real-time visualisation of cultural heritage and environmental archaeology data in landscape...

Real-time Visualisation of Cultural Heritage and Environmental Archaeology

Data in Landscape Reconstructions

marcus.smith@raa.sephil.buckland@umu.se

Marcus Smith, RiksantikvarieämbetetPhilip Buckland, Umeå University

ArkHack

• May 2013, hack day hosted at RAÄ in Visby; “ArkHack”• RAÄ, Kb, SEAD, HUMLab• Goal: develop information infrastructure for archaeology,

cultural heritage and environment by linking data• Participants at different stages of linked data:

– Kb (Libris) highly structured, queryable, linked open RDF from the ground up;

– SEAD also highly structured, but relational, not linked RDF;

– RAÄ (K-samsök) queryable linked RDF, but coarse and sometimes inconsistent

SEAD data to RDF

• Divided up into teams:– Link Libris & K-samsök using SPARQL to find objects

in common– Interface and UX– Map a subset of SEAD data to RDF– Vision and use-cases

• Surprisingly successful!• Stay tuned for more ArkHacks in 2014!

How might this information be used…

…beyond simply being present as another source in K-samsök?

Environmental Reconstruction

• Linked data about a landscape during a timeslice

• Drawn together from avariety of sources

• Making complementary inferences fromdifferent data

• Animating timeslices toillustrate changes overtime

Using paleoenvironmental data to reconstruct the environment and climate

Using paleoenvironmental data to reconstruct the environment and climate

Using paleoenvironmental data to reconstruct the environment and climate

Buckland & co.

Sugita, Bunting etc.

Using paleoenvironmental data to reconstruct the environment and climate – multiple sites...

Buckland & co.

Sugita, Bunting etc.

… at and around sites and monuments.

x

… at and around sites and monuments.

x

… at and around sites and monuments.

x

… at and around sites and monuments.

x

With lots of clever mathematics, programming and GIS!And qualitative interpretation.

Potential Data Sources• K-samsök

– Sites & monuments from FMIS– Finds from 40+ national and regional museums– Fieldwork documentation (not yet!)

• SEAD (not LOD – yet!)• TORA (doesn’t exist yet, but will be LOD)

– Settlement patterns• Lantmäteriet (not LOD)

– Historic maps– National height model

• SGU (machine-readable, but neither linked nor open)– Geology and bedrock surveys, soils, vegetation, climate

• GBIF – Biodiversity (limited)• (Some of these data are accessible via INSPIRE Geodata portal)

Places a site in a broader context,

• …which is why we want to do it.• You simply cannot understand a place completely from the modern

landscape. Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) are only part of the story.• Help understand:

– A more complete and real landscape picture pre/during/post construction/settlement

– Why they built it/settled there– What they were thinking– How they interacted with the environment

Further possibilities• References from structured texts using contemporary

historical sources & literature:– MENOTA http://menota.org/ – Skaldic Project http://abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/– IEM http://www.nabohome.org/iem/

• A service that can accept all this data, and spit it out a beautifully-rendered 3D model.

Further possibilities• References from structured texts using contemporary

historical sources & literature:– MENOTA http://menota.org/ – Skaldic Project http://abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/– IEM http://www.nabohome.org/iem/

• A service that can accept all this data, and spit it out a beautifully-rendered 3D model. (How hard can it be?!)

Further possibilities• References from structured texts using contemporary

historical sources & literature:– MENOTA http://menota.org/ – Skaldic Project http://abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/– IEM http://www.nabohome.org/iem/

• A service that can accept all this data, and spit it out a beautifully-rendered 3D model.

• Educational systems and games.(How hard can it be?!)

(How hard can it be?!)

• A “non-trivial” task…• Different approaches for different proxies and goals• Integrating these into single landscape output…• What is scientifically useful is not often pretty...

Bunting, Middleton & TwiddleSugita etc.

How far have we come?

Biodiversity, Literature,Palaeoenvironment,Cultural Heritage &

Läns-museumLäns-

museumLäns-

museumLäns-

museum

Historicenvironment

RAÄMuseum

K-SAMSÖK(RAÄ)

Kringla.nuMuseisök

Google

Tidsresan/Time Mash

AP

IFornfynd IOS

Wikipedia(civilsamhället)

Libris(KB, RAÄ litt)

Läns-museumLäns-

museumLäns-

museumLocal

societies

Wikipedia, Wikimedia(society)

SEAD

http://www.kringla.nu/kringla/objekt?referens=raa/fmi/10149301140001

http://www.kringla.nu/

Wikimedia Wikipedia (UGC)

Google maps

FMIS/Fornsök Wikimedia (UGC)

Linkad datavia

K-samsök

Query results

x

Occupation

x

Occupation

Challenges

• The data are not linked, services not in place… yet!• Coverage of paleoenvironmental data is geographically and

chronologically patchy. • Coverage of proxies is patchy.• Extrapolation from the “closest” surrounding data points (in time and

space) reduces reliability(?)• Interpretation is not neutral/objective - depends on models used.• Visualizing (variability in) accuracy, precision & equifinality.• Different users prefer different types of visualization.• Uniting forces of existing computer models for palaeoenvironmental

reconstruction? Multidisciplinary science is difficult and hard to fund.

Prerequisites

But much of the rest of the infrastructure for the data itself already exists:• FMIS• SEAD• K-samsök for managing/aggregating linked data sources• Lantmäteriet • SGU• GEORG (older) and KARL (younger) geometric maps from RA• Structured historical texts

And others are on the horizon:• DAP• TORA• Excavation database(s)?

If one nerd can solve anything,many nerds can

solve everything.

phil.buckland@umu.se

marcus.smith@raa.se