Aims of the Conference
Electronic corpora of ancient languages offer important information about the culture and history of ancient civilizations, but at the same time they constitute a valuable source of linguistic information. The scholarly community is increasingly aware of the importance of computer-aided analysis of these corpora, and of the rewards it can bring.
The construction of electronic corpora for ancient languages is a complex task. Many more pieces of information have to be taken into account than for living languages, e.g. the artefact bearing the text, lacunae, level of restoration, etc. The electronic corpora can be enriched with links to images, annotations, and other secondary sources. The annotations should deal with matters such as textual damage, possible variant readings, etc., as well as with many features specific to ancient languages.
Recent years have witnessed a considerable increase in electronic corpus construction for ancient languages, with the involvement of many institutions across the world. The time is ripe to see whether the experiences of scholars working on such projects can profitably be shared.
15/06/07