Preserving Endangered Heritage: Integrating GeoNames/Pleiades, Armenian Toponyms and Regularization for Cultural Identity Preservation in Conflict Zones

In the face of escalating threats to Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh due to armed conflicts and destruction, urgent measures are imperative to safeguard this invaluable legacy. The Digital Humanities Institute at the EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) is leading an effort to digitize the Armenian epigraphic heritage in Artsakh, where inscriptions and toponyms serve as cultural identifiers. Documenting endangered inscriptions and using the <origin>, <origPlace> and <provenance> tags safeguard historical integrity. Integrating GeoNames and Pleiades enhances accessibility and accuracy, bridging perspectives and preserving heritage. The project's bilingual nature amplifies complexity, as English and Armenian representations are layered with intricate grammar nuances. Lemmatization and regularization ensure consistent proper names, particularly across diverse grammatical cases. In a landscape where cultural heritage preservation is needed, the marriage of external resources, Armenian toponyms, lemmatization and regularization ensures historical accuracy and accessibility. This academic set-up clarifies the methodologies and standards used, emphasizing the preservation of Armenian cultural heritage through digital epigraphy. The set-up of the corpus allows for future enrichment by incorporating additional inscriptions, more detailed historical background information and etymological clarifications about the toponyms. This flexibility ensures that the corpus can continue to grow and provide comprehensive insights into the cultural heritage of Artsakh.