- History, Archaeology, Historical Linguistics, Roman Law, Survey Research, Etruscology, and 33 moreEpigraphy (Archaeology), Pre-Roman Alphabets of Ancient Italy, Oscan, Semantic Web, Semantic Web Technologies, Semantic Web Services, Semantic Web technology - Ontologies, Text Analysis, Computational Lexicography, Digital Libraries, Web Information Retrieval, Semantics, Language Technology, Ontologies, Knowledge representation, Semantic web, Cloud computing, Ontology based data access, Knowlede management, Web Standards, HTML5, CSS3, XML, Web standards, Atom, RSS, RDF, RDFa, OWL, Greek Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Biblical Archaeology, W3C standards, Oscan Language, CIDOC CRM, Open Source Software, Archaeological GIS, Python, PHP, Linux, Android, Web Applications, Annotation, Mapping, Digital Libraries, Digital Culture, Philosophy, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Theology, Ancient History, and Roman Archaeologyedit
ARIADNE is a European project aiming to integrate existing archaeological research infrastructures, services and distributed datasets, and to develop new technologies and tools to improve archaeological research methodology. The ARIADNE... more
ARIADNE is a European project aiming to integrate existing archaeological research infrastructures, services and distributed datasets, and to develop new technologies and tools to improve archaeological research methodology. The ARIADNE registry contains information about resources available among the various partners of the project and the metadata repository, which contains item level information of these resources. In order to provide an advanced discovery mechanism combining both item level and registry level information we propose a mapping from the ARIADNE Catalogue Data Model, the model of the ARIADNE registry, to the CIDOC CRM, the underlying model of the metadata repository. The paper will present the requirements that led to the choice of different models for the registry and the metadata repository, will elaborate on the mapping, and will propose an integrated interface for information discovery and presentation.
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This paper identifies the main concepts involved in the study of epigraphy and proposes the use of CIDOC CRM to encode epigraphic concepts and to model the scientific process of investigation related to the study of epigraphy. After... more
This paper identifies the main concepts involved in the study of epigraphy and proposes the use of CIDOC CRM to encode epigraphic concepts and to model the scientific process of investigation related to the study of epigraphy. After analysing the existing CIDOC CRM enti- ties and those provided by the CRMsci and CRMarchaeo extensions, we introduce more specific epigraphic classes to be used as the basis for cre- ating a new extension, CRMepi, which is more responsive to the specific needs of this discipline.
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In this paper, we propose a semantic web based solution to implement the Interoperability Framework (IF) for Persistent Identifiers (PI) developed within the context of APARSEN EU project. The IF provides a comprehensive, semantics-aware... more
In this paper, we propose a semantic web based solution to implement the Interoperability Framework (IF) for Persistent Identifiers (PI) developed within the context of APARSEN EU project. The IF provides a comprehensive, semantics-aware solution for interoperability of heterogeneous Persistent Identifier systems. Such a solution aims to provide added-value services built on an Interoperability Knowledge Base. The IF ontology refinement and the related prototype specifics have been designed adopting a bottom-up approach that starts from a) the analysis of metadata provided by Content Providers and b) the collection of functional and semantic requirements of Persistent Identifier Domains (PID to fostering ontology-based metadata translation among different bodies. Conclusions and intended future work close the paper.
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abstract={The advantages of 3D technologies (3D digitisation, visualisation, 3D printing...) are recognised by various professions in the field of cultural heritage (CH). Today these technologies have been technologically improved to the... more
abstract={The advantages of 3D technologies (3D digitisation, visualisation, 3D printing...) are recognised by various professions in the field of cultural heritage (CH). Today these technologies have been technologically improved to the point that allows them to be merged for different purposes. The paper presents projects related to the successful combining of these technologies with regard to CH. In three case studies we discuss processes using 3D technologies for documenting and presenting artefacts, 3D collection by the Digital Library ...
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abstract={We present a state-of-the-art system for obtaining and exploring large scale three-dimensional models of urban landscapes. A multimodal approach to reconstruction fuses cadastral information, laser range data, and oblique... more
abstract={We present a state-of-the-art system for obtaining and exploring large scale three-dimensional models of urban landscapes. A multimodal approach to reconstruction fuses cadastral information, laser range data, and oblique imagery into building models, which are then refined by applying procedural rules for replacing textures with 3D elements, such as windows and doors, therefore enhancing the model quality and adding semantics to the model. For city scale exploration, these detailed models are uploaded to a web-based ...
