Datasets in "sdam" package

Ancient Mediterranean built-in datasets

The EDH dataset in "sdam" has information about Latin epigraphy retrieved from the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg API repository from the Roman world during the antiquity period.

A list of Roman provinces and regions in this dataset is available in dataset "rp", and use again function data() to load this built-in dataset to look at its internal structure with utils::str() function.

• Dataset "rp" is a named list with Roman provinces and regions with acronyms according to the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg.

# load dataset
data("rp")

# obtain object structure
str(rp)

List of 66
 $ Ach: chr "Achaia"
 $ Aeg: chr "Aegyptus"
 $ Aem: chr "Aemilia (Regio VIII)"
 $ Afr: chr "Africa Proconsularis"
 $ AlC: chr "Alpes Cottiae"
 $ AlG: chr "Alpes Graiae"
 $ AlM: chr "Alpes Maritimae"
 $ AlP: chr "Alpes Poeninae"
 $ ApC: chr "Apulia et Calabria (Regio II)"
 $ Aqu: chr "Aquitania"
 $ Ara: chr "Arabia"
 $ Arm: chr "Armenia"
 $ Asi: chr "Asia"
 $ Ass: chr "Assyria"
 $ Bae: chr "Baetica"
 $ Bar: chr "Barbaricum"
 $ Bel: chr "Belgica"
 $ BiP: chr "Bithynia et Pontus"
 $ BrL: chr "Bruttium et Lucania (Regio III)"
 $ Bri: chr "Britannia"
 $ Cap: chr "Cappadocia"
 $ Cil: chr "Cilicia"
 $ Cor: chr "Corsica"
 $ Cre: chr "Creta"
 $ Cyp: chr "Cyprus"
 $ Cyr: chr "Cyrene"
 $ Dac: chr "Dacia"
 $ Dal: chr "Dalmatia"
 $ Epi: chr "Epirus"
 $ Etr: chr "Etruria (Regio VII)"
 $ Gal: chr "Galatia"
 $ GeI: chr "Germania inferior"
 $ GeS: chr "Germania superior"
 $ HiC: chr "Hispania citerior"
 $ Inc: chr "Provincia incerta"
 $ Iud: chr "Iudaea"
 $ LaC: chr "Latium et Campania (Regio I)"
 $ Lig: chr "Liguria (Regio IX)"
 $ Lug: chr "Lugdunensis"
 $ Lus: chr "Lusitania"
 $ LyP: chr "Lycia et Pamphylia"
 $ MaC: chr "Mauretania Caesariensis"
 $ MaT: chr "Mauretania Tingitana"
 $ Mak: chr "Macedonia"
 $ Mes: chr "Mesopotamia"
 $ MoI: chr "Moesia inferior"
 $ MoS: chr "Moesia superior"
 $ Nar: chr "Narbonensis"
 $ Nor: chr "Noricum"
 $ Num: chr "Numidia"
 $ PaI: chr "Pannonia inferior"
 $ PaS: chr "Pannonia superior"
 $ Pic: chr "Picenum (Regio V)"
 $ Rae: chr "Raetia"
 $ ReB: chr "Regnum Bospori"
 $ Rom: chr "Roma"
 $ Sam: chr "Samnium (Regio IV)"
 $ Sar: chr "Sardinia"
 $ Sic: chr "Sicilia, Melita"
 $ Syr: chr "Syria"
 $ Thr: chr "Thracia"
 $ Tra: chr "Transpadana (Regio XI)"
 $ Tri: chr "Tripolitania"
 $ Umb: chr "Umbria (Regio VI)"
 $ Val: chr "Valeria"
 $ VeH: chr "Venetia et Histria (Regio X)"

# Armenian records in 'EDH'
edhw(province="Arm")[1]

Warning in edhw(province = "Arm"): "x" is for dataset "EDH".

Warning in edhw(province = "Arm"): "province" with no "vars" returns lists.

[[1]]
[[1]]$ID
[1] "015521"

[[1]]$commentary
[1] " Mehrere, teils aneinanderpassende Fragmente erhalten. Die Inschrift lief über mehrere Tafeln hinweg; Angabe der Breite bezieht sich auf die erste der Tafeln mit den Zeilenanfängen. Rekonstruierte Gesambreite: circa 8,50 m."

