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Monday, March 26
 

10:00am BST

Workshop 10 - Computational Photography

This workshop will consist of presentations, discussion and hands-on demonstration. We will present advances in robust new conservation tools from the emerging science known as Computational Photography. The common feature of the computational photography imaging family is the purpose-driven, selective extraction of information from sequences of digital photographs. The information is extracted from the photographic sequences by computer algorithms. The extracted information is then integrated into new digital representations containing information not present in the original photographs, examined either alone or sequentially.

We will describe robust photography-based digital techniques for use within conservation and associated research. We will show how the stories of conservators using these tools and the disclosed insights about the art works they care for can be leveraged and digitally presented to their colleagues, visitors to the collections, and the interested public.

The most mature and widely adopted technique for collections conservation and research is Reflectance Transformation Imaging. RTI creates digital representations from image sequences where light is projected from different directions. The lighting information from this image set is mathematically synthesized into an RTI image, enabling a user to interactively re-light and enhance the subject’s surface in incredible detail. An IMLS sponsored training program is bringing a four day RTI training to all six masters programs in art conservation in North America, as well as four regional museum trainings open to museum professionals. As a result of this program over 150 museum professionals and pre-professionals will be fully trained in RTI technology, in addition to the many institutions that are adopting RTI outside of this program.

The workshop will present the latest developments in RTI. We will examine multi-spectral RTI and the hidden topological landscapes disclosing under-painting and drawings in the infra-red and the fine surface information disclosed in ultra-violet wavelengths. We will discuss RTI of subjects under magnification using macro and microscopic optics as well as updates in viewing technology.

New developments in the related technology Algorithmic Rendering (AR), which uses the same data sets as RTI, will also be presented. The development of new AR technology by Princeton University and Cultural Heritage Imaging is supported by a significant grant from the National Science Foundation. The end-product will be an open-source tool which will extract and merge visual information available only under certain lighting conditions, certain wavelengths, or certain imaging modalities. Conservators will be able to generate high quality, comprehensible illustrations for documentation, scientific study, and sharing with colleagues, collection visitors, and the public.

New software tools to better collect and manage the metadata surrounding the creation of RTI and AR will also be discussed. This “digital lab notebook” is a critical element in the generation of scientifically reliable digital representations that enable future reuse for novel purposes, assist the long-term digital preservation of the virtual representations, and aid the physical conservation of the digitally represented museum materials.

Computational photography is a rapidly expanding field generating new tools and methods that can aide conservators in the documentation, study, and widespread understanding of the art works under their care. Note: this workshop is designed to complement the paper session “Advances in computational photography techniques for conservation, research, and public access”.


Y

Speakers
avatar for Carla Schroer

Carla Schroer

Director, Cultural Heritage Imaging
Carla Schroer is co-founder and director of Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI) a non-profit corporation that develops and implements imaging technologies for cultural, historic and artistic heritage and scientific research. Carla leads the training programs at CHI along with working... Read More →


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 12:00pm BST
Building 65, Room 1177

10:00am BST

Workshop 11 - V-MusT.net Thematic Cluster Meeting

V-MusT is a EU FP7-funded network of excellence that aims to provide the heritage sector with the tools and support to develop virtual museums that are educational, enjoyable, long-lasting and easy to maintain. This meeting will bring together those CAA2012 delegates involved in the project.


Y

Speakers

Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 12:00pm BST
Building 65, 1095

10:00am BST

Workshop 2 - Intro to Geophysics

Another in the "Intro to ..." presentations for newcomers to CAA and computing in archaeology.Could be held with workshops before the conference sessions proper.Would dob in my mates Jess Ogden and John Pouncett to run this one if the organisers felt there were a place for it in the program.


Y

Speakers
avatar for Stephen Bullas

Stephen Bullas

Strategic Decisions Ltd. Department of Applied Geophysics Cambio The Mead ASHTEAD Surrey KT21 2LZ LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/stephen-bullas/0/927/a0b


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 12:00pm BST
Building 65, 1093

10:00am BST

Workshop 4 - Nikon 'iSpace for Archaeology'

A hands-on workshop with a new 3D data-acquisition system from the Metrology division of the Nikon Corporation.


