Towards a Model of Transcultural Encoding of Ancient Epigraphic Sources
Résumé
This diaporama presents the work of the 5A cluster, "TEI and Epigraphy", within the Biblissima+ consortium (Observatory of Written Cultures, from Clay to Print). In order to better capture the semantic interrelations between artefacts, images, and texts in epigraphic sources from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, and the Middle Ages, we have developed an integrated digital environment. This environment combines a generic XML/TEI/EpiDoc template (GenEpiTemplate) with a structured multilingual thesaurus (GenEpiTheso), both accessible through a dedicated web-based editorial platform. Biblissima+ provides a digital library and research infrastructure designed to support the study of the transmission of texts from Antiquity to the Modern era. As part of its broader scholarly objectives, the consortium initiated the integration of epigraphic data. An interdisciplinary team — comprising epigraphers working across diverse cultural and chronological contexts, together with specialists in Digital Humanities — was assembled to investigate unified methods of data representation. This cross-cultural approach contributes to refining the conceptual definition of the epigraphic document, emphasising its material, graphic, and iconographic dimensions. The initial aim of the cluster was to establish a shared editorial template for its various projects, all of which rely upon the standards of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and EpiDoc. Although a core model was rapidly identified, the first version revealed a number of limitations. Through comparative analysis of existing encoding practices, we developed an enriched and fully annotated template, extending EpiDoc with a broader range of TEI elements to accommodate a more extensive corpus of epigraphic material. Concurrently, we developed a multilingual thesaurus, organised into seven thematic domains (artefact, material, text, language, script, production, and field of study). Each entry is accompanied by definitions, translations, and conceptual alignments, and is managed using the open-source platform Opentheso. Both the encoding template and thesaurus are now accessible via the PETRAE portal and have been integrated into the PATRIMONIVM editor — an eXist-db application developed by the Ausonius Institute — facilitating the online editing of XML/TEI-EpiDoc encoded inscriptions. The platform is further connected to a Zotero library (GenEpiBiblio), which consolidates essential bibliographic references across the principal domains of epigraphic research.
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