OXUS-INDUS: A Linked Open Data Resource for Research in Central and South Asian Coinages

FAIN: HC-278063-21

American Numismatic Society (New York, NY 10013-1917)
Peter Gerritt van Alfen (Project Director: August 2020 to October 2023)
Ethan Gruber (Co Project Director: October 2020 to October 2023)

Applying linked open data (LOD) approaches to creating a tool for better studying and understanding of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek coinage of Central and South Asia (c. 250 BCE to the beginning of the first century CE). The UK partner, Oxford University, is requesting £193,067 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The OXUS-INDUS project is twin-track initiative to push forward the curation of and research into the material culture of Central and South Asia. First, it seeks to produce a much-needed tool for understanding the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek coinage of Central and South Asia at a formative stage of the transfer of monetary technology into this region. Through the creation of a new typology of this coinage, and the linking to that of multiple specimens from multiple public collections it will enable this important body of evidence to be studied as never before. Second, the project seeks to apply recent advances in Linked Open Data (LOD) approaches that have been developed in other branches of numismatics to an important new area. In the fields of Greek and Roman numismatics, such approaches, focused on the implementation of the nomisma.org Knowledge Organization System, have led to wholesale changes in methods of working, both for Researchers and Curators of Collections.

Associated Products

THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES FUNDS THE ANS-OXFORD UNIVERSITY OXUS-INDUS PROJECT (Blog Post)
Title: THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES FUNDS THE ANS-OXFORD UNIVERSITY OXUS-INDUS PROJECT
Author: Gunnar Dumke
Author: Peter van Alfen
Author: Andrew Meadows
Author: Ethan Gruber
Author: Simon Glenn
Abstract: This blog post describes the OXUS-INDUS project and the products the project will deliver.
Date: 12/16/2020
Primary URL: http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/oxus-indus/
Blog Title: THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES FUNDS THE ANS-OXFORD UNIVERSITY OXUS-INDUS PROJECT

Bactrian-Indo Greek Rulers (Web Resource)
Title: Bactrian-Indo Greek Rulers
Author: Gunnar Dumke
Author: Simon Glenn
Author: Ethan Gruber
Author: Peter van Alfen
Author: Andrew Meadows
Abstract: Coins of the Bactrian and Indo-Greek Rulers (BIGR) is an innovative research tool which provides a typology and catalogue of the coins issued under the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kings and queens who ruled over an area consisting of parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, eastern Iran, and Pakistan. From the initial period of independence of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom from the Seleucid empire under Diodotus I in the mid-third century BCE to the final Indo-Greek rulers at the beginning of the first century CE, coins provide the best, and in many cases, only evidence of the sovereigns under whom they were produced. Given the lack of other sources, much about the history of this period is uncertain and BIGR aims to make clear the limits of our knowledge, for example, by avoiding mint attributions and specific dates. BIGR is organized using a new typology of Bactrian and Indo-Greek coins, created by Gunnar Dumke and Simon Glenn, published first here. The current version will soon link to coins in the major collections of the American Numismatic Society, Ashmolean Museum, Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Münzkabinett of the State Museum of Berlin, British Museum, and the Fitzwilliam Museum. A print volume with commentary on the BIGR typology and other aspects of the coinages, published by the American Numismatic Society, will follow in 2024. Funding for the project, a joint initiative between the American Numismatic Society and the Ashmolean Museum and Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents at the University of Oxford, was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. BIGR includes Kharoṣṭhī Unicode characters in legends and for control marks throughout the typology. A Kharoṣṭhī font might not be installed by default in your operating system. We recommend the open source font at https://fontsource.org/fonts/noto-sans-kharoshthi.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://numismatics.org/bigr

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