From mud to the museum: Metadata challenges in archaeology

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 658-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Henninger
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Ontology Mapping ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Small Finds

An archaeological site is a palimpsest in which the evidence of the depositional episodes is destroyed through the excavation processes; all that remains are the artefacts and their documentary evidence manifested in registers, datasets, dig diaries and reports. While the reports may represent the end product of a specific excavation, the archaeological record tells a story; it is interpretative and dynamic, with later excavations adding new knowledge and narratives. Museums preserve the artefacts but unless the documentary evidence is preserved in standard formats, it cannot be easily re-used by the archaeology community to create that knowledge; nor can museums provide the narratives for the general public whose cultural heritage it is. This article presents a case study from the Ness of Brodgar excavations that examines possibilities for reconciling one part of the data of an archaeological dig, the small finds register (SFR) and its sparse amount of descriptive metadata, with the potentiality of data re-use and with the requirements of a museum that may have custody of the artefacts. It maps and enriches messy domain-specific ontologies to standard archaeological and cultural heritage ontologies and taxonomies using simple natural language processing, linked open data and the museum CIDOC conceptual reference model (CRM). This research, in examining the application of ontology mapping tools, explores common practices and processes that are useful in any discipline within the cultural heritage domain.

HerCulB: content-based information extraction and retrieval for cultural heritage of the Balkans

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 905-918
Author(s):  
Ivana Tanasijević ◽  
Gordana Pavlović-Lažetić
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Digital Libraries ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Automatic Annotation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Named Entity ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Rule Based Approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodology for automatic annotation of a multimedia collection of intangible cultural heritage mostly in the form of interviews. Assigned annotations provide a way to search the collection. Design/methodology/approach Annotation is based on automatic extraction of metadata and is conducted by named entity and topic extraction from textual descriptions with a rule-based approach supported by vocabulary resources, a compiled domain-specific classification scheme and domain-oriented corpus analysis. Findings The proposed methodology for automatic annotation of a collection of intangible cultural heritage, applied on the cultural heritage of the Balkans, has very good results according to F measure, which is 0.87 for the named entity and 0.90 for topic annotation. The overall methodology enables encapsulating domain-specific and language-specific knowledge into collections of finite state transducers and allows further improvements. Originality/value Although cultural heritage has a significant role in the development of identity of a group or an individual, it is one of those specific domains that have not yet been fully explored in case of many languages. A methodology is proposed that can be used for incorporating natural language processing techniques into digital libraries of cultural heritage.

scholarly journals Record linking in the EHRI portal

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-378
Author(s):  
Sigal Arie Erez ◽  
Tobias Blanke ◽  
Mike Bryant ◽  
Kepa Rodriguez ◽  
Reto Speck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Controlled Vocabularies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Historical Archives ◽  
Finding Aids ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
Significant Attention

Purpose This paper aims to describe the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project's ongoing efforts to virtually integrate trans-national archival sources via the reconstruction of collection provenance as it relates to copy collections (material copied from one archive to another) and the co-referencing of subject and authority terms across material held by distinct institutions. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a case study of approximately 6,000 words length. The authors describe the scope of the problem of archival fragmentation from both cultural and technical perspectives, with particular focus on Holocaust-related material, and describe, with graph-based visualisations, two ways in which EHRI seeks to better integrate information about fragmented material. Findings As a case study, the principal contributions of this paper include reports on our experience with extracting provenance-based connections between archival descriptions from encoded finding aids and the challenges of co-referencing access points in the absence of domain-specific controlled vocabularies. Originality/value Record linking in general is an important technique in computational approaches to humanities research and one that has rightly received significant attention from scholars. In the context of historical archives, however, the material itself is in most cases not digitised, meaning that computational attempts at linking must rely on finding aids which constitute much fewer rich data sources. The EHRI project’s work in this area is therefore quite pioneering and has implications for archival integration on a larger scale, where the disruptive potential of Linked Open Data is most obvious.

scholarly journals INFORMATIVE MODELS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE. THE “UNFINISHED” CHURCH OF BRENDOLA.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela Sorbo ◽  
Gianluca Spironelli
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Data Repository ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Landscape Heritage

