2018-12-17 | Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, Israel

Genealogy and the Sciences

Epigraphic Research Data as Source for Onomastics and Genealogy

The Case of 'epidat' – Research Platform for Jewish Epigraphy

link to presentation https://kollatzthomas.github.io/genealogy

Thomas Kollatz | @kol_t | kollatzthomas | CC-BY 4.0

TOC

1. What is Epigraphy
2. What is Epidat
3. Epigraphy, Onomastics and Genealogy

01

What is epigraphy

What is epigraphy

A Cemetery is an ensemble of objects, inscriptions and names

Form follows Function

What characterises this class of objects is that they form a whole with their physical support. Indeed, the meaning of an epigraph cannot be fully understood without the analysis of the object or monument or other archaeological object on which it appears, just as one cannot fully understand the nature of that particular archaeological object without thoroughly investigating the sense of the inscription or iconographic representation it hosts

Felicetti et al. 2016, 66

02

What is epidat

examples

03

Epigraphy, Onomastics and Genealogy

names in context

names	gendered, family relations explicit
dates	part of distinct period
places	part of distinct region

names, places and dates in epidat

The names handed down on gravestones are characterised by a distinct attribution of place and a distinct date.

persons	31,456
dates	24,191
places	190

location-based access options

browse cemeteries

full-text search

Browse

• by place
• by region
• visuell by maps
• full-text search in one, several or all collections

time-based access options

search for hebrew year

Browse

• by year, month, day
• by period
• with spatio-temporal geobrowser
• full-text search in one, several or all collections

Geobrowser

• compare
• timeline
• map
• search in data

names

list of names

• collection of names
• visualizing person data
• live demo

personal data

• date of death according to common date
• date of death according to hebrew date
• Link to edition (html)
• Link to edition (EpiDoc TEI XML)
• if possible, enriched by linked data

ffb-80-1

Sharing Data and experience

PEACE Portal and DARIAH-DE

	IIP – Inscriptions of Israel | Palestine	epidat – Database of Jewish Epigraphy	DIO – Deutsche Inschriften Online
online
quantity	3,589	34,800	ca. 18,000
time	500 BCE - 640 CE	midth 11th - 20th century	500-1650 CE
space	Israel | Palestine	Germany | The Netherlands | Czechia | Lithuania	Germany | Austria | South Tyrol
Genre	Different	Funeral Inscriptions	Different
Format	EpiDoc: TEI XML for Epigraphic Documents
Example	QUAMR0001	ffb-80	34-561

Re-use of epidat-research data for genealogy

example by Prof. Schrade

example by Kollatz-Kuczera-Schrade

• Extraction and visualization of family relations from the Hamburg Altona gravestone corpus using LOD approaches
• based on epidat's machine-readable exchange-format, wherein family-relations are given

<listPerson>
  <person xml:id="hha-3361-1" sex='1'>
   <persName>Schmuel ben Jehuda</persName>
   <death when="1621-08-17"/>
  </person>
  <listRelation>
   <relation name="parent" active="#hha-3361-1" passive="#hha-2437-1 #hha-6241-1"/>
   <relation name="spouse" mutual="#hha-3360-1 #hha-3361-1"/>
 </listRelation>
</listPerson>

hha-3361-teip5

Literature & Software

Digital Epigraphy and EpiDoc

• Tom Elliott, Gabriel Bodard, Hugh Cayless et al. (2006-2017), EpiDoc: Epigraphic Documents in TEI XML. Online material, available: <http://epidoc.sf.net>
• Julia Flanders; Charlotte Roueché: Gentle Introduction To Mark-Up For Epigraphers
• Bodard G. & Stoyanova S. 2016. Epigraphers and Encoders: Strategies for Teaching and Learning Digital Epigraphy. In: Romanello M. & Bodard G, Digital Classics Outside the Echo-Chamber. London: Ubiquity Press.
• H. Cayless; C.M. Roueché; Tom Elliott; Gabriel Bodard (2009): "Epigraphy in 2017." Digital Humanities Quarterly 3.1. http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/3/1/000030/000030.html

Presentations

• Kollatz, Thomas. “Digitale Approaches to Cemeteries: Preservation and Education.” presented at the All that remains: Education and Conservation of Jewish Funerary Culture, Utrecht, June 12, 2018.
• Kollatz, Thomas. “Epigraphische Datenbanken zu den Schum-Gedenkstätten: Status Quo und Desiderata.” presented at the Intensivworkshop Informationssysteme, Mainz Coworking Area im Dock 39, March 5, 2018.
• Kollatz, Thomas. “epidat – Forschungsplattform zur jüdischen Grabsteinepigraphik: Edition, Kommentierung, Annotation, Visualisierung und Analyse jüdischer Grabmale aus neun Jahrhundert.” presented at the Vortragsreihe des IZED im Sommersemester 2018: Annotation Kommentar Erläuterung, Wuppertal, May 29, 2018.
• Kollatz, Thomas, and Max Grüntgens. “Annotieren, analysieren, visualisieren. Repositorien mergen, analysieren und visualisieren.” presented at the DARIAH-DE Grand Tour, Darmstadt, September 20, 2018.
• Andreas Kuczera, Thomas Kollatz und Torsten Schrade: Methods and Tools for visualising Digital Humanities data sets, DHd 2016 Leipzig

Software

• Impress.js (presentation)
• Magnific Popup (Lightbox)
• Unite Gallery (photo gallery)

abstract

Epigraphic Research Data as source for Onomastics and Genealogy: The Case of ‘epidat’, the research platform for Jewish Epigraphy Epidat – the Research platform for Jewish Epigraphy contains about 190 digital editions of historic Jewish cemeteries with more than 35.000 inscriptions. The geographical focus is on Germany, The Netherlands, Lithuania and Czechia. The time span ranges from the mid 11th to the 20th century. In the epidat-platform the epigraphical sources are made available in various ways. In my lecture I will focus on epigraphy as well as Historical Jewish cemeteries as valuable source for genealogy and onomastics.