RITHMS was prominently featured at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Annual Meeting in Rome.
From August 28th to 31st, RITHMS took center stage during the session "Tracing & Protecting: Facing the Shadows of Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Goods" dedicated to addressing the urgent and complex challenges posed by the illicit trade of cultural heritage.
This session, organized within the framework of the RITHMS and DECOPE Projects, highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary alliances in combating cultural heritage crimes. A special highlight was the presentation by our contributors from CCHT — Michela De Bernardin, Riccardo Giovanelli and Arianna Traviglia — who showcased the potential and the first results of the RITHMS Digital Platform.
This innovative platform is designed to help Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) tackle the illegal trafficking of cultural goods. It’s a powerful tool that leverages Social Network Analysis (SNA) to map and analyze relationships between individuals and organizations involved in these crimes. The platform turns information into actionable intelligence by connecting the dots between data from social media, websites, and other sources. This helps track down stolen cultural treasures and prevent their illicit trade.
Some impressive early results include identifying 47 key open-source data sources and creating a database with 2 million entities. We’ve developed custom tools to scrape and analyze this data, building a comprehensive knowledge graph that maps out connections within the criminal world.
Find the RITHMS Poster: How Can Digital Technology Protect Our Cultural Heritage?