Data Criticism: Reconstructiong the Concept of Silk Road Based on Informatics-based Approaches to Non-textual Sources

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26540178
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Library and information science/Humanistic social informatics
• Research Institution: National Institute of Informatics
• Principal Investigator: Kitamoto Asanobu 国立情報学研究所, コンテンツ科学研究系, 准教授 (00300707)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NISHIMURA Yoko 花園大学, 文学部, 講師 (70455195)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: デジタル・ヒューマニティーズ / デジタル史料批判 / 遺跡データベース / 歴史情報 / セマンティックウェブ / 非文字史料 / データレポジトリ / シルクロード

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We proposed the concept of data criticism (digital criticism), a new approach to historical source criticism, and constructed an information platform called DCP to apply the approach mainly to non-textural sources. We integrated several tools for matching photographs and maps into DCP to construct an evidence network connecting evidences obtained from matching. Moreover, we implemented a semantic search on the evidence network using SPARQL language to propose a new methodology for linking Silk Road ruins across historical sources based on the reliability of relationship. Moreover, we applied the data criticism approach to show the first step toward understanding overall relationship among Silk Road ruins.

Free Research Field

人文情報学