ECAI Cultural Atlas Developments in the Web 2.0 Era
Jeanette Zerneke, University of California, Berkeley, USA

The rapid development of digital earth systems has created great opportunities for development of electronic cultural atlases.  The new systems provide the technical platform and contextual background information required for development of cultural atlases. Project development is easier. Google Earth, for instance, is relatively easy to use and has good documentation. The proliferation of these systems has also spawned a large online user group familiar with using interactive maps and creating online content.

Together these trends have created an explosion of projects and available information. However, the issues that ECAI has addressed in design of excellent cultural atlases remain the same. We still need to address and explore questions such as:

In addition, ensuring accuracy of information and documenting source information remain important.

Addressing digital humanities questions also remain, including how to deal with:

To support this ongoing process, ECAI is developing a Cultural Atlas Browser to highlight the work of ECAI affiliates and good examples of atlas components and styles. The browser will provide a central location to find current ECAI examples.  The browser has a Google Earth interface. This will allow the browser and it’s component projects to be discoverable through Google searches.  Several ECAI projects are also either being migrated to Google Earth or have new Google Earth components.  This process will provide experience in how to use the new tools and create examples of innovative ways to use Google Earth with time components and cultural content. 

 ECAI has from the beginning had methods for community members to contribute information and projects. The new browser will continue this tradition and have an (easier to use) online method for users to nominate atlases to include in the browser. 

This presentation will demonstrate progress in these developments.

Cultural Atlases of Batanes Islands and Region
David Blundell, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Jeanette Zerneke, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Conference Presentation

This presentation reviews the project Mapping the Batanes Islands and the Regions of Bashi Channel and Luzon Strait. In March and April 2006, the ECAI Austronesian Team focused on three inhabited islands of the Batanes, the smallest and most Northern Province of the Philippines. The overall project is a model for developing a cultural atlas of the Batanes (Philippines) and Orchid Island (Taiwan). The people of these islands retain one language with several distinct dialects. The research emphasizes (1) mapping culture and language, (2) landform and use, (3) craft such as fishing, (4) legends, and (5) recent findings in archaeology. Procedures and outcome will be discussed including development of a Web-based digital cultural atlas with a Google Earth component. The atlas is accessible to the local community and available for scholarly exchange.

Historical GIS of Derevskaia Piatina: Electronic Atlas of the end of the 15th c.
Nina V. Piotukh, Moscow State University, Russia
Alexey Frolov (co-preseter), Novotorzskaya Archeological Expedition, Russia
Conference Presentation

The project “Historical GIS of Derevskaia Piatina: Electronic Atlas of the end of the 15th c.” was finished in 2006.

Derevskaia piatina was part of the Great Novgorod country. Great Novgorod is located at the Northwest part of Russia. Its territory was divided into five administrative units named “piatina.” Derevskaia is the name of one of these units.

Derevskaia Piatina covered 32,000 square kilometers at the end of the 15th c. and was located between two great rivers of Eastern Europe – Msta and Lovat’. Its southern border passed through low populated areas of the Lovat’, Pola, Volga and Msta watershed. The northern and eastern borders passed along Msta river and the western border was limited by the river Lovat’ and Ilmen’ lake.

The aim of the project was to locate settlements that were stated by the cadastral survey of Derevskaia piatina at 1495/96. The cadastral survey of 1495/96 is the main historical source containing data about settlements, population and husbandry of the region under study at the end of the 15th c. It includes about 10,000 settlements. We managed to locate 5,168 settled points. The methodology applied allowed for an increased effectiveness of localization 4-5 times. There were localized from 44% to 92% of different pogosts’ (the smallest administrative unit) settlements.

The uniqueness of this project and atlas itself is determined by the following combined characteristic: the extension of the territory under study for such an ancient period of time and the technical realization as a GIS.
 
The medieval settlements’ maps are the basement for the different researches: studying of settling patterns and spatial economic history. GIS allows for the performance of such research by organising great databases including spatial information and using spatial statistical analysis.

Making Electronic Cultural Atlas of Korean folk songs
Paik Sun Chul and Choe Young Jun, Korean University, South Korea

This study is to show various aspects of Korean folk songs by building the Korean folk song database and making Electronic Cultural Atlas of Korean folk songs. Brief summaries of this work are as follows. First, by situating the contents of the database in Electric Cultural Atlas, we can figure out the differences of distribution ranges among major types of folk songs at a nation-wide level. Distribution maps of Korean Folk songs on a national administrative unit basis can work as the standard by which we can set certain boundaries of a particular kind of folk songs where it has been transmitted and preserved. Also these maps can provide useful clues for understanding how these folk songs continue to exist, evolve, and disappear. Second, we can easily find out the differences of local lives and cultures by using these maps. The characteristics of each local life and culture are vividly reflected in these folk songs. Then, we can understand the differences and similarities of cultures and natural environments of each local region. These are the exemplary benefits realized by our Electronic Cultural Atlas based on the database of Korean folk songs.  

Preparation of the Historical Cultural Atlas of Buryatia for Publication
(Moscow, 2002)
B.V. Bazarov, IMBTS SB RAS

The historical cultural atlas of Buryatia is one of the first and most significant attempts to systematize the vast amount of information on history and culture of Buryatia and Buryat people, and to represent it in the illustrated form, maximally trying to make it easy for the perception of the wide range of readers.  
The content of atlas covers ethnic Buryatia, which occupies the northern part of the Inner Asian region. However, history and culture of Buryatia are represented in the interrelations with the history of East Asian countries and Russia.
Atlas starts from the natural geographic description of the territory. Historical chapter covers the following large periods: