Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Representing quantitative documentation of 3D cultural heritage artefacts with CIDOC CRMdig

  • Published:
International Journal on Digital Libraries Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we will explore the theme of the documentation of 3D cultural heritage assets, not only as entire artefacts but also including the interesting features of the object from an archaeological perspective. Indeed, the goal is supporting archaeological research and curation, providing a different approach to enrich the documentation of digital resources and their components with corresponding measurements, combining semantic and geometric techniques. A documentation scheme based on CIDOC, where measurements on digital data have been included extending CIDOC CRMdig, is discussed. To annotate accurately the components and features of the artefacts, a controlled vocabulary named Cultural Heritage Artefact Partonomy (CHAP) has been defined and integrated into the scheme as a SKOS taxonomy to showcase the proposed methodology. CHAP concerns Coroplastic, which is the study of ancient terracotta figurines and in particular the Cypriot production. Two case studies have been considered: the terracotta statues from the port of Salamis and the small clay statuettes from the Ayia Irini sanctuary. Focussing both on the artefacts and their digital counterparts, the proposed methodology supports effectively typical operations within digital libraries and repositories (e.g. search, part-based annotation), and more specific objectives such as the archaeological interpretation and digitally assisted classification, as proved in a real archaeological scenario. The proposed approach is general and applies to different contexts, since it is able to support any archaeological research where the goal is an extensive digital documentation of tangible findings including quantitative attributes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. http://gravitate-project.eu/.

  2. http://3dicons-project.eu/.

  3. http://www.carare.eu/.

  4. https://pro.europeana.eu/project/3d-content-in-europeana.

  5. http://www.cidoc-crm.org/.

  6. https://www.researchspace.org/index.html.

  7. https://arachne.dainst.org/.

  8. http://www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu/.

  9. https://ariadne-infrastructure.eu/.

  10. https://collectionstrust.org.uk/terminologies/.

  11. http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/.

  12. https://www.eagle-network.eu/resources/vocabularies/.

  13. http://archwort.dainst.org/de/vocab/.

  14. http://www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu/About.

  15. http://www.iccd.beniculturali.it/.

  16. http://vast-lab.org/.

  17. http://vast-lab.org/thesaurus/ra/vocab/.

  18. An anthemion, from the Greek \(\alpha \nu \theta \epsilon \mu \iota \text {o}\nu \)—flower—is a decorative motif which resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree, a palmette. The type Andren 477 is a specific type named after the scholar who studied it.

  19. http://www.cidoc-crm.org/crmdig/home-2.

  20. See, for example, http://qudt.org.

  21. https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_research_catalogues/ng/naukratis_greeks_in_egypt.aspx.

  22. http://www.cidoc-crm.org/crmsci/home-1.

  23. The FAIR principles are basic requirements for guaranteeing Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Re-usability of the data. https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples.

References

  1. Aaberge, T., Akerkar, R.: Ontology and ontology construction: background and practices. Int. J. Comput. Sci. Appl. 9(2), 32–41 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Aïoli: A reality-based 3D annotation platform for the collaborative documentation of heritage artefacts. http://www.aioli.cloud/

  3. Aloia, N., Debole, F., Felicetti, A., Galluccio, I., Theodoridou, M.: Mapping the ARIADNE catalog data model to CIDOC CRM: bridging resource discovery and item-level access. Sci. Res. Inf. Technol. 7(1), 1–8 (2017). https://doi.org/10.2423/i22394303v7n1p1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Auer, P., Cavallini, F., Giffi, E., Lattanzi, M.: Strutturazione dei dati delle schede di catalogo. Normativa per la strutturazione e il trasferimento dei dati, 1–29. ICCD, Rome (1998). http://www.iccd.beniculturali.it/getFile.php?id=160

