Historical Events Database - History
- Thread starter Laura
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Re: Historical Events Database
There it is! http://historicalevents.thebigrede.net/events/chronology
Might be easier to do this directly in the web app via Javascript. Also, let's wait until we have a clearer idea about what we want to visualize.
Laura said:
There it is! http://historicalevents.thebigrede.net/events/chronology
Altair said:
Might be easier to do this directly in the web app via Javascript. Also, let's wait until we have a clearer idea about what we want to visualize.
Re: Historical Events Database
Awesome. When it's done, maybe we can publish it?
Data said:
Awesome. When it's done, maybe we can publish it?
Re: Historical Events Database
Yes, I do, and thanks SO much for finding this - seems to have all 20 books!
Palinurus said:
Yes, I do, and thanks SO much for finding this - seems to have all 20 books!
Re: Historical Events Database
I've spent the day squeezing everything I can out of Paul the Deacon. I'm attaching a portion of the table to this post for review.
You will notice that what I have done is create a two column table of the information. Again, the idea was to see what PtD wrote that might match anything written by GoT. As I went through, I added in some historical data that wasn't strictly environmental stuff so as to have a good context. Then, I went back through and highlighted in yellow all the environmental data. Hope I didn't miss anything. The idea being, to get a quick visual feeling for whether or not Paul and Gregory were writing from the same playbook, or who was prestidigitating what.
There are only something like three or four instances where the PtD has environmental data in the same year GoT does. And in TWO of those cases, it is because I put it there because PtD was clearly wrong. There were some other cases where PtD's data was re-positioned because the translator wrote a footnote pointing out that it was in the wrong time period/year.
In general, PtD was very, very bad at getting anything down in an orderly way or even remotely close to the actual time of occurrence. It appears to be deliberate or he really was stupid. In some cases, I had to do some research to find out the correct date because there were no clues at all in the text and the translator didn't offer any either.
The doc I was working on today actually covers the period from 539 to the time of Charlemagne, but I'm still working on the latter parts of it. Plus, there is no GoT to compare it to. I may find some other text that will serve that function.
In any event, I've got PtD more or less sorted if anybody wants to take on the task of entering the data.
Translator is William Dudley Foulke, Editor Edward Peters, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1907, 1974.
I've spent the day squeezing everything I can out of Paul the Deacon. I'm attaching a portion of the table to this post for review.
You will notice that what I have done is create a two column table of the information. Again, the idea was to see what PtD wrote that might match anything written by GoT. As I went through, I added in some historical data that wasn't strictly environmental stuff so as to have a good context. Then, I went back through and highlighted in yellow all the environmental data. Hope I didn't miss anything. The idea being, to get a quick visual feeling for whether or not Paul and Gregory were writing from the same playbook, or who was prestidigitating what.
There are only something like three or four instances where the PtD has environmental data in the same year GoT does. And in TWO of those cases, it is because I put it there because PtD was clearly wrong. There were some other cases where PtD's data was re-positioned because the translator wrote a footnote pointing out that it was in the wrong time period/year.
In general, PtD was very, very bad at getting anything down in an orderly way or even remotely close to the actual time of occurrence. It appears to be deliberate or he really was stupid. In some cases, I had to do some research to find out the correct date because there were no clues at all in the text and the translator didn't offer any either.
The doc I was working on today actually covers the period from 539 to the time of Charlemagne, but I'm still working on the latter parts of it. Plus, there is no GoT to compare it to. I may find some other text that will serve that function.
In any event, I've got PtD more or less sorted if anybody wants to take on the task of entering the data.
Translator is William Dudley Foulke, Editor Edward Peters, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1907, 1974.
Re: Historical Events Database
I've been thinking a lot about what has been revealed during my intensive work on Paul the Deacon but I'll write that up in a little while.
Meanwhile, Gaby, you have two entries for the 365 tsunami, 618 and 619. Prolly should delete the latter since "hurled vessel" is not likely to be terms that come to anyone's mind when searching for an item.
Ya'll PLEASE check your keywords and try to put yourself in the mind of someone who might want to find something significant about the event: what terms might stick in their mind? What further precision can you add to the description there?
