This is the first step of a project that will include all material culture from this milieu. Presently, these inscriptions are neither collected nor centrally indexed. Epigraphy, by its nature, is a shifting field. Previously published inscriptions are constantly being reread and reinterpreted, and new inscriptions are always being found.
Electronic storage is thus an ideal medium for the collection of inscriptions.
When stored electronically, inscriptions can be updated easily and the search tools can take new data into account instantly. None have, to date, comtemplated tagging the ancient documents in SGML, thus allowing for more sophisticated data retrieval. This project will seek not only to make the inscriptions accessible electronically, but also to tag them to allow for complex searching. Ultimately, because inscriptions are most frequently discovered as part of archeological digs, the inscriptions should be linked to the archeological reports. Such reports, which include text as well as pictures and architectural reconstructions, should be linked to the inscription database.