Digital Epigraphy and the Study of Ancient Slavery

Abstract

The digitisation of the overwhelming majority of ancient evidence has made possible the emergence of Big Data and their utilisation by projects which concern the actions of millions of people. SLaVEgents represents the first large-scale project combining digital humanities, big data and history from below in order to explore the agency of enslaved persons in antiquity. It is building an open-access, interlinked digital prosopography that will provide a single point of entry for the study of all ancient slaves, freed persons and possible slaves attested between 1000 BCE-300 CE. Based on and documenting sources across multiple ancient languages, SLaVEgents researches the multiple identities of enslaved persons; the networks and communities that they created or participated in and the ways in which slave agency led to major political, social, economic and cultural changes in antiquity. This article offers an overview of the digital epigraphy of ancient slavery made possible by SLaVEgents and the surprising patterns that emerge from the collection of the evidence in regards to the distribution of manumission inscriptions, slave epitaphs and dedications, and occupational references.