How to use the CMS Databases - Search - Inexperienced users

Possibility 1 (recommended)

Go to the interface for All Databases in ARACHNE. Here you see all databases which are part of ARACHNE. Two of these databases are the CMS Databases. Einzelobjekt – Siegel (Individual Object – Seal), the sixth on this page, is the CMS Seal Database. Einzelobjekt – Träger von Siegelabdrücken (Individual Object – Carrier of Seal Impressions), the seventh on this page, is the Carriers of Seal Impressions Database.

If you move your mouse over the bar Einzelobjekt – Siegel and Einzelobjekt – Träger von Siegelabdrücken you will find the main search fields of the database in the right column of the page. In order to access the CMS databases you need to click on the relevant bar, the Einzelobjekt – Siegel for the Seal Database and the Einzelobjekt – Träger von Siegelabdrücken for the Carriers of Seal Impressions Database. On clicking on the bar the search fields for the database appear. To the left of many search fields you have an arrow. When you click on this arrow, more search fields relevant to the main search field will appear. These can be used to make your search more concrete. As an example we can take the field Identifikation (Identification). Here you can enter terms relevant to the inventory number and the museum/collection in which the seal/sealing is kept. If you click on the field, the subfields Inventarnummer (Inventory number) and Museum/Sammlung (Museum/Collection) appear. In the first you can search for a seal/sealing according to inventory number and in the second according to the museum/collection where it is kept. If you move your mouse over the fields, you can see information on their content in the right column.

The Lists of Terms can be found to the right of each search field. For these you need to click on the field Wertelisten (Lists of Terms). A pop up window will appear with all the relevant lists of terms. In search fields relevant to the description of the seal English translations of the terms appear in parenthesis next to each German term. Furthermore, when the mouse moves over a term, an example of a seal relevant to the term appears. You can choose a term from the lists of terms by clicking onto it or by typing it directly in the search field. If you want to search for more than one term in one field you need to type the relevant terms one after another with a space in between. You can search for as many terms as you like in as many fields as you like. You can also exclude terms by putting a – in front of a term. If you want to exclude seal impressions for example, you may do so by typing –Abdruck in the field Herkunft (Provenance) and if you want to exclude humans you can type –Mensch (-human) in the field Lebewesen/Art des Lebewesens (Living Creature/Type of Living Creature).

The databases can only be searched by using German terms. The non-German speaker can make good use of the databases with a bit more effort by finding the relevant German terms either by browsing the Lists of Terms or using the CMS ARACHNE Glossaries .

In the left column of the page you have the possibility to sort the entries your search will provide according to several criteria (CMS number, ascending, descending etc.). You also have the possibility to specify or generalize your search by defining whether you want the database to search only for the term you entered or also for similar terms.

When you are ready click the button Absenden (Send) that is situated at the bottom of the left column. You will be directed to the menu page Ergebnisübersicht (Search overview). Click on the option Einzelobjekte (Individual objects), which is the only option in blue letters, in order to be directed to the menu page Suchergebnisse für Einzelobjekte.

Menu page Suchergebnisse für Einzelobjekte

From the menu page Suchergebnisse für Einzelobjekte you can navigate through the seals published by the CMS with help of a button at the top and another one at the bottom of the page. If you put your mouse over any of the results that appear on your screen, you will see the image of the relevant object enlarged in the column to the right. You can click on any of the results to be redirected to the relevant object.

If you have searched via the Seal Database, you are now on the menu page Ansicht Einzelobjekt in the upper menu bar and Siegel (Seal) in the lower menu bar (the latter is shown immediately above the seal). On the left you have the images of the seal. Registered users can click on any image to see it enlarged on the computer screen. In order to do that, click on an image once for it to appear in a pop up window. Then click on it again for it to appear enlarged on your screen. You can navigate through the images and rotate them as you like through a menu bar at the top of the pop up window.

The information on the seal can be seen to the right of the image column. If the seal is known from its ancient seal impression, the information that will appear on the fields Inventarnummer (Inventory number) and Museum/Sammlung (Museum/Collection) will be Abdruck (Impression). The information on the field Herkunft (Provenance) will be missing. This peculiarity will signal to you that this entry does not record an actual seal but the impression of a seal. In order to learn the respective inventory number, keeping place, and provenance of the sealing that carries the seal impression, you need to navigate from the Seal Database to the Carriers of Seal Impressions Database. In order to do that, go to the lower menu bar and click on Kontextbrowser (Context browser). The context browser will show your seal impression in the middle of a blue circle and blue lines connecting it to the sealing(s) on which it is attested. You can click on the sealing(s) and you will find yourself in the entry for the sealing in the Carriers of Seal Impressions Database. Here you can find all available information on the sealing on which the seal impression is attested. The last field provides information on which seals have been used to impress this sealing. To navigate back to the Seal Database click again on the Kontextbrowser on the lower menu bar and from there on the Siegelabdruck (seal impression) from which you initiated your navigation.

The reason why the information on inventory number, keeping place, and find spot is omitted in the Seal Database is that seals recorded from impressions may occur on more than one impression. The different impressions of one and the same seal each have their own inventory number and can be kept at different museums/collections. Moreover, sealings of the same seal can come from different findspots, as is the case with CMS II,6 no. 19, which comes from Agia Triada and CMS V Suppl. 3 no. 391, which was found in Akrotiri.

Possibility 2 (not recommended)

Go to the interface for the CMS Databases in ARACHNE. You are on the menu page Siegel (Seal). A list of the CMS volume titles can be accessed at the right and a search field is provided on the left.

You can search in the box Suchen (Search) for any seal according to your criteria. You may however encounter difficulties if you do not have the List of Terms used by the CMS and thus do not know which terms will provide your required results. You can find the CMS Lists of Terms in the CMS ARACHNE Glossaries. Because of the difficulties you might encounter when accessing the databases this way, it is recommended to search the CMS Databases in the way described in Possibility 1 or here.

If, however, you continue your search here you will be redirected in the menu page Suchergebnis (Search results) after your query. Here you see  the seals that your search produced. In the column on the right, you can see a history of your queries and beneath this a history of the entries you have called up. You can navigate through your search results via a button at the bottom of the page. A click on a seal will redirect you to the respective CMS entry of that seal.

You are now on the page Datensatzansicht (Data view). In the centre of the page you have the images of the seal. The drawing of the seal face appears first but to its right you can scroll down a column and choose any image that you want to see in the middle. Registered users can click on the central image to see it enlarged. In order to do that, click on the central image once for it to appear in a pop up window. Then click on the command up left Bild in die Bildermappe laden. The image of the seal will then appear enlarged on your screen.

The information relevant to the seal can be seen under the images of the seal. If the seal is known from its ancient seal impression, the information on the sealing carrying the relevant impression appears in the column to the left. In the column to the right, you can still see a history of your queries and the entries you have looked up. In the column to the right and bottom you have the possibility to navigate through the relevant CMS volume by choosing to see the previous or next entry, the first or last entry or even by typing the CMS number of the seal you want to view. At the bottom of this page one can navigate through the entire CMS by going to the previous or next seal or the first or last entry.  

You can navigate through the menu pages Siegel-Suchergebnis-Datensatzansicht via the menu bar at the top of the page (Suchergebnis).

Editor: Email
Latest Revision: 2018-02-16
zum Seitenanfang/up