Introduction

Semantics and metadata are key factors for interoperability. Starting from a survey on the standards, metadata schemas and vocabularies currently in use in the archaeological domain, with a spotlight on the ones adopted by ARIADNE consortium, the SIG will focus on issues regarding semantics and documentation in archaeology. It will also offer support to the ARIADNE community providing guidelines for datasets integration and contributions to the design of the ARIADNE infrastructure. The SIG will also act as a discussion place and as a reference for every issue concerning semantic topics raised among the community of users at large.

Contact information

Chair: Franco Niccolucci. Email.

Co-chair: Sorin Hermon. Email.

News

June 2016 – INRAP completed the mapping between DOLIA indexed Subjects and AAT. DOLIA is the catalogue of the archaeological reports at the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), which was developed with the Flora 3.1.0 software of Everteam (© everteam 2015) http://dolia.inrap.fr:8080/flora/jsp/index.jsp.  The catalogue uses in the subject metadata 1573 terms from the Pactols thesaurus.  The mapping focused on the terms used in DOLIA aligning them with terms in the AAT thesaurus (http://vocab.getty.edu/) by mapping a source term from Pactols and the source URI to a target term from AAT and the target URI, specifying the SKOS match.

April/May 2016 – As part of the ARIADNE TNA, VAST-LAB coordinated a number of individual training visits to PIN and the following case studies were completed:

  • Use of CIDOC CRM in a multi-disciplinary perspective for the encoding of the FLAME project, offering an innovative perspective regarding the application of quantitative methods for the study of ancient metallurgy and the related human interaction during the Bronze Age, by means of chemical and spatial analysis. The project aimed at the integration of this information with archaeological and geographical data.
  • Application of the CIDOC CRM philosophy for the DECF project, intended to merge OEAW research data on Neolithic Greece and Western Anatolia in a unified and standardized structure in order to overcome data fragmentation.
  • CIDOC CRM for data optimization and for the development and maintenance of some archaeological archives of great interest containing cultural heritage information related on Cyprus and its history. The implementation of a shared level of CIDOC CRM to allow interoperability between legacy information and the exploitation of the integration for a more detailed study of the history, traditions and society of Cyprus and to a possible sharing with other European archives of the same nature, was also carried out.

February 2016 – the 35th joint meeting of the CIDOC CRM SIG and ISO/TC46/SC4/WG9, and the 28th FRBR – CIDOC CRM Harmonization meeting (with representatives of the CIDOC CRM SIG and the IFLA FRBR Review Group) took place on 24-26 February 2016, at Prato, Florence, Italy.  The following presentations of ARIADNE activities were given:

  • Carlo Meghini, Valentina Bartalesi, A CRM-based Ontology for Narratives
  • Achille Felicetti, Francesca Murano, Scripta Manent: a CIDOC CRM Semiotic Reading of Ancient Texts
  • Paola Ronzino, Updates on the CRMarchaeo and CRMba extensions.
  • Cinzia Luddi, Achille Felicetti, Navigating the Semantic Model: a CIDOC CRM Browser
  • Franco Niccolucci, Using the CRM for Archaeological Science
  • Franco Niccolucci, Expressing Reliability with the CRM: Are You Sure?

Click here [http://www.cidoc-crm.org/special_interest_meetings.html] for the  Special Interest Meetings summary page where you can download presentations.

January 2016 – As part of the ARIADNE TNA, VAST-LAB coordinated a number of individual training visits to PIN and the following case studies were completed:

  • The conceptual entities of CIDOC CRM and the applicable aspects of the model in the field of architecture were applied for investigation of texts, data sets and other sources concerning the architecture, to gather new and relevant knowledge on this topic, constituted a suitable test bed for discussion on future development of the model even in areas not strictly related with archaeology.
  • Focusing on the possible use of semantic and ontological models to the various stages of creation, description and management of 3D models. The possibility to use 3D as a scientific tool for describing phenomena of the past and to define features able to improve the stylistic study of cultural heritage objects was exploited in order to evaluate CIDOC CRM entities and to stress their applicability in this field.
  • CIDOC CRM was tested on the encoding of a specific class of materials (i.e. the “terracotta” class of objects) part of the GRAVITATE project, a collaboration between British Museum and Cyprus Institute. Activities focused on fostering the use of CIDOC CRM for the complete and deep description of archaeological objects.

