PROMETHEVS

Αbout the project

PROMETHEUS — Promoting universal human values through digital epigraphy and cultural heritage is a small cooperation project co-funded by the EU programme “Creative Europe”, Culture strand. It is also co-funded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as by the project partners. The project duration is 2 years (2024–2025). The project consortium includes 5 institutions from 3 countries: North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Serbia. The project coordinator is the Archaeological Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia in Skopje, and the remaining partners are the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade, the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, and Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Project activities are divided into five work packages (WPs): 1) Management, administration and coordination; 2) Capacity building; 3) Networking and knowledge sharing; 4) Digitisation of epigraphic monuments; 5) Communication and dissemination.

Epigraphic monuments are an important part of cultural heritage and a valuable source of information about the past. They bear witness to all aspects of human civilisation and provide essential evidence about everyday life, public institutions, politics, and culture. More than any other written historical sources, inscriptions are personal diaries. They record love, loss, sorrow, hope, faith, well-being, honour, pride, respect, success, power and authority, freedom, peace, and war. Thus, they are a reliable means for recognising and promoting universal human values. The countries of South-Eastern Europe and the Balkans possess substantial epigraphic heritage from the Greco-Roman period, reflecting the life, culture, and history of local peoples and their relationships with the civilisations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Inscriptions tell, in their own specific way, stories of inclusion and diversity and can help us better understand these issues in the context of universal human values. The current war in Ukraine and its consequences for Europe and the rest of the world once again remind us that sustaining humanity is an obligation of every generation. Epigraphic heritage has the potential to teach audiences—especially younger generations—about the importance of this obligation.

Over recent decades, epigraphy has undergone a significant evolution as a digital field of research. Various digital corpora of inscriptions meeting the highest scholarly standards have been created. Numerous initiatives have been launched to promote the use of digital technologies for presenting the content of epigraphic monuments to wider audiences, encouraging the study of Greek and Latin, and popularising knowledge of history and culture.

Even so, existing digital models for presenting museum collections and archaeological sites still hesitate to take full advantage of the written content of inscriptions in order to actively engage the public. Digital publication of inscriptions in South-Eastern European and Balkan countries remains weakly developed. Museums in general need models for attracting new publics and engaging them in perceiving and experiencing cultural heritage through digital epigraphy. International cooperation among cultural institutions in the countries of the region needs to be deepened.

The aim of the cooperation between the Archaeological Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia and Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia; Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology), Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria; the Institute for Balkan Studies of SASA; and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia, is to combine established successful practices in the digital edition of inscriptions and in the application of epigraphy as an educational tool, with a view to actively engaging different publics and popularising epigraphic heritage based on promoting universal human values.

The present project stimulates transnational creativity and circulation, enhancing the capacity of cultural institutions for innovation and development. A core focus of its activities is improving access to and interaction with culture for different categories of audiences, as well as engaging and increasing audiences in both physical and digital environments. The activities also concentrate on capacity building, training, professional development, and digitisation.

To achieve these goals, cooperation among South-Eastern European and Balkan countries and other European states focuses on creating a digital collection of ancient Greek and Latin epigraphic monuments from the territories of North Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, accompanied by appropriate digital resources for use by expert and non-expert audiences. This cooperation supports the free exchange of experience, good practices, and knowledge in the field of digital epigraphy and the presentation and popularisation of epigraphic heritage among institutions involved in various aspects of safeguarding and managing cultural heritage. It builds the capacity of museums, archaeological sites, and educational institutions to digitise and document epigraphic monuments and to create and develop their own digital corpora of inscriptions. Even more importantly, it helps them explore possibilities for implementing existing and creating and developing new models for encoding and electronic publication of inscriptions that engage broader audiences in ways enabling everyone to recognise human values as a link between past, present, and future—a link connecting people regardless of gender, race, religion, language, or nationality. The project also builds the capacity of these institutions to present local epigraphic monuments and the cultural heritage of classical antiquity in a way that allows everyone to recognise them as part of the European cultural space.

Ultimately, the project strengthens the capacity of cultural institutions to work more closely with schools and universities and to organise events and activities in which learners will have the opportunity to apply their digital skills, value cultural heritage, and at the same time study Greek and Latin, epigraphy, and history; to learn more about the Greco-Roman roots of European civilisation and modern culture; and to develop their ability to analyse issues related to diversity, inclusion, gender equality, and the environment from a diachronic perspective and from the perspective of universal human values.

The project results are digital and open access, available for application by cultural, educational, and research institutions, as well as by diverse audiences worldwide.

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