Digital Tabula Imperii Byzantini (DigTIB)

Digital Tabula Imperii Byzantini (DigTIB) image

Last updated: 8/18/23

The Digital Tabula Imperii Byzantini (DigTIB), created by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, is an ongoing effort to make the data presented in the Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB) accessible digitally. The TIB carries out systematic research in the historical geography of the Byzantine Empire, from the beginning of the 4th century to the mid-15th century. The aim of the project is to create a historical atlas of the Byzantine space from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period.

The ultimate goal of DigTIB is to archive and digitally (re)process the published and unpublished data of the TIB, which has been collected from 1966 until 2016, when the TIB became a long-term project of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. This data comprises slides, which were made during TIB surveys from 1966 until 2007/08 (about 52,000), thousands of black-and-white photographs from the 1960s and 1970s from different areas of research, and the published TIB volumes 1–13 and 15. Datasets for TIB volumes created since 2016 are being digitized and made available through third-party funded subprojects. The scholarly results and digital photography of the TIB Balkans and of related subprojects are regularly added in English to the TIB Balkans OpenAtlas database.

DigTIB makes available in the TIB Toponym Register the lists of the geographic registers of each published TIB volume (1–13 and 15). The list will be expanded to include future TIB volumes. The next step for the TIB Toponym Register will be to assign Unique Identifiers, which will facilitate the comparison of TIB data with that of other digital projects. Lists for volumes 1–7, 12, and 13 include links to pdf files of the respective TIB volume. Also available are over 7,000 scanned slides from TIB volumes 5, 12, and 16. Each slide is embedded with metadata. At present, these slides and associated metadata maybe viewed but may not be downloaded for any purpose due to copyright restrictions.

The related Maps of Power, an historical atlas of Byzantium developed by TIB Balkans, aims to make available the current TIB content using state of the art geocommunication tools. The original version (Maps of Power: Historical Atlas of Places, Borderzones and Migration Dynamics in Byzantium (TIB Balkans)) is offline as a version 2.0 is under construction. The new version is expected to launch in fall 2023 at maps-of-power.oeaw.ac.at.

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