How To (a short introduction to LiBER)

Navigation bar

LiBER has a navigation bar that provides links to the various sections of the website.

“LiBER” points to the site’s Home Page. “Credits” provides information about museums, institutions, collaborations, and bibliographic sources. “Database”, “Map” and “Search” give access to the three main sections of the site, whose functions are respectively to filter the documents in the database, display their findspots on interactive maps and perform text searches. “Tools”, along with this brief introduction, provides additional resources, such as syllabogram and logogram tables. It also gives access to contextual functions for the individual sections of the site.

Depending on the sections used, other menus may appear on the navigation bar alongside those already mentioned.

Below is a brief description of the three main sections of the site, together with some practical tips.

Database

The Database section contains a data table and a series of filters. The data table is divided into seven columns: Documents, Findspots, Scribes, Palmprints, Chronologies, M. Inv. Nos., and Doc. Nos.

The first column shows the documents in the database classified by prefix and component numbers. The next five columns indicate findspot, scribal attribution, dactyloscopic identification, chronology, and place of preservation of each document. The sixth column indicates the first component of each text and can be used to sort documents by order number. The last column shows the number of photos available for each document.

By default, the table contents are sorted by documents but can be rearranged by any other column. It is therefore possible to sort documents in direct or reverse order by findspots, scribes, palmprints, chronologies, museum inventory numbers, or document order numbers.

The top left selector allows you to scroll through the table in blocks of 10, 25, 50 or 100 documents. The last option “all” allows you to scroll through the entire dataset. By clicking on one of the buttons at the bottom right, you can move forwards and backwards or switch to another block. The number of documents currently displayed is indicated below the data table.

Clicking on a blue link (first column) opens a new tab with the transcription, photograph and notes related to that document (see Text presentation below).

By clicking on a table row, a specific document can be selected. You can also make multiple selections using CTRL / CMD (non-contiguous documents) or SHIFT (contiguous documents). Selected documents are highlighted on a blue background and can be deselected one by one (with CTRL / CMD) or cumulatively by pressing the “Deselect” button. The number of rows currently selected is displayed below the data table, next to the number of documents currently shown.

Selected documents can be displayed on the map, printed on screen, or copied to memory (e.g., to be pasted into an Excel spreadsheet) using the “Plot”, “Print”, and “Copy” buttons, respectively.

The contents of the database can be filtered through the “Global filter” in the top right corner. This generic filter is case-insensitive and returns any documents whose data matches the search string.

For example, “Lc 512” selects the document “KN Lc(2) 512 + fr. [+] 748 + frr.”,

while the word “collection” filters the following three documents:

The number of filtered documents is visible below the data table, next to the number of documents currently shown.

A special filter (“Search docs by number”) is always available on the navigation bar to search for documents by component number (the quickest way to find a text without specifying its site or series).

For example, to select the KN Dg 1235 + 5400 tablet, simply type either “1235” or “5400”. If two or more documents from different archives have the same order number, they can be selected from a menu.

The frame immediately below the data table has six panels, which allow specific filtering: by sites (e.g., Knossos), series (or sets) (e.g. Ai or Ai(2)), findspots (e.g. (B2) S.W. Pillar Room), scribes (e.g. 53), palmprints (e.g. Anonymos I), and chronologies (e.g. LH III B).

Each panel item is followed by its total occurrences.

All panels allow you to make multiple selections. As in the data table, to select or deselect multiple items, simply click on them while pressing CTRL / CMD (non-contiguous items) or SHIFT (contiguous items).

The number of active filters is displayed simultaneously in a red box above the data table and in the top left corner above the panels. The number of filtered documents is displayed below the data table.

To access the entire database again, you can click on the “Clear all” button in the top right corner above the panels.

To restore the initial state of the panels and clear all active filters (including the “Global filter”), you must click the “Reset” button above the data table.

All these panels are filtered according to the values selected in the other panels. Thus, if you select the word Mycenae from the “Sites” panel, the remaining panels will only show the series, findspots, scribes, etc., related to Mycenae. If you then select Ge from the “Series” panel, the remaining panels will only show the findspots, scribes, etc., corresponding to the Mycenae Ge tablets.

After each selection, the relative occurrences of any individual item are displayed next to the totals, while the table’s content is updated accordingly.

Above each panel is a search box followed by four buttons:

This search box is case sensitive and is used to filter a specific item. The first button activates the input box, the second clears its contents, while the last two buttons rearrange the contents alphabetically or by frequency.

Text presentation

As a rule, a transcription, photograph, and critical apparatus are provided for each document, as well as information on the findspot, scribe, palmprint, chronology, and museum inventory number (when available).

