Persistence of Identity in Historical Gazetteers

Merrick Lex Berman - CHGIS, Center for Geographic Analysis

temporal issues

spatial issuesidentity

placename issues

type issues{

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

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)

DISPLAY NAME > Mount Everest

ALTERNATE NAME > Jomo glangma ALTERNATE NAME > Qomulangma

ALTERNATE NAME > Sagarmatha

maximized gazetteer case:

DISPLAY NAME > Mount Everest [eng] exo

ALTERNATE NAME > Jomo glangma [tib] endo

ALTERNATE NAME > Qomulangma [chi] exo

ALTERNATE NAME > Sagarmatha [san] exo

typical gazetteer case:

desirable gazetteer case:

- persistence -

are we dealing with one entity that changes over time?

or a sequence of discrete historical instances?

Declare all changes to be attributes of one identity

relate unique instances to one another, creating a sequence

unique instances linked into a time series

single identity that transforms over time

attributes of each instance are frozen

attributes can vary independently

placename

feature type

footprint

valid date

source note

digital gazetteer

how to relate placenames to spatial objects?

spatial objects

metadata

spatial objects

GIS layers

what happens when placenames & spatial objects change?

comparison of spatial and temporal relations

taxonomy of spatio-temporal processes

spatial objects change asynchronously

representing spatio-temporal change: points

representing spatio-temporal change: areas

dated instances of placenames may be represented by BOTH polygons = jurisdictional areas points = administrative seats

but areas & seats often change independently from one another!

<

administrative hierarchy = containership

Town A Town B Town C

County X County Y

Prefecture 1 Prefecture 2

Province Z

Germantown (Wicacoa)

updated to

Germantown (Philadelphia)

Town C (County Y)

County Y (Province Z, Nation X)

Germantown begin-1650 end-

Germantown part of Wicacoa

begin-1669 end-1681

part of Philadelphia begin-1682 end-

persistence of identity - as related to - footprint

entry related entry

disambiguation

footprints

functionality of a digital gazetteer

alternate spellings / names

administrative context

temporal sequence

type related type feature type thesaurus

interoperability

differentiating identical placenames

differentiating footprints

coordinate x, y pair in decimal degrees

bounding box

generic grid reference

spatial object in GIS format

stromboli

Stromboli

stromboli, food

Stromboli, volcano

- historical gazetteer records as indirect geographic references -

Carnaby Street, London 1966

Carnaby Street, London 1881

China Historical GIS Projectwebsite: www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis