Impact case study database

Lambert’s research revolutionised the accessibility of Attic inscriptions; changed how heritage professionals and museum visitors present and understand inscriptions; enhanced the teaching of the history of ancient Athens; and underpinned the technical development of other archives.

4.1 Providing searchable access to ‘lost’ Attic inscriptions for multiple uses

Before the launch of Attic Inscriptions Online (AIO), very few inscriptions had been translated into English, either in print or online, and finding multiple inscriptions with linked subject matter or content was exceptionally difficult for those without knowledge of Ancient Greek. AIO’s open access and user-friendly database changed this.

AIO has published more English translations of Attic inscriptions – 1,837 to date – than any other single publication, hard copy or online, and is unique among online inscriptions databases in foregrounding translations, making this kind of source material freely available to non-specialists and those without knowledge of Latin and Greek. Since August 2013, the site has had nearly 230,000 visits, with a monthly average of 5,008 visits from 5,846 locations worldwide (since January 2018) [5.1]. Since August 2013, after the UK, the site has been visited most frequently by users from the USA, Greece, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Australia, France and Japan, followed by 164 other countries [5.1]. The 2019/20 user survey (114 respondents) supports this, showing that 60% of respondents were based outside the UK [5.2].

The survey also provides a snapshot of the wide range of user groups. Respondents include educators from primary, secondary and University education institutions, students, collection managers, museum curators, and members of the public with an interest in Greek epigraphy [5.2]. One visitor commented: “AIO is a pioneering project which has the power to transform the landscape of the study not only of Ancient Athenian inscriptions but also of the humanities as a whole. It is a major tool for the dissemination of classics and the subsequent appreciation by larger segments of the population of their importance” [5.2].

AIO resulted in changes in awareness and knowledge of the inscriptions for users:

• "…Greek inscriptions have not always been used to the fullest potential. AIO Online makes Attic inscriptions accessible for the widest possible audience and gives helpful links and notes";

• “By far the most efficient and informative source for Attic inscriptions";

• “The notes and comments to the texts are highly valuable and up-to-date”;

• “[AIO] significantly improves our ability to find, understand and further investigate these inscriptions” [5.2].

4.2 Helping heritage professionals and visitors to better understand inscriptions

The website is used by museums and curators including the British Museum and the Krateros project in the USA, to better use and present their collections and to improve their accessibility [5.2]. In the 2019/20 survey, 7 out of 8 self-identified collections managers or museum curators said the site had had a significant or transformative impact on their capacity to present Attic inscriptions to visitors [5.2]. Curators from museums, including the British Museum, noted:

• “Inscriptions have been historically difficult to display and visitors often walk past…This project has the great benefit of making inscriptions more accessible both visually and in terms of their content [5.2];

• “The inscriptions here are well organized and the notes are extremely helpful for me as an [museum] educator who is not an expert in the area” [5.2].

AIO is also widening access to Greek inscriptions for both virtual and physical museum visitors. In the 2019/20 survey, 16% of respondents self-identified as a museum visitor. Of these, nearly three quarters reported that being able to access AIO had had a significant or transformative impact on their understanding of Attic inscriptions in a collection they had visited or planned to visit. Respondents stated:

• “It is very useful to have up-to-date details on current locations of inscriptions so that you can know in advance what you are actually going to see in a particular museum”;

• “The historical background and translations provided by AIO finally allow [users] to see inscriptions not as texts on stone but provide the necessary historical context for the texts to be understood” [5.2].

4.3 Transforming educational practices for teaching the history of Ancient Athens

AIO is used globally and has unlocked Ancient Greek inscriptions in both Higher and Secondary education settings. One teacher stated: “It is transformative...for pedagogy, where one is working with students for whom untranslated Greek is either challenging or impossible to work with" [5.2].

According to the 2019/20 user survey, just over half of AIO’s visitors were engaged in teaching or learning [5.2]. To put this in context, around 10% of the 6,500 UK students a year studying Classical subjects at A-level take Ancient History. Additionally, there are approximately 30 University Departments in the UK offering degrees in Classics and/or Ancient History, and a further 8 where Classical options are taught within other degrees. In the 2019/20 survey, 86% of 51 self-identified teaching users rated AIO and its resources to be transformative or significant. 89% of 38 self-identified student users also described it as having a transformative or significant impact on their learning [5.2].

