Metadata and comparison

What a filter means

A date can refer to the surviving object, the composition, a later copy, or the period assigned to an author. A place can mean findspot, production place, ancient reference or modern repository. A “Greek” language label may describe a document containing more than one language. Read the field definition and inspect examples at the edges of any filtered set.

Papyri.info's search interface offers series, collection, provenance, date and language filters, among others. Use an interval that matches the research question, and note its uncertainty. A record dated across two centuries should not be silently assigned to one decade.

Comparable subgroups

If you want to compare the language of letters with that of receipts, define both groups with parallel rules: same corpus component, similar date coverage, transcription status and count unit. If one group is well edited and the other largely lacks text, the apparent linguistic contrast may reflect coverage. In Perseus, a work-level search can be more interpretable than a library-wide result when genres and periods differ.

Preserve the list of included identifiers, or at least a reproducible filter set. Describe exclusions: untranslated records are not necessarily untranscribed records; image availability is another separate property.

Date exercise

Imagine that a phrase appears in a later manuscript copy of an older work and in a dated administrative document. Those are two attestations in surviving witnesses, but they support different historical claims. Cite the manuscript's date and the work's proposed composition date separately. If either is disputed, give its range or describe the uncertainty.

The Chinese Text Project's advanced search can use textual and metadata conditions. Inspect which item a date attaches to before making a chronology from its results.

Practice

Filter a corpus to one genre and date range, then open five results. For each, record the displayed date, what it dates, place field and transcription status. Revise the filter if the sample shows that the records are not comparable.