Semantic data model for knowledge representation and dissemination of cultural heritage site, Poompuhar

Among the ancient cities and ports of Tamil Nadu, India, Poompuhar is a historical and coastal port that emerged with the increasing maritime trade of the early Chola kingdom. The ancient trade town and the busy port of Poompuhar symbolize the Tamil culture and civilization up to 200 ce. The city was destroyed and washed away by big shore waves during ad 500. The submerged parts and scattered destruction remains have been identified in onshore and offshore excavations around the coastal lines of the Bay of Bengal in Tamil Nadu. Information on the port city can be found in various sources, such as archaeological evidence, historical references, coastal erosion data and Sangam Tamil literature. Here, a metho­dology is presented for a semantic representation of Poompuhar port city, integrating heterogeneous data to create a knowledge base by mapping and associating related entities. The knowledge base has been created using CIDOC CRM to represent Poompuhar events digitally. The experimental results of the ontology are verified exploring the submergence of Poompuhar use cases for onshore and offshore excavations through a knowledge graph