[[1]]$country
[1] "Armenia"

[[1]]$depth
[1] "21 cm"

[[1]]$diplomatic_text
[1] "IMP CAESAR DIV[ ] NERVAE F[ ]ERVA TRAIANVS / OPTIMVS A[ ]G G[ ]RM DACI[ ]THICVS PONT MAX / TRIB POT XX [ ]P XIII COS VI [ ]R LEG IIII SCYT FECIT"

[[1]]$edh_geography_uri
[1] "https://edh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/geographie/3407"

[[1]]$findspot_ancient
[1] "Artaxata, bei"

[[1]]$findspot_modern
[1] "Pokr Vedi"

[[1]]$height
[1] "80 cm"

[[1]]$id
[1] "HD015521"

[[1]]$language
[1] "Latin"

[[1]]$last_update
[1] "2015-10-22"

[[1]]$letter_size
[1] "20-16 cm"

[[1]]$literature
[1] "AE 1968, 0510.; B. Arakelean, RevPaz 126, 1968, 135-136; Foto u. Zeichnung. - AE 1968 "

[[1]]$material
[1] "limestone: rocks - clastic sediments"

[[1]]$military
[1] "data available"

[[1]]$not_before
[1] "0116"

[[1]]$people
[[1]]$people[[1]]
[[1]]$people[[1]]$person_id
[1] "1"

[[1]]$people[[1]]$name
[1] "div[i] Nervae f[il. N]erva Traianus"

[[1]]$people[[1]]$gender
[1] "male"

[[1]]$people[[1]]$cognomen
[1] "Nerva+ Traianus"



[[1]]$province_label
[1] "Armenia"

[[1]]$responsible_individual
[1] "Gräf"

[[1]]$transcription
[1] "Imp(erator) Caesar div[i] Nervae f[il(ius) N]erva Traianus / optimus A[u]g(ustus) G[e]rm(anicus) Daci[c(us) Par]thicus pont(ifex) max(imus) / trib(unicia) pot(estate) XX [im]p(erator) XIII co(n)s(ul) VI [p(ater) p(atriae) pe]r leg(ionem) IIII Scyt(hicam) fecit"

[[1]]$trismegistos_uri
[1] "https://www.trismegistos.org/text/217430"

[[1]]$type_of_inscription
[1] "building/dedicatory inscription"

[[1]]$type_of_monument
[1] "tabula"

[[1]]$uri
[1] "https://edh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/inschrift/HD015521"

[[1]]$width
[1] "(205) cm"

[[1]]$work_status
[1] "provisional"

[[1]]$year_of_find
[1] "1967"

# record HD015521
edhw(id="15521", as="df")

# record HD015521 with explicit variables
edhw(id="15521", vars="people", as="df")

        id        cognomen gender                                name person_id
1 HD015521 Nerva+ Traianus   male div[i] Nervae f[il. N]erva Traianus         1

# record HD015521 with more explicit variables
edhw(id="15521", vars=c("people", "province_label"), as="df")

        id        cognomen gender                                name person_id province_label
1 HD015521 Nerva+ Traianus   male div[i] Nervae f[il. N]erva Traianus         1        Armenia

Obtaining all people variables

Start by looking at the people variables in the EDH dataset for the Roman province of Armenia.

Armenia

Roman province of Armenia (ca 117 AD).

Transformation of the entire province from the EDH dataset requires extracting first a list with the province content. Function edhw() is to obtain available inscriptions per province from EDH and all data attributes from people variable. The default outputs are a list and a dataframe for the first and the second instance of the function.

# people in Armenia
edhw(province="Arm") |> 
  edhw(vars="people")

        id         age: years        cognomen gender                                name
1 HD015521               <NA> Nerva+ Traianus   male div[i] Nervae f[il. N]erva Traianus
2 HD015524 data not available        Cre(---)   male                        C. Val. Cre.
3 HD015524               <NA>           [---]   male                               [---]
      nomen person_id praenomen             status
1      <NA>         1      <NA>               <NA>
2 Valerius*         1        C. military personnel
3     [---]         2       [-] military personnel

People attribute variables in inscriptions for Armenia are age: years, cognomen, gender, name, nomen, person_id, praenomen, and, status, but any inscription with tribus or origo as in the case of other provinces.

