Ancient inscriptions between citizens and scholars. The double soul of the EAGLE Project

The mission of the European project EAGLE (Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy) is ‘to make ancient inscriptions accessible’. This means not only to create a useful research tool for classical scholars so that they can find online high quality information about epigraphic texts and artefacts, but also to allow a broad public—consisting of students, teachers, tourists, curious and interested citizens—to understand and appreciate inscribed monuments, even if they are written in ancient languages and alphabets. Digital technologies can help not only to preserve, at least in a virtual archive, our archaeological heritage that is often in danger, but also to improve knowledge of, and therefore respect for said heritage. The EAGLE project has given particular importance to this ‘civic’ aspect, developing two applications (a mobile app, that uses an image based recognition system, and a storytelling application), which show that even ancient inscriptions are not so out of reach as they seem, and can also be fun.