An Innovative Cloud-Based System for the Diachronic Analysis in Numismatics

Abstract

Nowadays, ancient coins are under-estimated. In fact, their iconography can provide students and researchers more information than they expect. Existing web solutions allow to retrieve data and to display ancient mints on digital maps, but they do not consider a powerful iconographic approach. The “Digital Iconographic Atlas of Numismatics in Antiquity” (DIANA) fulfill this gap providing a tool for the in-deep analysis of ancient mints specifically considering coin iconography, chronology, and geographical location. In this article, we present the new Cloud-based DIANA architecture that was recently re-engineered extending the Drupal platform. In particular, we focus on a new innovative Graphical User Interface (GUI) and system back-end that allows researchers a smarter diachronic study of the ancient culture according to the mints and coin iconography. The innovative features are highlighted through four case studies regarding personage, animal/mythical creature, flora, and object iconographies.