New Classical Art Resources – CLAROS and ArtStor

Late last week the new CLAROS digital image system debuted.  This open project, based at Oxford with many international partners, provides access to digital images of classical art (and other collections). The images are searchable and browseable, with multiple facets possible (i.e., one can show all  skyphoi from Vulci).  Of special interest are the image-matching searches, available for classical sculpture and pottery, which use digital technology to examine an image you upload or link to and find matches in the CLAROS database.  The project also makes use of structured metadata (RDF, JSON, KML) and advanced users can create detailed SPARQL queries.

Not new, but new to UGA subscribers, we now have access to ArtStor (link takes you through the UGA system and will ask for a password if you are off campus).  This resource includes high-quality digital images with good metadata from museums and other collections around the world.  The site is searchable and browseable, and the creation of a free account allows the user to save images in groups and download sets of images to use offline.

From Claros: http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/recordDetails.asp?id=236C2446-5C9D-4DC9-8A02-8EB1095C6F48

Crowdsource Pleiades, Online Classical Atlas

Pleiades, the online classical atlas, is inviting the (scholarly) public to “adopt” a classical place for Valentine’s Day.  Tom Elliot at Horothesia writes:

Here are some examples of things you could do (many of them quickly) to enhance the content in Pleiades:

• Add a modern name for an ancient settlement (see, for example: http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/579885, sub “Names:”)

• Add Greek orthography to an existing ancient name record that only has a transliteration (compare, for example, http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/638753/stauropolis and http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/599612/arsinoeia)

• Add a link to a corresponding entry in:
  • Wikipedia (e.g., http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/142847211, sub “References:”)
  • The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites at Perseus (e.g., http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/599659, sub “References”)
  • FastiOnline (e.g., http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/481808, sub “References”)

• Add a link to the website of a current excavation of that site (e.g., http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/550595, sub “Details” and “References”)

• Add a link to a book in the Internet Archive or Google Books that treats the place or name in question (e.g., http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/638753/ninoe, sub “Primary Reference Citations:”)

• Flesh out the description of a place
  • A little bit (e.g., compare http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/912910/ to the original version of the resource, as imported)
  • A lot (e.g., compare http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/727153 to the original version)

Here are some ways you could use links to Pleiades to enrich content elsewhere on the web

• Add a Pleiades URI to a blog post or web site that you author or edit (e.g., http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2011/01/schliemann-diaries-online-at-ascsa.html — scroll down)
• Add a Pleiades URI to comments on a Flickr or Panoramio or Picasa image (e.g., http://www.flickr.com/photos/isawnyu/5054947503/)

I’m trying to decide what place to adopt; since Pleiades only covers the Greek and Roman world, my favorite Bronze Age sites are not included.  (Ooh, I just thought of one for me – I’ll do Halieis!)  Surely you have a favorite, too?

I’m also writing to a couple of the faculty members I work with to suggest this as an assignment for their classes – even as an optional, extra-credit sort of assignment.  In Classics this semester there’s a 2000-level class in Classical Archaeology and a 4000-level class in Roman Cities, where the major semester assignment is to report on a specific place – this would fit right in to either, and since we lost a week at the start of the semester, syllabi are still in flux for many faculty.

iPads in New Places!

In the trenches, that is.  At the University of Cincinnati’s excavations at Pompeii (note, this links to the Apple site, so it’s essentially an ad, but the content seems fairly neutrally descriptive and not too puffed up, and there are pictures!)

I’ve never taken any kind of computer into the field with me – though I have toted a digital camera (I haven’t been a field archaeologist since 2001).  I have indeed suffered through the toil of data input from paper notes to the big database.  But I’d worry a lot about breaking the iPad…

Resource Roundup: Topography of Rome

I got a mysterious email from GIL (UGA’s online library catalog) this past week.  Someone sent me the catalog record for Platner and Ashby’s Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome.  The mystery part is, there was no note or accompanying email from anyone I know explaining that they’d sent it to me because…   Possibly the catalog is developing HAL-like tendencies and wants to tell me something.  I’m choosing to take it as a sign from the universe that I should do a blog post about resources for the topography of Rome.

I originally put these together for a page of resources for the UGA Study Abroad summer program in Rome.  A big part of the curriculum is the topography of Rome class, and there are now many wonderful digital resources available on this topic.

• Google Earth Ancient Rome 3D Requires the download of Google Earth; Rome is presented is 320 C.E.
  
• Rome Reborn (UVA) This academic consortial project began in 1997 and furnished the models for the Google Earth Ancient Rome layer; their goal is to model the city from ca. 1000 B.C.E. to 550 C.E.
  
• Aquae Urbis Romae (UVA) A cartographic exploration of the relationship between Rome’s water supply and urban development; currently explores 750 B.C.E to 1700 C.E.
  
• Digital Roman Forum (UCLA) Displays images of the buildings in the Forum on June 21, 400 C.E.
  
• Interactive Nolli Map (Oregon) Exploration of various aspects of Giambattista Noli’s 1748 map of Rome, with maps and essays.
  
• Digital Forma Urbis Romae (Stanford) The 1186 fragments of the Severan Marble Plan of Rome (ca. 203-211 C.E.), with essays and bibliography.
  
• Lacus Curtius (Chicago) Includes a gazetteer of Rome (Topographia Urbis Romae) and the full text of Platner and Ashby’s Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome.

Not Rome, but Roman, and very cool: Google Street View now includes Pompeii!

(The mystery eventually got solved – our Reference copy of Platner and Ashby has gone walkabout.  While the Circulation staff does a search, if you’re the person who wanted it, let me know – I’ll hook you up with the online version!)