2020. "Publication, Testing and Visualization with EFES: A tool for all stages of the EpiDoc editing process." ''Studia Digitalia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai'' 65.1 (2020), pp. 17–35. Available: https://doi.org/10.24193/subbdigitalia.2020.1.02 (accessed 2021-03-25)
* Hugh Cayless, Charlotte Roueché, Tom Elliott & Gabriel Bodard, 'Epigraphy in 2017', ''Digital Humanities Quarterly
''Digital Humanities Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed open-access academic journal covering all aspects of digital media in the humanities. The journal is also a community experiment in journal publication.
The journal is funded and published by t ...
'' 3.1 (2009), available: http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/3/1/000030/000030.html (accessed 2011-01-06)
* Annamaria De Santis and Irene Rossi, 2018. ''Crossing Experiences in Digital Epigraphy: From Practice to Discipline.'' De Gruyter Open. Available: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110607208
* Dee, S, Foradi, M and Šarić, F. 2016. "Learning By Doing: Learning to Implement the TEI Guidelines Through Digital Classics Publication." In: Bodard, G & Romanello, M (eds.) ''Digital Classics Outside the Echo-Chamber: Teaching, Knowledge Exchange & Public Engagement'', Pp. 15–32. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bat.b
* Julia Flanders & Charlotte Roueché, 'Introduction for Epigraphers', online at http://www.stoa.org/epidoc/gl/latest/intro-eps.html (accessed 2014-01-13)
* Petra Heřmánková, Vojtěch Kaše & Adéla Sobotková. 2021. “Inscriptions as data: digital epigraphy in macro-historical perspective.” ''Journal of Digital History'' 1, ''Scalable historiography: Storytelling, Hermeneutics, Data.'' Available: https://journalofdigitalhistory.org/en/article/WBqfZzfi7nHK (accessed 2022-01-19)
* Liuzzo, Pietro Maria. "Chapter 2: Comparing Inscriptions" _Digital Approaches to Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies_. Aethiopica Supplement 8. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2019. Pp. 47–74. Available: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvrnfr3q.
* Löser, Laura (2014), "Meeting the Needs of Today’s Audiences of Epigraphy with Digital Editions." In Orlandi, Santucci et al., Information Technologies for Epigraphy and Cultural Heritage. Proceedings of the First EAGLE International Conference. Rome. Pp. 231–254. Available: http://www.eagle-network.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Paris-Conference-Proceedings.pdf#5f
* Anne Mahoney, 'Epigraphy', in (eds. Burnard, O'Brian & Unsworth) ''Electronic Textual Editing'' (2006), preview online at http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/ETE/Preview/mahoney.xml (accessed: 2006-04-07)
* Silvia Orlandi, Raffaella Santucci, Vittore Casarosa, Pietro Maria Liuzzo (eds.), ''Information Technologies for Epigraphy and Cultural Heritage. Proceedings of the first EAGLE International Conference'', Rome, 2014. On line at: http://www.eagle-network.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Paris-Conference-Proceedings.pdf
* Charlotte Roueché & Gabriel Bodard, 'The Epidoc Aphrodisias Pilot Project', ''Forum Archaeologiae'' 23/VI/2002, online at http://farch.net (accessed: 2006-04-07)
* Charlotte Roueché, 'Digitizing Inscribed Texts', in ''Text Editing, Print and the Digital World'' (Ashgate, 2008) pp. 159–168.
* Joshua D. Sosin, 'Digital Papyrology', Congress of the International Association of Papyrologists, 19 August 2010, Geneva. Available: http://www.stoa.org/archives/1263 (accessed 2011-01-06)
* Charlotte Tupman, 'Contextual epigraphy and XML: digital publication and its application to the study of inscribed funerary monuments', in (eds. Bodard & Mahony) ''Digital Research in the Study of Classical Antiquity'' (Ashgate, 2010), pp. 73–86.
* Daniel A. Werning (2016), 'Towards guidelines for TEI encoding of text artefacts in Egyptology'. In Monica Berti (ed.), ''Epigraphy Edit-a-thon. Editing chronological and geographic data in ancient inscriptions''. Leipzig, April 20–22, 2016.
See also
* Leiden Conventions
* Epigraphy
* Text Encoding Initiative
The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is a text-centric community of practice in the academic field of digital humanities, operating continuously since the 1980s. The community currently runs a mailing list, meetings and conference series, and main ...
* Digital Classicist
The Digital Classicist is a community of those interested in the application of digital humanities to the field of classics and to ancient world studies more generally. The project claims the twin aims of bringing together scholars and students w ...
* Inscriptions of Aphrodisias
References
External links
EpiDoc Home Page
Papyri.info
Epigraphers
Inscriptions
Digital humanities
Text Encoding Initiative