OCHRE Data Service
STATE OF THE SERVICE, 2013
Welcome: OCHRE Data Service
 the
people
 our
profile
 by
 in
the numbers
space and time
 present
 future
projects
prospects
ODS/OCHRE, the People
External projects
U of C
Relationships
CRANE,
CINEMA,
TAJ
Ashkelon, Homer, Jaffa, OARE, Zeitah
ANL, OPAL, LIA, Marathi
OI Projects,
students
eCDD, eCHD, PFA, RSTI, Yaqush, Zincirli
(Technical)
Support
JDS, DLDC, Humanities Computing, RCC
Miller &
Sandy
Photo
lab
Core
OCHRE
ODS/OCHRE, our Profile

Online

Website: http://ochre.uchicago.edu

Wiki: http://ochrewiki.wikispaces.com

In print

At large
ODS/OCHRE, our Profile

Online

In print


OCHRE Manual (D. Schloen, S. Schloen; Eisenbrauns 2012)

Database Computing for Scholarly Research: Case-studies Using the
Online Cultural and Historical Research Environment (S. Schloen, Prosser;
Springer, expected 2014)
At large
ODS/OCHRE, our Profile

Online

In print

At large
2012
• Humanities Day, U of C (D. Schloen, Prosser)
• Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science (Prosser)
• ASOR Session (D. Schloen, Burke, Campbell, Herrmann, Master, Prosser, Stratford)
• ASOR Exhibit table (S. Schloen, Prosser)
ODS/OCHRE, our Profile

Online

In print

At large
2013
• CRANE Workshop, Toronto (Prosser, D. Schloen, S. Schloen)
• SAA paper (D. Schloen, S. Schloen)
• On location, Zincirli (D. Schloen, S. Schloen, Prosser)
ODS/OCHRE, our Profile

Online

In print

At large
2014
• AIA/APA Exhibit table (Prosser, S. Schloen)
• CRANE Workshop, Toronto (Prosser, D. Schloen, S. Schloen)
• CAA papers (Prosser, S. Schloen)
• ICAANE (Prosser)
• ASOR/CRANE Session (Prosser, D. Schloen, etc.)
ODS/OCHRE, by the Numbers

30+ projects

21 active; others student-based or dormant

Core OI projects


eCHD

PFA

Zincirli (CRANE)

Yaqush, Judaidah

RSTI

eCDD, METEOR
Non-OI projects

Ashkelon, JCHP, OARE, etc.

Subscription fees
ODS/OCHRE, by the Numbers

284 users

2,674,870 database items

1,261,404 epigraphic units

545,350 locations/objects

294,196 images/documents

42,017 texts

22,874 dictionary entries
ODS/OCHRE, by the Numbers


Dictionaries

Aramaic

Demotic

Elamite

Greek (classical)

Hittite

Marathi

Middle Egyptian

Old Assyrian

Ugaritic
Writing Systems, Scripts

Alphabetic transliteration

Syllabic Cuneiform

Hebrew/Aramaic Square Script

Egyptian Hieroglyphic
ODS/OCHRE, by the Numbers

Persepolis Fortification Archive: 998,969 items

84,690 resources

Old Assyrian Research Environment: 763,792 items

Ashkelon (1985-2013): 260,464 items


205,824 objects
eCHD: 130,537 items

26,269 cataloged texts; 1,747 dictionary entries (L, M, N, P)

JCHP: 78,940 items; Zincirli: 74,026 items

RSTI: 53,676 items

Homer: 14,581 (Iliad, book 1)

9,392 dictionary entries
ODS Projects, in Space and Time
University of Chicago
Berlin
CNRS
Durham
Florence
Jo-Gu
Acharneh, Homs, Judaidah, PFA, Tayinat, Zincirli
Tübingen
Argonne NL
Field Museum
Northwestern
Wheaton
BYU
UCLA
U of T
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Laval
Madison
SFU2
UBC
HOMER
OPAL
eCHD, OARE, Ugarit
Akko, Ashkelon, Jaffa, Yaqush, Zeitah
eCDD
METEOR
Marathi
UNSW
ODS Projects, in Space and Time
OPAL
HOMER
... CINEMA ...
Middle
Cretaceous
...
Dynastic
Egypt
eCDD, eCHD, METEOR
OARE, PFA, RSTI
?
...
Iron Age
...
Akko
Ashkelon
CRANE
Jaffa
Yaqush
Zeitah
Zincirli
Classical
Greece
...
LIA
1880
The Projects
HIGHLIGHTS AND NEW FEATURES FROM 2013
PFA

(Persepolis Fortification Archive)
Comprehensive server reorganization

All images migrated (roughly 40TB)

From old hardware supported by Humanities

To new hardware supported by the DLDC

First step: find all the files on the old server

Next step: move all the files to the new server

Now we can backup all the files

And access all the files via OCHRE

And add new files via OCHRE
PFA

Integrated photographers’ interface

Every image in its place

Every image available to view right away
PFA - photography
Find the text to be photographed
Inspect existing photographs
Add new photographs
• Name the photograph, OCHRE
enforces naming conventions
• Copy an image to a server
• Access image metadata
• Save to make the photo available
• Best practice for project
organization
• PFA has 3 hi res photo stations
• Conventional photos
• Various post-processing editors
• All can work simultaneously
• Everything remains organized
PFA – font