For Armenia, two inscriptions have people variables and all people scripted are male, where record HD015524 spans two rows because there are two persons where one have nomen, cognomen, and name ineligible.

Datasets for cartographical maps

The plotting of the Roman province in the previous section requires other datasets. Apart from "rp". In "sdam", there are other three datasets invoked for plotting cartographical maps related to the Roman Empire and the Mediterranean basin, which are "rpmp", "rpmcd", and "retn".

Function plot.map() calls dataset "rpmp" for the shapes and colours in the plotting of the cartographical maps of different regions of the Roman Empire. For the caption and province dates with this function shapes and colours are in dataset "rpmcd".

• Dataset "retn" bears the shapes of places and routes of an ancient transportation system in the Mediterranean region and political divisions of the Roman Empire. It also has it contours and parts of the European continent.

# land contour around Mediterranean
plot.map(type="plain")

# display settlements and shipping routes
plot.map(type="plain", settl=TRUE, shipr=TRUE)

Vignette Cartographical maps and networks has more about transportation networks in the ancient Mediterranean.

Datasets with dates

There are built-in datasets in "sdam" related to dates as well that are either displayed in a cartographical map or used for other computations.

• Dataset "rpd" that has dates for provinces from the EDH dataset. It serves for performing a restricted imputation on data subsets in EDH or in another dataset.

# dates from EDH
data("rpd")

# three provinces in object structure
str(rpd[1:3])

List of 3
 $ Ach: 'HD001917' num [1:4] 105 -190 571 761
 $ Aeg: 'HD000741' num [1:4] 144 -71 500 571
 $ Aem: 'HD000010' num [1:4] 121 -201 771 972

From this set of three Roman provinces in the EDH, the longest timespan is for Aem, and on average Ach has the oldest incriptions, while Aeg has incriptions with the newest dates.

• Dataset "rpcp" with chronological periods for regions with early and later Roman influence per province.

# periods for Roman provinces
data("rpcp")

# object structure
str(rpcp)

List of 2
 $ Early:'data.frame':  45 obs. of  3 variables:
  ..$ Province: chr [1:45] "Italia (Final Consolidation)" "Sicilia" "Sardinia & Corsica" "Hispania Ulterior (Later Baetica)" ...
  ..$ EarInf  : num [1:45] -509 -241 -238 -206 -206 -206 -202 -202 -188 -188 ...
  ..$ OffPrv  : num [1:45] -272 -241 -238 -197 -197 -197 -146 -81 43 -133 ...
 $ Late :'data.frame':  45 obs. of  3 variables:
  ..$ Province: Factor w/ 45 levels "Achaea","Aegyptus",..: 30 43 42 27 28 26 3 23 32 9 ...
  ..$ LateInf : num [1:45] 476 436 436 409 409 ...
  ..$ Fall    : num [1:45] 476 436 436 409 409 409 409 418 1400 1500 ...

The early and later Roman influence in the 45 ancient provinces and regions are timespans with a terminus ante quem and a terminus post quem.

Vignette Dates and missing dating data has the visualisation of these and other dates.

External data

Apart from the built-in datasets, it is attached as external data the semi-colon separated file StraussShipwrecks.csv with the Shipwrecks dataset for performing analyses: Reference and documentation in

Strauss, J. (2013). Shipwrecks Database. Version 1.0. Accessed (07-12-2021) from oxrep.classics.ox.ac.uk/databases/shipwrecks_database/

Built from Parker, A.J. Ancient Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and the Roman Provinces (Oxford: BAR International Series 580, 1992)

Details about the access to the database are in:

• Shipwrecks network in the Mediterranean Basin (23-June-2022)

• Vignettes Dates and missing dating data and Cartographical maps and networks also use the Shipwrecks dataset.

See also