Otherwise, the database is looking really good. I'll have to take a few days to go through it entirely and I am not doing that now, just hit or miss looking. I'm kind of grappling with the GoT and PtD problem.
I'll do those entries from GoT and PtD myself.
I've been thinking a lot about what has been revealed during my intensive work on Paul the Deacon but I'll write that up in a little while.
Meanwhile, Gaby, you have two entries for the 365 tsunami, 618 and 619. Prolly should delete the latter since "hurled vessel" is not likely to be terms that come to anyone's mind when searching for an item.
Ya'll PLEASE check your keywords and try to put yourself in the mind of someone who might want to find something significant about the event: what terms might stick in their mind? What further precision can you add to the description there?
Otherwise, the database is looking really good. I'll have to take a few days to go through it entirely and I am not doing that now, just hit or miss looking. I'm kind of grappling with the GoT and PtD problem.
I'll do those entries from GoT and PtD myself.
Re: Historical Events Database
How many locations were destroyed by the tsunami? Like totally? I think Alexandria was one. I don't think it adds anything to put the locations for the tsunami, but rather put them for the mass deaths under Society which will give the proper weight to the event. It wasn't a giant, earth encompassing tsunami, so one entry on that point is sufficient, but it WAS terribly destructive to humans, so multiple entries in that subject heading is appropriate.
This is where you begin to apply logical skills to solving the problem of what we want the database to show us.
Also, Zadig, since I am in the database today, I noticed your new entry #760 with keywords: "Sky appeared to glow".
A way to condense that and avoid using too many common words would be "glowing sky". Plus, that would be the characteristic of the event that might stick in the mind. The researcher probably would not think "Hmmm... I remember an entry that said "Sky appeared to glow"" Instead, "Hmmm... I remember seeing an entry that said something about a glowing sky...."
See? It is not only to further describe the event, but to do so in a way that is more or less "universal" to all others working on the database now and in future. See how thinking about this can be not only an act of clarity of thought, but also logic and external considering.
Gaby said:
How many locations were destroyed by the tsunami? Like totally? I think Alexandria was one. I don't think it adds anything to put the locations for the tsunami, but rather put them for the mass deaths under Society which will give the proper weight to the event. It wasn't a giant, earth encompassing tsunami, so one entry on that point is sufficient, but it WAS terribly destructive to humans, so multiple entries in that subject heading is appropriate.
This is where you begin to apply logical skills to solving the problem of what we want the database to show us.
Also, Zadig, since I am in the database today, I noticed your new entry #760 with keywords: "Sky appeared to glow".
A way to condense that and avoid using too many common words would be "glowing sky". Plus, that would be the characteristic of the event that might stick in the mind. The researcher probably would not think "Hmmm... I remember an entry that said "Sky appeared to glow"" Instead, "Hmmm... I remember seeing an entry that said something about a glowing sky...."
See? It is not only to further describe the event, but to do so in a way that is more or less "universal" to all others working on the database now and in future. See how thinking about this can be not only an act of clarity of thought, but also logic and external considering.
Re: Historical Events Database
Ummm... can somebody find this online:
http://www.amazon.fr/Kingdoms-Empire-Integration-Barbarians-Antiquity/dp/9004108459/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1393675954&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=9789004108455
I can't see paying 110 euros for 220 pages. For 700 to 800 pages, maybe...
Ummm... can somebody find this online:
http://www.amazon.fr/Kingdoms-Empire-Integration-Barbarians-Antiquity/dp/9004108459/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1393675954&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=9789004108455
I can't see paying 110 euros for 220 pages. For 700 to 800 pages, maybe...
Re: Historical Events Database
Understood, the Mass Death is created for this event too and it does look like one tsunami event suffices:
On a separate note, I realized that some of my entries changed even though no editions are recorded on the database. Probably Zadig merged my entries with some of the earlier authors he was working with.
Laura said:
Understood, the Mass Death is created for this event too and it does look like one tsunami event suffices:
On a separate note, I realized that some of my entries changed even though no editions are recorded on the database. Probably Zadig merged my entries with some of the earlier authors he was working with.