TES (www.unive.it/tes) investigates the political, social, and economic dynamics shaping southeastern Sicily between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE, a period preceding and accompanying processes traditionally associated with Greek colonization.
Rather than analysing sites in isolation, the project approaches the region as an interconnected landscape, structured by mobility corridors, environmental constraints, and shared cultural practices.
TES explores how communities interacted within regional systems of exchange, production, and communication, combining archaeological, historical, and epigraphic evidence.
The research concentrates on the Hyblean and southeastern Sicilian region, defined through environmental connectivity rather than political borders.
River valleys, upland plateaus, and coastal corridors are treated as structuring elements shaping:
Geographical limits are therefore analytical tools rather than fixed historical boundaries.
TES adopts a high-resolution chronological model organised in 25-year intervals (1000–500 BCE).
This allows comparison across sites without forcing rigid archaeological periodization and preserves chronological uncertainty as part of historical interpretation.
The project database is structured around analytical domains representing observable social practices:
These categories function as network indicators, allowing relationships between sites to emerge from aggregated evidence.
TES develops its datasets through a collaborative Digital Humanities workflow.
Data creation and editorial management are carried out using Cadmus, the scholarly data framework developed by Daniele Fusi, which enables:
The dataset is designed to integrate with:
TES is not structured as a conventional relational database, but as a modular research data environment designed to preserve semantic precision, uncertainty, and long-term sustainability.
Initial datasets were developed in spreadsheet form (Sites, Production, Resources, Inscriptions, etc.). While operationally practical, tabular structures tend to:
The Cadmus implementation restructures this logic into:
This architecture allows each analytical observation to remain internally coherent while contributing to broader regional patterns.
A central methodological decision concerns how archaeological evidence is recorded.
Rather than assigning broad categories to sites, TES models:
as a distinct evidence entry, each with:
This preserves the association between evidence, time, and interpretation, avoiding data flattening.
Chronology is structured in 25-year intervals (1000–500 BCE), enabling:
Uncertainty is recorded explicitly rather than normalised away, reflecting archaeological reality rather than forcing artificial precision.
Spatial data are stored as:
This enables:
Spatial uncertainty is treated as analytical information, not as error.
Whenever possible, controlled vocabularies are aligned with established international standards and domain ontologies.
This ensures:
Key alignments include:
Where appropriate, TES maintains local hierarchical thesauri that remain interoperable with these external systems while preserving project-specific analytical nuance.
The goal is not duplication of existing ontologies, but structured alignment and semantic compatibility.
Cadmus functions as a structured content creation and research management environment, not as a final publication interface.
This separation ensures:
The TES editor therefore represents the working scholarly environment in which data are curated, structured, and validated.
The project is actively building:
The TES editor and API exposed through this infrastructure represent the working research environment rather than a finished publication platform.
TES operates as an open research environment and welcomes scholarly exchange with projects addressing ancient connectivity, landscape archaeology, epigraphy, and digital infrastructures.
Ongoing intellectual exchanges connect TES with several international research initiatives and ERC projects working on Mediterranean networks and material culture (see www.unive.it/tes)