Sunday, February 20, 2022

Mycenaean Atlas Project News

The Mycenaean Atlas Project is happy to announce that it is now possible to see several well-known geographic databases side by side on the same map.  These databases, right now, are the complete Pleiades dataset, the harbor dataset from Arthur de Graauw, and the Topostext dataset from Brady Kiesling.  

Here's what the area of the Piraeus looks like on the new page which I call 'Coverage':

Area of the Piraeus.  Click on map to enlarge.

The key here is 'P' : Pleiades, 'H' : Arthur de Graauw's Harbor site, 'T' : Topostext and the blue paddle is from the Mycenaean Atlas Project.  When you mouse over these icons the tool-tip giving the id no. as well as the name string (if there is one) appears.  When you click on an icon you will see an info box with a link to an appropriate page that gives more info about the site.

The Topostext icons provide a link to the relevant Topostext page.  The Pleiades markers link to the appropriate Pleiades page and the M.A.P. markers link to the right page in the Mycenaean Atlas.  The geo-locations marked with an 'H' link to Arthur de Graauw's splash page only.  It is very unfortunate that M. de Graauw does not have a more significant web presence.  In my view he should be able to provide individual pages for each of his harbor sites.  If these existed then I would happily link to them.

Currently your access to this product is through the M.A.P. Place Key Report page.  On that page you pull down the toolbox drop-down and select 'Coverage'.  When you do that the Coverage page appears with your site in the center.  


Arrow pointing to Coverage Page selector

In this picture the arrow points to the 'coverage' selection on the tool box menu.  This is the Place Key Report page.  The lat/lon center of the coverage page will be the lat/lon position of the site currently being examined.  This is site C1232 for Cape Manika on Euboea.

There is a third parameter to the page which governs how wide an area is searched and shown.  This value ranges from 0.01 to 0.09 and represents fractions of degrees.  0.01 searches a rectangle about 2 km in width and 0.09 searches a rectangle about 18 km in width.  The coverage page is currently defaulted to 0.09.  

The ability to display these datasets on the same map creates what all of us have wanted for a long time - a complete Digital Atlas of the ancient world which covers time periods from the Early Bronze Age to the early Medieval period.   And it is fascinating to look at the several perspectives about what such an atlas should include as seen by the different contributors.

Area of Chalcis on Euboea

de Graauw's harbor markes cluster on the coasts or in the watter.  Topoguide seems to have conentrated on Roman ruins in Chalcis.  Pleiades' coverage here is sparse.  Mycenaean Atlas blue paddles are mostly not where anyone else's are (Bronze Age, don't you know?).


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Now I need to say  some stuff for legal purposes:

Locations associated with an  are the work of Arthur de Graauw and are used with permission (bottom of page).   His site is called "Ancient Coastal Settlements, Ports and Harbours" and is found here.  When a link associated with a  is clicked on the user will be on the splash page of M. de Graauw's site.

Locations denoted by a  are the work of Brady Kiesling and are used with permission. As he says: "Linked Open Data Files for use with appropriate attribution to ToposText."   His site is called "Topostext" and is found here.  When a link associated with a  is clicked on the user will be on the Topostext site.Locations denoted by a  are the work of the Pleiades Project and are used with permission. Their site is called "Pleiades" and is found here.  As they say: "Using, sharing, and remixing of the content is permitted under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (cc-by)."  When a link associated with a  is clicked on the user will be on a Pleiades page.


Each geo-location marker provides a pop-up info box with a link. 
 

 

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