Y

Speakers
avatar for Geoff Avern

Geoff Avern

Visiting Fellow, University Southampton


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 12:00pm BST
Building 65a, 2251

10:00am BST

Workshop 5 - Semantic Technologies Workshop

The purpose of the workshop is to explain the technologies and present techniques relating to the mapping of archaeological datasets to the CIDOC CRM and the CRM-EH extension of that ontology. We will demonstrate this using both pre-defined STELLAR project templates and other user-defined templates. In particular we will demonstrate the STELLAR mapping/extraction tools and report on experience with using them, including input at the workshop from the Archaeology Data Service. We will discuss mapping and extraction issues and provide practical feedback on implementation work we have carried out creating archaeological Linked Data. We would also welcome feedback and experiences from participants who have either used the STELLAR tools or who are carrying out similar work.


Y

Speakers
SJ

Stuart Jeffrey

Archaeology Data Service University of York
KM

Keith May

English Heritage


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 12:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097

10:00am BST

Workshop 8 - Joining the pots: linking and publishing excavation data using Heurist

Heurist is a flexible, web-based collaborative Open Source database with a wide variety of applications, from archaeological data to historical encyclopaedias and text annotation. It has recently become the platform for a major legacy excavation data publication project for the site of Zagora. This had led to the development of models for complex interlinked excavation data and connectivity to ArcGIS (in addition to built-in mapping). In this half day workshop we will introduce participants to the use of Heurist for heterogeneous archaeological data, illustrated with the Zagora database. Since it is web based, anyone with an internet connected computer will be able to follow along and spawn their own live database on our server, import the models from Zagora and import some trial datasets which we will provide. The workshop will proceed from database creation and definition, through data import, online data entry and linking of data, to generation of online published output. At the end of the workshop participants should have the confidence to tackle a new database, eiteh for a site or for other types of data collection. The workshop will not require any special hardware or technical skills. Trial data will be made available via the web.


Y

Speakers
avatar for Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Honorary Associate, University of Sydney
Web-based databases and GIS/mapping applied to historical and archaeological applications. Mobile/tablet applications for field data collection and delivery of historical and cultural tours, Augmented Reality, semantic web


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 12:00pm BST
Building 65, 2151

10:00am BST

Workshop 1 - Meshlab

In the last few years 3D technologies have found in the archaeological studies an important application field and, from niche experimentations, have become a standard tool for the documentation, investigation and presentation of sites, artefacts and excavations.

The aim of this half-day workshop is to present to the archaeological community the various tools offered by MeshLab for the manipulation and use of 3D data in the archaeology field.

MeshLab is an Open Source tool for the visualization and processing of large, unstructured 3D models, developed by the Visual Computing Lab (ISTI-CNR). Born as a university project, MeshLab has steadily grown in features and usability, reaching more than 100.000 downloads in the last year. MeshLab is used by hundreds of research groups and industries, and by thousands of 3D hobbyists. Featuring various state-of-the art 3D processing algorithms (often implemented by their academic authors), it represents a solid and free alternative to commercial tools for 3D scanning data management.

The workshop will cover the various stages of the use of a 3D model, from its creation to its complete exploitation, focusing on the functionalities more interesting from a CH and Archaeological point of view

3D Model creation from raw data: the tools needed to process raw 3D data coming from 3D scanners (triangulation, structured light or time of flight) and 3d-from-images reconstruction tools (like Arc3D, PhotoFly or PhotoScan). Scan alignment and merging. Photographic alignment, color mapping and texture generation.

3D model manipulation: model cleaning and filtering. Smoothing, simplification and format conversion.
Measurement and data extraction: taking measures on a 3D geometry, point picking, model annotation, numerical comparison between 3D geometries.

Visualization and documentation: advanced shading, rendering, image generation.


Y

Speakers
avatar for Marco Callieri

Marco Callieri

researcher @ Visual computing Lab, ISTI-CNR, ISTI-CNR
3DHOP Apostle -- Meshlab Cultist


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 3:00pm BST
Building 65a, 1239

10:00am BST

Workshop 12 - An Introduction to the Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB)

The Integrated Archaeological Database (IADB) is an open source web based environment for the recording, analysis, archiving and publication of archaeological projects. It has been adopted by several professional field units in the UK and a growing number of academic research projects based at UK universities and operating in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

This workshop will look at aspects of the use of the IADB at various stages in the progress of different types of archaeological projects. Topics covered will include: Approaches to creating an excavation database; Finds management and “stock control”; Creating and managing a photographic archive; The IADB and the Cloud – putting everything on line; Approaches to post-excavation analysis; The IADB as a platform for web based report and database publication.

