Presented at Semantic Digital Humanities Workshop, Oxford, September 2015

1. Semantic Digital Humanities Workshop
Oxford, September 2015
The Platform in Use
Dr. Barry Norton
Development Manager, ResearchSpace
British Museum, London, UK

2. Knowledge Graph-based
Disambiguation

3. Knowledge Graph-based
Disambiguation

4. Knowledge Graph-based
Disambiguation

5. Knowledge Graph-based
Disambiguation

6. Knowledge Graph-based
Disambiguation

7. Metadata from Knowledge Graph

8. Comparison with
Wikipedia/DBpedia
• Looks fairly familiar

9. Comparison with
Wikipedia/DBpedia
• Extracted to form a graph
of fairly similar contents
• But…

10. Comparison with
Wikipedia/DBpedia
• What is 114cm tall?

11. Comparison with Freebase

12. Comparison with Freebase

13. Comparison with Freebase

14. ResearchSpace
• The ResearchSpace project:
– is funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation;
– develops a set of cultural heritage research tools;
– uses Metaphacts platform as a basis to reuse and
combine these tools –
• for each project using ResearchSpace,
• for applications beyond cultural heritage;
– configures and specialises these tools for data
integrated using the CIDOC CRM ontology.

15. ResearchSpace Graph
• Resources are typed into classes in rich poly-
hierarchies:
object/YCA62958 crm:E22_Man-Made_Object
rdf:type
crm:E19_Physical_Object
crm:E24_Physical_Man-Made_Thing
crm:E18_Physical_Thing
crm:E71_Man-Made_Thing
rdfs:subClassOf

16. ResearchSpace Graph
• Different structural parts are represented as
separate resources:
object/YCA62958
crm:P65_shows_visual_item
object/YCA62958/inscription/1
object/YCA62958/inscription/2
object/YCA62958/inscription/3
crm:E34_Inscription
rdf:type

17. ResearchSpace Graph
• The same separation of identity exists for non-
tangible resources:
object/YCA62958
crm:P108i_was_produced_by
object/YCA62958/production
crm:P24i_changed_ownership_through
object/YCA62958/acquisition
crm:P30i_custody_transferred_through

18. Navigating the Graph
• Relation between simple entities (object,
place) become complex to navigate:
crm:P108i_was_produced_by
?
?
?
?
?

19. Querying the Graph
• SPARQL queries are beyond most users:
SELECT ?object ?place
{?object (crm:P46i_forms_part_of |
crm:P148i_is_component_of)* /
crm:P92i_was_brought_into_existence_by /
^crm:P9_consists_of? /
crm:P7_took_place_at /
crm:P88i_forms_part_of* ?place}

20. Aim
• Provide a search-based system that allows
users to navigate relationships more
abstractly:
– Abstract nodes into 6 broad fundamental categories (FCs);
– Abstract paths into fundamental relationships (FRs)
between FCs;
– Allow conjunctive search over FRs on a single FC domain;
– Allow reuse of search definition/results (via FR) in new
search;
– Explain each search result in terms of underlying graph.

21. Fundamental Categories
Things
• Objects
• Parts
• Digital
objects
• Articles
• Letters
Actors
• People
• Org.s
Places
• Towns
• Countries
• Sites
Times
• Dates
• Date
ranges
Events
• Named
events
• Prod.s /
Mod.s
• Periods
Concepts
• Terms

22. FC Example
crm:P108i_was_produced_by
?
?
?
?
?
rso:Thing rso:Event rso:Place

23. Fundamental Relationships (1/n)

24. Fundamental Relationships (2/n)

25. FR Implementation (1/2)
CONSTRUCT {
?thing rso:Thing_created_in_Event ?event
?event rso:Event_created_Thing ?thing}
WHERE {
?event a rso:Event .
?thing a rso:Thing .
?thing (crm:P46i_forms_part_of |
crm:P148i_is_component_of)* /
crm:P92i_was_brought_into_existence_by /
^crm:P9_consists_of? ?event}

26. FR Implementation (2/2)
CONSTRUCT {
?thing rso:Thing_created_at_Place ?place .
?place rso:Place_is_origin_of_Thing ?thing}
WHERE {
?thing a rso:Thing .
?place a rso:Place .
?thing rso:Thing_created_in_Event /
crm:P7_took_place_at /
crm:P88i_forms_part_of* ?place}

27. FR Example
crm:P108i_was_produced_by
E1
E2
P1
P2
P3
rso:Thing rso:Event rso:Place
T1
T2

28. FR Example
crm:P108i_was_produced_by
E1
E2
P1
P2
P3
T1
T2
T1 created in E1
T2 created in E2
T2 created in E1
T1 created at P1
T2 created at P2
T2 created at P3
T1 created at P2
T1 created at P3

29. 29
Toumba
GRAVITATE Background
Slide reused from Karageorghis, Kiely, Hermon et al. ‘Towards an integrated cross-disciplinary approach to the study of Salamis Terracotta Statues’

30. Collections
ca.12
ca.160
ca.20
19
Slide reused from Karageorghis, Kiely, Hermon et al. ‘Towards an integrated cross-disciplinary approach to the study of Salamis Terracotta Statues’

31. Basic Search for GRAVITATE objects
• Objects can be found using places, actors
(people and groups) and terminologies
– Currently terminologies direct from Merlin

32. Type of Salamis statuary
• Many shards of terracotta figures with some
recognisable features (morphology)

33. Description of statuary
From text:
• Material: terracotta (known)
• Object type: statue (known)
– Modifier: over-lifesized
• Morphology: hand & wrist
– Modifiers:
• Right hand
• + Clenched

34. Morphology analysis

35. Morphology model
• ResearchSpace must also:
– link individual parts to
(annotations over) 3D
model
– link these to an overall
(complete) body
morphology
• but also allow assertions
over sets of parts:
– “these are all similar
beards”
– “these are all parts of the
same statue”

36. Description of statuary
• Further modifiers:
– Fragment of left ear
– Pierced lobe
• etc.

37. Description of statuary
From text:
• Material: terracotta (known)
& paint (?)
– Modifier: black paint
• Technique: painted
• Object type: statue (known)
• Morphology: head, hair &
eyebrow

38. 38
A new color, previously un-
observed - yellow - has been
identified inside the earrings
decoration.
Materials analysis
Slide reused from Karageorghis, Kiely, Hermon et al. ‘Towards an integrated cross-disciplinary approach to the study of Salamis Terracotta Statues’

39. 39
Techniques analysis
Vertical marks
Superimposition of incisions
C2412, front side
Various styles and coincidences of
incision not currently recorded,
but provide clues to families / re-
assembly.
Slide reused from Karageorghis, Kiely, Hermon et al. ‘Towards an integrated cross-disciplinary approach to the study of Salamis Terracotta Statues’

40. Challenges
• How to attach scientific/geometric analysis to
individual shards (BM to document model for
GRAVITATE)
• How to enrich search using these richer
descriptions
• How to assert over sets:
– families
– re-assemblies (possibly cross-collection)
• How to enrich search over these sets