An interesting question, albeit one that doesn't worry me much in my day job. So here are a couple of random suggestions:

"Iconserica: A Chinese Iconographical Lexicon – 2016: The DCMS has promised to award support of £300,000 to the V&A for its new digital project ICONSERICA, a ground-breaking bilingual lexicon for research in Chinese iconography to enable the study and understanding of Chinese art. The project will be led by Dr Hongxing Zhang, Senior Curator of Asian Department at the V&A, who will develop it in collaboration with leading Chinese and international experts in museums and research institutions." I'm not sure if there's anything more about this online - the quote was pulled from the bottom of https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/working-in-and-with-china. They were recruiting in August.

For object names, the BM's thesaurus may be useful.  A very, very old version is available online at http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/assets/thesaurus_bmon/Objintro.htm, and I would have thought the current version could be harvested from their linked data endpoint. It's also possible to ask them for a snapshot download into CSV or Excel - if you're interested, I'll let you know the procedure.

No doubt other list members will have much more apposite suggestions.

Best wishes

Rupert

Rupert Shepherd, PhD FSA
Collection Information Manager
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Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 5921

-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Becca Doll
Sent: 15 November 2016 21:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Controlled Vocabulary for non-western collections

Hi Everyone, 
I am wondering if there is any Encyclopedic or non-western collections that have identified a useful controlled vocabulary for the description of non-western art? How have you melded it with your more standard vocabulary like AAT, and which wins when there is a conflict? Is it reduced to a case by case basis? Our staff constantly complain that ATT is western focused and does not cover their needs fully, but no one has provided a useful solution. 

Thanks, 

Becca Doll

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