Semantic Digital Humanities WorkshopOxford, September 2015

The Platform in Use

Dr. Barry NortonDevelopment Manager, ResearchSpaceBritish Museum, London, UK

Knowledge Graph-based Disambiguation

Knowledge Graph-based Disambiguation

Knowledge Graph-based Disambiguation

Knowledge Graph-based Disambiguation

Knowledge Graph-based Disambiguation

Metadata from Knowledge Graph

Comparison with Wikipedia/DBpedia

• Looks fairly familiar

Comparison with Wikipedia/DBpedia

• Extracted to form a graph of fairly similar contents

• But…

Comparison with Wikipedia/DBpedia

• What is 114cm tall?

Comparison with Freebase

Comparison with Freebase

Comparison with Freebase

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.

ResearchSpace Graph

• Resources are typed into classes in rich poly-hierarchies:

object/YCA62958

crm:E22_Man-Made_Object

rdf:type

crm:E19_Physical_Objectcrm:E24_Physical_Man-Made_Thing

crm:E18_Physical_Thing

crm:E71_Man-Made_Thing

rdfs:subClassOf

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

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

Navigating the Graph

• Relation between simple entities (object, place) become complex to navigate:

crm:P108i_was_produced_by

?

?

crm:P9_consists_of?

?

crm:P7_took_place_at?

crm:P88i_forms_part_of

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}

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.

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

FC Example

crm:P108i_was_produced_by

?

?

crm:P9_consists_of?

?

crm:P7_took_place_at?

crm:P88i_forms_part_of

rso:Thing rso:Event rso:Place

Fundamental Relationships (1/n)

Fundamental Relationships (2/n)

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}

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}

FR Example

crm:P108i_was_produced_by

E1

E2

crm:P9_consists_ofP1

P2

crm:P7_took_place_atP3

crm:P88i_forms_part_of

rso:Thing rso:Event rso:Place

T1

T2

FR Example

crm:P108i_was_produced_by

E1

E2

crm:P9_consists_of

P1

P2

crm:P7_took_place_at

P3

crm:P88i_forms_part_of

T1

T2

T1 created in E1T2 created in E2T2 created in E1

T1 created at P1T2 created at P2T2 created at P3T1 created at P2T1 created at P3

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Toumba

GRAVITATE Background

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

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’

Basic Search for GRAVITATE objects

• Objects can be found using places, actors (people and groups) and terminologies– Currently terminologies direct from Merlin

Type of Salamis statuary

• Many shards of terracotta figures with some recognisable features (morphology)

Description of statuary

From text:• Material: terracotta (known)• Object type: statue (known)

– Modifier: over-lifesized• Morphology: hand & wrist

– Modifiers:• Right hand• + Clenched

Morphology analysis

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”

Description of statuary

• Further modifiers:– Fragment of left ear– Pierced lobe

• etc.

Description of statuary

From text:• Material: terracotta (known) &

paint (?)– Modifier: black paint

• Technique: painted• Object type: statue (known)• Morphology: head, hair &

eyebrow

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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

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’

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