Today the American Numismatic Society and
the Institute of Archaeology of
University College London, UK, launch an important new tool for the
analysis of Roman Republican coin hoards.
Coin Hoards of the Roman
Republic Online
<http://numismatics.org/chrr/>(CHRR Online) is a collaboration between
Rick Witschonke and Ethan Gruber
at the ANS and Dr. Kris Lockyear of UCL.
The new web-based tool makes available in searchable form the contents
of a
database created by Dr. Lockyear of 694 Roman Republican Coin hoards and
the 115,000 coins that they contain. The new tool, which is based on the
Numishare technology, makes it possible to browse, search, map and analyze
the evidence of Roman coin finds in new and exciting ways.
“The database was initially created on a PC for my PhD, but it has
continued to be expanded since then and forms the basis of my book Patterns
and Process in the Late Roman Republican Coin
Hoards<http://books.google.com/books/about/Patterns_and_Process_in_Late_Roman_Repub.html?id=DS5oAAAAMAAJ>,
where it is used, amongst other things, to investigate the size of late
Republican coin issues, the date of the import of Republican denarii to
Dacia and the patterning created by the events of the civil wars. I am very
grateful to Professor Michael Crawford for allowing me access to his
unpublished archive held in the British Museum”, noted Dr Lockyear. “It was
obvious that the database, the result of over twenty years work, was a
valuable resource that could help others in their research if I could make
it widely available. As the database continues to grow, updates will be
posted to the online version, which I hope will encourage others to share
information.”
The potential for the ANS to help in the process of online publication was
spotted by curatorial associate Rick Witschonke. “It was clear that Kris’
database dovetailed very neatly with work being carried out at the ANS to
create stable identities for numismatic concepts on the web”, explains
Witschonke. “We were very fortunate also to be in touch with the curators
at the British Museum, Ian Leins and Eleanor Ghey, who generously made
available to us the work they had recently undertaken to
catalogue<http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/rrc/roman_republican_coins/roman_republican_coinage.aspx>the
BM collection. By bringing together their data and Kris’ hoard
database
with the work that ANS has been undertaking at
Nomisma.org<http://www.nomisma.org/>,
we were able to create a new tool based on Linked Open Data principles.”
The creation of the new web tool was the work of ANS database developer
Ethan Gruber. The integration of Roman Republican Coinage coin types
defined by Nomisma.org into CHRR Online enables maps and timelines showing
the geographic and temporal extent of hoards. Furthermore, users of the
quantitative analysis interface may compare the distribution of selected
typological attributes across numerous hoards, visualizing results in the
form of graphs or downloading data in CSV for more sophisticated analyses.
For example, one may compare the distribution of mints or issuers across
dozens of hoards: a common numismatic query, delivered nearly
instantaneously.
“The CHRR project is wonderful example of the way that ANS is working with
multiple partners to create new resources for our members and the whole
community of collectors and scholars” notes ANS Executive Director Ute
Wartenberg Kagan. “By sharing our data in standard, open formats, we
increase its power hugely. The ANS is currently at the forefront of the
development of digital tools for numismatics at an international level. It
is tremendously exciting to see another tool launched today.”
