Platform for the study and analysis of ancient Italian languages and cultures
DigItAnt is an advanced digital ecosystem developed to support academic research in the field of ancient languages of Italy, with a focus on historical linguistics and epigraphy.
DigItAnt offers a prototype web platform with a dual mode: on the one hand it allows the creation, management and interconnection of lexical resources, metadata and epigraphic texts, and bibliographic data according to the FAIR and Linked Open Data (LOD) principles, thus promoting data sustainability and interoperability; on the other hand, it allows for an integrated or holistic consultation of the interconnected data ecosystem.
Through the EpiLexO web application, the platform enables accredited scholars to create computational lexicons for the archaic languages of ancient Italy and to explicitly link lexical forms to occurrences in texts, citation references and various external lexico-conceptual resources in a machine-actionable manner.
Through the DigItAnt_search application, the platform offers a user-friendly interface for consulting, exploring and querying the digital materials integrated in the platform.
Main editing features
The DigItAnt platform, designed to support scholars and researchers in the creation, management and consultation of digital linguistic resources for the fragmentary archaic languages of ancient Italy, through the EpiLexo application allows to:
- compile computational lexicons conforming to shared models for the semantic web (OntoLex-lemon and its extensions);
- link entries and lexical forms to critical digital editions of epigraphic inscriptions (in TEI-EpiDoc), bibliographic sources (managed via Zotero) and other relevant external resources;
- link internal language resources with external Linked Open Data sources, such as the LiLa project for Latin, creating a semantic and actionable ecosystem to foster interdisciplinary research.
Consultation interface
DigItAnt_search offers a freely accessible interface that allows users to explore and query the linked digital materials produced in previous project phases from a single web environment. Via a tabbed navigation bar, it is possible to access:
- epigraphic corpora: an interactive section to explore the project’s epigraphic inscriptions; the user can view the inscriptions encoded in XML-TEI/EpiDoc format, filter the data according to criteria such as locality, language or dating, and download the data;
- multilingual lexicon: access to lexical data modelled with OntoLex-Lemon, with the possibility of exploring lexical entries, forms and meanings linked directly to epigraphic texts;
- bibliography: a bibliographic archive of sources used in the project, with direct links to reference data;
- concordances: according to the practice of epigraphy.
Open source
DigItAnt Project GitHub Link: https://github.com/DigItAnt/
- CASH (back-end di gestione di testi e annotazioni): http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11752/ILC-1028
- LexO (back-end di gestione dei lessici): https://github.com/DigItAnt/LexO-backend
- Epilexo-editor (front-end, interfaccia di editing): http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11752/ILC-1005
- DigItAnt-Search (front-end, interfaccia di consultazione): http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11752/ILC-1029
The development of DigItAnt was financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research within the ItAnt – Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy Project (PRIN 2017 – SH5).