While they may study places and people that are thousands of years old, scholars at UNC are at the forefront of modernizing antiquity.

Researchers long have had to dip into hefty and static atlases to study the stomping grounds of Alexander the Great or the Roman emperors, but they soon will be able to do so on a comprehensive, open-source database on the Internet -- thanks to UNC's Ancient World Mapping Center.

The group started the project this month with the help of a $390,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Mapping center leaders hope the online project will serve as a template for other humanities scholars to incorporate technology into their research.

"You think it's all so old, boring and crusty," Richard Talbert, principal investigator of the project, said of the classics. "But it's not."

Talbert, a history and classics professor at UNC, spent 12 years editing the last large atlas of classical lands. The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, which was published in 2000, was the first work of its kind since the 1870s.

The book's 100 maps illustrate the classical world -- from the British Isles to the Indian subcontinent and into North Africa -- from 1000 B.C. to 640 A.D.

Praised by scholars, the volume does have limitations. The printed maps don't allow for easy inclusion of new discoveries. And at about three feet long and costing around $350, the book is not always accessible for readers.

"The more I got into it, I realized that this was likely only a beginning," Talbert said of his work on the Barrington Atlas.

Soon after that volume was published, the Ancient World Mapping Center was born at UNC and, with it, the idea to digitalize the maps.

The center also works on online and printed maps for beginning students, and audible maps for the visually impaired. The newest project is called Pleiades, after the daughters of Atlas in ancient mythology.

Pleiades' director, Tom Elliott, has a background in both the old and the new. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Duke and a doctoral degree in ancient history from UNC.

Pleiades, which will bring the information from the Barrington Atlas online, will minimize some of the disadvantages of the printed text, Elliott said. For one, scholars can easily alter the maps to include new discoveries.

The online database also will emphasize collaboration. Somewhat like the Web site Wikipedia, anyone -- from university professors to casual students of antiquity -- can suggest updates to the maps. Pleiades will have a team of editors review the suggestions for accuracy.

The site also will connect with databases at other universities. Site visitors looking for a place on a map also may be able to find an overview of excavations that occurred there or listings of where it is mentioned in literature.

Elliott said he hoped the endeavor would lead other humanist scholars to incorporate technology into their research. The link is more intuitive in the sciences, and researchers in the humanities often have little training in the ways that technology can enhance their research, he said.