The blue link below the “Findspot” label can be clicked to display the document’s findspot on the map. If there are any notes about a given findspot, these are reproduced immediately below the link.

Each document is presented according to its original printed layout, respecting as much as possible the typographic conventions used and the spatial distribution of text elements in its reference edition. The main exception applies to words whose final part is written in the upper register of the same line: in these cases, the notation in single inverted commas is used both for Knossos and Pylos texts (cf. e.g. PY Tn 316 v.3: ko-ma-we-te‘-ja’). At the same time, each text is rearranged into a hyperlink matrix so that if you click on a text element (word, logogram, metrogram, numeral, etc.), the Search section opens with that element already pasted into the input box (see Search section). Documents mentioned in the notes as possible components, simili-joins or comparanda of the current document are also shown as hyperlinks (see e.g., Bo 808).

If transcriptions and photos are wider than their respective boxes, a bar allows them to be scrolled horizontally.

If you move the mouse pointer over the photograph, a lens appears with an enlarged portion of the image, which can be zoomed in or out with the mouse wheel. If you click on the “Full screen image” button, a larger photograph is displayed (press Esc key or click × to exit).

If more than one photo is available, thumbnails of all available photos are displayed below the currently selected photo.

The blue links in the top left box refer to the documents that immediately precede and follow the current one (highlighted in blue). These links can be used to browse the entire database or a group of documents previously selected from the data table in the Database section (in this case the current document is highlighted in red).

The two buttons in the top right corner can be used to adjust font size and line spacing.

The “Remove Highlighting” button to the right of these removes the highlighting from sequences found by the search engine (see Search section).

Map

The Map section is intended to show where documents were found. Documents are grouped into clusters marked by blue circles with white numbers. When the map is zoomed in, clusters split into smaller groups or individual documents, the latter being represented by smaller blue circles without numbers. The zoom function can be activated with the mouse wheel or with the “+” and “–” buttons in the bottom right corner on the map.

The documents represented on the map are those with probable or certain information about their respective findspots. In the left sidebar, three totals are displayed: the first refers to all documents with known findspots (blue label), the second to all documents in the database (grey label), the third to the findspots of the documents represented on the map (black label). The latter figure may be larger than the total of the selected documents, if one or more documents come from more than one findspot.

Below these totals, the sidebar shows a list of the documents displayed on the map, along with additional information about their findspots (if any). Documents appear in the list as many times as their findspots. The map and the list are connected to each other. Therefore, as you increase the zoom level, the number of documents on the map and in the list decreases accordingly.

If you move the mouse pointer across the list, the corresponding findspots are highlighted with a red circle.

At higher and more detailed zoom levels, if you move the mouse pointer over a cluster or an individual document, the name of the corresponding findspot is displayed in the top left corner on the map.

By clicking on a document in the list, the corresponding findspot is highlighted with a red circle and the text is displayed in a pop-up window. The pop-up shows the text of the selected document plus some basic information. To view all the available information, you need to click on the “Show details” button in the bottom left corner of the pop-up. When you click this button, the map disappears and the tablet is displayed in full.

If you click on a cluster, that cluster is highlighted with a red circle and only the corresponding documents are listed.

If you click on a blue circle corresponding to an individual document, its text appears directly in a pop-up window.

The list can be filtered at any time to find a specific text or group of texts (e.g., if you enter “Z” in the “Filter” search box, the list is reduced to vase inscriptions).

If needed, the sidebar can be hidden by pressing the button.

When you are in the Map section, the navigation bar changes. The new “Sites” menu appears and the “Tools” menu is enriched with new functions. “Sites” provides the ability to navigate across archaeological sites, flying directly to Knossos, Mycenae, etc., or zooming in to a specific findspot. The new functions in “Tools” allow you to activate or deactivate the sidebar and maximise the map.

The arrow button in the map’s bottom right corner returns your current location on the ground. This geo-localization function is intended for use on archaeological sites with mobile devices.

If you select or filter some documents from Database or Search and then click on the “Plot” button, a new tab opens with the documents’ distribution map. In both cases, a box on the map’s right-hand side indicates for each site the number of documents with findspots against the total number of documents filtered or selected.

The “Load all” button in the same box allows you to reset the map view with all the documents with known findspots in the database.

Search

The Search section is intended to query the database.

Several types of search are possible:

1. ‘Basic search’ to find all occurrences of a given item.
2. ‘Associations’ to find all items directly or indirectly associated with a given item.
3. ‘Contiguities’ to find two or more items in the same line of a text in a predefined order.
4. ‘Co-occurrences’ to find two or more co-occurring items, regardless of their relative position in the text.