For example, a student noted: “it helped a lot for my studies, [e]specially in lessons [like] Greek Epigraphy, and it made the start of every investigation much more easy and comfortable” [5.2]. Teachers stated that:

• "AIO made it possible to use inscriptions in courses where students do not know any Greek or not enough to read complicated inscriptions: unthinkable before! Epigraphy has been made accessible to students whose majors is not classics or philology”;

• “AIO has also made it much much easier to include Athenian inscriptions (indeed epigraphic material at all) in my teaching”;

• “For teaching, a whole set of evidence is opened up to students that would otherwise never be able to work with it - those who have no working knowledge of Greek” [5.2].

The online format also increased accessibility by removing the financial limitations of expensive specialist volumes; Boris Chubrasik (Assistant Professor, University of Toronto) notes that for teaching, the site is “really transformative, as at this level, we used to have to ‘make do’ with very limited translated documents” [5.3]. The notes, in a format unique to this database, are also reported by users to be particularly supportive of student learning. Professor Michele Faraguna (University of Milan) says it is “a fundamental reference point” in his teaching as “the notes are in turn becoming more and more detailed and helpful” [5.4]. Another user states that “the explanatory notes are really helpful. I think all of this combined helps students connect with and understand epigraphic evidence much better" [5.2].

Teachers have described the many ways in which they use the site in the classroom. For example, Sarah Holliday, Head of Classics at Aylesbury Grammar School (UK), describes AIO as “a very helpful and easy to navigate tool for teaching A2 Ancient History - Greece in Conflict. The translations are modern, all the details are on the screen, including references to literary sources, which is very helpful for worksheet creation!” [5.5]. Another teacher, responding anonymously to the site user survey, stated that they “Used the site recently to prepare materials for a sixth form 'Classics extension trip' to the British Museum - AIO was excellent for this” [5.2].

Two papers published on AIO aim to support teachers and students. AIO10 (1,567 views to date **[5.6]**) is a short guide to the materials available on the site by topic, whilst AIO8 discusses two inscriptions which are prescribed source material for OCR (A-level) Ancient History. AIO8 has been the most visited content page on the site since publication in June 2017 (8,997 views to date **[5.6]**). Teachers identify how these have been used, for example:

• Holliday notes they “gave me a greater level of context to the decrees and had a significant impact on my own understanding, which I was then able to pass on to my students” [5.5].

• Chubrasik states “AIO8 certainly has a significant impact on my teaching of Greek history as I can now easily give this document to students to quickly read up both on the history, and the documents with up-to-date references. I have used AIO10 to guide graduate students into the way of teaching Greek history (and inscriptions more broadly), and I think it has been very effective” [5.3].

4.4 Creation of other archives using AIO’s technical infrastructure

AIO’s successful format and approach inspired the conception and development of Greek Inscriptions Online (GIO), a website run by the Greek Epigraphic Society and the Hellenic Educational and Research Centre. It is the first database of Modern Greek translations of inscriptions from across the Ancient Greek world for use by heritage and educational professionals in Greece [5.7, 5.8]. Andronike Makres, Director of GIO, states that “AIO was the source of inspiration and the model for the creation of GIO” [5.8], and the homepage of GIO credits its infrastructure to AIO: “AIO has made available its unique design and infrastructure to GIO, and the two sites work closely together, sharing epigraphic texts in Ancient Greek, as well as images and other data” [5.8]. AIO committed staff time (including that of the IT Director and the IT and coding assistant) to setting up GIO and coding the initial set of texts [5.8].

The sites share information so that Greek users can also access the English translations on AIO, and vice versa, which Makres notes as a “meaningful and...fundamental operation for the user of the two databases” [5.8]. GIO is awaiting further funding to add 150 inscriptions to expand its current database [5.8].

In summary, Lambert’s research – via the annotated English translations on AIO – opened up access of Attic inscriptions to a diverse range of users around the world. Previously the preserve of specialists, Attic inscriptions are now illuminating the history of ancient Athens and the life of its inhabitants for multiple users, including heritage professionals, museum visitors, teachers, and students.