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i THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENTS OF GEOGRAPHY AND CAMS ANTHROGRAPHIC: A HUMANITIES VISUALIZATION PROGRAM MERLE CHELSEA GILLIAM SPRING 2013 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in Geography, GIS Option; Anthropology; Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies with honors in Geography and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies Reviewed and approved* by the following: Dr. Roger Downs Associate Professor, Geography Honors Adviser and Thesis Reader Dr. Paul Harvey Department Head, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies Thesis Supervisor Dr. Mary Lou Zimmerman-Munn Associate Professor, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies Honors Adviser * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. ii ABSTRACT The argument of this thesis is that a relatively easy to use Geographic Information System (GIS) program would be of significant benefit to historians, archaeologists, and other scholars in the humanities and that AnthroGraphics is such a program. To determine the salient features of AnthroGraphic, I interviewed prospective users who were highly knowledgeable in the humanities but without experience in using GIS. The AnthroGraphic program has three components: a data entry interface, a database, and an interactive map display. The database uses a Microsoft SQL Server and consists of tables linked to a simple data entry interface. This interface integrates the Google Geocoding Application Programming Interface (API) that converts addresses to geographic coordinates, thereby enabling points to be placed on the map. The map displays are created by Leaflet, an open source JavaScript library for interactive maps. The prototype map is a visualization of the Romanization of the Etruscans over three centuries as depicted by primary and secondary sources pulled from books and websites. Virtually no data comprising the prototype map originally existed in a tabular form. Users can zoom and pan the map to select an area of interest. The left sidebar displays layers of primary and secondary source layers that users can choose for display on the map. These can change by moving a time slider on the bottom of the screen. The right sidebar enables users to filter display points in each layer by selecting checkboxes that correspond to layer attributes. Clicking on an individual data point brings up a menu which displays images associated with that point as well as information such as textual citations of ancient authors and the relative accuracy of the point’s geographic position. The prototype map demonstrates AnthroGraphic’s usefulness for visualizing and analyzing humanities data. As with any such program, the use of AnthroGraphic over time will suggest ways in which it can be improved. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. v Chapter 1 Introduction to AnthroGraphic……………………………………………………1 Chapter 2 Why AnthroGraphic?..............................................................................................7 Chapter 3 Development Process……………………………………………………………..11 Chapter 4 Entity-Relationship Models and Database Schemas…………………………… 17 Chapter 5 Sample Map: the Romanization of Etruria………………………………………. 20 Chapter 6 Future Goals………………………………………………………………………33 Appendix: Interview Questions…………………………………………….37 References…………………………………………………………………..39 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Data Entry Screen………………………………………………………………….4 Figure 2. Prototype Map Screen……………………………………………………………..15 Figure 3. Paper Map Mockup………………………………………………………………..16 Figure 4. Entity Relationship Diagram………………………………………………………18 Figure 5. Database Schema Diagram………………………………………………………...20 Figure 6. AnthroGraphic displaying locational information………………………………....34 Figure 7. AnthroGraphic calculating summary statistics…………………………………….35 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Selectable Layers within AnthroGraphic……………………………………………5 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following persons who made this project possible. Dr. Paul Harvey for his continuing support of this project from its inception a year and a half ago as a paper on the Romanization of the Etruscans. Dr. Roger Downs for his enthusiasm, willingness to help, and faith in my project’s success. Drs. Mark Munn, Sarah Salter, and James Wood for setting aside time in their busy schedules to be interviewed, which materially assisted the development of AnthroGraphic; Dr. Stephen Wheeler for a presentation on Litterae, a database constructed of Latin poetry, which inspired the presentation of geographically-referenced historical sources as “mosaic pieces” a historian could put together in different ways; Shan Ye and Tom Corsale for discussions about the construction of the database, and Shan Ye for the construction of an Entity-Relationship diagram which shows early relations between entities; My immediate family and my fiancé, Gregg Nestel, for their support, reassurance, and boundless strength, especially when times would become difficult. 1 Chapter 1 Introduction to AnthroGraphic AnthroGraphic is a Geographic Information System (GIS) software program that allows users to input archaeological, historical, epigraphic, and geographic data in order for it to be displayed graphically. The advantage of using AnthroGraphic is that the software allows users unfamiliar with GIS to create dynamic maps of humanities data that can be readily comprehended and analyzed. Because many (though not all) humanities scholars have been hesitant about utilizing GIS, relatively little geographic analysis of humanities topics has been done to date. The lack of a means to technically analyze primary source data is a problem because most scholars base their findings and conclusions on primary sources. When the information is presented in conventional data tables, many important relationships are difficult to discern and are often inaccessible without the analytical and visualization powers of GIS. By inputting information into the data tables of AnthroGraphic, a user with a basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel can create a layered display of data on a map that has a time slider to show information by date. The software can define relationships among numerous parameters: for example, archaeological information can be linked to the excavators so that the user can choose to explore data by displaying digs by a particular excavator. An Entity-Relationship diagram later in this paper defines the relationships of the entities in the database. AnthroGraphic Components AnthroGraphic uses several components for map display, map referencing (geocoding), and database structure. The components of the GIS will be discussed below. Basemap Display 2 To display the maps, AnthroGraphic utilizes Leaflet and D3, a JavaScript library. Leaflet maps are displayed in a tile format. Users can select the scale and how much of the map they wish to display. Leaflet will generate coordinates for a data frame and provide tiles that dynamically update as a user zooms in and out. Leaflet is an open source software; thus AnthroGraphic may use Leaflet’s map tiles, provided that Leaflet is given due credit for the base map. The cartography of Leaflet’s tiles is fully customizable. Users may change the color, font, and appearance of features in the base map as well as turn features off and on. A layer containing place names enables users to see both modern and ancient place names. Leaflet does not directly denote a map scale because the scale necessarily changes as the user zooms in and out. (There is a rationale behind the scale that Leaflet uses but the explanation is rather complicated for general users of AnthroGraphic. However, a link to the explanation of the scale is provided in the appendix.) A future goal is to display a visual scale range at the various zoom levels of the map, which gives the user a general idea of the scale viewed. Map Referencing Map referencing, called geocoding by Geographic Information scientists, is a critical component of AnthroGraphic. Because the Google Maps application programming interface (API) provides the geocoding service, AnthroGraphic utilizes the coordinate specifications of Google Maps. Thus all coordinates are expressed using the Geographic Coordinate System (GCS), the World Geodetic System 1984 datum, and a Google-specific variant of a Mercator projection. AnthroGraphic uses decimal degree notation with five digits of floating point precision or more, as provided by Google Maps. When users input information, a map provided by Google appears at the bottom of the screen. Data entry fields allow a user to geocode addresses “on the fly” by entering the city, province, and country and even street address of the desired data point. Google automatically provides the coordinates of the data point, and the point is saved in the database by a click of the 3 button. Users can also enter coordinates (such as latitude 26.532727 and longitude 42.697827) directly. For archaeological excavations with a local coordinate system, AnthroGraphic uses a transformation algorithm to transform local coordinates into geographic coordinates. Database Structure The database of relationships