Classical antiquity and semantic content management on linked open data

Abstract

This article treats a digital humanities work in Classical Antiquity. The goal is to develop a Web information system for such a domain and, at the same time, to publish data according to Linked Open Data principles. We have used the Bibliotheca Iuris Antiqui (BIA) system, a vertical framework in the Ancient Roman Law domain. The BIA system incorporates three archives: Fontes (full-text Roman Law sources), Opera (bibliographic records) and Thesaurus (Ancient Law conceptual vocabulary). Connections within the information contained in the archives are highlighted by semantic links found in Opera records, whose role is to connect other archives as well (Thesaurus and Fontes). The BIA system, which has been published so far in CD-ROM and in proprietary format only, has been migrated to the online integrated system BIA-Net, representing the data according to the W3C standards. Hopefully, BIA-Net will also be analyzed by broader and multidisciplinary scientific communities. We intended to preserve the existing front-end and services of the BIA system, making data in XML format according to the DC, TEI and SKOS vocabularies. In particular, this article details the transformation of Thesaurus content and structure in Semantic Web standards using metadata in SKOS/RDF. Each concept of the reference domain is designed as part of the BIA-Net system and, at the same time, it is a self-descripted stand alone element, with its URI, in order to allow the definition of an Ontology in the Ancient Law domain.