EpiCUM as best practices of interdisciplinarity for digital epigraphy storytelling

The project EpiCUM is a good example of wise interdisciplinary collaboration between different entities, that has allowed the construction of a strong dialogue between education, heritage enhancement and scientific research through the use of digital supported by philological correctness. EpiCUM aims at valorising the 574 epigraphs of the Castello Ursino Museum in order to make them usable by different kinds of users. Some tasks actively involved the students of the High School, conjugating nicely the theoretical and practical approaches, although they were not familiar with epigraphy and ancient languages. An international scientific conference was also organized within the project. EpiCUM is conveyed through http://epicum.istc.cnr.it, that is realized as easily accessible, attractive and of robust scientific value. Indeed, besides a reproduction of the multimedia kiosk located within the Museum, the web portal provides a number of advanced search tools for accessing and querying data related to the epigraphic slabs. All epigraphic information has been organized in interoperable open formats and models, according to the EpiDoc schema (in XML and JSON), and in RDF/OWL ontologies based on the CIDOC-CRM. Moreover, for data-revision purposes, within the project there have been involved university internship activities focused on the digital. Making data available on the web was a “prophetic” choice that has allowed, especially during the pandemic period, the continuation of a doctoral collaboration about the study of new epigraphic aspects (symbols, onomastics, prosopographical data), the translation of the inscriptions and the achievement of new discoveries.