More information about the IADB is available at http://www.iadb.org.uk.

The workshop is open to all as no previous knowledge of the IADB will be assumed.


Y

Speakers
MJ

Michael John Rains

York Archaeological Trust


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 3:00pm BST
Building 65, 2143

10:00am BST

Workshop 3 - ARK The Archaeological Recording Kit - an introductory workshop

ARK - the Archaeological Recording Kit - is a highly flexible system that you can use to put your archaeological data on the web so that you can work on it collaboratively and share it with a wider audience.ARK is currently in use on a large number of different archaeological and non-archaeological projects around the world and has been available for download for a several years.

Version 1.0 of the system was released in 2011 and we thought that CAA 2012 would be a great oportunity for people to get a hands on introduction to the latest version of the system, it's installation, customisation and setup. Bring a computer to take part in the installation tutorial.


Y

Speakers
JO

Jessica Ogden

L - P : Archaeology Twitter: @jessogden Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/JessicaOgden Personal Page: http://jrogden.wordpress.com


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 3:00pm BST
Building 65, Room 1143

10:00am BST

Workshop 6 - Open Source Hands-on GIS workshop for Archaeologists using QGIS and GRASS

This workshop will introduce the use of Free and Open Source (FOSS) GIS software for archaeological applications. Both Quantum GIS (QGIS) and the Geographical Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) will be used. There are no prerequisites, and no previous GIS experience is required. The workshop will present an overview of some applications of GIS for archaeologists, and will provide a basic introduction to QGIS and its GRASS plug-in.

Participants will learn how to download the software (Windows, Mac or Linux), where to find help and various online resources for archaeology GIS, and will be provided with specific examples of the use of these for archaeology. The hands-on activities will center on learning the basic use and capabilities of QGIS for the display and analysis of spatial data. The GRASS plug-in will be used to conduct more comprehensive vector, raster, and voxel data display and analysis.

A brief introduction to how these tools fit into the ‘open source stack’ together with other capabilities including python, WGS, R, and Postgis will also be presented. The goal is to have each participant capable of downloading the current version of the code and mastering the basics of using QGIS and GRASS for their own archaeological work.


Y

Speakers
avatar for Scott  Madry

Scott Madry

Research Associate Professor, University of North Carolina
Corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics, professor emeritus of the International Space University, research associate professor of archaeology, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.I am an anthropologist and archaeologist by education; a remote... Read More →


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 3:00pm BST
Building 65a, 3043

10:00am BST

Workshop 7 - Hands-on Archaeological Conceptual Modelling

Workshop Main Theme and GoalsResearch and practice in archaeology often generates and needs to manage a large amount of information, which exhibits complex relationships and categorisation phenomena. The quality of the conceptual models that we use when gathering, organising, processing and reporting this information determines, to a large extent, the quality of the results. Creating explicit, high-quality conceptual models is a crucial task in any information-intensive endeavour, and especially in those where the complexity of the information means that intuition alone is not sufficient.

This workshop aims to introduce the discipline of conceptual modelling, often seen as pertaining to the engineering world, to archaeologists and related professionals. This introduction will be achieved by doing and experimenting rather than through theoretical explanations. The authors have extensive experience in using conceptual modelling in archaeological domains for over 15 years, and will use ConML as a vehicle.

ConML is a simple, high-level, affordable, powerful modelling language specifically designed with the humanities and social sciences in mind. In addition to supporting most of the object-oriented structural modelling constructs, ConML extends them with concerns that are rarely seen in industry-standard approaches but which are extremely important in archaeology, such as the ability to express temporality and subjectivity in conceptual models.

The workshop will assume no previous knowledge of conceptual modelling, although it will assume familiarity with archaeological concepts and practice. It will begin by teaching the basic tenets of object-oriented structural modelling, followed by more advanced concepts and situations. Participants will be asked to undertake an extensive array of exercises and practical cases in the archaeological domain, either or and in small groups, throughout the workshop.

