Barriers and Opportunities for Linked Open Data Use in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage

Presented by

Keith May @Keith_May

Incorporating work by

Ceri Binding & Prof Doug TudhopeFaculty of Advanced Technology

University of South Wales &

Anja Masur & Gerald Hiebel ARIADNE project partners

Barriers and Opportunities for Linked Open Data use in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage

EAA2014 Istanbul

Overview of Presentation

• Intro to LOD research • Barriers Encountered • Possible Solutions • Opportunities • Conclusions

Increasing Access and Integration of Excavation records through use of conceptual modelling

• CRM-EH and now CRMarchaeo focuses on common ‘core’ Concepts of our Archaeological processes

• Common Concepts (e.g. Stratigraphic relationships -Harris matrix) crucial for relating individual records

• Modelled/Mapped a Limited degree of the minute archaeological detail to CIDOC CRM - ISO 21127

• Different broad categories of contexts (Deposits, Masonry, Timber, etc) handled by separate forms but modelled together

• Model already "complex" enough - most archaeologists find it a little daunting

Details of Context on recording

form

Prototype Controlled Vocabulary searching

Barriers

Documentation• Different excavation methods bring differing documentation • Comparison of different documentation sheets

Similarities and Differences

With thanks to Anja Masur

What about comparing records across different countries?

Context

Locus

Unit

Spit

Level

StratumBehälter (Troy)

Layer

Semantics One Concept - one meaning – different terms

Stratigraphic Unit

“…another of my examples has something about some flint that is ‘snuff coloured’ & I don’t know if I’ve ever seen snuff, let alone know what colour it is, or might have been over 150 years ago, and I would think it would make sense to take some kind of integrated approach from the outset,….” [G. Carver]

For data entry: Semi-controlled vocabularies represent a useful compromise somewhere between descriptive & controlled vocabularies, the best of both worlds! For data retrieval: The worst of all worlds (Re. find all the iron age post holes) This problem arises from trying to do two different things within a single input field. Should do both, but separately – 1) describe using free text description fields, and 2) index using controlled index fields

Barrier: Semi-controlled vocabularies…

Unlocking Some

Barriers

Archaeological Terms represented as Concepts with Relationships

SKOS = Simple Knowledge Organisation System STELLAR Project Tools - SKOS Template

Using SKOS - W3C standard for Web-based Terminologies

skos:Concept Castle:c789

skos:Concept Motte:c456

skos:broader skos:narrower

skos:Concept Bailey:c789

skos:Concept Motte:c456

skos:related skos:related

skos:ConceptScheme Monument:s123

skos:Concept Motte:c456

skos:inScheme

SKOS_CONCEPTS – scheme_id, broader_id, related_id

▪Controlled vocabularies online ▪Vocabularies from EH, RCAHMS, RCAHMW (England, Scotland, Wales) ▪Conversion to a common standard format (SKOS) ▪Persistent globally unique identifiers (URIs) for every concept ▪Made available online as Linked Open Data ▪Also downloadable data files and listings

▪Web services ▪Facilitate concept searching, browsing, suggestion, validation

▪ Tools to use controlled vocabularies ▪Browser-based ‘widget’ user interface controls ▪Search, browse, suggest, select concepts

▪ Use Cases ▪Legacy data to thesaurus alignment ▪Thesaurus to thesaurus alignment ▪Third party use of project outcomes

Vocabulary Widgets (RDF/XML) – e.g. for OASIS & Related Archives

(composite control)(top concepts)

(scheme details)

(scheme list) More Widget details on HeritageData.org

Allows us to embed controlled vocabularies in web pages and web forms to

better index data and improve Search and

Access to research Archives

LOD Heritage Vocabularies: http://www.heritagedata.org

Thesaurus searching and browsing

Opportunities

Opportunities: E.g. British Oceanographic Data Centre - LOD

EH Thesauri of Maritime

Craft

With Thanks to Adam Leadbetter

- Semantic ENrichment Enabling Sustainability of arCHAeological LinksSENESCHAL

Opportunities ▪Clwyd-Powys (Wales) Archaeological Trust (SENESCHAL

widgets embedded into HER application and mobile field recording app)

Opportunities for Alignment of Thesauri: Getty A&AT Vocab as SKOS LOD

STAR - Semantic Technologies for Archaeological Resources

With thanks to Andreas Vlachidis

Natural Language Processing (NLP)• NLP Information

Extraction (IE) of Concepts from OASIS GL Reports such as

• Place • Period • Object • Utilise semantic

annotation XML files • MySQL database

server to store relevant thesauri structures.

Stages for making Data Open

LOD may blur existing boundaries as (Big) data integration becomes more dynamic

STAR outcomes suggest still 4 key stages for coherent data integration in the Archaeological Research Cycle.

Excavation archive stage

Results of Analysis

"Final" Publication

Integrated Archive for new Research

Open Archaeological Data somewhere over the horizon?

Different archaeological recording systems share common conceptual frameworks and semantic relationships

By conceptualising common relationships in our different data sets at a broad level and aligning vocabularies of shared reference terms we can cross-search data for patterns and broader answers to related research questions

The technologies are being developed in other domains (e.g. Biology) but is there a common will for sharing archaeological data Openly for re-use in the interests of improving research methods?

References

Catalin Pavel. "Describing and Interpreting the Past" Tudhope, May, Binding, Vlachidis. "Connecting Archaeological Data and Grey Literature via Semantic Cross Search" - Internet Archaeology Vol 30 http://dx.doi.org/10.11141/ia.30.5 CIDOC CRM. http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/ HeritageData LOD Vocabularies: http://www.heritagedata.org

Contact: Keith.May@english-heritage.org.uk

@Keith_May