Among the numerous issues faced by an increasing number of transdisciplinary databases, the development of isolated “data silos” is among the most prevalent. With the digitization of research results and creation of digitally accessible resources being not only encouraged but demanded of Humanities scholarship, we are reaching an impasse between digital possibility and scholarly sensibility. Developed within the framework of the ERC project «Deconstructing Early Christian Metanarratives: Fourth-Century Egyptian Christianity in the Light of Material Evidence» (DEChriM; 2019–2024), the 4CARE («4th-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt») database assembles an exhaustive scope of attestations of Early Christianity from 4th century CE Egypt, generating a dataset which is linked and wherever possible geo-referenced. This is achieved in a two-part structure: the Artefacts section of 4CARE contains entries of all material evidence, both textual (papyri, ostraca, tablets, inscriptions) and non-textual (objects, wares, ornamental/funerary elements); the Sites section provides relevant locations and findspots as individual entries, complete with archaeological background, geolocation, maps and 3D models. Spanning the fields of archaeology, ancient history, papyrology, epigraphy, and theology, the database operates at the intersection of connected disciplines with different methodologies and use of materials. The resource serves as a geo-chronological view on the emergence of a religion in a defined region, drawing from and uniting material both previously digitized and not digitized (i.a., print editions of textual evidence, photographs of objects from collections), and featuring direct links to pertinent platforms and resources (incl. universal identifiers such as Trismegistos IDs for texts and places). This presentation uses the 4CARE database as an example for the combination and interconnection of movable and immovable heritage in a single, publicly accessible framework, one that encourages community across platforms within a specialized theme which is of interest to a wide array of fields. ---------------- Additional material in the form of a poster is available on Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7706079).

{"references": ["4CARE 2023 \u2013 Ghica, Victor, Mary Jane Cuyler, Sofia Heim, Aaltje Hidding, Alexandra Konstantinidou, Victoria G. D. Landau, Florence Lemaire, Julie Monchamp, Matthias M\u00fcller, Val\u00e9rie Schram, H\u00e5kon F. Teigen and Rhiannon Williams. 2023. 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/4care-database/."]}

Presentation Video – DHNB YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDahR-X7XLQ