The number of 20 participants is considered maximum.Similar experiences have been carried out internally at Incipit and also in the form of a postgraduate course at CSIC, with excellent results in both cases; archaeologists, historians and architects with no previous exposure to conceptual modelling were capable of creating good-quality models after a few hours of practice.Other Related EventsA related workshop, “Creating Conceptual Models in Archaeology”, was run by the same co-chairs at CAA 2011 in Beijing with excellent results.

The session “Archaeological Information Modelling”, proposed also at CAA 2012, co-chaired by Cesar Gonzalez-Perez and Patricia Martín-Rodilla, is aimed to attract submissions describing the application of theories and methods to create and use information models in archaeology; in this regard, the workshop proposed here would work as the applied counterpart to the more theoretical-oriented session, and participants attending both would benefit from a richer perspective on the issue of information modelling in archaeology.


Y

Speakers
avatar for Cesar Gonzalez-Perez

Cesar Gonzalez-Perez

Staff Scientist, Incipit CSIC
I work in conceptual modelling, metamodelling, and knowledge engineering for cultural heritage.
CH

Charlotte Hug

Centre de Recherche en Informatique Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne


Monday March 26, 2012 10:00am - 3:00pm BST
Building 65, Room 1145

1:00pm BST

Workshop 2 - Intro to Geophysics

Another in the "Intro to ..." presentations for newcomers to CAA and computing in archaeology.Could be held with workshops before the conference sessions proper.Would dob in my mates Jess Ogden and John Pouncett to run this one if the organisers felt there were a place for it in the program.


Speakers
avatar for Stephen Bullas

Stephen Bullas

Strategic Decisions Ltd. Department of Applied Geophysics Cambio The Mead ASHTEAD Surrey KT21 2LZ LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/stephen-bullas/0/927/a0b


Monday March 26, 2012 1:00pm - 3:00pm BST
Building 65, 1093

1:00pm BST

Workshop 5 - Semantic Technologies Workshop

The purpose of the workshop is to explain the technologies and present techniques relating to the mapping of archaeological datasets to the CIDOC CRM and the CRM-EH extension of that ontology. We will demonstrate this using both pre-defined STELLAR project templates and other user-defined templates. In particular we will demonstrate the STELLAR mapping/extraction tools and report on experience with using them, including input at the workshop from the Archaeology Data Service. We will discuss mapping and extraction issues and provide practical feedback on implementation work we have carried out creating archaeological Linked Data. We would also welcome feedback and experiences from participants who have either used the STELLAR tools or who are carrying out similar work.


Y

Speakers
SJ

Stuart Jeffrey

Archaeology Data Service University of York
KM

Keith May

English Heritage


Monday March 26, 2012 1:00pm - 3:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097

1:00pm BST

Workshop 9 - CARARE: Archaeology in Europeana Workshop

Funded by the European Commission, Europeana was launched in 2008, with the goal of making Europe's cultural and scientific heritage accessible to the public. It is a hugely significant and ambitious project which enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections through a single multi-lingual portal. The concentration to date has been on content from national libraries, archives and galleries and as such Europe’s rich archaeological resources are currently underrepresented. CARARE is a Best Practice Network, funded under the European Commission’s ICT Policy Support Programme, which started on 1 February 2010 and which will run for three years.

CARARE engages and supports Europe's network of heritage agencies and organisations, archaeological museums and research institutions, and specialist digital archives in:

  • making the digital content for the archaeology and architectural heritage that they hold available through Europeana,
  • aggregating content and delivering services,
  • and enabling access to 3D and Virtual Reality content through Europeana.

CARARE plays an important role in drawing together Europe's network of organisations responsible for investigating, protecting, informing and promoting unique archaeological monuments, architecturally important buildings, historic town centres and industrial monuments. Lead by CARARE project partners the ADS from York, UK and the DCU based in Athens, Greece, this workshop will offer an opportunity for the international archaeological community to explore the work of the CARARE project and its relationship with Europeana. The workshop will consist of demonstrations of Europeana, the CARARE tools for data ingestion, the CARARE metadata repository, and CARARE data standards. This will be followed by a wide-ranging question and answer session with the CARARE team covering international data aggregation projects and the future directions that Europeana and CARARE might follow. CARARE is an important opportunity for archaeologists, data holders, and data creators to engage with the European Commissions vision for making rich cultural heritage material available to all its citizens.