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This paper reports on work done for an EU-funded project involving archaeologists, numismatists, computer scientists and law-enforcement officials from Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Romania and the UK between 2006 and 2009. The... more
This paper reports on work done for an EU-funded project involving archaeologists, numismatists, computer scientists and law-enforcement officials from Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Romania and the UK between 2006 and 2009. The project attempted to make, and succeeded in making, software tools to combat illegal trafficking in stolen or illegally-exported ancient and medieval coins. The components of the system are segmentation software that identifies coins within images, image-recognition software that checks them against a library of images and provides matches from it, and webcrawling software that assembles suitable images for testing, as well as a set of tools for linking disparate databases of related information (such as museum catalogues) through a flexible domain ontology structure. All the software created has been made available for free download via the project's website at www.coins-project.eu. This paper gives a short history of the project and an accessible account of the technical difficulties faced and the solutions found for them, set within a numismatic framework that explains what historians and archaeologists, as well as police officers, may hope to learn from the use of this software and other similar systems that may be developed in future.
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The paper deals with the management of archaeological data from excavations that cannot be easily processed using traditional forms and relational databases. It proposes a way of preserving the integrity of original information, including... more
The paper deals with the management of archaeological data from excavations that cannot be easily processed using traditional forms and relational databases. It proposes a way of preserving the integrity of original information, including spatial relations. It demonstrates that also in this case CIDOC-CRM offers a valid schema that may be easily extended to incorporate geographic elements and relations. The system proposed is applied to a case-study concerning a Bronze Age 10 year-long excavation in Cyprus.
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In this paper we present a relevant example of how new technologies can be applied to the study of the ancient world. In particular, we present a set of activities whereby we apply semantic technologies and open source software for the... more
In this paper we present a relevant example of how new technologies can be applied to the study of the ancient world. In particular, we present a set of activities whereby we apply semantic technologies and open source software for the study of defixiones, a very specific class of archaeological and textual objects.
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The paper deals with the problem of validating digital documentation of cultural heritage. The trustworthiness of digital replicas of cultural objects relies on the presence of paradata, i.e. data concerning the provenance of the digital... more
The paper deals with the problem of validating digital documentation of cultural heritage. The trustworthiness of digital replicas of cultural objects relies on the presence of paradata, i.e. data concerning the provenance of the digital document. Several cases are considered, suggesting solutions to support the digital documentation, either born digital through automatic data acquisition or resulting from post-processing of captured data. Also interpretive digital models are considered and a tool for annotating digital objects is presented.
Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings de- pends on their interoperability, which has as first step a mapping to a common schema. The paper investigates current approaches and proposes mapping to a CIDOC-CRM... more
Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings de- pends on their interoperability, which has as first step a mapping to a common schema. The paper investigates current approaches and proposes mapping to a CIDOC-CRM extension as the common glue to overcome the fragmentation of datasets provided by large national institutions such as MIBAC in Italy, EH in the UK, and so on, and by EU projects, each one structured according to a dif- ferent metadata schema. The paper describes the mapping of the MA-CA MIBAC-ICCD schemas, probably the most comprehensive, to CRM.
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The paper proposes to use CIDOC-CRM and its extension CRMdig to document the planning and execution of 3D models of cultural objects in or- der to manage the quality of the replicas. Full documentation of every process is key to guarantee... more
The paper proposes to use CIDOC-CRM and its extension CRMdig to document the planning and execution of 3D models of cultural objects in or- der to manage the quality of the replicas. Full documentation of every process is key to guarantee the quality of the outcomes according to the industrial ap- proach to quality known as Quality Management, for example as described to ISO9001:2008.
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This paper describes the work carried out by PIN (University of Florence) and the MiBAC, in the framework of the ARIADNE project, for mapping the Italian archaeo- logical documentation system to CIDOC-CRM. ARIADNE’s primary goal is the... more
This paper describes the work carried out by PIN (University of Florence) and the MiBAC, in the framework of the ARIADNE project, for mapping the Italian archaeo- logical documentation system to CIDOC-CRM. ARIADNE’s primary goal is the imple- mentation of interoperability among archaeological data at a European level, by creating a technological infrastructure for archaeological data sharing and integration. The Italian system is extremely articulated and complex, but the mapping activities, although at an early stage, are progressing very quickly. We are presenting here an overview of the con- ceptual mapping between the “RA” model (providing information on archaeological arte- facts) and CIDOC-CRM, the reference ontology chosen by ARIADNE as a “common language” for integration
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This paper describes the different issues and challenges IT and CH experts have to face when trying to put their information in Linked Data format on the web, issues that mainly concern the creation, use and reuse of such information. We... more
This paper describes the different issues and challenges IT and CH experts have to face when trying to put their information in Linked Data format on the web, issues that mainly concern the creation, use and reuse of such information. We first of all report a survey of the various attempt already done in this direction by different institutions by reporting examples of important CH datasets available. We afterward try to describe the various ways of publishing information in a semantic format carried out by institutions and project involved. Finally we will summarize the results of our activity in this field to illustrate the different techniques we used to create standard information accessible on the Web.
