Prosopographia Palmyrena

A Different Approach towards the Implementation of a Digital Prosopography

Abstract

This essay outlines the software implementation part of Prosopographia Palmyrena, a digital
prosopography database application. Operating with limited resources, we harnessed modern
web technology to build an interface that enables users to explore Palmyrene inscriptions and their relationships.
We describe the merits of using spreadsheets for data accumulation during our research
phase and explore the complexities of database implementation. Our different approach centres
around a server-less, database-less application integrating modern web technology, static site generation,
and client-side interaction to yield a user-friendly platform for navigating the data corpus. Additionally,
we describe some selected features that we were able to implement. As outlook the essay describes
some features we want to implement in the future.