Wikidata:WikiProject Epigraphy

History

This project was imagined during the activities of Project testi latini, specifically from these final considerations. The need was further confirmed by another discussion on Twitter with another user.

From the workflow in the domain of cultural heritage it can be predicted that thousands of items of epigraphs are going to be created on Wikidata over the next years, therefore some coordination is necessary to monitor their creation and their quality.

Interested users

[+] Add yourself to the list

The participants listed below can be notified using the following template in discussions:
{{Ping project|Epigraphy}}

• Alexmar983
• Jahl de Vautban
• DerMaxdorfer
• Mentxu Zorita
• Epìdosis
• Liber008
• Accurimbono
• Ahc84 (talk) 18:39, 2 August 2024 (UTC)
• sarcanon
• User:Anna Clara Maniero Azzolini
• JBradyK

Guidelines

instances

• in a probable future, all items related to the inscriptions and items related to the archeological artifacts or monuments where such content appears will be separated because Wikidata is constantly increasing its precision. It's the correct thing to do for example for some future listing on wikisource.
• At the moment, however, we can separate in distinct items text and material object only in the rare cases when the text is present in more artifacts. For all other simpler cases, we can use a double instance for instance of (P31) that we can monitor with appropriate query, including an argument related to subclasses of archaeological find (Q10855061) or archaeological artefact (Q220659).
• Such argument should be as specific as possible, namely: stele (Q178743) , sarcophagus (Q48634), altar (Q101687)
• In the future, using a bot to duplicate all items seem feasible if all other metadata are correctly encoded in a coherent way.
• For the metadata on commons for example the need should be for tags of both the artifacts and the inscription, but one tag can be sufficient at the moment.
• in case the inscription and the artifact are already separated in different category on Wikimedia Commons, the creation of different items can be done immediately.
• All qualifiers for instance of (P31) are generally discouraged, in accordance to general use.

metadata related to the physical object

• use of creator (P170) and unknown value. As qualifier object of statement has role (P3831)anonymous (Q4233718)
• location of discovery (P189) should be used with a modern location
• width (P2049), height (P2048), horizontal depth (P5524); height of letters (P12549)
• collection (P195) for the institution preserving the object
• culture (P2596) can be used but it's not crucial. Example culture (P2596)Ancient Rome (Q1747689)
• made from material (P186). Possible values are marble (Q40861) and stone (Q22731)

metadata related to the inscription

These metadata might be be in a future moved almost entirely to a dedicated item about the inscription

• use of writing system (P282) with for example Latin script (Q8229), Greek alphabet (Q8216)
• use of copyright status (P6216) public domain (Q19652)
• use of schematic (P5555) for file of the drawing

For the text of the inscription, use:

• inscription (P1684) (possibly with qualifier unabbreviated text (P7008))

metadata related to the content

• use of inscription mentions (P6568) for any person or object mentioned in the inscription's text

Information from CIL

• main description (at least in English): example CIL III, 4591
• aliases: example

CIL III 4591

CIL 3 4591

CIL 3, 4591

CIL III, 004591

Note: this comes from Commons, automatically it's the label given if Wikidata infobox is inserted. I will keep it like that. We agreed not to insist on "0"s but this is stricly related to interwiki standards

Other aspects

• If plaque image (P1801) is used as metadata in an item related to the content of the inscription, it is possible to qualify plaque image (P1801) with statement is subject of (P805) linking to the item of the inscription.--Alexmar983 (talk) 18:56, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

IDs

• Wikidata property for authority control for epigraphs (Q124542268)

see also {{Ancient world properties}}

Existing

• Arachne object ID (P7021)

if you need to connect an item piece of cultural heritage to a Commons category of its inscription, please notice that images are clear, but writing are not usually on the information provided in written form. The best strategy is to search strings on google books.

• Trismegistos text ID (P8532)
• Epigraphic Database Heidelberg ID (P11273).

Informed on social media: IG FB TW

• Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) Greek Inscriptions ID (P11299).

Informed on social media: IG FB TW

• Museo Egizio in Turin ID (P11414).

Informed on social media: IG FB TW

• Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby ID (P11656).

Informed on social media: IG [1] TW

• U.S. Epigraphy Project ID (P11708).

Informed on social media: IG FB TW

TBD

• CIL
• EDR
• lupa.at

example 1

example 2

Queries

#title:Instances of inscription + subclass of archaeological artifact or monument
SELECT ?item
WHERE {
  ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q1640824 ; wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q220659, wd:Q4989906 .
}

Instances of inscription + subclass of archaeological artifact or monument

External links

Projects, blog posts etc.

• Catalogazione di epigrafi e iscrizioni dell'Antica Roma presenti in Italia (2022)
• Working with literary epigraphs in Wikidata (2022)