Persistence of Identity in Historical Gazetteers

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 gt one or
more names gt feature types / classes gt
locations / footprints gt unique identifier gt
relationships gt time periods gt supplemental
information
ideal scenario gt gazetteer entries serve as
georeferences to footprints gt footprints relate
to intelligible named features gt intermediary
geographic references are persistent
4
attributes of placenames
gt official names / variants (Los Angeles /
L.A.) (Köln / Cologne) gt endonyms /
exonyms (London / Londres) (Beijing /
Peking) (Qomulangma / Everest) gt metonyms
(synonyms) (Chicago / Windy City / Second
City) gt vernacular procunciations (Emei /
Omei) (Peking / pak gyan) gt vernacular
scripts ( / Beijing) (
/ Qomulangma)
5
typical gazetteer case
DISPLAY NAME gt Mount Everest
ALTERNATE NAME gt Jomo glangma ALTERNATE NAME
gt Qomulangma ALTERNATE NAME gt Sagarmatha
desirable gazetteer case
DISPLAY NAME gt Mount Everest eng exo
ALTERNATE NAME gt Jomo glangma tib
endo ALTERNATE NAME gt Qomulangma chi
exo ALTERNATE NAME gt 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!
lt
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 differentiati
ng 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 GIS Project
website www.fas.harvard.edu/chgis