The paper is an initial form of dissemination of the research activities carried out by the IUAV University of Venice working group which, on behalf of the Municipal administration of Brendola, seeks to delineate the application of a methodology for the study and analysis of the architectural and landscape heritage of significant cultural interest that is in a state of abandonment. The case study application is the church of San Michele Arcangelo in Brendola (Vicenza), known as the “Incompiuta” (“Unfinished”). The case study proposed is an interesting exemplar of ecclesiastical architecture, designed by engineer-architect Fausto Franco, in which its characteristics of being unfinished and in a state of ruin contribute to redefining the image of a work that fits in a historical context of architectural and technical experimentation, where the reference to historical architecture is mediated by contemporary forms and by the use of modern building materials, among which, the use of reinforced bricks is noteworthy. The research activity, which is taking place in the context of the COVID-19 health emergency, aims at putting a series of strategies and operational practices based on the digitisation of data to the test, so as to allow increased interoperability and sharing through the building of an online open data repository addressed to the actors involved in the conservation process and to the community. In the processes of conservation and valorisation, in-depth knowledge and documentation of the materials and construction techniques involves multidisciplinary areas; effectively organising them in a system that regulates their collection, cataloguing, processing and archiving according to shared procedures, therefore becomes a fundamental prerequisite for the development of operational planning of the valorisation strategies. All the instruments that make it possible to collect data and reach a true knowledge of the object therefore become indispensable. From this point of view, the push towards the digitisation of the data that emerged during the pandemic phase plays a fundamental role in the range of application possibilities, from the survey to the mechanisms for the conservation and management of the cultural heritage.

scholarly journals ADVANCED 3D TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT OF THE BIM PROCESSES IN THE CULTURAL HERITAGE: IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY OF THE ROMAN FLUVIAL PORT OF AQUILEIA (ITALY)

2019 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W11 ◽  
pp. 989-993
Author(s):  
S. Pratali Maffei ◽  
E. Canevese ◽  
T. De Gottardo ◽  
L. Pizzol
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
3D Technology ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Digital Database ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The University

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Advanced 3D technology, in line with the directives of the European Commission's Reflective 7 - Horizon 2020 project, allows to represent in an organized and accurate way (geometrically and chromatically speaking) any type of artefact belonging to the Cultural Heritage. This article will deal with the specific case-study of the research carried out in the archaeological site of the Roman fluvial port of Aquileia, in collaboration with the University of Trieste. Thirtysix MA Architecture students attending the experimental course in “Technologies for the conservation and enhancement of architectural heritage” were involved. The Advanced 3D model of the fluvial port was conveniently divided into 15 sectors, in order to allow the assignment of each sector to a different group of students. The students, using the tools provided by the proprietary EasyCUBE PRO software, were able to create a digital database with an accurate 3D representation of all types of degradation affecting the archaeological structures existing <i>in situ</i>. Starting from the digital database, the students created a report containing the surfaces, volumes, count of the specific elements and all the other textual and graphical data related to the degradation processes. The collected data allowed to produce a metric estimate of the restoration intervention and to realize visual simulations of the post-intervention result. This experience gave the chance to evaluate the advantages of creating a digital database of 3D representations of the various forms of degradation, also in terms of possible future developments.</p>

Using digital corpora for preserving and processing cultural heritage texts: a case study

2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 408-421
Author(s):  
Eleni Galiotou
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Digitized Documents ◽  
Processing Techniques ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the creation and exploitation of a historical corpus in an attempt to contribute to the preservation and availability of cultural heritage documents. Design/methodology/approach – At first, the digitization process and attempts to the availability and awareness of the books and manuscripts in a historical library in Greece are presented. Then, processing and exploitation, taking into account natural language processing techniques of the digitized corpus, are discussed. Findings – In the course of the project, methods that take into account the state of the documents and the particularities of the Greek language were developed. Practical implications – In its present state, the use of the corpus facilitates the work of theologians, historians, philologists, paleographers, etc. and in the same time, prevents the original documents from further damage. Originality/value – The results of this undertaking can give useful insights as for the creation of corpora of cultural heritage documents and as for the methods for the processing and exploitation of the digitized documents which take into account the language in which the documents are written.

scholarly journals Curating in the Open: A Case for Iteratively and Openly Publishing Curatorial Research on the Web

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Owens
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Open Approach ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Open Notebook Science ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Development Methods