New cuneiform Elamite font designed by Tytus Mikołajczak
PFA – text analysis
•
•
•
•
Link words to dictionary
Parse words
Add other metadata
Add notes
All OCHRE projects gain from
core innovations
New tools for analyzing texts
RSTI (Ras Shamra Tablet Inventory)
 RSTI
as a testing ground for new features
 Lexicography,
Prosopography and Gazetteer tools
Lexicography
•
•
•
•
•
“Wizards”
Lexicography
Parsing
Prosopography
Gazetteer
•
•
•
•
Match against dictionary
Choose from pick list of options
Parse now or later
Immediately populates the glossary
Define personal names
Prosopography

Analyze every personal name in every text

Identify and define actors in texts
 Historical
 Literary
actors
characters

Build dossiers or character studies

Trace biological and social relationships
Gazetteer
 Identify
every geographic name in every text
 Add
meaningful properties as needed
 Add
global coordinates if you have them
“Fly”
to the location in Google Earth
• Identify and define place names
• Add details like coordinates
From data to publication

Save a recomposed view of a text as a publication quality document

A text comes full circle


Original document in Word

Import and atomize as data

Recompose as an enriched, saved view
Move toward a “born digital” approach?
• Atomized text
• Recomposed view
• Saved view as PDF
• One text generated 36 pages of notes, transliteration, translation, and plates
eCHD (electronic Chicago Hittite Dictionary)

Zotero integration implemented
• Free online
bibliography
• API integration
• No need to
recreate in OCHRE
• Query Zotero from OCHRE
• Browse results in OCHRE
Insert the Zotero item into OCHRE if needed
eCHD
 Text
and dictionary query innovations
Allows particular parts of the
dictionary article to be
searched
User generated search
criteria
Allows for x amount of
intervening words
between the search
criteria; also allows the
user to search for any
combination of the
criteria or the order
entered
Multiple queries: allow for searching of
multiple categories
Shows the order of the
multiple categories being
searched
Allows multiple
instances of one
category to be
added/deleted
The numbers here (“1”,
“2”, “4”) represent the
Search criteria: here tab 1 number of occurrences of
each separate query
is for “sheep slaughter,”
tab 2 is “bull slaughter,”
and tab 3 is “goat
slaughter”
These are the
overall results for an
“OR” search
Categories for
morphological search
(verbs)
Allows for nested items
(subcategories) to be
searched. Here,
“preterit” is selected
Results of morphological search
Changes result
display
Default return is an
alphabetized list of
attested forms
(lemma form is in
brackets)
Outline
layout
groups by
lemma form
eCHD – font conversion
 Convert
from non-Unicode to Unicode standard
 Appropriate
for database use
Updating to Unicode

Not just applying a new font from a pick list

Changing the actual font code behind each character

Every character has a code that tells the computer what to display.

It used to be the Wild West. A code could display as anything!

The Unicode consortium tried to provide a standard for these codes.

ASCII Code 00E5 = å

Some non-Unicode fonts display this code as š

In Unicode, š is actually Code 009A

Change all examples of 00E5 to 009A
eCHD – digital publications?

Born digital + saved PDF views = digital publication

Just as texts can be born digitally and saved to PDF,
dictionary articles can now be created this way

Enter new content directly into OCHRE

Output a document that could be given to the
publications office

If adopted, this approach could replace the step of
creating dictionaries in a word processor
eCDD (electronic Chicago Demotic Dictionary)
 Demotic
roundtable
Presented and discussed strategies
for the eCDD
Presented ideas for a public portal
eCDD

The decision was made to limit the first phase of the eCDD to
the recreation of the printed version (with additions and
corrections).

Searchable

Integrated with other databases

Import where possible and supplement with remaining data

First, update to Unicode

Grant proposal
Zincirli

ODS joined the excavation in the field in 2013

Paperless data capture
 Locus
information
 Registered
items
 Pottery
analysis
 Square
supervisor journals
 Ad
hoc field photos
 Registered
field photos
 Registered
item photos
 GIS
data
Zincirli

Photography work

Field photography

Registered object photography

RTI of KTMW
Zincirli – RTI of KTMW
Zincirli – aerial photography

dji Phantom quad copter

Outfitted with a Samsung-Android camera

Time-lapse photography

Photogrammetry and GIS tracing
CRANE (Computational Research on the Ancient Near East)

Team presentations and individual training at the University of Toronto

John Christiansen, Argonne

ENKIMDU simulation via OCHRE

Gathering, cleaning, modeling, and importing existing project data
from Tayinat, Acharneh, Homs
Integrated GIS data
• Integrate locus information
• Query by locus type
• View and navigate
CINEMA

Chronological Investigations in the Near East and Mediterranean Area

Radiocarbon dating

Cuts across existing projects

Collaborative benefit
HOMER (Helping Ordinary Mortals do Epic Research)

Prof. Martin Mueller (Northwestern)

Chicago Colloquium on D.H.

The Chicago Homer

An OCHRE prototype of Iliad, Book 1
Future Prospects

Java 7 Upgrade, and others … January 14/14 !!
Future Prospects

Java 7 Upgrade

Rich analysis


Enhanced queries

Social network analysis
Visualization

Timelines; node/network graphs

Simulations

Images (formats, viewers, transfer (Globus?))

Preservation/Archive

Playing well with others

Mobile apps, other archive services, import/export (conversion)