ABSTRACT
One of the Perseus project's major goals is to create information resources for the study of ancient Greece that will outlive specific information systems (hardware and software); at the same time, the authors are unapologetically committed to delivering Perseus in the near term to the widest possible audience on low-end platforms. Just as a GIS offers a practical way for archaeologists to support a 'siteless archaeology' approach to fieldwork, GIS should also challenge us to reconsider the scale and nature of what the authors survey or excavate in Greek texts. When the Perseus GIS was under development, one project member asked if it would be possible to analyse where city-states were located in the fifth century. The experience of developing the Perseus GIS underscores several more specific points, however. One challenge of GIS, to echo a familiar theme, is that GIS creates a tremendous demand for new kinds of data, in frightening quantities.