To start a query, type a string into the input box, choose the appropriate search conditions from the checkboxes, radio buttons and select menus above the input box (“Sites”, “Series”, etc.) and press Enter or click the “Submit” button.

The select menus can be hidden and called up again by pressing the button.

The two drop-down menus on the right have special functions. The first menu (“Notations”) allows you to find all forms with dotted, erased [[…]], restored [ … ] or missing < … > signs. In the first case, it is necessary to specify in the input box which sign is searched for (e.g., n°a°). In the other cases, the search returns all erased, restored or missing signs in the database. The second menu (“Filter by sign classes”) allows you to create full lists of specific sign classes such as special syllabograms, logograms, metrograms, arithmograms and stiktograms.

When typing a search string in the input box, bear in mind that signs conventionally transcribed in italics or superscript must always be preceded either by $ (e.g., $o, $ME+$RI, OLE+$PA, *$171, etc.) or ^ (e.g., TELA^1, OVIS^f) , while any dotted character must always be followed by ° (e.g., $P°A°).

Special characters ₂ ₃ × ° • ⸤ ⸥ ‹ › • ◦ ⊕ → ↓ ↗ can be selected from a virtual keyboard accessible via the button.

To clear the input box, the button must be clicked.

If you wish to restore the default search conditions, you must click on the “Reset” button.

Basic search

“Basic” search and “Any match” are selected by default.

With “Basic” search, all conditions can be selected.

Conditions assigned to radio buttons are mutually exclusive:

• “Any match” finds any sequence matching the searched item, regardless of its position (substring search).
• “Exact match” finds any sequence identical to the searched item, regardless of whether it is preceded or followed by square brackets (useful to find all the occurrences of a given abbreviation or adjunct: e.g., $PA or $di).
• “Sign match” finds a specific sign regardless of its specific position (e.g., ra finds ra, ra-, -ra-, -ra, but not ra2; useful to find all the occurrences of a given abbreviation and its ligatures: e.g., $PA and TELA+$PA).
• “Starts with” finds any sequence that begins with the searched item.
• “Ends with” finds any sequence that ends with the searched item.
• “Regex” enables the use of regular expressions.

Conditions assigned to checkboxes can be combined:

• The “Aa” checkbox enables the “Case sensitive” function.
• The “Notes” checkbox performs a full-text search in the notes.

If needed, you can also specify additional parameters by using the select menus above the input box:

• “Sites” (KN, PY, etc.).
• “Series” (first letters of prefixes: A-, B-, etc.).
• “Sub-series” (second letters of prefixes).
• “Sets”.
• “Scribes”.
• “Findspots”.
• “Periods”.
• “Sub-periods”.
• “Phases”.

These menus are linked. So, if you select “MY” from the “Sites” menu or “J3” from the “Findspots” menu, the remaining menus will only show data relating either to Mycenae or the Knossos J3 findspot.

In all these menus, multiple choices are allowed (the CTRL key keeps the menus open).

When selecting one or more items from these menus, the button and menu borders turn red and remain so until the “Reset” button is clicked.

Selections made via the select menus are permanent until the “Reset” button is clicked. Therefore, they can be used to further refine search parameters.

These menus can also be combined with the drop-down menus “Notation” and “Filter by sign classes”. It is thus possible to search for dotted, erased, restored or missing signs, or a specific class of signs, limiting the search to a specific site, findspot, scribe, etc. In all these cases, the condition “Any match” is automatically selected.

Note: all queries concerning Linear B textual data with Basic search are performed both in texts and notes.

Here are some examples:

• pa + “Any match” finds any sequence matching or containing pa, pa, or PA (dotted or not).
• $pa + “Any match” finds any sequence matching or containing pa or PA (dotted or not).
• $PA + “Any match” + “Case sensitive” finds any sequence matching or containing PA (dotted or not).
• p°a° + “Any match” + “[Notations] Dotted signs” finds any sequence matching or containing p̣ạ, p̣ạ, or P̣Ạ.
• $P°A° + “Any match” + “Case sensitive” + “[Notations] Dotted signs” finds any sequence matching or containing P̣Ạ.
• pa + “Any match” + “[Sites] KN” finds any sequence matching or containing pa, pa or PA (dotted or not) at Knossos.
• pa-ro + “Exact match” finds all occurrences of pa-ro (including ]pa-ro, pa-ro[, and ]pa-ro[).
• a-pi + “Starts with” + “[Series] V” + “[Sub-series] c” finds any sequence beginning with a-pi- in the Knossos Vc series.
• we-jo + “Ends with” + “[Sites] KN” finds any sequence ending in -we-jo at Knossos.
• -(.?)i-j(.?)$ + “Regex” finds any sequence ending in -...i-j... like -i-ja, -i-je, -i-jo, -di-ja, -di-je, -di-jo, etc. (dotted or not).
• ^a(.+)ta$ + “Regex” finds any sequence beginning with a- and ending with -ta like a-e-ri-qo-ta, a-ke-ta, a-mo-ta, etc. (dotted or not).
• “⊕” + “Search in notes” returns all simili-joins.

