Project Context:
As part of the migration of MEGA-Jordan (Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities) to the Arches platform, the Getty Conservation Institute is reviewing and enhancing the existing data model to support improved heritage management workflows. A central component of MEGA-Jordan is the documentation of condition monitoring activities, which inform conservation planning for over 15,000 archaeological sites and 54,000 site components across Jordan.
The migration to Arches presents an opportunity to strengthen the semantic structure underlying these monitoring records within a linked data environment.
TAKIN’s Role:
Takin.solutions provides support in the conceptual modelling and semantic extension of Arches HER (Historic Environment Record) to account for monitoring events as a core data domain. Key contributions include:
- Analysing existing MEGA-Jordan monitoring data structures and workflows.
- Designing semantic patterns for modelling monitoring activities as structured events within the Arches framework.
- Extending HER resource models to capture relationships between sites, components, actors, observations, condition assessments, dates, and related documentation.
- Aligning monitoring event models with CIDOC CRM-based event modelling principles to ensure interoperability and future extensibility.
- Incorporating modelling principles from the Art and Architectural Argumentation Ontology (AAAo) to structure observations, condition assessments, and interpretative statements as explicit argumentation patterns, enabling transparent documentation of evidentiary reasoning within conservation workflows.
- Documenting the conceptual model to guide implementation and future data mapping.
Outcome:
The work establishes a robust semantic framework for representing condition monitoring events within Arches, integrating event modelling and structured argumentation approaches. This enhances data consistency, supports conservation decision-making through traceable evidentiary structures, and ensures that monitoring information can be integrated into a scalable, linked heritage data environment as part of the MEGA-Jordan migration.
