The document outlines the GStar annual postgraduate researchers presentation, focusing on the application of linked geospatial data (LGD) for archaeological research. It discusses geospatial semantics, linked data frameworks, and the integration of various cultural heritage resources to enhance archaeological studies. The presentation also includes acknowledgments and details about the project's proposed workflows and outputs.

1. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Geosemantic Technologies
for Archaeological Research:
GSTAR
Paul Cripps
University of South Wales, Trefforest, UK
• Hypermedia Research Group
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Research Group
Archaeogeomancy, Salisbury, UK
http://gstar.archaeogeomancy.net/
LinkedGeospatialData(LGD)inthecontextof
archaeologicalresearch

2. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Introduction
• Geospatial Semantics
• Linked Data (LD)
• Linked Geospatial Data
(LGD)
• LGD for Archaeological
Research - GSTAR
Earthorama by spdorsey http://flic.kr/p/69C5QD

3. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Geospatial Semantics
• “…research area combining Geographic
Information Science (GIScience), spatial
databases, cognitive science, Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and the Semantic Web”
• Janowicz, K. et al., 2012.
• Concept of Linked Geospatial Data (LGD)
as means of expressing spatial semantic
information

4. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Linked Data
Publishing
& Querying
framework
Human &
Machine
readable
Logic, Rules,
Reasoning,
Inference,
Argumentation
Web services,
stylesheets, etc

5. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Linked Data
• Linked Data comprises assertions about reality,
stored as triples (rdf, ntriples, turtle, xml, etc)
• <thing><relationship><thing>
• Each tag is:
• a persistent uniform resource identifer
• a literal value (string, number, date, etc)
• Concept based not term based
• Ontologies define classes and relationships (owl,
rdfs)
• Vocabularies define content (skos)
• Multilingual
• Multiple classification schema

6. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Linked Data
• <Stonehenge><hasType><henge>
• <Stonehenge> is a uri for the monument
• <hasType> is a uri for the relationship, from a
particular ontology (CIDOC CRM)
• <henge> is a uri for the classification, from a
particular vocabulary provider (HeritageData
SKOS)
• http://purl.org/heritagedata/schemes/eh_tmt2/concepts/70096
Circular or sub-circular enclosure defined by a bank and
(usually internal) ditch, with one or two (rarely more)
entrances. Of ceremonial/ritual function, they contain a
variety of internal features including timber or stone circles.

7. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Linked Geospatial Data
• LGD also comprises assertions, including spatial
• <Stonehenge><hasDepiction><polygon>
• <Stonehenge> is a uri for the monument
• <hasDepiction> is a uri for the relationship,
from a particular ontology (CRM EH)
• <polygon> is a literal representing a particular
polygon depiction (BNG WKT) or a uri for a
polygon in another resource (eg OS
MasterMap)

8. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Linked Geospatial Data
• <Stone circle><spatially within><Stonehenge>
• <Stone circle> is a uri for the monument
• <spatially within> is a uri for the relationship,
from a particular ontology (GeoSPARQL)
• <Stonehenge> is a uri for the monument

9. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Linked Geospatial Data
• Geometries
• points, lines, polygons,
donuts, etc
• Relations & Functions
• eg Within, Contains,
Intersects
• eg Buffer
• Coordinate Reference
Systems (CRS)
• Transformations &
Projections
• Implements OGC
standards
• WKT, GML, Simple
Features
• Implements W3C
standards
• XML, RDF, RDFS, OWL,
SPARQL
• New OGC+W3C
standards
• GeoSPARQL

10. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
ColonisationofBritainLinkedData
Wessex Archaeology, Archaeology Data Service
Linked Data resource built using STELLAR Toolkit & Open Refine including Ordnance Survey Open Data

11. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
GSTAR
• Investigating:
• Production of Linked (Geospatial) Data
• Working with Linked (Geospatial) Data
• For Archaeological research purposes
• Use cases:
• Archaeological research scenarios (academic,
commercial, etc)
• How can geosemantic technologies support real-world
research processes?
• Using broad range of data from UK heritage
institutions
• Wiltshire Museums, Wiltshire Historic Environment
Record, English Heritage, Wessex Archaeology,
Archaeology Data Service, Ordnance Survey

12. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
GSTAR

13. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
CRMEHgeo - Ontology Alignment
crmeh:EHE0007 Context crmeh:EHE0022 ContextDepiction
crmeh:EHP4i is depicted by
geo:Feature geo:hasGeometry
rdfs:subClassOf rdfs:subPropertyOf
sf:Polygon
rdfs:isA
Instance of
WKT
Literal
geo:asWKT
RDFS GeoSPARQLSimple FeaturesCRMEH
crm:E53 Place
crm:E44 Place
Appellation
crm:p87 is
identified by
rdfs:subPropertyOf rdfs:subClassOfrdfs:subClassOf
CIDOC CRM

14. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Research: Workflows
• Current workflow:
• Request data
• Collate & Process
• Concordance
• Produce new,
standalone resource
• Assessment, Analysis
• Snapshot reporting,
narratives
• Archive
• (Repeat…)
• Proposed workflow:
• Consume data
• Assessment, Analysis
• Augment data
• Data driven reporting,
narratives

15. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Research: Questions
• Investigating
archaeological research
questions
• Start with questions:
• eg “Show me a distribution
density plot for each Parish
in Study Area of all object
records by object type from
prehistoric sites of type
barrow within 500m of a
higher than average density
of worked flint”
• Express as Queries
• GeoSPARQL
• Visualise results, think, do
• Integration of cultural
heritage resources:
• Object Records from
Museum Collection
• Site location, dating and
classification from HER
• Fieldwalking data from
commercial contractor
• User Generated input
• Spatial operators
• Numeric operators
• Sources
• Web mapping APIs,
Linked Data APIs

16. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Outputs
• Pilot Study
• Evaluation: change of platforms
• Linked Data resource – complete
• Publishing pipelines
• Demonstrators – in progress
• Web based querying of heterogeneous resources
• Spatial interfaces
• Querying
• Results
• Thesis 

17. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
Acknowledgements
• Thanks to:
• University of South Wales – funding, supervision, advice
• Archaeology Data Service – data from their archives
• Wessex Archaeology – data, photographs and images
• Wiltshire Council – access to the Historic Environment Record
(HER) data
• Wiltshire Museums – access to museum collections data
• Personal thanks
• Supervisors/Advisors: Doug Tudhope, Mark Ware, Alex Lohfink
• Research group: Ceri Binding, Andreas Vlachidis, Keith May
• Peers and colleagues: Michael Charno, Chris Brayne, Gerald
Heibel, David Dawson
• Image Credit
• Earthorama by spdorsey http://flic.kr/p/69C5QD

18. GSTAR – USW Annual Postgraduate Researchers Presentation Day – Friday 5th May, 2015
fin
• paul.cripps@southwales.ac.uk
• paul@archaeogeomancy.net
• @pauljcripps
• gstar.archaeogeomancy.net
• hypermedia.research.southwales.ac.uk
• gis.research.southwales.ac.uk