Searching

The content of the Gazetteer of Ancient Arabia can be accessed through simple and extended search from the home page of the Gazetteer: https://ancientarabia.huma-num.fr/gazetteer. The search will provide the users with the Place records of the Gazetteer matching the selected criteria.

A simple search functionality is provided with a box for free text typing. Users who do not have an exact search issue in mind can look up for the modern or ancient names they are interested in and browse through Places records.
An autocompletion functionality suggests existing values when typing at least three characters.
A virtual keyboard, which displays by clicking on the icon below the search box, facilitates insertion of special characters, such as those with diacritical marks.

The extended search allows to perform searches on specific fields of the entities Places, Locations, and Ancient names (with Sources), and to combine several parameters to get more detailed results. The extended search parameters are:

Places

  • ID (numerical ID of the Place record in the Gazetteer)
  • Place name (text search in the main title of the Place record. The title usually corresponds to the place’s modern appellation, when this is available, like in the case of geographic entities such as sites; for those entities which are attested in ancient sources, such as tribes and kingdoms, the transliteration of the ancient name is given. For ease of use, both categories show a conventional vocalization of the ancient name between brackets)
  • Place type (search by values, e.g. environmental element, geographic area, kingdom, site, social/administrative entity, structure)
  • Place description (text search in the Place’s description field)

Locations

  • Country (text search for the modern country where the Place is located)
  • Location (text search for the modern name by which the Place is known)
  • Location type (search by values on the list of site's types, e.g. fortification, religious area, necropolis, etc.)
  • Location description (text search in the Location’s description field)
  • Features (search by values with multiple choice on the list of archaeological features, e.g. church, market place, rampart, storehouse, etc.)

Ancient names

  • Ancient name (text search for the name of the Place, as found in ancient sources. Names are all transliterated in Latin characters; only for Ancient Greek sources, the names are also given in Greek characters besides their Latin transliteration)
  • Name language (search by values, e.g. Ancient South Arabian, Latin, etc.)
  • Type of name (search by values on the onomastic typology, e.g. toponym, nisba, name of sacred place, etc.)
  • Name description (text search in the Name’s description field)
  • Name source (text search for the title of the name’s source, e.g. the siglum of an inscription, the title of a literary work, etc. Note that, for DASI's inscriptions, only the main siglum is recorded here; to retrieve the main siglum of a text starting from its concordances, please use the "Title" field of DASI Epigraphs search).

The Boolean operator is AND among different fields. It is OR on the 'Locations – Feature’ menu, allowing a multiple selection.
Please note that - for technical reasons related to the website development - in the Ancient names search section, the multiple-parameter query (e.g. on the Ancient Name and Name language fields at the same time) is performed on all the names related to a Place, irrespective of the single name to which the queried information is associated. This implies that a search for 'Ancient name: yṯl' and 'Language name: Greek' will result in the place 'Barāqish [Yathill]', because this features both the (Ancient South Arabian) name yṯl and a Greek name (Ἄθρουλα), although the two pieces of information are not associated with the same name.

Browsing

The search button opens a new page with the results’ list, offering a preview of the Place entries retrieved.

By clicking on the title of the chosen entry, its card opens. This provides:

  • the geolocation of the Place on a map (when coordinates are available);
  • data about the Place;
  • data on the related Location(s);
  • data on the related Ancient Name(s);
  • links to any related Place(s).

The Place section includes a short description of the place, with data for the identification, citation and reuse of the digital resource, such as: the stable URI of the Place resource in the Gazetteer of Ancient Arabia; a brief textual description of the Place; the URI of the corresponding Place resource(s) in other gazetteer projects, like Pleiades; the suggested citation of the resource; the link to the JSON record; the last modification date of the resource.

The Location section includes information on the geographical expression of the Place (country, coordinates, coordinates accuracy, type of site, structures, location type, archaeological features, description). It is collapsed and can be expanded by clicking on the Location name. Relevant bibliography is included in the Location section, which also displays the link to the DASI site card providing the Gazetteer with the Location data.
Please note that the coordinates given in the Location section are approximate, due to Maparabia project’s commitment at safeguarding places with heritage at risk; this also affects the visualisation of the Place on the map.

The Ancient names section lists the name(s) under which the Place is attested in the sources, acknowledging the language, the onomastic typology, and the level of certainty of the Name-Place association. By clicking on “more details”, the accuracy and completeness of the name(s) and, when present, a description are provided.
Moreover, a list of the Sources of each name is displayed by their title (the epigraphic siglum in the case of inscriptions). When this is clickable, the user can directly access an online edition of the source (that is the DASI archive for Ancient South Arabian sources).
If known, the chronology of the Source is also indicated. Thus, the objective of providing the complete spectrum of variations in the Place's onomastics, depending on the language and time of attestation, is achieved. Note that for the sources derived from DASI, the broad periods labelled by letters refer to the periodisation used in this archive (see DASI Editorial Criteria). The chronological limits of these periods can vary depending on the specific linguistic/historical corpus. To be as inclusive as possible, regardless of the corpus, these broad chronological limits – with some overlaps – can be set in absolute dates for each period as follows: period A (8th-5th cent. BCE), B (6th-1st cent. BCE; for Qatabanic sources only, two subperiods are identified whose shift is in the 2nd cent. BCE), C (1st cent. BCE-2nd cent. CE); D (2nd-4th cent. CE), E (4th-6th cent. CE).

The Related places section lists the links to any other Place in the Gazetteer having relations with this Place. Their mutual type of relation is also expressed.

Example

Searching for ‘Barāqish’ or 'Yathill', the entry corresponding to the ancient settlement in the Jawf region is retrieved.

Accessing the entry, the geolocation of the Place is shown on the map at the top of the webpage.

A brief description contains historical and onomastic information on the ancient city of Yathill. The URI and citational data of the entry are provided, together with the link to the JSON file for data reuse.

The Location section contains information on the ancient South Arabian site of Barāqish in northern Yemen, for which geographical and archaeological data are provided, together with bibliographical references.

The Ancient names section lists the names ‘yṯl’ (the Ancient South Arabian toponym), ‘yṯly’ (the corresponding nisba), and Ἄθρουλα (the Ancient Greek toponym). These names are attested by the epigraphic or literary Sources listed in each name record, like the Ancient South Arabian inscription 'Maʿīn 1' for ‘yṯl’ and Strabo's 'Geography' for Ἄθρουλα. These are provided with chronological information and with a link to their online textual edition.

Finally, the Place ‘Barāqish’ has relations of different types with other Places, such as the Temple of ʿAthtar dhū-Qabḍ and the Temple of Nakraḥ – religious monuments located "in" the city – and the tribes of Maʿīn and Yathill – "attested at" the site. By clicking on the links, their Place entries can be accessed.


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