Seshat and Cliopatria – a Global View of Human History from 3,400BCE to the Present

In this interview, Jakob Zsambok of The Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, talks about the Seshat and Cliopatria databases, what they contain, their data sources and confirmation, and how they are accessed, used and enhanced by historical researchers.Seshat: Global History Databank, founded in 2011, aims to bring together the most current and comprehensive body of knowledge about human history in one place by systematically collecting what is known about the social and political organization of human societies and the evolution of civilizations over time.Cliopatria is a geospatial database of world-wide political entities from 3400BCE to 2024CE (then continuing with the existing description)  it builds on work originally done by Andrew Tollefson for a YouTube video. Seshat and Cliopatria are now linked, so that data related to a polity can be taken in relation to its physical location, its geo-spatial context, and over time. Jakob uses the Holy Roman Empire and Sigismund of Luxemburg as examples of the management of inter-locking relationshipsSeshat and Cliopatria both actively welcome enhancements, additional data and suggestions from their users.   The web addresses areSeshat: https://seshat-db.com/   and https://seshatdatabank.info/  (Note : in order to see all the data and suggest edits, an account is needed which has to be manually approved)And Seshat database on github: https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank  Cliopatria on github:  https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria  And on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/13363121This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.