Concepts

Giorgio Buccellati – December 2002

Version

A version subsumes a batch of files that have been updated since the last version has been posted online. Each version is pegged to a given date, and it includes only the pages that have been changed since. In this respect, the concept differs from that of a new edition for paper publications, since in our case only those pages are earmarked with the new label that have changed since the previous version was closed.

Ephemeris

In line with the principles that concern the bibliographical status of web site, I am implementing a section which records successive stages of development of the Urkesh website. I call this section “Ephemeris”, after the use that is made of this term in astronomy, where it refers to tables that define the orbital movements of celestial bodies.¹

For a similar concept implemented in other websites, see the Stanford Encyclopedia’s “Fixed Editions.”

“Wiki” approach

The Urkesh website is obviously not a “wiki” type site, in that input is restricted to the project staff. It also differs in that updating is not made public on an ongoing basis, but only at given intervals, at which point changes are recorded as “versions” saved in the Ephemeris portion of the site.

¹ The term was used in 1611 by Galileo to refer to the record of observations of the positions of the moons of Jupiter. For a recent popular presentation of this effort see D. Sobel, Longitude, New York: Penguin, 1995, pp. 24-27. The term is in current use today in astronomy, but it was also used in the field of Semitic linguistics by M. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik, 3 vols., Giessen 1902-1915, to refer to a collection of occasional papers (understood as journal entries). _{Back to text}