Hesperia, a database for palaeohispanic languages; and AELAW, a database for the ancient european languages and writings. challenges, solutions, prospects

Abstract

Hesperia. Banco de datos de lenguas paleohispánicas and AELAW. Ancient European Languages and Writings are two narrowly linked projects whose common feature is their general aim: cataloguing the documents written in the ancient languages of Europe (8th cent. BCE-5th cent. CE) excluding Latin, Greek, and Phoenician. Although both projects are closely linked, BDHesp has a track record of twenty years, while AELAW has been active for only two and a half years. In this paper, where we have especially focused on BDHesp, we summarize the problems that arose during the encoding of Palaeohispanic languages, written in multiple writing systems and their variants, and the solutions addressed. We also present the promising tools that have been developed in BDHesp to make significant progress in our understanding of Palaeohispanic languages and writings. Lastly, we introduce AELAW network and its two databases, its aims and what we intend to accomplish in the future.