CAA2016

Using semantic technologies for the deep integration of research items in ARIADNE

Philipp Gerth, Wolfgang Schmidle, Sebastian Cuy

Abstract
One important goal of the EU-funded ARIADNE project is to integrate data originating in a variety of different disciplines in the archaeologies and connected subjects in order to facilitate access to heterogeneous data sources. This integration on the one hand happens on a large scale by incorporating descriptions of vast amounts of research resources into the ARIADNE catalog. On the other hand experiments on the tight integration of the detailed descriptions of single item of research investigates workflows and use-cases for semantically integrated data.

In this paper we will describe a practice-orientated approach on dealing with this problem with the help of Semantic Web Technologies. A specific use case on integrating finds from various databases will be presented. We will highlight the difficulties in integrating databases with differing genesis (museum catalog, object database, excavation database), therefore different terminology, focus and languages.

The integrated datasets will be accessible via a unified programming interface, which allows rich querying possibilities. This interface lays the groundwork for a user interface, which facilitates the intuitive formulation of queries for accessing the integrated data.