This workshop will be of interest to everyone who consumes archaeological content online is concerned with public engagement, data management, data sharing and data standards, especially those who hold digital archaeological content, including 3D, and would like to make it more broadly available both to the specialist archaeological community and public at large.


Y

Speakers
SJ

Stuart Jeffrey

Archaeology Data Service University of York
avatar for Julian Richards

Julian Richards

Director and Professor, Archaeology Data Service, University of York


Monday March 26, 2012 1:00pm - 3:00pm BST
Building 65, 1163

4:00pm BST

1 - Are we there yet? The discipline of archaeological computing

CAA has been meeting annually for almost forty years, so one might expect that we would have a reasonable idea of the nature and role of archaeological computing. Yet some apparently see this as an emerging field (e.g. Bimber & Chang 2011), others suggest the need for a new archaeological speciality: Archaeological Information Science (Llobera 2011). Even the Wikipedia page on computational archaeology describes archaeoinformatics as an emerging discipline. Is this a sign of a lack of confidence in developments over the past forty years, or is it the reverse - an indication of self-assurance and a sense of moving boldly forward through a more formal definition of the subject? Is it connected with the growing appearance of cyber-archaeology in digital research outside of archaeology itself (e.g. Zimbra et al 2010)? What are the implications for archaeological computing? This paper will seek to address these and related questions.


Speakers

Monday March 26, 2012 4:00pm - 5:30pm BST
Building EEE Highfield Campus

4:00pm BST

2 - Computational photography’s emergence and the ascent of digital image transparency

The talk will demonstrate that computational photography can capture rich data about our world and make the means and circumstances of the information’s generation transparent.

Computational photography encompasses a family of digital techniques. They are all based on the computational extraction of relevant information from a sequence of digital photographs. This extracted information can be integrated into new digital representations to yield rich data not found in the original, individual photographs.

The talk will discuss several emerging computational photography techniques that can capture information about our world and track their changes over time. These tools can capture:

  • 3D positions in space and generated surface geometry
  • Surface orientation (normal fields)
  • Optimization of 3D geometry by integrating 3D positions and surface orientation information
  • Multi-spectral reflectance properties of the light reflected from the material’s surface
  • Features revealed through signal processing of multi-spectral reflectance, RGB color, and surface orientation
  • Changes to 3D shape and multi-spectral reflectance

Computational Photography tools feature high degrees of automation. The talk will explore this nearly automatic nature and how it enables automatic record keeping of each event and resource involved in the original information capture and all subsequent events that occur in this data’s processing into a final digital representation. These records can be collected into a “digital lab notebook”. The lab notebook’s metadata can be automatically structured using international standards such as ISO21127, the International Council of Museum’s (ICOM) Documentation Committee’s (CIDOC) Conceptual Reference Model (CRM). 

The digital lab notebook makes the means and circumstances of the completed digital image generation transparent. Transparency permits scientific evaluation of the digital representation’s quality, reliability and potential for reuse. Transparency is also a key factor for improving the chances of the digital representation’s long-term preservation.

See how computational photography can illuminate the Digital Dark Age!


Speakers

Monday March 26, 2012 4:00pm - 5:30pm BST
Building EEE Highfield Campus
 
Tuesday, March 27
 

9:00am BST

1 - 3D modelling of cultural objects in t he V&A Museum. An aid to scholars.
Scholars require images of cultural heritage (CH) objects to assist them with their research. This may be for publication, teaching, peer-review, conservation related activities, as well as making the collection better known to the public. Just as for decades the art historian was satisfied with black and white images and indeed had difficulty in both trusting and using colour images when they were first made available to them, then 3D imaging faces similar questions for the scholar. They do not yet fully understand it's potential. One of the purposes of this trial, which was undertaken within the 3D COFORM EU funded research project, is an educational exercise for scholars. Comparing results from different cultural objects made from a variety of different materials will enable scholars to better judge the technological potential and then predict when it will be useful and for their work. The work at the V&A Photographic Studio has been undertaken in collaboration with Breuckmann GmbH and has used their Smart Scan-HE structured light scanner. Training Photographic Studio staff in the use of this new technology was part of the trial. Rates of learning and understanding of the medium were addressed to provide a better knowledge of the effort required to adopt 3D as a routine tool. A wide range of cultural objects was scanned from stone and wood sculpture to textiles and silverware. An analysis of the success of these was made and results validated by discussion with V&A curators. This paper will illustrate this work and offer suggestions as to the potential benefits of these models to the various disciplines in the V&A.

