Hello Global DHers,

Got period definitions?

A friend and colleague, Adam Rabinowitz, has taken over the challenge of creating a definitive listing of time periods associated with dates and expressed as linked-open-data in order to facilitate DH work in archeology, anthropology, and history, among others. Period definitions typically associate a label, time, and space: for example, "Early Byzantine", the years that span this period, and the areas where the early Byzantine influence has been found.

The online gazetteer project is located at: http://perio.do/narrative/ and is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the leading US governmental agency for humanities grants.

Currently, the project leaders are seeking such period definitions from around the world. The project already has a healthy set of definitions from the US, Europe, and the Middle East and is seeking gazetteers or other scholarly sources that have identified time periods from outside of these areas. China, Africa, India, and any other areas would significantly help expand the scope of included definitions.

Does anyone know of such sources and how or where these are available?

I will be happy to answer questions if I can or point you to Adam. Please also feel free to contact him directly.

Thank you!

-unmil.