A digital project to make fragmentary manuscripts from Graeco-Roman antiquity (300BC – 800AD) available to scholars and the public was developed by Dr Dirk Obbink from the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Classics.
Impacts included:
• Raising awareness of an aspect of our cultural heritage through the digital preservation of manuscripts, their dissemination, and through engagement with the general public.
• Strengthening international links between the UK and Greece.
• Informing discussions in the Italian parliament around archaeological sites, and leading to World Heritage status for the Villa of Papyri at Herculaneum.
Digitised manuscripts, including enhanced multi-spectral images, previously unpublished texts and English translations, will soon be available on the project’s website http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk. There are plans to enlist thousands of participants from the general public in the ongoing project of cataloguing and transcribing the huge mass of ancient manuscripts, over half a million in number. The research questions will look at ways of weighting the accuracy and editing of this crowd-sourced data. The public will have access to these results on-line in the form of controlled transcripts and translations. Dr Obbink will also be making a BBC documentary with Michael Wood on ancient evidence for Alexander the Great’s most successful battle, which has revealed its previously unknown location.
The manuscripts have created particular interest in Greece, where the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs have been long-standing supporters of the project. Both Ministries have funded a series of conferences linked to the project in Greece, so that many of the manuscripts could be discussed in their land of origin. The links with Greece were further highlighted when the Greek Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyannis, requested a visit to the project and to meet the staff on her last visit to Oxford on official government business.
The work of the project team has also informed discussions in the Italian parliament regarding the reopening of archaeological excavations at Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town on the Bay of Naples. This led to the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum being declared a World Heritage site, and so opening up funding and centring the attention of the Italian Archaeological Superintendency on the site. The Herculaneum Society project was also formed and incorporated as a charitable organisation for the preservation and dissemination of information about Herculaneum.
Further details:
www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy
http://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk
Further information:
These short overviews have been produced as an aid to understanding some of the impacts arising from arts and humanities research. The examples are taken from existing AHRC projects, ranging from small awards up to large Research Grants and Centres. They are not exhaustive; impact from research takes many forms. It can occur at any stage of the research process, from its beginning to well after the research itself has finished.
The Research Councils define impact as the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy. This definition accords with the Royal Charters of the Councils and with HM Treasury guidance on the appraisal of economic impact. Impact embraces all the extremely diverse ways in which research-related knowledge and skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations by:
• fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom
• increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy, and
• enhancing quality of life, health and creative output
These case studies offer some, but in no way all, of the diversity and variety of those impacts. They are not, however, intended as guidance on completing the Impact Requirements sections on proposals, for which you should refer to the Je-S guidance for Standard Grant proposals and Fellowship proposals.
It should also be remembered that the impacts described here will not necessarily be replicated by undertaking the same activities. The pathways to impact are as diverse and varied as the impacts themselves. These examples can, however, provide some illustration of what can be achieved.