This database is intended to keep track of events, whether cultural or natural. Each event is given a descriptive title, is described (both with a summary and an extended description), is keyed to a time or period, is classified according to type, is keyed to place, and finally is classified according to cultural region. The classification allows one to extra various timelines from the database – such as a timeline of monastery foundings, or a database of events within a specific sectarian tradition, or of political timelines, and so forth. T

There are currently two different tools that offer online database -FICHOZ created by Jean-Pierre Dedieu and still undergoing improvements. Previously, it was a stand alone FileMakerPro application. It does not yet handle spatial data, but it is a powerful and robust tool. Please email Jean-Pierre Dedieu (jean-pierre.dedieu [at] ish-lyon.cnrs.fr) if you are interested in getting access to this instrument. It requires a phase of training. The second tool is Symogih, a system based on ProGrest, with a high level of data modeling. Its interface is in French. Both applications are willing to host new projects by external particpants.

There are several significant problems that make this task rather complex. Firstly, every piece of information needs to be documented in terms of sources, and especially all specifications of dates. Secondly, for historical events there may well be a great diversity of sources that specify different dates for a given event, requiring that each of these be recorded with their respective sources documented. This requires a normalized date to be specified, along with its rationale, in addition to the full list of dates found in the relevant historical records. Thirdly, this ambiguity of dates also means that there must be the flexibility to record ambiguity, such as the degree of certainty, temporal ranges of possibility, and so forth. Fourthly, historical sources do not use the present international calendar, but rather are based upon a variety of regional calendars. Thus these regional dates must be recorded, along with a specification of the relevant calendar, in addition to their conversion into a standard international date.