Our team is thrilled to officially announce the relaunch of kerameikos.org! Over the last year we have been diligently rebuilding our site to create a more accessible and engaging experience for users — whether they be experts, researchers, students, or those simply with an interest in ancient Greek pottery.
For those of you who have yet to be formally introduced to our project, kerameikos.org is a Digital Humanities initiative dedicated to defining the intellectual concepts of ancient Greek pottery following the methodologies of Linked Open Data (LOD). We write standardized definitions in multiple languages for concepts including “artist” (e.g. “Achilles Painter”), “technique” (e.g. “black-figure”), and “shape” (e.g. “amphora”). Additionally, kerameikos.org aggregates museum and archaeological datasets into an information system that facilitates broader public access. Through the project, thousands of objects from multiple institutions that adhere to Open Data principles are available for analysis by museums, archaeologists, historians, and Greek pottery students and specialists.
Our website now features improved navigation, updated search and browsing functions, new definitions, expanded translations, redesigned visuals, and up-to-date information on the project’s history and collaborators. Educators and students will find useful new resources including guides on our terminology and how Greek vases are used in archaeological study. Those interested in integrating digital methods in their own research might benefit from reading our body of publications or consulting our Linked Open Data bibliography.
Kerameikos.org is a deeply collaborative project. Though we are based at the University of Virginia, our team comprises researchers and experts from across the USA, Greece, China, Germany, and beyond. If you notice something on our site that needs adjusting, correcting, or adding, we welcome your feedback. You can submit feedback here with our Google form.
Our project would not be possible without the support of our researchers, translators, partner institutions, and users like you. We invite you to explore our new website and to follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Thank you for being a part of the ever-growing kerameikos.org community!