  5. Banerjee, I., Catalano, C.E., Robbiano, F., Spagnuolo, M.: Accessing and representing knowledge in the medical field: visual and lexical modalities. In: Magnenat-Thalmann, N., Ratib, O., Choi, H.F. (eds.) 3D Multiscale Physiological Human, pp. 297–316. Springer, London (2014)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Biasotti, S., Moscoso Thompson, E., Barthe, L., Berretti, S., Giachetti, A., Lejemble, T., Mellado, N., Moustakas, K., Manolas, I., Dimou, D., Tortorici, C., Velasco-Forero, S., Werghi, N., Polig, M., Sorrentino, G., Hermon, S.: Recognition of Geometric Patterns Over 3D Models. In: Telea, A., Theoharis, T., Veltkamp, R. (eds.), Eurographics Workshop on 3D Object Retrieval (2018)

  7. Catalano, C.E., Mortara, M., Spagnuolo, S., Falcidieno, F.: Semantics and 3D media: current issues and perspectives. Comput. Graph. 35(4), 869–877 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Catalano, C.E., Repetto, A., Spagnuolo, M.: A dashboard for the analysis of tangible heritage artefacts: a case study in archaeology. In: EUROGRAPHICS Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage, Graz, Austria, 27–29 September (2017)

  9. Catalano, C.E., Vassallo, V., Hermon, S., Spagnuolo, M.: A cultural heritage partonomy for the documentation of 3D digital artefacts of cypriot coroplastic art. In: Proceedings of CIDOC 2018 Conference ’Generating and Tracing the Provenance of Knowledge’, 29 September–5 October 2018, Heraklion, Crete. http://network.icom.museum/cidoc/archive/past-conferences/2018heraklion/

  10. Dally, O., Foertsch, R.: The Arachne Object-database. CSA Newsletter, XX (1) (2007)

  11. D’Andrea, A., Fernie, K.: CARARE 2.0: a metadata schema for 3D cultural objects. In: Addison, A.C., De Luca, L., Guidi, G., Pescarin, S. (Eds.), Digital Heritage International Congress (DigitalHeritage), Volume 2, pp. 137–143. IEEE (2013). https://doi.org/10.1109/DigitalHeritage.2013.6744745

  12. Di Buono, M.P.: Information extraction for ontology population tasks. An application to the Italian archaeological domain. Int. J. Comput. Sci. Theory Appl. 3(2), 40–50 (2015)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. Di Giuseppantonio Di Franco, P., Galeazzi, F., Vassallo, V.: Authenticity and cultural heritage in the age of 3D digital reproductions. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (2018). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.27029

  14. Evangelisti, S., Liuzzo, P.M., Verreth, H.: Content harmonisation guidelines, including GIS and terminologies, EAGLE Deliverable 2.2.1, 1-439 (2014)

  15. Felicetti, A., Galluccio, I., Luddi, C., Mancinelli, M.L., Scarselli, T., Madonna, A.D.: Integrating terminological tools and semantic archaeological information: the ICCD RA schema and thesaurus. In: Ronzino, P. (eds.) Proceedings of the Workshop Extending, Mapping and Focusing the CRM 2015, 19th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries (TPDL 2015) September 17, 2015, Poznań, Poland, pp. 28–43 (2015)

  16. Felicetti, A., Gerth, P., Meghini, C., Theodoridou, M.: Integrating heterogeneous coin datasets in the context of archaeological research. In: Ronzino, P. (eds) Proceedings of the workshop Extending, Mapping and Focusing the CRM 2015, 19th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries (TPDL 2015) September 17, 2015, Poznań, Poland, pp. 13–27 (2015)

  17. Fernie, K., Niccolucci, F., Richards J.: Building a Research Infrastructure for Digital Archaeology in Europe. ARIADNE Publications (2016)

  18. Gjerstad, E., Lindros, J., Sjöqvist, E., Westholm A.: The Swedish cyprus expedition. Finds and results of the excavations in Cyprus 1927–1931. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, Stockholm (1935)

  19. Isaac, A.: Europeana Data Model Primer 1–35, (2013)

  20. Johansson, I., Lynøe, N.: Medicine & Philosophy: A Twenty-First Century Introduction, 1–475. De Gruyter, Berlin (2008)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  21. Karageorghis, V.: Salamis in Cyprus: Homeric. Hellenistic and Roman, Thames and Hudson (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Karageorghis, V.: The Coroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus III. The Cypro-Archaic Period. Large and medium size sculpture, The A. G. Leventis Foundation, Nicosia (1993)