Speakers
JS

James Stevenson

victoria and albert museum


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

9:00am BST

2 - Photogrammetry contribution to the study of early Middle Ages sarcophagi quarries of Panzoult (Indre-et-Loire, France)

Short paper (10 min). This case study was conducted as part of a PhD in Archaeology on the production and distribution of stone sarcophagi from the early Middle Ages. The tests were mainly carried out in the quarries of Panzoult in the Vienne valley (Indre-et-Loire, France). The use of photogrammetry is certainly not unique in subterranean environments, but through this communication we would show how it helps bringing new elements for the study of Panzoult's quarries. The study of early Middle Ages sarcophagi quarries presents a number of constraints (low light, readability of tool marks, accessibility and safety) that requires the set up of an appropriate methodology. The analysis of the remains is based primarily on tools marks and blocks' limitations visible on the walls, the floor and the sky of the quarry, which allows to reconstruct the organization and chronology of the exploitation. For a better understanding on the quarry, we must necessarily think in three dimensions. After testing several methods and traditional surveying tools, 3D modelling and especially photogrammetry have come out as a relevant solution. Among its characteristics we find: - Field material is compact and handy - Data acquisition quick and easy - Data available at all times - Almost one centimetre accuracy - Very dense point cloud allowing a high resolution image Automated processing software, freeware or free of charge (123D Catch©, Arcweb 3D© or Meshlab) were preferred. Usually they do not require advanced computing skills; it is a quick and easy solutions to work. They can create, from a large number of photos, a 3D model viewable as a point cloud, a mesh model or a textured model. The 3D model provides many elements for the study of the quarry faces: microrelief features and block limitations are clearly visible with an important accuracy; thus the blocks can be precisely counted and measured. Furthermore, for a better understanding, through detailed visualization, of tool marks, the actions of quarrymen and the extraction order. A second step (in progress) involves the use of GIS and post-processing software for 3D modelling. It will allow a further understanding in the treatment of acquired 3D model, with plans and sections automatically made, an estimation of quarry volume to quantify the volume and the number of blocks extracted and mining waste among other utilities.


Speakers
DM

Daniel Morleghem

Laboratoire Archéologie et Territoires UMR 6173 CITERES - Université de Tours/CNRS Maison des Sciences de l’Homme de Tours


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

9:00am BST

3 - Social Spreading of Geometric, Recorded Data from a Range of Types 3D Scanners via a Web Data Server.
Currently, the apparent rate of development of technology, together with social immediacy, often does not allow the establishment of an entire process of technologies and procedures necessary in all types of geometric documentation projects. How to focus the latest geometric documentation techniques applied to Cultural Heritage, aimed at a didactic application, is a complex process. The development of this purpose must balance the research process with the social spreading of scientific knowledge. During the last few years, new techniques for geometric documentation as applied to Cultural Heritage have been developed. These techniques have triggered a scientific and specialized revolution in the fields of Architecture, Art and Archaeology. The use of these tools has allowed the precise and detailed reproduction of all kinds of personal and real property and their subsequent morphological analysis. One of these new techniques, which focuses on the documentation of Cultural Heritage sites, stand out from the rest by applying a three-dimensional scanning technology (phase-shift, time of flight, triangulation and structured light). The information generated by these different methods gives, a totally accurate and precise 3D model, and makes it possible to carry out subsequent analyses that will increase the knowledge and the documentation of the monument. This technique enables us to confront new methodological focuses through the creation of 3D databases. However, the lack of a standardized or normalized process in the development and in the management of three-dimensional models, has curtailed the widespread use of available resources. This standardization should include the following premises: accessibility, comprehension and geometric utility.The topic addressed in this paper is related to the post-processing of the data generated by the scanner and its use on a web server. With this aim we have had, as an example of development, the accomplishment of the project "Documentation, Assessment and Diffusion of Roman Hydraulic Cultural Heritage in the Middle-Valley of the River Ebro (Spain)". The principal objective of this project was the the combination of the trinomial: register, value enhancement and social spreading of the seven different monuments related to the Roman Hydraulic Cultural Heritage and the related "water cycle process" -collection, distribution and evacuation- found in Roman architecture.Our research ultimately aims at carrying out a "democratizing" process of the three-dimensional data. In the same way that a scientific corpus is generated with the obtained data, we believe that it is necessary to spread this data to the whole of society. With this purpose in mind, we have created 3D models of each Roman hydraulic site, in a user-friendly web server, making a greater dissemination of each monument, and providing a better understanding of archaeological sites. Consequently, this report intends to establish a brief reflection of the state of the enquiry, underlining that one of the present problems is the representation of Cultural Heritage and provide a starting point for a potential solution for each one of these problems and thus contribute to the establishment of a coherent development in the process of creativity, innovation, culture and education.

