US Epigraphy before the Web
Book publication, rationale
Infrastructure of the Current Database and Site
The inscriptions in the U.S. Epigraphy Project are encoded using XML and are converted to HTML from that format for display on the U.S. Epigraphy Project website. We are using a simple, home-grown RNG schema to constrain and facilitate data entry. Our schema is designed to parallel the structures present in the EpiDoc DTD used by other epigraphical projects. We expect to convert U.S. Epigraphy Project files to Epidoc in the future, for interchange and interoperability. The editions of the epigraphical text already conform to the EpiDoc schema, and are generated and formatted using the Epidoc toolkit.
Inscription are entered by hand using the <oXygen> editor. The site is generated from these files, so all the pages in the site are up to date, and new inscriptions can be added very easily.
EpiDoc
The EpiDoc project is an international effort to develop a TEI compatible schema for the encoding of inscriptions. For more information, see http://epidoc.sourceforge.net. The U.S. Epigraphy Project is actively participating in the EpiDoc standardization efforts.
Acknowledgements/Contributors/Staff
Many people have contributed to this site over its history. This list is necessarily incomplete.
- Ilaria Marchesi (Hofstra University) made the original U.S. Epigraphy Project site and entered most of the data. She is also working on entering transcriptions of the inscriptional texts during the second phase of the project.
- Lisa Anderson (Brown University) worked on the conversion of the U.S. Epigraphy project data from HTML to XML. She also entered metadata on the existing inscriptions and currently adds new inscriptions, data and pictures.
- Elli Mylonas (STG, Brown University) converted the HTML based data and website to XML.
- Carole Mah (STG, Brown University) designed and implemented the search engine.
- The Brown University Student Technology Assistant program managed by Giovanna Roz provided graphic design for the website, as well as coding the CSS
STG
This website was implemented as a Brown Scholarly Technology Group faculty grant project that began during the 2003-2004 academic year. The STG faculty grant program supports research by Brown University faculty in the humanities and related disciplines and emphasizes adherence to prevailing data and metadata encoding standards in the interest of ensuring the logevity and flexibility of faculty research.