The project explores the potential applications of Semantic Web technologies for documenting and broadening humanistic discourse on object identification. Such identification is at the heart of typological studies of domestic and decorative objects as well as of artisanal production.

In the case of objects that were produced in large numbers and with great variety, of particular relevance for functional ceramics and (for certain archaeological epochs) burial ceramics, technical drawing has become the standard means of documenting objects. These drawings therefore hold a central place in the scholarly discourse.

The project aims to digitally publish complete ceramic records, in which each object drawing can be individually processed and verified via URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).

In this way, the drawings can be used as reference points for designating types and can also allow for the verification and merging of existing type designators. This process serves to link the scholarly designators used as a type of controlled vocabulary in research and technical drawings of ceramic vessels and fragments.

Through this concrete case study, the project examines the potentials of Semantic Web technologies for documenting discourse around the identification of individual objects, and this in turn lays a groundwork for further conjecture, such as on the dating of an object group or its cultural interpretation.

Outreach

Presentations

• Anne Klammt, « Keramiktypologie, Bildannotation und Knowledge Graph », Sektion für Slawische Archäologie anlässlich der 25. Jahrestagung des Mitel- und Ostdeutschen Verbandes für Altertumsforschung e.V., Jena, 13-15/09/2022.