Modest doubt: enabling discovery across maritime heritage records
Modest doubt: enabling discovery across maritime heritage records
The United Kingdom’s Maritime Heritage records hold vital information on heritage assets and archaeological contexts key to addressing current research priorities. These records stand alone, rarely connecting, demanding an arduous and time-consuming process of investigation and cross-referencing for synthesis to occur. Challenges intensify due to the qualities of this data; they stem partly from legacy information not initially intended for heritage recording purposes. Complications also arise from the varied methods of recording, storing, and disseminating this information deployed over time. However, archaeologists now possess Named Entity Recognition (NER) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools with the potential to organize and search such fragmented databases. This paper explores a method to enhance and enrich these datasets by employing Few Shot learning techniques to perform Multiclass Text Classification. The Welsh National Monuments Record (NMR), a glimpse into the U.K.’s maritime heritage, has been utilized to test these approaches.
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6
Pink, Jack, Singh, Shrikriti, Chapman, Adriane and Sturt, Fraser
(2026)
Modest doubt: enabling discovery across maritime heritage records.
International Journal of Digital Humanities.
(doi:10.1007/s42803-025-00117-5).
Abstract
The United Kingdom’s Maritime Heritage records hold vital information on heritage assets and archaeological contexts key to addressing current research priorities. These records stand alone, rarely connecting, demanding an arduous and time-consuming process of investigation and cross-referencing for synthesis to occur. Challenges intensify due to the qualities of this data; they stem partly from legacy information not initially intended for heritage recording purposes. Complications also arise from the varied methods of recording, storing, and disseminating this information deployed over time. However, archaeologists now possess Named Entity Recognition (NER) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools with the potential to organize and search such fragmented databases. This paper explores a method to enhance and enrich these datasets by employing Few Shot learning techniques to perform Multiclass Text Classification. The Welsh National Monuments Record (NMR), a glimpse into the U.K.’s maritime heritage, has been utilized to test these approaches.
Text
s42803-025-00117-5
- Version of Record
Text
42803_2025_117_Article_OnlinePDF
Restricted to Repository staff only
Available under License Other.
Request a copy
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 30 December 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 March 2026
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510412
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510412
ISSN: 2524-7840
PURE UUID: db3e9b65-b3dd-4e80-9ecc-344e3b932ca4
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 30 Mar 2026 16:52
Last modified: 31 Mar 2026 01:40
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Jack Pink
Author:
Shrikriti Singh
Author:
Adriane Chapman
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
