Abstract
Abstract The use of digital technologies and big data in the humanities and social sciences provided many opportunities for cultural heritage management and research, enabling data sharing and interdisciplinary collaborations. These developments increased the need for standardized data formats. General and domain-specific standards for describing and classifying cultural data, based on linked data principles, are developed to support increasingly numerous digital collections. However, the existing standards do not fully address the particular challenges concerning the standardized descriptions of images. Here we focus on ancient coins, an official image-bearing medium. We present current approaches to coin iconography, including the application of statistical measures to infer patterns in the use of images for communication. We discuss the importance of consistent, standardized data for quantitative research, and propose a generalized approach, focused on basic concepts and limiting the level of detail for the sake of simplicity, interoperability, and compatibility with statistical methods, as a necessary first step towards creating reliable iconographic standards.
Highlights
The scope and volume of research on human history have been expanded by the advancements in information technology, which allowed the creation of large online databases of cultural data, from digital libraries to interactive virtual museum collections, preserving cultural heritage and making it broadly available
We first give a brief overview of the current trends in managing digital collections of cultural heritage, especially that of classical antiquity, and discuss the issues concerning the development of standards for describing iconography, focusing on ancient coins
The metadata give information on the provenance, value and date of each coin, allowing the users to explore the distribution of motifs and their combinations through time and space (Caccamo Caltabiano et al, 2013; Celesti et al, 2017). This database is mainly used by the researchers associated with the Lexicon Iconographicum Numismaticae (LIN) project for case studies focused on specific motifs and their assumed semantic links, trying to interpret the observed diachronic patterns of use of these images by different ancient mints (Puglisi, 2014; Sapienza, 2017)
Summary
The scope and volume of research on human history have been expanded by the advancements in information technology, which allowed the creation of large online databases of cultural data, from digital libraries to interactive virtual museum collections, preserving cultural heritage and making it broadly available. Quantitative methods are useful for modelling and statistical hypothesis testing using big, consistent, and systematically organized datasets, containing information in the form of measurements or discrete observations (on different types of quantitative research, see Morin, 2015) These observations usually come from small-scale, qualitative studies, focusing on interpreting specific phenomena. Combining carefully designed physical features, inscriptions, and graphic representations, coins convey economic, political, and cultural information While their potential as a rich historical source made them a well-suited candidate for digitization, quantification, and creation of domain-specific standards, finding a suitable approach to standardize coin images proves to be a rather challenging task
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