University of Southampton Research Repository Eprints Soton
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University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Web Science Centre for Doctoral Training Volume 1 of 1 Telling Ancient Tales to Modern Machines: Ontological Representation of Sumerian Literary Narratives by Terhi Maija Tuulia Nurmikko-Fuller Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Web Science Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy TELLING ANCIENT TALES TO MODERN MACHINES: ONTOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION OF SUMERIAN LITERARY NARRATIVES Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller This thesis examines the potential of semantic web technologies to support and complement scholarship in Assyriology. Building on prior research, it is unique in its assessment of the suitability of three existing OWL ontologies (CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, FRBRoo and Ontomedia) to adequately capture and represent the heterogeneous and incomplete narratives published as composites by the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Its agenda sits firmly within the interdisciplinary context of the Digital Humanities and Web Science, and it describes a process centered on the development, implementation and valuation of an ontological representation system (mORSuL), designed to reflect the needs, desires, challenges and opportunities of Assyriological research paradigms. Underlying the process are two fundamental assumptions: firstly, that semantic technologies can be used to support academic endeavours in the Humanities, and secondly, that the benefits of doing so can be identified and evaluated. The thesis culminates in the conclusion that these existing ontologies are mostly suitable for the representation of the narrative content of these ancient texts, requiring only a few additions and changes. Table of Contents ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... i List of figures ............................................................................................................ v DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... xi Definitions and Abbreviations .................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................... 1 1.1 Outline of the Research Agenda ................................................. 1 1.2 Hypothesis ................................................................................. 3 1.3 General background and terminology ........................................ 4 1.4 Rationale of the Project ............................................................ 11 1.5 Data ......................................................................................... 12 1.6 Methodology ............................................................................ 13 1.7 Conventions used in this Documen .......................................... 20 1.8 Chapter Summary .................................................................... 21 Chapter 2: Assyriology and Sumerology ................................................. 25 2.1 Background ............................................................................. 25 2.2 Sumerian Language .................................................................. 27 2.3 Cuneiform ............................................................................... 35 2.4 Scribal Education ..................................................................... 40 2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................... 45 Chapter 3: Sumerian Literature .................................................................... 49 3.1 Background ............................................................................. 49 3.2 Philological Paradigms ............................................................. 51 3.3 Sumerian Literature .................................................................. 53 i 3.4 Composite Texts ...................................................................... 56 3.5 Online Resources for Sumerian ................................................ 59 3.6 ETCSL ...................................................................................... 66 3.7 Conclusion ............................................................................... 73 Chapter 4: Semantic Technologies ......................................................... 75 4.1 Background ............................................................................. 75 4.2 Existing Technologies .............................................................. 77 4.3 Ancient World Data and XML/TEI .............................................. 90 4.4 Ancient World Data and Semantic Technologies ....................... 91 4.5 Assyriology and Ontologies ...................................................... 94 4.6 Existing ontologies for mORSuL ............................................... 96 4.7 Conclusion ............................................................................. 106 Chapter 5: Ontologies for ETCSL data .............................................. 109 5.1 Background ........................................................................... 109 5.2 User scenarios ....................................................................... 112 5.3 Representing ETCSL data in an ontology ................................ 120 5.4 Mapping Sumerian Literary Compositions with CIDOC CRM and FRBRoo classes in mORSuL ..................................................... 129 5.5 Mapping Sumerian Literary Compositions with Ontomedia classes in mORSuL ............................................................................. 135 5.6 SuLO in mORSuL .................................................................... 142 5.7 Practical Implementation ........................................................ 144 5.8 Conclusion ............................................................................. 146 Chapter 6: Case study ................................................................................... 149 6.1 Background ........................................................................... 149 6.2 The Tale ................................................................................ 152 6.3 Selection Criteria ................................................................... 153 6.4 Witness Tablets and Prior Publications ................................... 154 ii 6.5 Using OM and the Brat Annotation Tool to Represent the Three Ox-drivers of Adab ................................................................ 157 6.6 Ontological Representation in mORSuL .................................. 158 6.7 Narrative Content ................................................................... 161 6.8 Evaluation Regarding the Use Cases ....................................... 168 6.9 Evaluation Regarding other ETCSL compositions .................... 170 6.10 Conclusion ............................................................................. 181 Chapter 7: Future Work .............................................................................. 183 7.1 Potential ................................................................................ 183 7.2 Practical implementation ........................................................ 185 7.3 Extending the structure of mORSuL ........................................ 188 7.4 Extension of the dataset ........................................................ 190 7.5 Conclusion ............................................................................. 194 Chapter 8: Conclusion ................................................................................ 197 8.1 Chapter Recap ....................................................................... 197 8.2 Summary of Findings ............................................................. 209 8.3 Evaluation of mORSuL ............................................................ 212 8.4 Final Thoughts ....................................................................... 213 Appendices .............................................................................................................. 215 Appendix A Timeline of Mesopotamia ..................................................... 217 Appendix B ETCSL Philological Conventions ........................................ 219 Appendix