Reception of Antiquity in a Semantic Network: Digital Books, Images and Objects

The aim of the project is the reconstruction and online publication of about 1700 prints, which appeared between 1500 and 1900. In a next step forms of semantic networks are to be approached in separate subprojects. This is to be illustrated through the direct contextualisation of objects from Philipp von Stosch's Gem Collection.

The aim of the project "Reception of Antiquity in a Semantic Network" within the Arachne database is the development and provision of web-based prints from the period between 1500 and 1830. The project’s basis is defined by engravings to classical, Near Eastern and Egyptian Archaeology of the 16th till the 19th century from the library of the Rome Department of the DAI. These early prints (e.g. travel, research and excavation reports, catalogs) have been published in the examination of the excavations and discoveries of ancient cultures in the Mediterranean region.

A total of 2,300 engravings will be processed. Of these 1,200 (status of July 2013) are digitized in a way, that they are available as searchable full text (OCR). In addition, the in the engraving presented objects are contextualized. This primarily concerns the structural metadata of the prints as tables of contents, the presence of images or captions, but also bibliographic data of the book. These are structured in collaboration with the DAI’s ZENON database by using the TEI editor which was developed for this purpose by the CoDArchLab. That is the technical book division into cover, title page, table of contents, table etc. which is tagged by using the TEI editor’s user interface, so links are created in a standardized way.

Among the semantic metadata the objects pictured and described in the prints, and also its places and people are primarily relevant. This information will be identified and linked to the corresponding information in the image and object database Arachne, i.e. on the one hand to "real" objects and also to the relevant collection, topography and reception records. If this information is not yet available in Arachne, the corresponding records are created.

Looking up the Stoss'schen gem collection you find the contextualizing of the semantic metadata deepened. The digitized titles will also be found on the Metasearch of the Virtual Library "PropylaeumSEARCH2".

The four and a half year project "Reception of Antiquity in a Semantic Network" began in September 2009 and is funded by the DFG.

The following institutions are involved: Rome Departement of the DAI, the head office of the DAI in Berlin, the CoDArchLab in Cologne, ZENON database and the Winckelmann-Gesellschaft Stendal.
The expected findings of the overall project concerning former storage places, collection history and publication of archaeological history until the end of the 19th century will offer many insights to the prospective research into the change of the antiques understanding during the Baroque, Enlightenment and Classicism. Thus, the project provides insights into the history of archeology, in the reception of antiquity of various epochs, in the history of various collections and the development of archaeological publications. Ultimately, the project contributes to the interdisciplinary and cultural historical research.

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