# PeriodO

> public domain thesaurus of scholarly definitions of historical, art-historical, and archaeological periods

**Wikidata**: [Q104904881](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104904881)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/periodo

## Summary
PeriodO is a public domain thesaurus dedicated to scholarly definitions of historical, art-historical, and archaeological periods. It functions as a gazetteer and science project designed to organize and standardize temporal entities. The resource is managed by creators Adam Rabinowitz and Ryan Shaw and is accessible via a dedicated web portal.

## Key Facts
- **Definition:** A public domain thesaurus of scholarly definitions of historical, art-historical, and archaeological periods.
- **Creators/Principal Investigators:** Adam Rabinowitz and Ryan Shaw.
- **Funding:** National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
- **Website:** https://perio.do/en/
- **Twitter Handle:** @perio_do (active since April 24, 2014).
- **Classifications:** Identified as a thesaurus, gazetteer, website, and science project.
- **Main Subject:** Historical periods and temporal entities.
- **Wikidata Property:** P9350.

## FAQs
### Q: What specific disciplines does PeriodO cover?
A: PeriodO focuses on scholarly definitions for three main disciplines: history, art history, and archaeology. It organizes these definitions as temporal entities within a structured gazetteer.

### Q: Who is responsible for maintaining PeriodO?
A: The project was created by Adam Rabinowitz and Ryan Shaw, who also serve as the principal investigators. It is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

### Q: Is PeriodO considered a proprietary database?
A: No. PeriodO is explicitly described as a "public domain" thesaurus. It is intended for use in cultural heritage and GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) catalogues.

## Why It Matters
PeriodO addresses a fundamental challenge in the digital humanities and cultural heritage sectors: the lack of a standardized vocabulary for time periods. Terms like "Victorian," "Bronze Age," or "Renaissance" can carry different specific date ranges and meanings depending on the geographical region or academic discipline (history vs. art history vs. archaeology). PeriodO solves this ambiguity by providing a structured, scholarly thesaurus that defines these periods explicitly.

By functioning as a gazetteer—a directory of geographic and temporal information—PeriodO allows researchers and institutions to link their data to stable, authoritative definitions. This interoperability is critical for the "GLAM" community (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), enabling datasets from different institutions to be combined and queried accurately. The project's recognition within Wikidata (assigned property P9350) further underscores its utility as an infrastructure layer for the semantic web, helping to organize human history in a machine-readable format.

## Notable For
- **Multidisciplinary Scope:** Unlike period definitions that may focus solely on political history, PeriodO integrates art-historical and archaeological periods.
- **Public Domain Access:** The resource is available in the public domain, removing barriers to access for researchers and the general public.
- **Semantic Integration:** It serves as a bridge for Cultural Heritage and GLAM catalogues, providing aWikidata property (P9350) for structured data linkage.
- **Dual Classification:** It uniquely functions as both a "thesaurus" (vocabulary control) and a "gazetteer" (spatial/temporal directory).

## Body
### Project Administration
PeriodO operates as a formal science project and web resource. The initiative is spearheaded by **Adam Rabinowitz** and **Ryan Shaw**, who are credited as both the creators and principal investigators. The project has received financial backing from significant United States cultural institutions, specifically the **National Endowment for the Humanities** and the **Institute of Museum and Library Services**. References for this funding were recorded as of January 19, 2021.

### Technical Specifications and Web Presence
The project manifests primarily as a website hosted at **https://perio.do/en/**. It is technically classified as a **gazetteer** and a **thesaurus**. In the context of semantic web technologies, PeriodO is assigned the **Wikidata Property P9350**.

The project maintains a digital outreach presence via Twitter (now X) under the handle **@perio_do**. The account was established on **April 24, 2014**, with a Twitter ID of 2461228230.

### Subject and Content Structure
The content of PeriodO is strictly defined as "scholarly definitions" of specific timeframes. The primary subjects of the knowledge base are:
*   **Historical periods**
*   **Temporal entities**

The resource is designed to disambiguate these periods across the domains of history, art history, and archaeology, facilitating better data organization for cultural heritage catalogues.

## References

1. [Source](https://perio.do/en/)
2. [Source](https://perio.do/contact/)