A review of Nomisma, a digital infrastructure for the study of numismatics, created by Sebastian Heath and Andrew Meadows
Project
Nomisma
Project Creators
Sebastian Heath, New York University
Andrew Meadows, Oxford University
Project Team
Rahel Ackermann, Swiss Inventory of Coin Finds
Karsten Dahmen, Muenzkabinett Berlin
Frédérique Duyrat, Ashmolean Museum
Ethan Gruber, American Numismatic Society
Ulrike Peter, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Karsten Tolle, Goethe University Frankfurt
Peter van Alfen, American Numismatic Society
Christian Weiss, Swiss National Museum
David Wigg-Wolf, Römisch-Germanische Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts
Project URL
http://nomisma.org
Project Reviewer
Benjamin Hellings, Yale University Art Gallery
Ethan Gruber and Andrew Meadows
The Nomisma.org project was founded in 2010 by Sebastian Heath and Andrew Meadows, both then working at the American Numismatic Society in New York. Its original aim was to provide stable identities for numismatic concepts, such as mints, denominations, and rulers, according to the principles of linked open data. The project builds on earlier work to create a common Numismatic Data Standard (NUDS). Ethan Gruber joined the team and took over the major development of the platform, transforming the site from a simple wiki. Initially, the front-end was Apache Cocoon serving XHTML fragments embedded with RDFa. This was later migrated to Orbeon for an XForms back-end for linked data creation and maintenance and a front-end middleware based on XProc and XSLT for transforming RDF/XML and SPARQL query results into various HTML representations or machine-readable APIs. Simultaneously, a partnership was built with David Wigg-Wolf of the Römisch-Germanische Kommission (RGK) in Frankfurt and Karsten Tolle at the University of Frankfurt, who had independently been working to develop a linked open data ontology for the descriptions of coins. From these roots, the Nomisma.org project grew to become what it is today.
Today, Nomisma uniform resource identifiers (URIs) serve as the building blocks and data exchange formats between dozens of typological and catalogue projects based across Europe and North America (for example, Online Coins of the Roman Empire), linking hundreds of collections across the world. In a 2016 review of the state of Archaeological Linked Open Data commissioned by the Ariadne project, Nomisma was cited as a leading example among specialist fields. Nomisma today remains at the forefront of such efforts. Although Nomisma.org initially began as a linked open data thesaurus of numismatic concepts, it evolved into a full-fledged digital infrastructure for the discipline of numismatics. The Nomisma.org website provides more context about numismatic concepts and basic geographic visualizations, but the project’s underlying APIs and SPARQL endpoint deliver data for more than a million queries daily, powering a wide variety of data and geographic visualizations and aggregated content in numerous external projects that are used by scholars, students, and the general public.
In 2014, Nomisma was formally recognized as the preferred knowledge organization system for numismatics, through the grant of patronage from the International Numismatic Council. The need for a steering committee became apparent early on. It meets online monthly since 2013, with occasional changes of membership. Since 2020, Nomisma has been cooperating closely with the DARIAH-EU Digital Numismatics Working Group.
Benjamin Hellings
The intimate relationship between Nomisma and many successful digital-borne numismatic projects cannot be overlooked. This speaks to the accomplishments and the importance of Nomisma and its stable uniform resource identifiers (URIs), which serve as critical building blocks for data exchange between countless typological, catalogue, and coin-find repositories across the Western hemisphere. The International Numismatic Council’s patronage in 2014, a mere four years after Nomisma’s start, underscores the realization that it served, and would benefit all numismatists across the globe, as well as a wider audience.
Over 20 ground-breaking data and research projects currently rely on linked open data and Nomisma concepts, ranging from typologies for Greek and Hellenistic coinages, to Roman typologies and coin-find-databases. In some cases, these projects complement print publications while in other instances the Nomisma-backed project is the only practical reference point, displacing print publications. For other projects, where a printed publication would have been produced, a solitary digital Nomisma-backed reference exists. To date, over 55 institutions, such as museums, utilize Nomisma URIs and concepts in their collection management systems (CMS) that feed into the data and research projects and ensure systematic and quality data entry for their own institution. There is also potential for more uses of Nomisma, particularly for the non-ancient world where less work has occurred.
Data for Nomisma concepts are made available for any purpose with a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) and (bulk) data downloads are available in a variety of formats. A SPARQL endpoint is available to query data from Nomisma directly, and a video tutorial with examples is also provided to help users access the wealth of data at their fingertips. However, the reality is that only those comfortable with digital languages and semantics will be able to make use of this. Previous versions of Nomisma ontology are available, but web-users would benefit from the project relaying developments in a more easily digestible format. Metrics that track the development of the project would be an interesting method to measure the success of the project that has “has proceeded on a more informal footing.” Similarly, the projects that utilize Nomisma URIs and concepts would benefit from clear tracking methods for their development. A summary of annual Nomisma meetings could also be made available on its own website; one only wishes it was made clearer for the project’s developers and contributors.
Nomisma’s immense contribution to the discipline is unquestionable, providing context about numismatic concepts and basic geographic visualizations, as well as the project’s underlying APIs and SPARQL endpoint which deliver data for more than a million queries daily. The project’s track record is therefore encouraging and impressive.