Place names and geographical terms mentioned in the text

2024-03-20

Elements used for identifying references to places and other geographical features, groups or entities.

Relevant element documentation (TEI):

Names of places (cities, settlements)

If explicit annotation of named entities is desired, references to places (such as settlements, regions, nations) may be identified in the transcribed text using the placeName element.

<placeName>Συρίας</placeName>
(InsAph: 12.214)

Linking to place authorities

To

Normalizing placename spelling

...

Names of geographical features (rivers, mountains)

...

Divine geographic features

...

Names of ethnic groups or tribes

As per TEI Guidelines, ethnic groups and other collectives of people, even if referred to by a geographical name, are tagged with the orgName element.

References to places (such as settlements, regions, nations), peoples (such as ethnic groups, civic populations) and other geographical features (such as seas, mountains, rivers) can be identified in the transcribed text using the elements placeName (for mostly political entities: cities, nations, etc.) or geogName (for physical features: rivers, mountains, etc.).

<geogName>Tamesis</geogName>

Further information about the kind of geographical entity being named may be specified using a type attribute, for example identifying ethnic names as opposed to the place names themselves; or sub-categorising geographic names as the type of physical entity being names.

Names may be linked using the attribute nymRef, which will contain a URL or other URI pointing to the standard form of this name (nominative singular; normalized spelling) in a local XML table or database or online onomasticon. More usefully the names may be linked using the ref attribute to a place identifier, via a pointer to a local place database or online gazetteer such as Pleiades.

<placeName type="ethnic"
 nymRef="placenames.xml#Cyrenensisref="mentionedplace.xml#cyrene">
Cyrenensium</placeName>
<geogName type="river"
 nymRef="placenames.xml#Εὐφράτης"
 ref="http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/912849">
Εὐφράτης</geogName>

Personifications of places, for example, may be tagged as both placeName and persName, so they may be indexed or searched in either category.

<persName type="divine"
 ref="divinities.xml#phison">

 <geogName ref="http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/59851">Φίσων</geogName>
</persName>

Responsibility for this section

  1. Simona Stoyanova, author
  2. Gabriel Bodard, author

EpiDoc version: 9.6

Date: 2024-03-20