CELSUS

Nicole HIGH-STESKAL
(Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, Austria)

Keywords: archaeology, digitization, text encoding, linked open data

Abstract:
CELSUS is an archaeological digitization project focused on the creation of a spatially driven digital edition of the monograph series Forschungen in Ephesos (FiE), a publication series edited by the Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI). It was first started in 1906 and represents the most important results of the Austrian excavations in Ephesos to date.
In keeping with the tradition of the FiE, the topographical approach will be retained and geo-spatial data will play an important role in linking texts across volumes and also to gazetteers. The monuments of Ephesos have not yet been marked on many of the openly accessible gazetteers. Part of the project will involve mapping our detailed GIS data of Ephesos to these gazetteers along with the creation of an ontology of the names used to refer to these places in German as well as in English and Turkish. The aim is to facilitate research by encouraging users to move between the texts and map interface in order to explore the full history and research history of a single place. Furthermore, the discoverability of the research will be enhanced by multi-lingual query capabilities of the standardized and harmonized toponym gazetteers.
This project makes use of knowledge networks and spatial data infrastructures. It extends the previous developments with a cartographic perspective that intends to enhance geospatial relations and the thematic information of FiE.