The Silk Roads Nexus: Curated Micro-Dataset of Cultural Heritage Entities, Relationships, and Historical Annotations

A curated micro-dataset constructed for the Silk Roads Nexus platform, a coordinated multi-view digital heritage system developed as part of the CSC3094 Final Year Project at Newcastle University (2025-2026). The dataset comprises 81 entity records across six entity types (cities, routes, goods, events, persons, inscriptions), 50 typed directed relationships using a controlled vocabulary of six values, and 45 century-level temporal annotations for the platform timeline feature. All entities are sourced from peer-reviewed academic references (Frankopan 2015; Pleiades Gazetteer; Encyclopaedia Iranica; Silk Road Seattle Project) and satisfy three predefined inclusion criteria: documented participation in Silk Roads networks in at least one peer-reviewed source; temporal bounds within 300 BCE to 1500 CE; and relational connectivity to at least one other entity in the dataset.Created by : Saud Najem S Alnajem - 230266960 Supervised by Dr Rouaa Yassin Kassab, Newcastle University.