DASI

Digital Archive for the Study of pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions

DASI provides open access to the edition of ancient texts from the Arabian Peninsula, contributing to the digital preservation and dissemination of one of the richest written traditions of the ancient Near East. At its core is the ongoing digitisation of the Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions. By combining texts, contextual data, and advanced search tools, the platform supports a holistic exploration of the region’s epigraphic heritage.

CSAI - Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions

The ASA (Ancient South Arabian) corpus is one of the most interesting collections of inscribed documents of the Semitic world, first and foremost for its vastness. With its over 18,000 texts, it is the first-hand, written documentation of the culture that flourished in South Arabia from the late second millennium BCE to the sixth century CE. CSAI provides access to corpora of inscriptions in the main ASA languages (Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and Ḥaḍramitic), as well as to collections of ASA epigraphic and non-epigraphic objects hosted in a number of museums worldwide. At present, CSAI contains a collection of over 9,000 texts. Its enrichment is in progress.

380 georeferenced sites

DAAA

Digital Atlas of Ancient Arabia

The Digital Atlas of Ancient Arabia is an open-access tool with geolocated archaeological and epigraphic data. It supports studies on settlement patterns, pantheons, languages, and tribes of Ancient Arabia, helping define cultural and political entities and their evolution. The DAAA is an output of the ANR-funded project MAPARABIA, and is published under the coordination of J. Schiettecatte (CNRS-UMR8167). DASI is data provider for the geo-database of the DAAA.

DiCoNab

Digital Corpus of the Nabataean and Developing Arabic Inscriptions

DiCoNab collects and publishes the Nabataean and Developing Arabic inscriptions discovered across the Arabian Peninsula and neighboring regions. A first attempt at the inclusion of Nabataean inscriptions from Arabia in DASI was started during the course of DASI ERC-funded project under the supervision of L. Nehmé. In 2022, the DiCoNab project was launched by L. Nehmé at the CNRS-UMR8167.

GAA

Gazetteer of Ancient Arabia

The digital Gazetteer of Ancient Arabia is a thesaurus of places in the Arabian Peninsula attested in textual sources, with DASI as the main data provider. It includes natural and anthropic features, as well as political and social entities. It enables their identification, description, and possible location, also defining semantic relations among them. The GAA is an output of the ANR-funded project MAPARABIA, and is published under the coordination of I. Rossi (CNR-ISPC).

OCIANA

Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

OCIANA was born as an AHRC-funded project at the University of Oxford. An initial collaboration of the OCIANA and the DASI projects led to availability of a number of Dadanitic inscriptions in DASI. Subsequently, the OCIANA database was published online by the University of Oxford and is now based at the Ohio State University, coordinated by A. Al-Jallad and M.C.A. Macdonald. It currently gives access to ca. 40,000 ANA inscriptions, most of which in the Safaitic script.