Digital history

The Past in computer science and documentation deals with formal procedures in the field of historical sciences. On the one hand they thus supporting the entire research process, from the documentation of the sources and / or phenomena and its analysis to the representation of the objects of documentation or the results of analyzes. On the other hand, it acts because of their fundamental and integrative scientific activity in the field theory, method and application to the ( "historical" ) individual disciplines back.

Through the social relevance eg in the field of knowledge transfer it is also responsible for the image of the historical sciences in public. The most important tools make computer systems - their use is limited as the development of appropriate software, design and implementation of complex information and analysis systems. By special research processes and techniques will provide a new quality of historical or basic scientific research can be achieved.

Among the pioneers of this field of study is one of the Tübingen Egyptologist Wolfgang leg with the assistance of computers "Investigations of Late Egyptian Grammar" and later a " concordance of the Egyptian Coffin Texts " conducted in 1965. Currently in Egyptology is the "Egyptian Dictionary " implemented as a web-based virtual dictionary, with relational databases and XML document type definition ( DTD) to be used.

While in Scandinavia and in Anglo-Saxon the Past in computer science a natural part of the humanities computer science ( there usually called humanities computing ), it has in the German language only with the activities of the Graz Research Institute for Basic Historical Sciences (especially Ingo H. Kropac ) and Manfred Thaller can (now the Institute of historical and Cultural information processing, University of Cologne) establish.