Latin Inscriptions for Digital and Extracurricular Learning

SISTE VIATOR – „Stop, wanderer!“ This Latin inscription, frequently found on gravestones, became the guiding motto of an exceptional educational project. From 2022 to 2025, the LIDAL project (Latin Inscriptions for Digital and Extracurricular Learning) at the University of Graz, in cooperation with the University of Potsdam, successfully built bridges between academia, schools, and society.

The three-year Sparkling Science project pursued three central goals, all of which were successfully implemented:

(1) Through an innovative Citizen Science approach, interested citizens were able to report Latin inscriptions from their surroundings. This participatory approach resulted in approximately 200 additional inscription discoveries, which were transcribed, translated, and incorporated into the project database. The Citizen Scientists thus made a substantial contribution to documenting epigraphic heritage and impressively demonstrated how citizen science can enrich academic research.

(2) The core of the project was the intensive collaboration with seven grammar schools from Austria and Germany. Over 120 inscriptions were didactically prepared by pupils together with fifteen student assistants. The young people collected, photographed, and transcribed the inscriptions, developed translations, and created exercises for classroom use. These were quality-assured by the scientific team and prepared for the emerging web portal. The collaboration with teachers proved particularly fruitful. Through regular working meetings, project seminars, and the annual “Graz Latin Day” or “Graz Antiquity Day”, continuous exchange between university and schools was established. Teachers received new impulses for their teaching in special didactic workshops, such as a session on “Inscriptions in Everyday Spaces”. The developed web portal now offers an innovative digital learning tool that can be used across subjects in Latin, history, and other disciplines. The materials enable both real and virtual “inscription tours” that promote individual learning inside and outside the classroom. A particular highlight were the Congresses in June 2023 and May 2024, where pupils presented their research results in a university setting. These events impressively demonstrated how young people can become active researchers and practice scientific presentation formats.

(3) The accompanying scientific investigations provided new insights into the use of inscriptions in teaching and digitalization in the humanities. The successful test phase at Pestalozzi Gymnasium Graz confirmed the practical applicability of the developed materials. The project was accompanied by diverse public relations work, including coverage in local newspapers and national television, as well as public workshops at the city library and Urania Graz.

The now-completed web portal makes Latin inscriptions permanently accessible as living testimonies of cultural history and transforms them into active learning opportunities. It stands as a sustainable result of the successful collaboration between university, schools, and engaged citizens and will be continuously expanded. LIDAL has shown how traditional humanities can develop new social relevance through participatory approaches and digital methods.