  23. Liuzzo, P.M., Rivero Ruiz, E., Vassallo, V.: Networking EAGLE with CIDOC and TEI. In: Proceedings of CIDOC 2014 Conference ‘Access and Understanding—Networking in the Digital Era’, September 6–11, 2014, Dresden, Germany, (2014). http://network.icom.museum/cidoc/archives/past-conferences/2014-dresden/

  24. Munro, J.A.R., Tubbs, H.A., Wroth, W.: Excavation in Cyprus, 1890. Third season’s work. Salamis J. Hellenic Stud. 12, 59–198 (1891)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Oldman, D., Tanase, D.: Reshaping the knowledge graph by connecting researchers, data and practices in research space. In: Vrandečić D. et al. (eds.) The Semantic Web—ISWC 2018. ISWC 2018, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 11137, Springer, Cham, pp. 325–340 (2018)

  26. Papatheodorou, C., Carlisle, P., Ertmann-Christiansen, C., Fernie, K.: The CARARE metadata schema 1, 1 (2011)

  27. Phillips, S.C., Walland, P.W., Modafferi, S., Dorst, L., Spagnuolo, M., Catalano, C.E., Oldman, D., Tal, A., Shimshoni, I., Hermon, S.: GRAVITATE: geometric and semantic matching for cultural heritage artefacts. In: EUROGRAPHICS Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage, Genova, Italy, October 5–7, 2016, pp. 199–202 (2016)

  28. Scheding, P., Krempel, R., Remmy, M.: Vom Computer reden ist nicht schwer. Projekte und Perspektiven der Arbeitsstelle für digitale Archäologie, Kölner und Bonner Archaeologica 3, 265–270 (2013)

  29. Torrente, M.L., Biasotti, S., Falcidieno, B.: Recognition of feature curves on 3D shapes using an algebraic approach to Hough transforms. Pattern Recognit. 73, 111–130 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Vasilakis, G., Garcia-Rojas, A., Papaleo, L., Catalano, C.E., Robbiano, F., Spagnuolo, M., Vavalis, M., Pitikakis, M.: Knowledge-based representation of 3D media. Int. J. Softw. Eng. Knowl. Eng. 20(5), 739–760 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Vassallo, V., Sorrentino, G., Gasanova, S., Hermon, S.: Integrating analytical with digital data in archaeology: towards a multidisciplinary ontological solution. The Salamis Terracotta Statues Case-Study, Mieko Matsumoto and Espen Uleberg (eds) 2018. CAA2016: Oceans of Data Proceedings of the 44th Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 109–118 (2018)

  32. Villing, A., Bergeron, M., Johnston, A., Masson, A., Thomas R.: The material culture of Naukratis—an overview. http://www.britishmuseum.org/naukratis

  33. Wang, Z., Shi, W., Göze, K.K., Kotoula, E., Ying, Y., Rushmeier, H.: CHER-Ob: a tool for shared analysis and video dissemination. J. Comput. Cult. Herit. 11, No 4, Art. 18 (2018)

Download references

Acknowledgements

This paper was partially supported by the H2020 EU Project GRAVITATE ‘Geometric Reconstruction And noVel semantic reunificaTion of culturAl heriTage objEcts’, Grant Agreement no. 665155. All the 3D models belong to the Salamis and Ayia Irini collections maintained in the STARC repository of the Cyprus Institute. The authors like to thank Martina Polig for her contribution to the user studies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNR IMATI, Via de Marini 6, 16149, Genova, Italy

    Chiara Eva Catalano & Michela Spagnuolo

  2. Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC) - The Cyprus Institute Athalassa Campus, 20 Konstantinou Kavafi Street, 2121, Aglantzia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Valentina Vassallo & Sorin Hermon

  3. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University, Helgonavägen 3, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Valentina Vassallo

Authors
  1. Chiara Eva Catalano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Valentina Vassallo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sorin Hermon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Michela Spagnuolo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chiara Eva Catalano.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Catalano, C.E., Vassallo, V., Hermon, S. et al. Representing quantitative documentation of 3D cultural heritage artefacts with CIDOC CRMdig. Int J Digit Libr 21, 359–373 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-020-00287-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-020-00287-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation