DEAPS
Digital Editions of Aramaic and Phoenecian Sources

About This Project

The Digital Edition of Aramaic and Phoenician Sources (DEAPS) is a subproject of the OSU Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures’ Digital Lab for Ancient Textual Objects (DLATO).

Structure of DEAPS

DEAPS is the first DLATO subproject to employ the lab’s core database structure. All data is curated in a PostgreSQL database—no markup languages are used. Each record is centered on a single textual object, regardless of how many compositions appear in or on that object. The core database allows researchers to fully describe the object (metadata), present various editions and translations of the object’s textual content, and fully "tag" that content. The database is expandable—for instance, prosopographic or paleographic data may be captured, though these features are currently not included in the web version. Visit the DLATO website to learn more about the data structure shared across DLATO subprojects.

Content of DEAPS

The content of DEAPS is selected and pushed to the DEAPS website from Professor James D. Moore’s personal research database. As of July 2025, that database contains over 5,000 textual objects, with that number continuing to grow quickly thanks to collaborations with international scholars and graduate students.

The scope of the content’s first phase is the Achaemenid Persian period and reflects Moore’s and his collaborators’ research focus. The database is expanding from there to include as many ancient sources as possible. There is no intention, however, to duplicate data from affiliated projects, but rather to link out to them.

For affiliated projects see the DLATO page.

Features of DEAPS

The initial website release in summer 2025 includes the main features of a digital edition, though the underlying research database contains significantly more data. The project is currently seeking user feedback to guide further development. Please send suggestions to: dlato@osu.edu.

The current features include:

  • A simple search landing page for locating objects by name (usually a collection number) or by title, when available or supplied by the project.
  • An advanced search with options to query:
    • Strings of text in Unicode Hebrew or Syriac characters
    • Strings of translated text
    • Objects by collection
    • Objects by language
    • Objects by script
  • A search results page offering both list and grid views, as well as a map view showing the locations of collections and their find-spots.
  • Individual object records with metadata, bibliography, and editions.
  • A parallel view feature, allowing up to four editions or translations to be displayed side-by-side.
  • An apparatus providing lexical information for each word selected in a record's edition, along with grammatical analysis, bibliography, or commentary notes for each word when available.
  • A searchable basic lexicon, offering parts of speech, basic meanings, and available bibliographic or commentative notes.
  • A searchable bibliography that links each bibliographic item to the objects it references. (The bibliography is powered by Zotero’s API and supports a single-field search with query parsing.)
  • A “Suggest a Correction” link on each object's record page.
  • A citation at the bottom of each record for publication purposes.
  • Photographs or links to published photographs can be found on each record when the photograph is available.