Geographic names and topography

As a minimum, place names should be tagged with the placeName tag, as demonstrated below. In addition, the attributes 'reg' and 'key' may be used to offer normalised spelling and link to a database/authority list, respectively. The placename is used for indicating locations, usually when they appear in a grammatically nominal form. Where a place name appears in an adjectival form or as an ethnic designation, the name should be tagged as an rs. For more information see xx in P4.

It is likely that an epigraphic or papyrological project will need to maintain a database or authority list containing basic topographical and geographical data on places named in the corpus. In addition to the tags and attributes suggested below, therefore, the individual names might be linked to the keys or ids in this controlled list.

There exist various geographical databases and toponymical lists (such as the Barrington Atlas) that may provide keys for place names in inscriptions. For more information see the section/appendix on authority lists and controlled vocabularies (see Controlled Vocabulary). The controlled vocabulary being used should be indicated either in the header (which section?) or using an as yet undertermined new attribute on placeName.

The full attribute that may be added to the placename attribute is used to mark names that are abbreviated or otherwise shortened. It seems unlikely that full is the correct attribute for place names that were inscribed in full but are now fragmentary.