Speakers
JA

Jorge Angas

University of Zaragoza
PU

Paula Uribe

Université de Bordeaux III


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

9:00am BST

4 - Combining Terrestrial Laser Scanning and techniques of digital image processing in 'Archaeological of the Architecture' analysis, in the Walls of the Andalusian Site of Vascos (Navalmoralejo, Toledo-Spain)
A challenge of archaeology is to analyze the history through chronotypology evolution of the material remains of cultural heritage. Firstly, this means that is necessary a 3D record, georeferenced, detailed and accuracy, and a three dimensional model that graphically represents both the geometry of the element under study and its current conservation state; secondly, after a detailed stratigraphic sequence, that allowing us to organize structural elements in time, we can propose the development of typologies linked to a specific chronology.This paper presents the work of 3D recording and geometric documentation of the walls of "Ciudad de Vascos" through specific methodologies of Archaeology of Architecture, such as the geometric definition and the measurement of its elements.The Archaeological Site of Vascos or City of Vascos is located at southwest of the province of Toledo (Spain), it´s one of the fortified enclosures of X-XI centuries most important of the Iberian Peninsula, which has fossilized the emirate-caliphate architecture of Al-Andalus, with little further transformation. In this way, the medina consists of two basic defensive elements, northwest of the city, the Kasbah, with several walled enclosures of different masonry, from mud to regular blocks. Closing the urban space, there is a vast wall of irregular shape, which well preserved in the most part. The wall presents different typologies with predominant of squared granite ashlars but there are also parts of little stones masonry fixed with mortar, which tell of different historical processes.Due to the large volume of data required to have a metric knowledge to determine typologies, and in order to facilitate and automate the process of obtaining measurements, we have implemented a technique that aims to combine the high-resolution of terrestrial laser scanner, with digital images processing, to obtain the largest number of metric data that distinguish each typology.We carried out a survey of the wall with a SLT (Leyca ScanStation C10), for the geometric and volumetric reconstruction; in addition we used a GPS to give absolute coordinates to the work. After data capture, it is necessary a process of depuration of the point clouds and a mesh was created with a resolution of centimeters to obtain the 3D textured model and a serie of plan or sections, like first results of the project, as well as a series of orthoimages that will support archaeological stratigraphy units.With these orthoimages be held the draw and measurement of ashlars, masonry blocks and areas of interest, using techniques of digital image processing, mainly, image enhancement, edge detection and filters in order to automate the process of defining structural elements. Them, we will proceed to the automatic extraction of numerical data of the elements of the wall, that is, the dimensions, as a contribution to the technique mensiochronology. Finally, verification of results ensures that the proposed methodology allows obtaining precise and quality data.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

9:00am BST

1 - From system to society and safety: Twelve months of Consortium for the Earthquake-Damaged Cultural Heritage of Japan

The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 caused immense damage to the cultural heritage and museum collections. Bunkazai Rescue Project, an initiative of the Agency of Cultural Affairs and affiliated institutions, has been providing emergency treatments for tsunami-damaged museum collections [1].

