diff --git a/arkindex/documents/admin.py b/arkindex/documents/admin.py
index 86a9931428042b5c9e083a3e31cc32d351947c46..780d873212e2ef2e794443df98d8b6102337004b 100644
--- a/arkindex/documents/admin.py
+++ b/arkindex/documents/admin.py
@@ -110,8 +110,8 @@ class ElementAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
 
 
 class TranscriptionAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
-    list_display = ('id', 'text', 'confidence', 'element', )
-    fields = ('id', 'text', 'confidence', 'element', )
+    list_display = ('id', 'text', 'confidence', 'orientation', 'element', )
+    fields = ('id', 'text', 'confidence', 'orientation', 'element', )
     readonly_fields = ('id', )
     raw_id_fields = ('element', )
 
diff --git a/arkindex/documents/migrations/0046_transcription_orientation.py b/arkindex/documents/migrations/0046_transcription_orientation.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d790743787e258c023c3c43cc4a59b041754b498
--- /dev/null
+++ b/arkindex/documents/migrations/0046_transcription_orientation.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# Generated by Django 3.2.6 on 2021-10-22 08:27
+
+import enumfields.fields
+from django.db import migrations
+
+import arkindex.documents.models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('documents', '0045_alter_element_rotation_angle'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AddField(
+            model_name='transcription',
+            name='orientation',
+            field=enumfields.fields.EnumField(default='horizontal-lr', enum=arkindex.documents.models.TextOrientation, max_length=50),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/arkindex/documents/models.py b/arkindex/documents/models.py
index c497296680d468ac87aabe168e2b923bc5e2afcb..be9bdb05f4ebda00185dd53adf41603d444a1d0c 100644
--- a/arkindex/documents/models.py
+++ b/arkindex/documents/models.py
@@ -486,6 +486,13 @@ class EntityLink(models.Model):
         super().save(*args, **kwargs)
 
 
+class TextOrientation(Enum):
+    HorizontalLeftToRight = 'horizontal-lr'
+    HorizontalRightToLeft = 'horizontal-rl'
+    VerticalRightToLeft = 'vertical-rl'
+    VerticalLeftToRight = 'vertical-lr'
+
+
 class Transcription(models.Model):
     """
     A transcription on:
@@ -505,6 +512,7 @@ class Transcription(models.Model):
         blank=True,
     )
     text = models.TextField()
+    orientation = EnumField(TextOrientation, default=TextOrientation.HorizontalLeftToRight, max_length=50)
     confidence = models.FloatField(null=True, blank=True)
     entities = models.ManyToManyField(
         Entity,
diff --git a/arkindex/sql_validation/indexer_prefetch.sql b/arkindex/sql_validation/indexer_prefetch.sql
index fb0d83034e1f5073e87b69ff7f7c59d5fe8f81cf..9aba9063ff974d2de0883fad4b91b5504e137686 100644
--- a/arkindex/sql_validation/indexer_prefetch.sql
+++ b/arkindex/sql_validation/indexer_prefetch.sql
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ SELECT "documents_transcription"."id",
        "documents_transcription"."element_id",
        "documents_transcription"."worker_version_id",
        "documents_transcription"."text",
+       "documents_transcription"."orientation",
        "documents_transcription"."confidence"
 FROM "documents_transcription"
 WHERE "documents_transcription"."element_id" IN ('{page_id}'::uuid);