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he paper proposes a solution for a repository of digital cultural objects, which can manage complex data as 3D objects, videos and more, together with the related metadata. The repository is built with open source components and may be... more
he paper proposes a solution for a repository of digital cultural objects, which can manage complex data as 3D objects, videos and more, together with the related metadata. The repository is built with open source components and may be easily installed and managed. Basing on an example, interfaces are shown for the most common operations. The system allows for text searches, semantic searches as well as facet refinements. The proposed system can support a full-featured digital library for its modularity and easy personalization.
The paper proposes a solution for a repository of digital cultural objects, which can manage complex data as 3D objects, videos and more, together with the related metadata. The repository is built with open source components and may be... more
The paper proposes a solution for a repository of digital cultural objects, which can manage complex data as 3D objects, videos and more, together with the related metadata. The repository is built with open source components and may be easily installed and managed. Basing on an example, interfaces are shown for the most common operations. The system allows for text searches, semantic searches as well as facet refinements. The proposed system can support a full-featured digital library for its modularity and easy personalization.
In this paper we investigate many of the various storage, portability and interoperability issues arising among archaeologists and cultural heritage people when dealing with 3D technologies. On the one side, the available digital... more
In this paper we investigate many of the various storage, portability and interoperability issues arising among archaeologists and cultural heritage people when dealing with 3D technologies. On the one side, the available digital repositories look often unable to guarantee affordable features in the management of 3D models and their metadata; on the other side the nature of most of the available data format for 3D encoding seem to be not satisfactory for the necessary portability required nowadays by 3D information across different systems. We propose a set of possible solutions to show how integration can be achieved through the use of well known and wide accepted standards for data encoding and data storage. Using a set of 3D models acquired during various archaeological campaigns and a number of open source tools, we have implemented a straightforward encoding process to generate meaningful semantic data and metadata. We will also present the interoperability process carried out to integrate the encoded 3D models and the geographic features produced by the archaeologists. Finally we will report the preliminary (rather encouraging) development of a semantic enabled and persistent digital repository, where 3D models (but also any kind of digital data and metadata) can easily be stored, retrieved and shared with the content of other digital archives.
This paper describes the advances in the development of the AnnoMAD System, a modular framework created by PIN and The Cyprus Institute for the management and the integration of free-text archaeological data and geographic information... more
This paper describes the advances in the development of the AnnoMAD System, a modular framework created by PIN and The Cyprus Institute for the management and the integration of free-text archaeological data and geographic information related to excavations. The system provides a free-text encoding tool able to annotate textual documentation using semantic features and a GIS integrated framework to capture the spatial descriptions and make them available in a geographical context. AnnoMAD is built using Open Source software. It leverages on the flexibility of CIDOC-CRM and RDF to create a layer of semantic metadata to be linked to the original documents, in order to preserve their integrity. Integration of the GML standard geographic language with CIDOC-CRM guarantees data interoperability and demonstrates that CIDOC-CRM can offer a valid schema that may be easily extended to incorporate geographic features and relations. AnnoMAD has been applied to a case-study concerning a Bronze Age excavation in Cyprus, the Hala Sultan Tekke archaeological site.
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The paper deals with the management of archaeological data from excavations that cannot be easily processed using traditional forms and relational databases. It proposes a way of preserving the integrity of original information, including... more
The paper deals with the management of archaeological data from excavations that cannot be easily processed using traditional forms and relational databases. It proposes a way of preserving the integrity of original information, including spatial relations. It demonstrates that also in this case CIDOC-CRM offers a valid schema that may be easily extended to incorporate geographic elements and relations. The system proposed is applied to a case-study concerning a Bronze Age 10 year-long excavation in Cyprus.
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Since archaeology in particular and humanities in general are interdisciplinary disciplines, there is an imperious need to enhance the accessibility and harmonise data integration, given their varied resource types (books, archives,... more
Since archaeology in particular and humanities in general are interdisciplinary disciplines, there is an imperious need to enhance the accessibility and harmonise data integration, given their varied resource types (books, archives, scientific data, GIS, 3D models etc) and their different conceptual and technological structures and standards. A factor that further reduces accessibility and query performances is related to storing, such as physical location of data, language, and interface. The advent of Semantic Web technology represents an important advance in creating networks of archaeological knowledge based on various resources available on-line. While the valuable use of CIDOC-CRM (Comite International pour la Documentation -Conceptual Reference Model) ontology for specific CH (Cultural Heritage) domains (e.g. museums, libraries, etc) has been partially demonstrated, the interdisciplinary implementations are limited. In this article, we explore the potential of the CIDOC-CRM for a cross-domain implementation of CH data integration. We conducted tha mappings of different on-line resources related to Stonehenge to CIDOC-CRM, and evaluated them in the MAD database, a web-based application that manages natively XML-based datasets. The result ensures the validity of mapping mechanism and the semantic integration of CH data from different sources.
