Join us for the OCIANA 2.0 Launch Workshop to explore the Online Corpus of Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia. Discover the latest updates and advancements in ancient inscription research focused on Arabia. On September 12th and 13th (2:00pm to 5:00pm each day) this two-day workshop will delve into OCIANA 2.0. Register at go.osu.edu/digital-arabia
OCIANA 2.0 is part of the Digital Arabia project led by Ahmad Al-Jallad and James Moore and will serve as the main international database for the epigraphy of Arabia, extending from Najrān to the Syrian frontier. The project will support the establishment of this digital resource at OSU of 50,000 records and will add 10,000 additional inscriptions. A delegation of government officials from Oman, Jordan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, will visit Ohio State to inaugurate the new asset and participate in the workshop.
The updated database will include new features and incorporate additional inscriptions to enhance access to Arabia's pre-Islamic past. The conference will unite digital humanities experts to explore the use of digital tools in studying and disseminating Arabia's ancient heritage. See program below.
The Arabian Peninsula, central to the Middle East, has always been of strategic and commercial significance. Knowledge of its ancient history largely originates from external observers like the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, or much later reports from the so-called "Age of Ignorance". While the rest of the Middle East has seen extensive archaeological exploration over 150 years, Arabia remains relatively unexplored. Since 1858, scholars have documented around 70,000 Ancient North Arabian inscriptions across Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Arabian Gulf, though these findings are dispersed across numerous publications and languages, making them difficult to access.
Started in 2015 by Oxford University, the Online Corpus of Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia (OCIANA) seeks to consolidate our understanding of ancient Arabia by creating a digital corpus of all known pre-Islamic inscriptions from North and Central Arabia. It offers translations, references, commentaries, bibliographies, and details about each inscription's provenance and technique, Photographs and facsimiles will eventually be available for free download.
Project and event sponsors include:
- Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
- Middle East Studies Center
- Digital Laboratory for the Study of Ancient Textual Documents
- The Translational Data Analytics Institute (TDAI)
- Start-up funding from OSU Global Arts and Humanities Larger Grants Program
Space is limited. Please register at go.osu.edu/digital-arabia Thank you!
Digital Arabia: Launch Workshop for the Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia 2.0
Program
September 12 - September 13, 2024
2:00PM - 5:00PM
320 Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Avenue
Registration: Click Here.
Thursday, September 12
2:00 Welcome Address, Dean Renga
2:10 OCIANA and Near Eastern Studies at OSU, Naomi Brenner
2:20 Brief Introduction: OCIANA and the future of Arabia’s past, Ahmad Al-Jallad
2:30 Michael C.A. Macdonald (Keynote)
Preserving Arabia’s written history: OCIANA from hand-written cards to digital epigraphy
3:15 Laïla Nehmé
The word indexing system of DiCoNab, with a preliminary investigation on the vocabulary and onomastics of the inscriptions in different scripts
4:00 Ali al-Manaser
يوم في الحرة
4:45 Closing remarks
Friday, September 13
2:00 Opening remarks, Tanya Berger-Wolf (Director, TDAI)
2:10 Alessia Prioletta
Integrating Cultural Heritage: advanced data management for epigraphic, petroglyphic, and archaeological records from the UNESCO Site of Ḥimā with the MAFSN Information System
2:55 Fokelien Kootstra
Building a database as a tool of documentation and creation of epigraphic heritage: the AICAP project
3:40 Jérôme Norris
Digital Approaches to Research on the Thamudic D script(s) from Northwest Arabia
4:25 James Moore
Introducing the OSU Digital Lab for Ancient Textual Objects (DLATO)
4:35 Alison Furlong
Developing OCIANA 2.0 and its new functionalities
5:00 Goodbye