The Semantic Web and the Digital Archaeological Workflow: A Case Study from Sweden

The Semantic Weband the

Digital Archaeological

Workflow

A Case Study from Sweden

Marcus Smith

[email protected]

Swedish

Open

Cultural

Heritage

SOCH• K-samsök –

‘Cultural Cross-Search’



• Metadata aggregator & web service for cultural heritage institutions




• Monuments, buildings, museum collections…





• 40 institutions

(≈25–30 million triples)





• 40 institutions

• 4.7 million database objects

• 2.1 million artefacts

• 880 thousand photographs

• 830 thousand monuments

• 440 thousand documents

• 110 thousand historic buildings

• 40 thousand personages

• 2000 historical events

• 1500 historic maps





• 40 institutions


• From the Paleolithic…

Paleolithic aurochs metatarsus – SHMM





• 40 institutions


• From the Paleolithic…

• …to the present day

Copper alloy bottle cap – SHMM

Harvesting, Linking &

Dissemination• Object metadata

harvested from the content provider using OAI-PMH

Cultural Heritage

Institution’s

Database

SOCH

Local SOCH

adapter

OAI-PMH




• The metadata is then enriched with additional semantic links to related objects

Burial

mound

depicted by

described by found at

ArtefactDocument

PhotoVendel

Period

dated to





• Links can be manually added (UGC)

Burial

mound

has topic

Book

Wikipedia

Article

describes





• Links can be manually added (UGC)

• Available as RDF, queryable via an API

SOCH

Application

RDF/XMLREST +

CQL

HT

TP

Benefits of Linking• Linking facilitates cross-

search


search

• Linking simplifies discovery, and clarifies context

Ob

jectm

eta

da

ta

Re

late

de

xte

rna

l

ob

jects

Images

Re

late

dS

OC

H o

bje

cts


search


• Linking allows unanticipated connections appear!

The old gallows (Galgberget), Visby – Riksantikvarieämbetet


search


• Linking allows unanticipated connections appear!

The old gallows (Galgberget), Visby – Riksantikvarieämbetet

’Galgberget: Memories of Wisby’ – Västergötlands Museum

SOCH as a Platform• SOCH as a platform for

development


development

• Kringla: a web interfacehttp://kringla.nu/


development


• Mobile apps


development


• Mobile apps

• Mashups


development


• Mobile apps

• Mashups

• Museum portals


development


• Mobile apps

• Mashups

• Museum portals

• Over 225 million API requests since launch in 2010

Licensing & Reuse• Only metadata is indexed

– all objects link back to a permanent URI at the source institution with their full record



• All metadata is CC0



• All metadata is CC0• Metadata includes

licensing information for the main record





• Of 1.8 million ‘rich’objects, 1.2 million are CC or PD





• Of 1.8 million ‘rich’objects, 1.2 million are CC or PD

• SOCH is the Swedish national aggregator for Europeana

The Future of SOCH• More institutions delivering

data


data

• SPARQL endpoint


data

• SPARQL endpoint

• Ultimately, we’d like it if SOCH in its current form wasn’t needed – if each institution made their own data available as SPARQL-queryable RDF on the semantic web.

SOCH

API


data

• SPARQL endpoint

• Ultimately, we’d like it if SOCH in its current form wasn’t needed – if each institution made their own data available as SPARQL-queryable RDF on the semantic web.

The Digital

Archaeological Workflow(DAP)

The Problem• No central fieldwork

register


register

• No central digital archive for archaeological data

’Charles Babb parts storage’ – SDASM (flickr)


register


• Digital availability of fieldwork reports patchy


register



• Existing resources not linked ’silos’ – Doc Searls (flickr)


register



• Existing resources not linked

• Inefficient information transfer(digital → paper → digital)

The Output Unit.

