22.11.2016 | Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen

DHC 2016: Digital Humanities and Digital Curation

CIDOC CRM-based modeling

of archaeological catalogue data

Slides: https://digicademy.github.io/2016-DHC-goettingen/

Aline Deicke | @digicademy | digicademy | CC-BY 4.0

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Archaeological catalogues
3. Exemplary data model for archaeological catalogue data
4. Conclusions and Outlook

01

Introduction

The CIDOC CRM

• Internationally recognized standard for the description of concepts from the field of cultural heritage
• Developed by the Documentation Standards Group (CIDOC) of the Internation Council of Museums (ICOM)
• 1996: shift from E-R-model to object-oriented conceptual reference model
• 2000-2006: Development into ISO standard (ISO 21127)
• Last official release: Version 5.0.4

The CRM, archaeology and LOD

• Growing importance of LOD and semantic mark-up in archaeology
• Some projects:
  • ARIADNE
  • europeana
  • Pelagios Commons
  • STAR, STELLAR, ADS Linked Data repository, CIDOC CRM-EH
  • pakbon-ld, DANS and EASY
  • idai.welt (projects of the German Archaeological Institute [DAI])
  • Erlangen CRM / OWL
  • and many more ...

02

Archaeological Catalogues

Example of an extended model: CIDOC CRM-EH

Archaeological catalogue data

E. Aner/K. Kersten, Frederiksborg und Københavns Amt. Die Funde der älteren Bronzezeit des nordischen Kreises in Dänemark, Schleswig-Holstein und Niedersachsen 1 (København/Neumünster 1973) 5; Taf. 1,7.

Enrichment through further research

• Typological classification
• Chronological classification
• Bibliographical references
• Further research results
• ...

03

Exemplary data model for archaeological catalogue data

Example: Grave A of Künzing, Lkr. Deggendorf, Lower Bavaria

04

Conclusions and Outlook

Next steps

Further efforts at refining the model include among others:

• positioning of objects (E19, E21, E20, E22, E25) in relation to each other
• exploration of more complicated patterns of deposition
• documentation of the reasoning behind decisions about chronological or typological classifications (CRMinf?)
• possibilities of assigning cultural affiliations to entities
• modeling the contextualization of entities and the reasoning behind it

Benefits of CIDOC CRM-based data models

• Growing importance of the CRM especially in the context of LOD requires discussion about modeling approaches in different areas of archaeological research
• Publication of well-structured data facilitates discussion about and sharing of research data
• Modeling process
  • can lead to a deeper structural understanding of the study subject and result in new ideas and perspectives
  • can expose gaps and biases and make them explicit and verifiable
  • strengthens inferences drawn from the data
• The model presented
  • can serve as a reference point for researchers dealing with archaeological catalogue data to create data models for their respective domains
  • proposes a way of modeling several key concepts common to archaeological research