DIGITAL ICONOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF NUMISMATICS IN ANTIQUITY

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V19 2016 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 19, Number 25, June 19, 2016, Article 8

This new web site was referenced in last week's issue of The Explorator newsletter. Sponsored by the University of Messina, Italy, it's called DIANA, the Digital Iconographic Atlas of Numismatics in Antiquity -Editor

Nowadays, in the field of science of antiquity, there are a lot of digital archives and web applications that allow to display ancient entities and artifacts on digital maps. Entities may include, e.g., gods, abstract personifications, historical personages, etc. Artifacts may include coins, weapons, architecture, etc. In particular, ancient coins represent also out-and-out documents that need to be properly studied and analyzed. From the point of view of numismatics, there are not so many web applications enabling researchers to perform an in-depth analysis of the coin iconography.

Some web solutions make it possible to retrieve data and display the location of ancient mints and coin finds on digital maps, but they do not present codified and detailed descriptions of coin iconographies. The Digital Iconographic Atlas of Numismatics in Antiquity (DIANA) aims to fulfill such a gap. With DIANA it is possible to study both “diachrony” and "diatopy" with a new innovative approach starting from ancient coins. In fact, DIANA is a web application that provides an in-depth analysis of ancient coins specifically considering the details of their iconography, chronology, and the geographical location of their mints. Thanks to this approach, DIANA allows a more detailed study of coin iconographies through time and space than other existing web applications.

It is a web platform that allows researchers to analyze the “coin iconography” according to time and space through digital maps. In order to build digital maps, the system uses the Cloud Computing Google Maps Platform as a Service (PaaS). A mint can be searched on DIANA considering a target coin iconography through a web form. By means of AJAX requests, data are retrieved on the DIANA's digital archive and they are sent in XML format to the user's web browser. After that, the web browser processes the received data and it forwards a second AJAX request to the Google Map PaaS that returns a digital map displaying the mint and ancient coins.

This seems like a great resource for researchers. Please have a look and let us know what you think. Write a short review for The E-Sylum! -Editor