Attic inscriptions in UK collections (AIUK)

Inscriptions on stone are the most important and numerous category of written document created by the inhabitants of the ancient city of Athens that has survived through to the present day. Of the over 20,000 such inscriptions dating from the 7th cent. BC to the 3rd cent. AD that are extant, around 1% (ca. 220) are in British collections, mostly (ca. 163) in the British Museum (BM), but including also other collections, such as the Ashmolean museum, Oxford, and the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge, private collections, and the British School at Athens. Most of the inscriptions are records of decisions of the citizen Assembly and other bodies, financial accounts, leases, dedications to the gods and funerary monuments. Many of them are decorated with relief sculpture, and they are a resource of the first importance for scholars and students as well as potentially engaging monuments for visitors to the museums and collections where they are located. Generally speaking, however, these inscriptions have suffered from neglect. The last systematic edition of the Attic inscriptions in the BM dates from 1874, and it is for the most part this edition that is the basis for the museum's current online catalogue. Since 1874 the landscape has been completely transformed, not only by the accession of new inscriptions to the museum's collection, but by the progress of scholarship. For example, thousands of Attic inscriptions have since been discovered, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of inscriptions already known; this includes in many cases new fragments of inscriptions in the BM. 1874 predates even the first editions of the authoritative corpora of Attic inscriptions (IG I and II), published in the 1870s-1890s, which set their study on a systematic footing, and which have themselves long been overtaken by second and third editions. We propose a two-pronged approach to this material designed to make it accessible in an up-to-date fashion to scholars, students and the general public. Central to this approach is Attic Inscriptions Online (AIO), a website launched in 2012 which publishes annotated English translations of Attic inscriptions, together with supporting academic papers (AIO Papers). First we propose to publish new editions of the inscriptions in a series of 17 AIO Papers each of which will cover an individual collection, or in the case of the BM a category of inscriptions (e.g. decrees, dedications, funerary monuments). Based on the most up-to-date scholarly bibliography, supplemented by fresh autopsy of the stones, and supported by photographs, the AIO Papers will contain new editions of the inscriptions, together with textual notes, translations and commentaries. The main mode of publication will be online on AIO, where the Papers will be available to view and download without charge, but hard copies will also be published. This will transform the utility and accessibility of this material to scholars. Second, entries including translations and photographs will be published on the main AIO site, with notes aimed at the user without good knowledge of Latin and Greek, including school students and museum visitors. At the same time we will engage with the curators of collections to make the translations and information about the inscriptions on AIO available to the public, both via online catalogues and directly to museum visitors in real time. This will include advising and assisting with preparation of e.g. display boards on which there will be automatic links to AIO material, via the British Museum's mobile web-platform, or via QR codes which will enable direct access to AIO on mobile phones. Materials will be developed, designed to enhance and facilitate teaching and learning based on the Attic inscriptions in the UK by school students, both virtually and via visits to the collections, stored in a section of the site specially designed for the purpose, following testing by teachers collaborating on the project.

Apart from the benefits to academic researchers, outlined above, the project will benefit the following:
(a) Curators of collections where the inscriptions are held. AIUK will enable them to provide a more reliable, complete, up-to-date, and enlightening experience to visitors from academic researchers, to teachers and students, to members of the public with no prior knowledge, both online and in person. This will apply especially to the British Museum, where, in the absence of a specialist curator, the information currently supplied is particularly outdated, the collection is particularly sizeable and relatively underutilized, and the visitor numbers are among the highest of any museum in the world. Smaller collections will be able to use the product of AIUK to enhance their visibility, communications and marketing around the inscriptions in their collections. Online visitors to AIO will be stimulated to visit local collections and to seek out the Attic inscriptions in them, whether this be the BM or a local country house. Overall AIUK has the potential to increase visitor numbers to relevant collections and the quality of the visitor experience.
(b) Visitors to collections. AIUK will enhance their appreciation, at every academic level, of the major role played by stone inscriptions in ancient Athenian culture, and enrich their understanding of the many areas of history into which they provide an insight, including narrative history, politics, empire and "democracy", warfare, attitudes to death, religious beliefs and practices, associative life, the family and other aspects of economy and society.
(c) Universities and University teachers. AIUK will enhance their capacity to teach effectively about the major role played by stone inscriptions in ancient Athenian culture, and to deploy inscriptions as evidential sources, both online, by direct use of materials available on AIO, and via museum visits.
(d) University students. AIUK will enhance their appreciation of the major role played by stone inscriptions in ancient Athenian culture, and enrich their understanding of the many areas of history into which they provide an insight (see b above). This will have beneficial knock-on effects, e.g. in making future generations of researchers, University and school teachers better equipped to teach Ancient History (in which Athenian history plays a major role) more effectively.
(e) School exam boards and syllabus creators in UK and internationally. By the supply of free, user-friendly and open access to this significant body of source material, it will provide an incentive to increase the (currently in the UK very slight) role accorded to Attic inscriptions in exam syllabi.
(f) Teachers in schools, in the UK and internationally. Essentially the same potential impact as (c), with an appropriate adjustment of academic level. AIUK will enable them to offer a more vibrant and rounded historical learning experience to their students.
(g) School students, in the UK and internationally. AIUK will enhance their appreciation of the major role played by stone inscriptions in ancient Athenian culture, and enrich their understanding of the many areas of history into which they provide an insight (see b above). This will have beneficial knock-on effects, e.g. in increasing the level of knowledge and understanding of Ancient History, and the importance of inscriptions as historical sources, among potential University students.
(h) Online visitors to AIO, at whatever academic level. They will benefit from the significant enhancement of the site represented by AIUK, including enhanced presentation of this body of material (e.g. photographs, dual level presentation), and the integration of it with other material on AIO, enabling Attic inscriptions both in UK and outside the UK to be better appreciated.
(i) Knock-on impacts will arise from AIO's role in the semantic web, e.g. from deployment of AIO outputs on other sites (e.g IG online).