Abstract

Aramaic epigraphy is not present enough in the digital sphere. There are no digital databases similar to PHI or EDCS which would gather the Aramaic inscriptions in one place or other databases, e.g. CGRN on the religious norms, omit the West-Semitic material. The city of Dura-Europos, on the middle Euphrates, preserves a uniquely multilingual epigraphic record that reflects its complex religious landscape. Among this material, Aramaic religious inscriptions provide critical evidence for local devotional practices and cultural interaction in a frontier community of the Roman East. This presentation will deal with the interaction of languages within sacred spaces in Dura- Europos, showing the communication with the gods in Greek, Latin and Aramaic in one place. Through summarizing my work with the Linked Open Data (LOD) approach and particularly using the Wikidata for making the Aramaic data more visible, this presentation will raise the discussion on the further work on the inclusion of Aramaic, one of the most important languages of antiquity, among the digital works on Classical epigraphies. I will present how Wikidata and LOD method allows to combine diPerent sorts of data together – people, buildings, inscriptions to understand better the context and relations of people with various temples, e.g. Temple of Atargatis, of Adonis, of Bel, etc. This paper bases on my ongoing research as an epigraphic consultant in the International (Digital) Dura-Europos Archive project led by Anne Hunnell Chen.

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