| Affiliations: | DeBakey Executive Research Leadership Program |
| Project Leader: | Claire Zak czak@tamu.edu Anthropology |
| Faculty Mentor: | Deborah Carlson, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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TBA |
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Team Size:
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8
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| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Practical experience with archive and database management; Interact with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and their wide expanse of research material; Gain familiarity with nautical terms and shipwreck archaeology |
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Team Needs:
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Required skills: attention to detail; computer literacy and access to a computer; typing; ability to work with minimal supervision; independent problem solving Desired (but not required) skills: Knowledge of multiple languages including modern and ancient languages; familiarity with ancient ship technology and nautical archaeology; experience with database, archive, and bibliographic management, web design, or 3D modeling |
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Description:
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The Institute of Nautical Archaeology (associated with Texas A&M’s Department of Anthropology for over 45 years) has recently been gifted approximately 5,000 handwritten index cards of nautically-related terms. Within this archive, each term is entered with phonetic notation provided according to the International Phonetic Alphabet, with reference to occurrences in coeval texts, and translation into multiple languages including Arabic, Latin, Greek (both classical and Byzantine), English, Italian (and vernacular dialects such as Venetian and Genoese), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, and Dutch (among others). This project proposes the first illustrated multilingual lexicon of nautical terminology and shipbuilding technology made available to the public in a searchable, open-access digital database. The resulting lexicon will be a robust and interdisciplinary research tool that integrates literary descriptions of hundreds of water craft with the physical remains of ships and boats by means of a three-dimensional visual apparatus that illustrates not only the nautical terms, but also the ship’s components, and their corresponding archaeological assemblage. With the help of volunteer researchers, we will fully digitize these cards, organize them by language and subject material, enter them into a digital repository, and prepare entries for publication on an online database |