BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Digital Humanities and the Ancient World

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What would happen if the Pope’s library were accidentally burnt? How can we reconstruct and visualize ancient and medieval pilgrimage routes? Technology is changing the way we study and preserve texts and artifacts. In a series of web-exclusive articles written by scholars engaged in the Digital Humanities, learn how this growing field of study is helping to analyze textual and archaeological data—and how you can help.


Digital Humanities: An Introduction

Jewish-Iraqi-manuscriptsWhat if the Dead Sea Scrolls were damaged? What if the Pope’s library burned down? In “Digital Humanities: How Everyone Can Get a Library Card to the World’s Most Exclusive Collections Online,” George Washington University associate professor of history Diane H. Cline explores the research opportunities and potential impact of Digital Humanities projects. This new field not only preserves publications, it extends access to the humanities to anyone with Internet access.

Read “Digital Humanities: How Everyone Can Get a Library Card to the World’s Most Exclusive Collections Online” by Diane H. Cline >>


 

Mapping Technologies

pleiades-stoa-orgWant to follow a fourth-century pilgrim itinerary from Bordeaux via Constantinople to the Holy Land? Experiment with ancient travel times and their costs over land, sea and sand in the Roman Empire? University of Iowa assistant professor of classics Sarah E. Bond explains in “Map Quests: Geography, Digital Humanities and the Ancient World” how the Digital Humanities offer opportunities to explore, interact with and contribute to maps of the ancient world.

Read “Map Quests: Geography, Digital Humanities and the Ancient World” by Sarah E. Bond >>


 

Open Access to Digital Data

Open-Context-1Interested in exploring the results of archaeology projects directly from the researchers? Cutting-edge technology is helping archaeologists generate a tremendous amount of digital data each year. At the same time, the scientific community increasingly expects direct access to the data. In “Open Context: Making the Most of Archaeological Data,” Alexandria Archive Institute cofounders Sarah Whitcher Kansa and Eric Kansa describe Open Context, an open access, peer-reviewed data publishing service that has published over one million digital resources, from archaeological survey data to excavation documentation and artifact analyses.

Read “Open Context: Making the Most of Archaeological Data” by Sarah Whitcher Kansa and Eric Kansa >>


 

Making University Collections Accessible to All

CNERS-tabletMany university departments across the world have shelves and storerooms full of books, artifacts and research collected over several decades. What do you do when the “skeletons in your closet” are a box of 2,000-year-old artifacts? That was the question facing the University of British Columbia’s Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies. In “From Stone to Screen: Bringing 21st-Century Access to Ancient Artifacts,” members of the From Stone to Screen graduate student project at UBC discuss their ongoing efforts to create digital archives of their department’s artifact collection—making these fascinating objects accessible to a global audience online.

Read “From Stone to Screen: Bringing 21st-Century Access to Ancient Artifacts” >>


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7 Responses

  1. Ryan North says:

    Simply good fiction. The association of the Holy Grail with Christ and Christianity arose in the middle of the medieval period by authors like Wolfram (von Eschenbach) and is tied the legends of king Arthur. They knew and intended these works to be fictional. That is, there are no Vatican records that would stretch back into ancient times and give this lineage.

  2. Rob Palmer says:

    Anyone know where former British author Laurence Gardner located his source information for “Bloodlines of the Holy Grail”? He has Christ with three children, a wife, and a life post Easter in so. France and Glastonbury. Further a descendant is reputed to be none other than Charlemagne, along with descent from a bunch of German girls, and the original Mark Anthony, whose wife was connected to Caesar’s parents. Did Gardner have access to Vatican records at some time? Or have I simply been reading good fiction?

  3. Laurence Burris says:

    This is all so very exciting!

  4. My Blog » We’ve Been Published! Bible History Daily’s Digital Humanities Issue says:

    […] of July, we were contacted by the Biblical Archaeology Review about doing a post for their blog, Bible History Daily, as they were planning to do features on digital humanities in August. Our article, Bringing […]

  5. Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel · Livius Nieuwsbrief / oktober says:

    […] over digital humanities past binnen een trend om ze te reduceren tot doorzoekbare archieven en big data. Het […]

  6. Barbara says:

    Digital Humanities – I like the sound of ‘extending access to anyone with Internet access’
    Don’t keep me waiting too long, and I wont hold my breath waiting for the Vatican Library going public.

  7. We’ve Been Published! Bible History Daily’s Digital Humanities Issue | From Stone to Screen says:

    […] of July, we were contacted by the Biblical Archaeology Review about doing a post for their blog, Bible History Daily, as they were planning to do features on digital humanities in August. Our article, Bringing […]

Write a Reply or Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


7 Responses

  1. Ryan North says:

    Simply good fiction. The association of the Holy Grail with Christ and Christianity arose in the middle of the medieval period by authors like Wolfram (von Eschenbach) and is tied the legends of king Arthur. They knew and intended these works to be fictional. That is, there are no Vatican records that would stretch back into ancient times and give this lineage.

  2. Rob Palmer says:

    Anyone know where former British author Laurence Gardner located his source information for “Bloodlines of the Holy Grail”? He has Christ with three children, a wife, and a life post Easter in so. France and Glastonbury. Further a descendant is reputed to be none other than Charlemagne, along with descent from a bunch of German girls, and the original Mark Anthony, whose wife was connected to Caesar’s parents. Did Gardner have access to Vatican records at some time? Or have I simply been reading good fiction?

  3. Laurence Burris says:

    This is all so very exciting!

  4. My Blog » We’ve Been Published! Bible History Daily’s Digital Humanities Issue says:

    […] of July, we were contacted by the Biblical Archaeology Review about doing a post for their blog, Bible History Daily, as they were planning to do features on digital humanities in August. Our article, Bringing […]

  5. Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel · Livius Nieuwsbrief / oktober says:

    […] over digital humanities past binnen een trend om ze te reduceren tot doorzoekbare archieven en big data. Het […]

  6. Barbara says:

    Digital Humanities – I like the sound of ‘extending access to anyone with Internet access’
    Don’t keep me waiting too long, and I wont hold my breath waiting for the Vatican Library going public.

  7. We’ve Been Published! Bible History Daily’s Digital Humanities Issue | From Stone to Screen says:

    […] of July, we were contacted by the Biblical Archaeology Review about doing a post for their blog, Bible History Daily, as they were planning to do features on digital humanities in August. Our article, Bringing […]

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