Indeed, that's very much the type of resource we were talking about in
London?
Richard
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Light
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 9:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fwd: [MCN-L] OCRE A major new tool for Roman numismatics
May be of interest ...
Richard
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [MCN-L] OCRE A major new tool for Roman numismatics
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:28:25 -0400
From: Ethan Gruber <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Museum Computer Network Listserv <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask], Museum Computer Network Listserv
<[log in to unmask]>
Today, in collaboration with New York University??s Institute for the Study
of the Ancient World, the American Numismatic Society launches a major new
tool to aid in the identification, research and cataloging of the coins of
the ancient world.
OCRE (*Online Coins of the Roman Empire*) (http://numismatics.org/ocre/) is
an attempt to present, in an easily searchable form, all the varieties of
the coinage issued by the emperors of ancient Rome. Phase 1, which is
launched today, covers the coinage of the first emperors, from Augustus to
Hadrian (27 BC ?? AD 138).
The site presents a basic description of each published variety based on
the ANS?? collection catalogue (MANTIS <http://numismatics.org/search>).
Each of these type descriptions is linked to specimens present in the ANS
collection and, where available, to images. Searches are made
straightforward through a series of facets, presented in a way that will
already be familiar to users of other ANS search tools.
Traditional searches of familiar numismatic categories such as obverse and
reverse legends and types are provided, in the hope that OCRE will provide
an identification tool useful to collectors, dealers, curators and field
archaeologists.
Subject searches have also been provided to allow more general researchers
to find personifications, deities and portraits.
??OCRE is yet another example of the way that the ANS is both presenting
numismatic material to those knowledgeable in the field, as well as
expanding the accessibility of numismatic material to broader audiences?,
notes ANS Director Ute Wartenberg Kagan. ??Building on years of curatorial
work to catalogue our coins, we hope that our new web-based tools will make
that work available to as broad an audience as possible, in as flexible a
way as possible?.
ANS database developer Ethan Gruber, who built OCRE, explains how it has
been designed from the beginning to use a Linked Data approach to deliver
added functionality: ??OCRE is built on
Numishare<http://numishare.blogspot.com/p/about-numishare.html>,
an open source suite of applications for managing and publishing numismatic
collections on the web. The underlying data model of the collection is the
Numismatic Description Standard
(NUDS<http://nomisma.org/nuds/numismatic_database_standard>),
a linked data-influenced XML ontology for coins. NUDS enables the linking
of coin types in OCRE to numismatic concepts represented on
*Nomisma.org*<http://Nomisma.org/>as well as linking to web resources
that describe physical specimens, such
as those in the ANS' own collection. Data about these specimens ??images,
weights, findspots??can be extracted for statistical and geographic
analyses
in OCRE.? A key element in the design has also been to link other stable
resources describing the ancient world, such as
Pleiades<http://pleiades.stoa.org/>project for ancient geography.
OCRE project manager and Roman specialist, Gilles Bransbourg describes the
advance that is heralded by OCRE: ??OCRE is a leap forward for
numismatists,
historians and archaeologists alike. Until now, any research into Roman
imperial coinage had to rely on paper-based catalogues, online auctions or
the very few collections available online. OCRE offers a single, central
online catalogue that allows users to view, download and organize digitized
information covering the entire history of the Roman imperial coinage. The
attraction of OCRE is that it is built as an open system. Any significant
public or private collection may now link to OCRE and make its coins
available to the wider public. Coin types will be connected to a growing
number of examples from an ever-expanding number of sources. The digitized
availability of relevant information like weights, modules, materials,
legends, images, issuers, mints, location of find, and finally pictures,
opens vast fields of research in many different directions and will
hopefully inspire other areas in numismatics and beyond.
*ADDRESSES*
*OCRE*: http://numismatics.org/ocre
*Other ANS research tools:*
*MANTIS* (the collection database): http://numismatics.org/search
*ARCHER* (the archives database): http://numismatics.org/archives/
*DONUM* (the library catalogue): http://donum.numismatics.org/
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