Encoding, Interoperability, Lexicography: Digital epigraphy through the lens of DASI experience

This is the first chapter of a peer-reviewed, open-access volume "Crossing Experiences in Digital Epigraphy: From Practice to Discipline" (A. De Santis and I. Rossi, eds). Funded by the FP7 post-grant Open Access Pilot project, the volume collects 19 diverse contributions approaching current methodological and theoretical issues in the emerging interdisciplinary research field of Digital Epigraphy. It stems from the experience of digitization and online critical edition of the epigraphic heritage of Ancient Arabia in the ERC-funded project "DASI-Digital Archive for the study of pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions". This first chapter critically discusses the main digital challenges faced, and the solutions adopted in the frame of the project. In particular, the methodological and technological issues emerged in the conversion from a domain-specific text-based project of digital edition of an epigraphic corpus, to an objective-driven archive for the study and dissemination of inscriptions in different Semitic languages and scripts are discussed. With a view to keeping pace with, and possibly fostering reasoning on best practices in the community of digital epigraphers beyond each specific cultural/linguistic domain, special attention is devoted to: the modelling of data and encoding (XML annotation vs database approach; the conceptual model for the valorization of the material aspect of the epigraph; the textual encoding for critical editions); interoperability (pros and cons of compliance to standards; harmonization of metadata; openness; semantic interoperability); lexicography (tools for under-resourced languages; translations).