Linking Coptic Literary Manuscripts to the Archaeological Context by Means of Digital Humanities: The Case of ‘PAThs’ project

Philological and literary studies on Coptic language and literature have faced a growing interest in recent years. As well, a more careful and sensitive reconsideration of archives and newly collected archaeological data allow today a more detailed reconstruction of the Egyptian Late Antique and Medieval landscape. The ultimate goal of PAThs project is to build new bridges between these two disciplines by creating an online atlas able to represent Coptic literature in its archaeological context, testing methodological frameworks and building IT tools based on network technologies. We believe that information technology, widely used since long time by both disciplines, can provide a common ground for experimentation and fruitful collaboration: PAThs information system discussed in this paper has proven to be an important test bench for the development of new methodologies and the improvement of the studies.