Epigraphic evidence, that is texts inscribed on stone and other durable materials, is an essential source for studying the history, language and culture of ancient societies. CROSSREADS undertakes an in-depth study of the epigraphic evidence from ancient Sicily, across all languages and materials and across the whole historical period (7th cent. BCE to 7th cent. CE). The project uses this to offer a new analysis not only of written culture but also of the cultural history of the island. This is made possible through combining epigraphic, historical, linguistic, palaeographic and archaeometric approaches, all of which can be undertaken at a far greater level of resolution and complexity than previously, and all of which can be integrated and combined in new ways, thanks to the contemporary development of powerful tools and methods in the digital humanities.
The core of the project is the development of a comprehensive, digitally encoded corpus of the epigraphic texts from ancient Sicily, supported by high resolution imagery. Based initially on published data, the corpus is being transformed by intensive cataloguing and recording of epigraphic material in collections across the island. To that end, members of the project are undertaking the identification, detailed autopsy-based study, and photography of all the inscribed stones and other objects preserved on the island.
Building upon this corpus, the project has three major sub-projects, all now underway:
1. Linguistic analysis of the corpus: methods of linguistic analysis and socio-linguistic study have become increasingly sophisticated, but these have yet to be applied systematically to an epigraphic corpus and have the potential to offer new light on the interaction between languages – and peoples - on the island in antiquity. 2. Petrographic classification of the inscribed stones: carving epigraphic texts on stone is a public act, and the choice of material is both an economic and a cultural choice, as well as a practical one; but intensive archaeometric methods are required for systematic analysis and further study. 3.Palaeographic study of the corpus: systematic palaeographic analysis is rarely attempted within epigraphic study, despite being a traditional method of epigraphic research. The application of digital methods of annotation, developed in mediaeval palaeography, enables the exploitation of the images and text in the corpus for rigorous analysis.
The work of all three sub-projects intersects, since language, material and writing practices all directly influence one another. In all three areas, systematic analysis at scale is largely lacking for epigraphic material and the standards to be established will have much wider application to the study of epigraphic evidence.
The Project’s deliverables fall into three categories:
1. A complete open-access TEI corpus of the epigraphic texts and IIIF images, supported by and linked to linguistic, petrograph and palaeographic datasets; 2. A series of studies in linguistics, petrography and palaeography, both in relation to the Sicilian material specifically and for the purpose of advancing the respective fields more generally; 3. The exploitation of the project’s datasets to generate new study of Sicilian epigraphic culture and Sicilian cultural history.
