Ontology

The PNM ontology is developed for representing Persons and Names of the Middle Kingdom data as RDF, in order to make data more easily accessible by other scholars and research projects. It builds upon the existing ontologies. CIDOC CRM 5.0.4 is used to represent objects, museum collections, persons and statements. CRMEH is used for archaeological contexts. Dublin Core and PAV are used for publications. Ontolex serves as basis for describing names and titles as lexical entries. WGS84 Geo Positioning is used for geographical coordinates. LAWD and SNAP:DRGN served as inspiration.
In order to convert PNM data from a relational database to RDF, R2RML mappings are developed. The mappings are available on Github.
The current Persons and Names of the Middle Kingdom dataset is available as a RDF-dump in both Turtle and RDF/XML in the project repository under doi:10.5281/zenodo.1411391. A live SPAQRL endpoint is accessible under https://pnm.uni-mainz.de/sparql.

The PNM ontology

Version	Date	Status	Turtle file	RDF/XML
1	25 July 2019	Current	pnm.owl.ttl	pnm.owl
3	12 January 2022	Current	pnm3.owl.ttl	pnm3.owl

Examples

The following examples aim to show how PNM data is represented in RDF using existing ontologies and the PNM ontology. Only key elements are exemplified, to keep the illustration overseeable. The examples use the Turtle notation.

To begin with, let us use the pnm prefix to refer to the PNM ontology. There exists an inscription that is designated as Cairo JE 52453 and contains a legal text. The inscription is carried by an object. It is a stela, namely a round-topped stela. It was found in the Karnak temple, and is now located in the Cairo Museum. In the museum, the stela was allocated an inventory number (JE 52453), which is now used to identify the stela. Judging from the royal name, the production of the stela should have taken place in the reign of Swꜣḏ-n-rꜥ Nebirirau. In line 4 of the inscription there occurs a male person called Sbk-nḫt. He bears the title string sꜣ-nsw; ḫtmw-bjtj; jmj-rꜣ gs-pr; ḥꜣtj-ꜥ; ḥꜣtj-ꜥ n nḫb. His name is spelled in the inscription on the stela as . This spelling is one of the spellings of the personal name Sbk-nḫt. This name is also documented in the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae. The personal name Sbk-nḫt belongs to the semantic name class of names referring to the god Sobek. According to the inscription on the stela, the man called Sbk-nḫt bears several titles. Among them is the title ḥꜣtj-ꜥ n nḫb. This title specificates the title ḥꜣtj-ꜥ; it appears in the TLA; its lexical meaning can be defined in English as "governor of Elkab". The title ḥꜣtj-ꜥ n nḫb was held by male persons in Elkab. This title has a lemma number in R. Hannig, Ägyptisches Wörterbuch II: Mittleres Reich und Zweite Zwischenzeit. According to the inscription on the stela, the man called Sbk-nḫt (<https://pnm.uni-mainz.de/inscription/273#6802>) has a sibling. Their familial relation is expressed in the words "pꜣjj⸗j sn". This sibling is male (hence, a brother), he is called kbsj, bears the titles ꜣṯw n ṯt ḥqꜣ; ḥꜣtj-ꜥ n nḫb, and appears in line 4 of the same inscription. It is stated that the man called Sbk-nḫt known from the inscription on stela Cairo JE 52453 is identical with the man called Sbk-nḫt known from other sources. The editor of the PNM accepts this statement as substantiated citing the following reasons: "name, title, father, and grandfather". The dossier of Sbk-nḫt as compiled from different sources includes his gender, name and titles. He lived in Elkab in the reign of the 16th Dynasty. Sbk-nḫt (known from various sources) has bonds with other persons, whose dossiers can be reconstructed from other sources. For example, with his father, the vizier Jj-mrw: Sbk-nḫt was the son of Jj-mrw. The dossier of Sbk-nḫt (known from various sources) was defined in Franke, Personendaten aus dem Mittleren Reich (20.-16. Jahrhundert v. Chr.): Dossiers 1–796 under no. 565.