With the help of regular expressions, complex queries can be performed.

E.g., the following expression finds all logograms in the database:

• \*\$[0-9]{3}|^(]?)[A-Z]{3} + “Regex” + “Case sensitive”.

For more details about regular expressions see: https://www.regular-expressions.info/.

After submitting the query, a grey box is displayed showing the total number of occurrences, forms and documents found.

Results are presented in tabular form. The first column shows the total occurrences per form, the second contains the forms that match the query, the third shows the sites where the forms are attested, the fourth shows the documents containing the individual forms.

When clicking on a document, its text is displayed in a new tab and the element found is highlighted. This function can be deactivated with the “Remove Highlighting” button.

The forms found are indexed according to the general rules used for Linear B indexes (cf. Index généraux, Rome 1973). Alternative readings mentioned in the notes are displayed in grey both after the primary readings and as separate entries (indented in the index), followed by the corresponding primary readings in black.

The documents found are grouped by sites and series (or sets).

If a reference is dotted, the corresponding reading is uncertain. If it is enclosed in square brackets, the text is partially or totally lost in a gap. If it is enclosed in angle brackets, the text has been partially or totally omitted by the scribe and is added by the editors. If it is enclosed in double square brackets, the text has been intentionally erased by the scribe but is still legible. If it is followed by *, the reading is mentioned in the notes and the corresponding primary reading is reproduced after the reference. Finally, if one reading has one or more alternative readings, these are shown in grey after the corresponding references.

References to the verso have a “v” appended to the tablet or line number (e.g., KN Sc 217v​ or KN Bk 799.4v​); those to so-called fragmenta separata (cf. e.g., KN As(3) 1520) are marked by a letter (“B”, “C” or “D”) in superscript (e.g., As(3) 1520.2^B​).

The results of queries can be displayed on the map or printed on the screen using the “Plot” or “Print” buttons.

The results of the queries made in the notes are displayed in two columns. The first column shows the links to the texts found, sorted by series and number. The second shows the notes containing the searched item. By clicking on a link, the corresponding document is displayed in a new tab.

Associations

The “Association” search finds all textual elements that are present in the same texts together with the searched element (e.g., all words, logograms and numerals directly or indirectly associated with pa-i-to).

“Exact match” is selected by default. “Case sensitive” is also available if you need to distinguish between upper and lower case. The other conditions are not available, while select menus are. With “Any match”, a less strict search can be performed.

Search results are sorted by frequency.

By clicking on a tablet, the corresponding text is displayed in a new tab.

Result sets can also be displayed on the map or printed on the screen using the “Plot” or “Print” buttons.

Contiguities

The “Contiguity” search finds two or more items in the same line of a text in a predefined order (i.e. the order in which they are typed in the input box).

“Exact match” is selected by default. With “Any match” you can search by substring (e.g., with “ko-no-s VIR” and “Any Match” you get both ko-no-si-jo/-ja … VIR and ko-no-so … VIR).

“Case sensitive” is also available if you need to distinguish between upper and lower case. The other conditions are not available, while select menus are.

Search results are sorted by tablets and show the lines of text in which contiguities are found, followed by information on scribes and findspots. Clicking on a tablet displays the full text.

Note: this search function can also be used to search for a single item in order to have a synoptic view of all its micro-contexts (excluding alternative readings in the notes).

The result set can be displayed on the map or printed on the screen using the “Plot” or “Print” buttons.

Co-occurrences

The “Co-occurrence” search finds two or more items that are present in the same text regardless of their relative position.

In this case, “Any match” is selected by default. With “Exact match” a stricter search can be performed. “Case sensitive” is also available if you need to distinguish between upper and lower case. The other conditions are not available, while select menus are.

Search results are sorted by tablets, displayed in full, with additional information on scribes. Searched items are highlighted in yellow.

Note: this search function can also be used to search for a single item in order to get an overview of all its contexts (excluding alternative readings in the notes).

Again, the result sets can be displayed on the map or printed on screen using either the “Plot” or “Print” buttons.