How It Works: The Computer – Ladybird Books

Consequences• Information describing the

same thing is spread across several unrelated data sources

• The relationships between different objects are either absent or not described

• Digital information is still processed according to an analogue paradigm, causing friction

• Duplication of effort

• Responsibility for

information management

unclear among

stakeholders

• Information is difficult to

find, and lacks greater

context

• Acute need for a digital

archive

Goals for DAP• Fully digitised seamless

information transfer



• Digital archive for

archaeological data

’CERN storage servers’ – skimaniac (flickr)




archaeological data

• Access to source data




archaeological data


• Semantically linked data

‘Anchor Men of the Mauretania’

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (flickr)




archaeological data



• Openly licensed,

reusable data’Come in We’re Open’ – jilleatsapples (flickr)




archaeological data



• Openly licensed,

reusable data

• Centralised ‘events’

(fieldwork) register

’Come in We’re Open’ – jilleatsapples (flickr)

Each monument has its own URI

Links to:

- monument survey data

- reports, grey literature

- GIS data, or scanned material

- Objects, small finds

- Photos, plans, drawings

- Post-ex lab analyses

National

Monumens

Register

Events +

Fieldwork

register

Fieldwork

documentat

ion

Reports, m

edia

(Samla)

Finds

(Museums)

SOCH

Map

server

Search interface

Map-based

search

Wikipedia

Objects

Monument

survey data

Fieldwork

data

Request Response

Photos, pla

ns, drawing

s

Council

decisions

Other data

sources…

Biblio-

graphy

(Libris)

Platsr

Metadata

search

Events feed

UGC

Results: Spatial

Map

UGC

Event-oriented

Monuments Register• The national monuments

register is a register of

monuments(!)

’Ottarshögen in the parish of Vendel, Uppland, 1979’

Upplandsmuseet (Kringla)

Event-oriented



monuments(!)

• Not so much

archaeological events:

survey, excavations,

inventories, etc

Archaeological event: kittens!

A cooking pit; Straumen, Inderøya, Nord-Trøndelag

NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet (flickr)

Event-oriented



monuments(!)

• Not so much

archaeological events:

survey, excavations,

inventories, etc

• The information that does

exist is unstructured,

making it difficult to

search and reuse.’bricks’ – Judy van der Velden (flickr)

Event-oriented

Monuments RegisterMain problem:

• It’s difficult to find the results

from archaeological

investigations (events which

affect ancient monuments) – or

even if such events have

occurred!

…because:

• We lack (a system for)

structured information about

archaeological events

Solution:

• Objects describing events

must be semantically linked to

the monuments they concern

• Monuments gain a traceable

‘biography’ in the register

Benefits:

• Because this is linked data, we

can for example connect the

‘event’ of an excavation of a

site to the field documentation,

reports, and finds it generates

Fieldwork

Documentation• Overwhelming majority of

excavations in Sweden

use a common digital

field recording system:

Intrasis

Fieldwork





Intrasis

• So most adhere to a

common schema

Fieldwork





Intrasis


common schema

• Intrasis is an OO

database

• Lends itself well to

expression as RDF

Object

Attribute 1

Attribute 2

Attribute 3

…

Fieldwork





Intrasis


common schema


database


expression as RDF

Object

Subject

Predicate

Fieldwork





Intrasis


common schema


database


expression as RDF

• So the potential exists for

cross-searchable

excavation data on the

context level

Fieldwork





Intrasis


common schema


database


expression as RDF

• So the potential exists for

cross-searchable

excavation data on the

context level

• …with links to supporting

data elsewhere, e.g. GIS,

& field survey data;

sample & environmental

data with SEAD, etc.

What’s next?• Internal review of our systems and

processes

• Internal and external modelling ofconcepts and processes

• Draw up a common information model tobetter manage digital archaeological data

• Plan a new system architecture

• Draw up ontologies/taxonomies for variousSwedish heritage concepts and createlinkable authorities

What’s next?

• Not intending to reinvent the wheel – aim to apply existing standards and models where possible – CIDOC-CRM, SWORD, etc

• There is no ‘perfect’ solution, and we can’t solve everything in one go

• But we aim to have the rudiments in place during 2015

SOCH http://ksamsok.se/

http://kringla.nu/

DAP http://www.raa.se/kulturarvet/arkeologi-

fornlamningar-och-fynd/den-digitala-

arkeologiska-produktionskedjan/

http://goo.gl/4o6hm

http://www.raa.se/

[email protected]

The Semantic Web and the Digital Archaeological Workflow: A Case Study from Sweden

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