Through a case study of using social media tools to open up part of the curatorial research process for an online exhibit on the history of astronomy at the Library of Congress, I offer some initial ideas about how an open approach to sharing curatorial research could significantly expand the impact and reach of such work. Drawing on three distinct emerging conceptions and frameworks for the idea of “open” (open notebook science, linked open data, and open innovation) I suggest how this case study can be used to guide work with existing simple and inexpensive tools and how it could also inform the development of future tools, services and exhibit development methods. This work builds on an ongoing discussion of open data in libraries, archives, and museums. To date, most of that dialog is about object records and not about the stories and narratives cultural heritage institutions tell about them. I suggest ways to make the production of cultural heritage data, as well as the final outputs, part of an open and transparent process.

scholarly journals Challenges of Vietnamese archaeological heritage management: A Case Study of the Vuon Chuoi site, Hoai Duc, Hanoi | Những thách thức trong quản lý di sản khảo cổ học ở Việt Nam: nghiên cứu từ trường hợp di chỉ khảo cổ học Vườn Chuối, Hoài Đức, Hà Nội

SPAFA Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huy Nham Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Heritage Management ◽  
Viet Nam ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
Archaeological Heritage Management ◽  
Protection Of Cultural Heritage

This paper clarifies and interprets the current problems in Vietnamese heritage management and suggests remedies through the case study at the Vuon Chuoi archaeological site. Through the analysis of the Vietnamese law on cultural heritage as well as examining behaviours of the stakeholders involved in heritage management, three issues that make Vietnamese archaeological heritage management more difficult are defined: (1) the law on cultural heritage is not forceful enough to protect the Vuon Chuoi site under the threat of construction projects; (2) overlapping jurisdictions make the model of cultural heritage in Hanoi inefficient. The authorities responsible for heritage management at all levels have failed to protect the Vuon Chuoi site properly in accordance with the Vietnamese law on cultural heritage and have shown their irresponsibility in the heritage management; and (3) there is a lack of cooperation between stakeholders to balance the need for economic development and the protection of cultural heritage in Vuon Chuoi area. Bài viết này nhằm mục đích xác định và giải thích một phần các thách thức gặp phải trong quản lý di sản và đề xuất các biện pháp khắc phục thông qua trường hợp nghiên cứu di chỉ khảo cổ Vườn Chuối. Qua phân tích Luật di sản văn hóa, mô hình quản lý di sản của Việt Nam và hành vi của các bên liên quan trong quản lý di sản, có ba thách thức khiến việc quản lý di sản khảo cổ Việt Nam trở nên khó khăn hơn được xác định là: (1) luật di sản văn hóa không đủ mạnh để bảo vệ di chỉ khảo cổ học Vườn Chuối trước sự đe dọa của các dự án xây dựng; (2) sự phân quyền chồng chéo trong quản lý làm cho mô hình di sản văn hóa ở Hà Nội không hiệu quả. Sự thiếu trách nhiệm của các cấp quản lý đã khiến Vườn Chuối nằm ngoài phạm vi bảo vệ của Luật Di sản Văn hóa; và (3) thiếu sự hợp tác giữa các bên liên quan trong việc cân bằng nhu cầu phát triển kinh tế và bảo vệ di sản văn hóa đã đẩy Vườn Chuối đến nguy cơ bị xóa sổ.  

scholarly journals Obligations to Objects

Museum Worlds ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-94
Author(s):  
Brit Asmussen ◽  
Lester Michael Hill ◽  
Sean Ulm ◽  
Chantal Knowles
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
State Government ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Dam Construction ◽  
Queensland Museum ◽  
Museum Objects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selection Of

ABSTRACTThis article discusses changing obligations toward objects from an archaeological site held by the Queensland Museum, through a long-term, 40-year case study. Between 1971 and 1972 a selection of 92 stone blocks weighing up to 5 tons containing Aboriginal engravings were cut out of the site and distributed to multiple locations across Queensland by the State Government under the provisions of the then Aboriginal Relics Preservation Act 1967. The site was subsequently flooded following dam construction and the removed blocks became part of the Queensland Museum’s collection. This article chronicles the history of the site and its “salvage,” the consequences of fragmentation of the site for community and institutions, the creation of 92 museum objects, the transformation from immobile to mobile cultural heritage, and community-led requests for their repatriation back to country.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document