GIS is an efficient tool for the management of complex geo-spatial datasets, but geographic infor- mation is stored in heterogeneous environments which makes sharing very difficult. To overcome this lack of interoperability, the Open... more
GIS is an efficient tool for the management of complex geo-spatial datasets, but geographic infor- mation is stored in heterogeneous environments which makes sharing very difficult. To overcome this lack of interoperability, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has created an XML-based Geographic Markup Language (GML) to provide an XML-based encoding of geo-spatial data and make them portable and flexible enough to be used in different contexts. Data encoded in GML can be integrated with non-spatial data using MAD (Managing Archaeological Data), an application designed to manage structured and un- structured archaeological excavation datasets in order to create complete XML-based systems. This paper will present the GIS extension of MAD enabling the integration with non-spatial excavation information to preserve the native web compliancy of data and the possibility of managing unstructured documents (excavation diaries and reports) in a spatial context.
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This paper presents a project for the creation of an ontology-encoded version of the “Fontes” by Giuseppe Lugli, one of the most important collections of sources for the study of the topography of ancient Rome. Only seven volumes of the... more
This paper presents a project for the creation of an ontology-encoded version of the “Fontes” by Giuseppe Lugli, one of the most important collections of sources for the study of the topography of ancient Rome. Only seven volumes of the work were published by Lugli between 1952 and 1962; the publication of the remaining volumes is still in progress. The goal of the project is the creation of a semantic “ancient sources” GIS, a set of interactive maps of ancient Rome which will provide spatial information along with the descriptions recorded by ancient sources. The model chosen for the encoding is the CIDOC CRM, an international ISO standard developed to describe concepts and relationships used in cultural heritage documentation. The event-based CIDOC CRM ontology seems ideal to describe the topographic and historical layers designed by Lugli, as it will clarify the relations existing among the events recorded by the ancient sources, and the monuments and places to which they refer.
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In this paper we present a relevant example of how new semantic techniques can be applied to the study of the ancient world. In particular, we present a set of activities whereby we apply semantic technologies and open source software for... more
In this paper we present a relevant example of how new semantic techniques can be applied to the study of the ancient world. In particular, we present a set of activities whereby we apply semantic technologies and open source software for the study of a very specific class of archaeological and textual objects, the so-called defixiones. The term defixio refers to a cursing tablet, engraved on thin sheets of lead, especially as used in the Ancient Mediterranean area for various "magical" uses. The study of this field has not yet produced any complete systematisation of all the different material and interpretations. We intend developing a system bringing together all the existing information in order to offer scholars a tool comprising all available knowledge to date and the possibility to extend it with the results of their research. The system will also include the creating of a digital archive of related semantically encoded information. The encoding process will also permit the creation of a thesaurus of relevant terms used in the inscriptions, which could further represent a valid contribution to the creation of a thesaurus of ancient magical.
Despite the seemingly endless variation in the approaches taken by archaeologists when conducting field studies (especially during 'surveys'), on analysis it appears that we all make use of the same set of underlying concepts in designing... more
Despite the seemingly endless variation in the approaches taken by archaeologists when conducting field studies (especially during 'surveys'), on analysis it appears that we all make use of the same set of underlying concepts in designing our research and in documenting our data. Thus, agreeing on a joint 'conceptual reference model' or CRM opens the way to describing individual field datasets in an unambiguous way, allowing effective archiving and exchange of such data without prescribing standards for the fieldwork itself. An international special interest group of CRM specialists and archaeologists has been working towards this goal for several years now. This EAA roundtable brings together those already involved in the design of archaeological CRM, those responsible for the proper archiving of archaeological field data, and those interested in learning about current documentation standards. It aims to foster collaborations and joint national and international funding applications in the area of research data management.
The 'audience' for this roundtable should be those people who already have, or expect to have, responsibility for documenting archaeological field projects, and are interested either to learn about the status quo of the CRM approach, or to collaborate on the formation of a broad group or network of researchers looking to apply the CRM approach (and finding funding to do so).
The 'audience' for this roundtable should be those people who already have, or expect to have, responsibility for documenting archaeological field projects, and are interested either to learn about the status quo of the CRM approach, or to collaborate on the formation of a broad group or network of researchers looking to apply the CRM approach (and finding funding to do so).