On April 2, 2013, the Accademia dei Lincei hosted the inauguration of the EAGLE project in Rome. The symposium was presided over by the project’s Coordinator, Dr. Silvia Orlandi of Sapienza, University of Rome. It was a highly successful event that brought together more than 20 cultural institutions, archives, universities, research centres and innovative enterprises  from all over Europe. Among many distinguished speakers, we were honored by the presence of Europeana Foundation director Jill Cousins and representatives from Wikimedia Italy.

EAGLE is a  best-practice network co-funded by the European Commission under its Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme. The project is part of Europeana, a multilingual online collection of millions of digitised items from European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections. EAGLE will collect and catalogue in a single readily-searchable database more than 1.5 million items that are currently scattered across 25 European countries and the east and south Mediterranean.  Contributions to the database come from some of the most reputable academic institutions in the world, such us Oxford University, Heibelberg University, German Archeological Institute, Sapienza, University of Rome. Each of these institutions has generously pledged to share their immensely rich epigraphic collections with EAGLE’s unifying database. These collections include such prestigious archives such as Arachne, Archaia Kypriaki Grammateia Digital Corpus,Epigraphic Database Bari, Epigraphic Database Heidelberg, Epigraphic Database Rome, Hispania Epigraphica Online,PETRAE, The Last Statues of Antiquity, VBI ERAT LUPA

The project will make available the vast majority of the surviving inscriptions of the Greco-Roman world, complete with essential information about each of them. For the most important artifacts, a translation into English and other modern languages will be included in the descriptive materials provided. The technological team that will support the EAGLE project is led by the Italian National Research Council and will provide the user with state-of-the-art technology to ensure the best and most intuitive of experiences. Services will include a mobile application that will enable tourists to understand inscriptions they find on location by scanning with a smartphone, and a storytelling application that will allow teachers and experts to assemble epigraphy-based narratives. A multilingual Wiki will be set up for the enrichment and enhancement of epigraphic images and texts. This will provide a basis for future translations of inscriptions into other European languages. The strategic partnerships with Europeana Foundation and Wikimedia will lead to creative synergies and a highly successful execution of the project’s objectives.

Watch the Kick-off meeting presentation videos:

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