[en] The Leipzig Open Fragmentary Texts Series (LOFTS)Monica Berti, University of Leipzig; Bridget Almas, Tufts University; Gregory R. Crane, Tufts University and University of Leipzig
Abstract
[en]
This paper presents a joint project of the Humboldt Chair of Digital Humanities
at the University of Leipzig, the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University,
and the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies to produce a new open series of
Greek and Latin fragmentary authors. Such authors are lost and their works are
preserved only thorugh quotations and text reuses by later texts. The project is
undertaking two tasks: 1) the digitization of paper editions of fragmentary
works linking them to the source texts from which the fragments have been
excerpted; 2) the production of born-digital editions of fragmentary works. The
ultimate goals are the creation of open, linked, machine-actionable texts for
the study and advancement of the Classical textual fragmentary heritage and the
development of a collaborative environment for crowdsourced annotations.
[en] Treebanking in the world of Thucydides. Linguistic annotation
for the Hellespont ProjectFrancesco Mambrini, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin
Abstract
[en]
The Hellespont project (DAI, Tufts University) aims to structure the text of a
passage from the ancient Greek historian Thucydides (1.89-118), in order to
highlight events, persons and peoples that populate the world of the author and
connect the different digital sources available for their study. Event
annotation in the text in particular requires an in-depth linguistic analysis of
morphology, syntax and semantics. However, the available resources for Ancient
Greek do not provide adequate standards to support the encoding of semantic and
pragmatic phenomena in Ancient Greek texts. In this paper, we discuss the
motivation of the project and how we adapted the so called
tectogrammatical annotation of the Prague Dependency Treebank
to identify the events and describe their structure. The linguistic notion of
valency, which is central to tectogrammatical sentence
representation, proves very useful for this analysis of Ancient Greek.
[en] Teaching Spatial Literacy in the Classical Studies
CurriculumRebecca K. Schindler, DePauw University
Abstract
[en]
Over a decade ago, the Collaboratory for GIS and Mediterranean (CGMA) was created
with two stated goals: (1) to create an on-line GIS inventory of survey projects
in the greater Mediterranean and Europe and (2) to introduce advanced
undergraduates to GIS concepts through Mediterranean archaeology. Through a
specialized GIS course a small group of advanced undergraduate students learned
how to interpret map data, create effective maps, and build map hypothesis -
skills that are recognized as necessary for enhancing spatial thinking and thus
spatial literacy. In the last decade GIS technologically has changed
dramatically. The advent of Geospatial Semantic Web (Web 2.0) now makes it
possible to integrate spatial thinking concepts at all levels of the
undergraduate curriculum. This paper argues that spatial literacy must be more
intentionally integrated into the Classical Studies curriculum and illustrates
how we have begun to do that at DePauw University.
[en] Exploring Citation Networks to Study Intertextuality in
ClassicsMatteo Romanello, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin / École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Abstract
[en]
Referring constitutes such an essential scholarly activity across disciplines
that it has been regarded by as one of the
scholarly primitives. In Classics, in particular, the references to passages of
the ancient texts — the so-called canonical citations (or
references) — play a prominent role. The potential of these
citations, however, has not been fully exploited to date, despite the attention
that they have recently received in the field of Digital Humanities.
In this paper I discuss two aspects of making such citations computable. Firstly,
I illustrate how they can be extracted from text by using Natural Language
Processing techniques, especially Named Entity Recognition. Secondly, I discuss
the creation of a three-level citation network to formalise the web of relations
between texts that canonical references implicitly constitute. As I outline in
the conclusive section of this paper, the possible uses of the extracted
citation network include the development of search applications and recommender
systems for bibliography; the enhancement of digital environments to read
primary sources with links to related secondary literature; and the application
of these network to the study of intertextuality and text reception.
[en] Raiders of the Lost CorpusCaroline T Schroeder, University of the Pacific; Amir Zeldes, Georgetown University
Abstract
[en]
Coptic represents the last phase of the Egyptian language and is pivotal for a
wide range of disciplines, such as linguistics, biblical studies, the history of
Christianity, Egyptology, and ancient history. It was also essential for
“cracking the code” of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Although digital
humanities has been hailed as distinctly interdisciplinary, enabling new forms
of knowledge by combining multiple forms of disciplinary investigation,
technical obtacles exist for creating a resource useful to both linguists and
historians, for example. The nature of the language (outside of the
Indo-European family) also requires its own approach. This paper will present
some of the challenges -- both digital and material -- in creating an online,
open source platform with a database and tools for digital research in Coptic.
It will also propose standards and methodologies to move forward through those
challenges. This paper should be of interest not only to scholars in Coptic but
also others working on what are traditionally considered more “marginal”
language groups in the pre-modern world, and researchers working with corpora
that have been removed from their original ancient or medieval repositories and
fragmented or dispersed.
[en] The Ancient World in Nineteenth-Century Fiction; or,
Correlating Theme, Geography, and Sentiment in the Nineteenth Century Literary
ImaginationMatthew L. Jockers, University of Nebraska
Abstract
[en]
“The Ancient World in 19th-Century Fiction” is a
lightly revised version of a lecture delivered at the first meeting of the
Digital Classicists Association. The intent of the lecture, in accordance with
the invitation to deliver it, was to introduce literary “macroanalysis” in
the context of the ancient world and offer some exploration of how the ancient
world is represented in the 19th-century literary imagination.
[en] Toward an Open Digital Tutorial for Ancient Greek v.
2.0Jeffrey Rydberg-Cox, The University of Missouri-Kansas City
Abstract
[en]
At the meeting of the Digital Classics Association in April of 2013, I described
my work-in-progress on a digital tutorial for Ancient Greek. My goal is to
create a self-guided computer tutorial that people can use to learn Ancient
Greek on their own in the the same way that those studying a modern language can
use programs such as Rosetta
Stone, Duolingo, Babbel.com, Mango Languages, etc. This article
briefly details the work that has been completed since 2013, describes some of
the ways that the tutorial has been successful, and explores challenges that
remain to be addressed for the tutorial.