This unique book critically evaluates the virtual representation of the past through digital media. A distinguished team of leading experts in the field approach digital research in history and archaeology from contrasting viewpoints, including philosophical, methodological and technical. They illustrate the challenges involved in representing the past digitally by focusing on specific cases of a particular historical period, place or technical problem.

The Virtual Representation of the Past is part of the Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities series.

Online resources

Primary Sources
Primary Sources - Collections
Resources
Methods

Methods Network Expert Seminar on History and Archaeology

This volume originated from a Methods Network event held on 19-21 April 2006. Text and audio recordings of each speaker's paper are available from the Methods Network Expert Seminar pages.

Table of contents

Part I: The Virtual Representation of Text

• The Imaging of Historical Documents - Andrew Prescott
• Virtual Restoration and Manuscript Archaeology - Meg Twycross
• Representations of Sources and Date: Working with Exceptions to Hierarchy in Historical Documents - Donald Spaeth

Part II: Virtual Histories and Pre-Histories Finding Meanings

• Finding Needles in Haystacks: Data-mining in Distributed Historical Datasets - Fabio Ciravegna, Mark Greengrass, Tim Hitchcock, Sam Chapman, Jamie McLaughlin and Ravish Bhagdev
• Digital Searching and the Re-formulation of Historical Knowledge - Tim Hitchcock
• Using Computer-assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software in Collaborative Historical Research - Caroline Bowden
• Stepping Back from the Trench Edge: An Archaeological Perspective on the Development of Standards for Recording and Publication - Julian D. Richards and Catherine Hardman

Part III: The Virtual Representation of Space and Time

• Which? What? When? On the Virtual Representation of Time - Manfred Thaller
• In the Kingdom of the Blind: Visualization and e-Science in Archaeology, the Arts and Humanities - Vincent Gaffney
• Using Geographical Information Systems to Explore Space and Time in the Humanities - Ian Gregory
• Spatial Technologies in Archaeology in the Twenty-first Century - Paul Cripps

Part IV: The Virtual Representation of Historical Objects and Events

• Digital Artefacts: Possibilities and Purpose - David Arnold
• 'Oh, to make boards speak! There is a task' Towards a Poetics of Paradata - Richard Beacham
• Electronic Corpora of Artefacts: The Example of the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland - Anna Bentkowska-Kafel
• Conclusion: Virtual Representations of the Past - New Research Methods, Tools and Communities of Practice - Lorna Hughes

Reviews

'In an age when the objects of scholarly analysis in the arts and humanities are rapidly moving from the physical world to the virtual realm, researchers from all disciplines need a better understanding of the possibilities and potential of computational theory and methods. The fascinating essays in 'The Virtual Representation of the Past' explore the cutting edge of new techniques enabled by the digital age – from data- and text-mining to search to spatial technology – while remaining firmly rooted in the humanistic tradition. The book is approachable and thought-provoking.'
Daniel Cohen, George Mason University, USA

'This excellent volume, by established and younger scholars, offers a definitive overview of the current landscape from a multidisciplinary perspective. The transformative opportunities that technology has to offer humanities researchers are highlighted, together with the scale of the challenges in an age of where so little thought is given to interoperability and long-term issues such as sustainability.'
Jane Ohlmeyer, Trinity College, Ireland