Overview

This repository presents simple geohumanities tutorials and maps created for teaching, research and public relations at the Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany, and at Maastricht University, Netherlands. Please visit Monika Barget's INSULAE blog and the IEG DH LAB blog for more coding samples, digital humanities reports and training opportunities.

Understanding spatial data

Spatial data, also known as geospatial data, contain information about the physical location and shape of geographic features. These features can include anything from human-created structures like cities and roads to natural entities like trees and mountains. Historical spatial data also include a time component, which can make them more challenging to process and visualise. In humanities research, spatial analysis can provide important insights into the development of human settlements over time, migration movements, borders, agricultural landscapes, or industrial production and trade.

From spreadsheets to maps

The workflows recommended here focus on easily-available software, preferably open-source tools. I assume that most humanities scholars interested in creating a map do not have the resources to set up an advanced spatial database but will have to rely on collecting their data in spreadsheets or in XML format. Therefore, several sections of this repository focus on creating geocoded spatial data and valid GeoJSON files from EXCEL tables. GeoJSON is a popular format for storing and exchanging spatial data, which is compatible with many different mapping tools. Python, a popular programming language, offers several libraries that can help with geocoding data and exporting them to GeoJSON. Also, Python is useful for data cleaning, data enrichment, or data filtering. If you do not want to work with code but prefer tools with graphic user interfaces, you can also use Geojson.io, a simple and user-friendly browser-based tool, to edit your geographic data and visualise them on the fly. Geojson.io also allows you to draw new geographic features directly onto a map. For the visualisation of the spatial data, we use the open-source mapping tool QGIS.

Using this repository

This repository was built over time and is still work in progress. The individual sections were mostly written for MA students in Digital Humanities and humanities scholars without previous mapping experience. To navigate the different sections, please use the drop-down menus above. Several pages are still under construction.