Technical Documentation

In this section you will find information about the technical architecture, the data model and the ontologies in use. 

Consider that this is a test system. The application ontology and data model is an interim result of the project and will be extended in near future. 

Database and Hosting

This digital repository is based on the open source software WissKI which was developed for modelling and storing semantic data. In the subchapters you will find detailed information about the ontology and the data model for the documentation of analysing mesolithic human footprints. 

The hosting is provided by the FAU Competence Center for Research Data and Information (FAU CDI). 

Triplestore, SQL database and CMS

The data is stored as semantic triples in the triplestore graphdb hosted by the FAU CDI. The underlying SQL-database is phpMyAdmin. The content management system is Drupal. 

Ontologies in use

For a robust data model, the ontology CIDOC CRM (version 7.1.3) has been employed. CIDOC CRM is meant to represent cultural objects and phenomena of the existing world and helps to integrate heterogeneous cultural heritage information. In this case, concepts of the extensions of the Scientific Observation Model (CRMsci) were employed, too. In case of need for even more specific issues, new classes and properties were built in the project-specific ontology (prefix “volp”). A publication of the ontology, the pathbuilder and the data model can be found under this DOI https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17725251 . The ontology can be resolved here. 

Data Model

The core issues of the project are represented by the following key concepts from the above mentioned ontologies CIDOC CRM, crmsci and crmarchaeo. The Footprint as the initial point of the analysis is represented by instances of the project-specific class volp:Spoor, a subclass of crmsci:S20_Rigid_Physical_Feature. With the intention to represent a real world phenomenon the footprint is refered to as a materially visible physical feature with a relatively stable and invariant form. To represent the topographical context of a footprint, subclasses of the CIDOC CRM class E27_Site were built. Semantically described in a part of relation, a volp:Spoor is located in (cidoc-crm:P59i) a volp:Spatial_Subunit forms part of (cidoc-crm:P46i) a volp:Spatial_Unit forms part of a volp:Cave. 

Documenting research results requires documenting their generation. A crucial aspect of modeling with CIDOC CRM is representing reality through events, here mostly understood as attribute assignments (cidoc-crm:E13_Attribute_Assignments) that link information from knowledge generation to the researched objects. Measures like assigning an ID to a footprint (volp:ID_Assignment), measuring its size and distance to other footprints (cidoc-crm:E16_Measurement and volp:Distance_Measurement), determining its status of preservation (cidoc-crm:E14_Condition_Assessment), making statements about its generation including deductions to its human creator and his activities (crmsci:S5_Inference_Making) are represented via subclasses of cidoc-crm:E13_Attribute_Assignment. The research outcome of the Inference Making represents the statements taken by consensus by the track readers (Subject, Activity, Event and Trackway). 

The overall analyzing measures of each footprint are bundled by an instance of the class crmsci:S4_Observation. According to the scope note it “comprises the activity of gaining scientific knowledge about particular states of physical reality through empirical evidence, experiments and measurements” All Observations analyzing single footprints take place within the archaeological project (crmsci:S4_Observation -> cidoc-crm:P10_falls_within-> volp:Archaeological_Project). In the project-specific ontology the latter is a subclass of crmsci:S4_Observation and is defined as a coordinated set of activities for gaining knowledge by means of different methods. 

Further main bundles are Image and Documentation. They are represented by instances of volp:Image, subclass of cidoc-crm:E73_Information_Object, and volp:Document, subclass of cidoc-crm:E31_Document. The latter project-specifi class comprises any kind of (written) documentation containing information and metainformation about the project, its circumstances or the data (set), for example also information about the data model and its development. 

state: 2026.01.28