Scaling the translation of visual sources into structured data. Leveraging formal ontologies and Graph-RAG to describe heraldic sources

How can we scale interpretive description of visual historical sources while maintaining scholarly rigor? Our heraldic case study demonstrates how expert-created formal ontologies enable LLM-assisted description that addresses cultural heritage's longtail distribution problem using Graph-RAG, producing verifiable structured data grounded in decades of domain expertise.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-08-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22046072
Primary Topic
Semantic Web and Ontologies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Scaling the translation of visual sources into structured data. Leveraging formal ontologies and Graph-RAG to describe heraldic sources

Philipp Schneider, Noah Jefferson Baumann
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Semantic Web and Ontologies
article

Scaling the translation of visual sources into structured data. Leveraging formal ontologies and Graph-RAG to describe heraldic sources

Philipp Schneider, Noah Jefferson Baumann
article en

Abstract

How can we scale interpretive description of visual historical sources while maintaining scholarly rigor? Our heraldic case study demonstrates how expert-created formal ontologies enable LLM-assisted description that addresses cultural heritage's longtail distribution problem using Graph-RAG, producing verifiable structured data grounded in decades of domain expertise.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
Sustainable cities and communities
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Semantic Web and Ontologies
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