As part of our latest IT development (May-June 2020), our database can now be searched at the level of individual coins and our list of bibliographical references is accessible to everybody. Other improvements include enhanced map features and search functionalities.
This current IT development is conducted by the Oxford University CMS and Web Platforms Team: Markos Ntoumpanakis, Martin King and John Tarling (as web developers) and Ruth Mason as Team leader.
Search by coins
Our dataset now allows searches involving criteria relevant to individual coins (e.g. authority, mint, denomination, material). Results are displayed either according to hoards or to individual coins. Both options display the results in list form, but also on maps. All results are downloadable in CSV files.
Map result for a search for provincial tetradrachms minted in Antioch.
Bibliographical references
Our list of more than 4000 bibliographical references is now available to search for all. We have a simple search, but also an advanced search with a selection of fields that one can interrogate (author, title, year of publication). As far as possible, each entry is linked to iDAI.bibliography https://zenon.dainst.org and provides a link to a stable online resource giving access to the text of the publication. Each entry now also displays links to all the hoards in which a given reference is used.
Maps
All our maps can now be viewed in full screen mode, with various levels of zoom available. Our maps display Terrain (© Mapbox) by default. Next to Modern Day (© OpenStreetMap) and Satellite view (© Googlemaps), Imperium map tiles are now available as well, by courtesy of the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE), Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH), University of Gothenburg, Sweden, https://dh.gu.se/dare.
All hoards entered so far for Morocco.
Ancient Place names
We have extended the mapping of geographical information to encompass Ancient Place Names.
Hoard locations have been matched with relevant entries from the Pleiades gazetteer (https://pleiades.stoa.org). In addition to the Pleiades URI, we also give links to Wikipedia. All hoards from the same site are now connected together and their list appears under each Ancient site entry.
Further enhanced search functionalities
The search by material for coins has been simplified to encompass only three options: gold, silver and bronze.
The wildcards ? and * are now supported when one searches for coin type numbers in a publication (e.g. RRC or RIC numbers).
URIs for searches are now visible, allowing to save results from a query: see here for the example above of all provincial tetradrachms minted in Antioch (Syria).
Marguerite Spoerri Butcher, May-June 2020
