1 / 21

Persistence of Identity in Historical Gazetteers

This article explores issues of placename identity, spatial and temporal attributes, and the indexing of historical records in gazetteers. It discusses the ideal scenario where gazetteer entries serve as georeferences to footprints, and how intermediary geographic references can provide persistent attributes of placenames. The article also delves into the differentiation of identical placenames, disambiguation, and the functionality of a digital gazetteer.

calan
Download Presentation

Persistence of Identity in Historical Gazetteers

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Persistence of Identity in Historical Gazetteers Merrick Lex Berman - CHGIS, Center for Geographic Analysis

  2. { placename issues type issues identity spatial issues temporal issues

  3. index of records defining tangible or abstract geographic features that can be NAMED > one or more names > feature types / classes > locations / footprints > unique identifier > relationships > time periods > supplemental information ideal scenario: > gazetteer entries serve as georeferences to footprints > footprints relate to intelligible named features > intermediary geographic references are persistent

  4. attributes of placenames: > official names / variants (Los Angeles / L.A.) (Köln / Cologne) > endonyms / exonyms (London / Londres) (Beijing / Peking) (Qomulangma / Everest) > metonyms (synonyms) (Chicago / Windy City / Second City) > vernacular procunciations (Emei / Omei) (Peking / pa’k gyan) > vernacular scripts ( / Beijing) ( / Qomulangma)

  5. typical gazetteer case: DISPLAY NAME > Mount Everest ALTERNATE NAME > Jomo glangma ALTERNATE NAME > Qomulangma ALTERNATE NAME > Sagarmatha desirable gazetteer case: DISPLAY NAME > Mount Everest [eng] exo ALTERNATE NAME > Jomo glangma [tib] endo ALTERNATE NAME > Qomulangma [chi] exo ALTERNATE NAME > Sagarmatha [san] exo maximized gazetteer case:

  6. - persistence - are we dealing with one entity that changes over time? or a sequence of discrete historical instances? relate unique instances to one another, creating a sequence Declare all changes to be attributes of one identity

  7. single identity that transforms over time unique instances linked into a time series attributes of each instance are frozen attributes can vary independently

  8. digital gazetteer spatial objects placename feature type footprint valid date source note metadata how to relate placenames to spatial objects?

  9. GIS layers spatial objects

  10. what happens when placenames & spatial objects change?

  11. comparison of spatial and temporal relations

  12. taxonomy of spatio-temporal processes

  13. spatial objects change asynchronously

  14. representing spatio-temporal change: points

  15. representing spatio-temporal change: areas

  16. dated instances of placenames may be represented by BOTH polygons = jurisdictional areas points = administrative seats but areas & seats often change independently from one another! <

  17. Town C (County Y) County Y (Province Z, Nation X) Province Z Prefecture 1 Prefecture 2 Germantown (Wicacoa) updated to Germantown (Philadelphia) County X County Y Germantown begin-1650 end- Town A Town B Town C Germantown part of Wicacoa begin-1669 end-1681 part of Philadelphia begin-1682 end- administrative hierarchy = containership

  18. persistence of identity - as related to - footprint

  19. alternate spellings / names administrative context temporal sequence entry related entry type related type feature type thesaurus interoperability differentiating identical placenames differentiating footprints disambiguation stromboli stromboli, food Stromboli Stromboli, volcano coordinate x, y pair in decimal degrees bounding box generic grid reference spatial object in GIS format footprints functionality of a digital gazetteer

  20. - historical gazetteer records as indirect geographic references - Carnaby Street, London 1966 Carnaby Street, London 1881

  21. China Historical GISProject website:www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis

More Related