October 2015 – The 34th joint meeting (6-9 October 2015) of the CIDOC CRM SIG and ISO/TC46/SC4/WG9, and the 27th FRBR – CIDOC CRM Harmonization meeting (with representatives of the CIDOC CRM SIG and the IFLA FRBR Review Group) took place at Heraklion, Crete, Greece. The following presentations of ARIADNE activities were given:

  • Carlo Meghini, Formalization of the CRM: A first-order attempt
  • Maria Theodoridou, Data Provision and Aggregation. Mapping Culture Semantically with CIDOC-CRM & 3M CRM SIG
  • Achille Felicetti, Conceptual Spaces: Organising Geographical Knowledge.
  • Achille Felicetti, CRMepi: an extension for epigraphic entities description.
  • Paola Ronzino, CRMBA and CRMarchaeo models harmonization.
  • Sum up of the TPDL2015 workshop “Extending, Mapping and Focusing the CRM”, in Poznań.

October 2015 – ARIADNE organized the workshop “L’integrazione dei dati archeologici digitali. Esperienze e prospettive in Italia” (Integrating digital archaeological data. Experiences and perspectives in Italy) held in Lecce on 1-2 October 2015.  The goal of the workshop was to compare the experiences of Italian archaeological data sharing, within a national process of standardization, inspired by the ARIADNE approach and the philosophy of Open Access. The workshop discussed needs and availability to set up a common platform for integration. Issues related to intellectual property and licensing were also discussed.

October 2015 – As part of the ARIADNE TNA, VAST-LAB coordinated a number of individual training visits to PIN and the following case studies were completed:

  • Creating a synthesis among ontological and epigraphic entities, integrating EpiDoc, the standard derived from TEI most used for expressing epigraphic concepts, with CIDOC CRM to sketch a possible extension for the semantic description of epigraphic entities.
  • Collecting, harmonising and disseminating GIS data from contract archaeology excavations in Sweden by using CIDOC CRM concepts coming from CIDOC-CRM. In particular, CIDOC CRM entities were used to examine the data structure used within this project, in terms of how the metadata could be described in more efficient ways through reorganising the information. Especially the possibilities of streamlining some of the information by using a CIDOC CRM based relational database structure were explored.

September 2015 – The workshop “EXTENDING, MAPPING AND FOCUSING THE CRM” was held at TPDL 2015 (Poznań 14-18 September), in the framework of the 19th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries.  The goal of the workshop was to present, discuss and take stock of the developments of the CIDOC CRM in a number of domains.  The following oral presentations were discussed:

  • Integrating heterogeneous coin datasets in the context of archaeological research (Achille Felicetti, Philipp Gerth, Carlo Meghini, and Maria Theodoridou)
  • Harmonization of CRM extensions: the CRMBA and CRMarchaeo models (Paola Ronzino, Achille Felicetti, and Franco Niccolucci)
  • CIDOC CRM and Epigraphy: a hermeneutic challenge (Achille Felicetti, Francesca Murano, Paola Ronzino, and Franco Niccolucci)
  • Expressing reliability with CIDOC CRM (Franco Niccolucci, Sorin Hermon, Achille Felicetti and Paola Ronzino)
  • X3ML Framework: an effective suite for supporting data mappings (Nikos Minadakis, Yannis Marketakis, Haridimos Kondylakis, Giorgos Flouris, Maria Theodoridou, Martin Doerr, and Gerald de Jong)
  • Integrating terminological tools and semantic archaeological information: the ICCD   RA Schema and Thesaurus (Achille Felicetti, Ilenia Galluccio, Cinzia Luddi, Maria Letizia Mancinelli, Tiziana Scarselli, and Davide Madonna)
  • Mapping Pleiades to CIDOC CRM (Franco Niccolucci, Achille Felicetti, and Paola Ronzino)
  • Dati.CulturaItalia: a use case of publishing Linked Open Data based on CIDOC-CRM (Sara Di Giorgio, Achille Felicetti, Patrizia Martini and Emilia Masci)

September 2015 – 29 September – 2 October 2014: The 31st joint meeting of the CIDOC CRM SIG and ISO/TC46/SC4/WG9 and the 24th FRBR – CIDOC CRM Harmonization meeting.  Click here for the  Special Interest Meetings summary page where presentations given by Martin Doerr (FORTH) and Carlo Meghini (CNR) can be downloaded.

August 2014 – First SIG progress report

Download the August 2014 Progress Report (PDF 162 KB).

  • 24 July: SIG discussion during WP15 Skype meeting
  • 21-25 July: SIG discussion during Workshop on Integration and Standards in Crete
  • 17 June: SIG discussion during WP3-12-13 meeting in Rome
  • 22 April 2014: SIG discussion during General Assembly in Paris
  • February 2014: Discussion on Basecamp among SIG members