However, thousands of archaeological sites (legally referred to as 'buried cultural properties') and historical built structures are still endangered by construction works, which are being carried to (1) remove the earthquake and tsunami debris, (2) relocate settlements and urban facilities from coastal lowland to higher hinterland, and (3) remove surface soil contaminated by radioactive substances from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In order to provide assistance in the activities for the protection of local heritage, a voluntary initiative--Consortium for the Earthquake-Damaged Cultural Heritage (CEDACH)--was founded by archaeologists, historians, information scientists, and cultural administration specialists after the earthquake [2].

CEDACH is preparing a geospatial information infrastructure, CEDACH GIS, in which local heritage maps and databases are stored and integrated into the nationwide archaeological site database of the Nara National Institute for Cultural Properties. The contents of this database are provided on demand, by means of the autonomous-decentralized Internet GIS, to local administrative offices, researchers, and NPOs for not only planning and executing heritage protection but also urban planning and other restoration processes. Archaeological predictive modelling is also used for consultation. Furthermore, the contents can be used for the education of disaster prevention of cultural heritage, for which an e-learning system will be employed. These activities have long been out of scope in heritage education, and will contribute to forming 'disaster heritage studies', a new, multidisciplinary field of research to theorise the way to inherit memories of tangible and intangible heritage lost and damaged owing to the disaster.

Case studies are being planned and implemented in close collaboration with local municipalities in the tsunami-damaged areas of Iwate prefecture. It is strongly felt in Japan after 3.11 that the meaning and significance of GIS has transformed from being geographical information system (GISystem) and related science (GIScience) to being the formation of a social infrastructure based on geospatial intelligence (GISociety) and being a way to secure individual's safety (GISafety). This paper reviews the activities of CEDACH for twelve months since March 2011 and points out that the significance of GIS for cultural heritage management is also changing along with this trend.

[1] Matsui, A., S. Kaner, and J. Habu (2011) Rescuing archaeology affected by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Antiquity 85. http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/kaner329.

[2] Kondo, Y., A. Kaneda, Y. Fujimoto, Y. Seino, H. Yamaguchi, and T. Uozu (in press) The CEDACH DMT: a volunteer-based data management team for the documentation of the earthquake-damaged cultural heritage in Japan. CAA 2011 Proceedings.


Speakers
YF

Yu Fujimoto

Organization for Advanced Research and Education / Faculty of Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University
avatar for Yasuhisa Kondo

Yasuhisa Kondo

Associate Professor, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature
Originally, I studied archaeology and GISciences (The University of Tokyo PhD 2010). I am currently interested in open science, participatory action research, and transdisciplinary research promotion for environmental archaeology (e.g. http://paleoasia.jp ) and socio-environmental... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

2 - The visualization of the archaeological information through web servers: from data records on the ground to web publication by means of Web Map Services (WMS)
The purpose of this study is to show the processes of data record and their Spatial Database structuration, for the integrated management of the information associated with an Archaeological Site, and their visualization using web servers, by means of developments based on free software in order to minimize costs.



In order to structure the information of an archaeological site properly, it needs to be taken into account that there are two types of information:



Firstly, purely archaeological information, related to the information provided by the site -structures, pottery, coins.



Secondly, spatial information, this including the spatial absolute position of the Archaeological Site, the relative position of the elements discovered inside, as well as the dimensions and geometries of the Archaeological Site itself and the objects discovered.



Regarding spatial information, new measurement systems have been created over the last few years. They provide new approaches to the surveying works and complement the spatial documentation processes of the Sites.



The developed system will allow the integration of the new information generated by these systems, as well as the visualization of new products, whether spatial or not.



Moreover, it will allow the integration of georeferenced information about the Archaeological Site together with other cartographic documents, such as Orthophotos, so as to get a complete spatial visualization.



Finally, and into the framework established by the European Directive INSPIRE, by using the so-called Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI), the visualization will be carried out through web browsers, which provide access to spatial information as provided by map servers, such as a Web Map Service (WMS).



The access to information of Archaeological Site provides visualization of the information at different scales. The user will start this visualization on a smaller detail scale that allowed frame the site in the territory (1:50,000 to 1:25,000), reaching to detail scales that will allow the visualization of high-resolution details (1:500 to 1:100 ), passing by intermediate scales for the general location of objects in the Field (1:10,000 to 1:2,000).



This will allow the visualization of all elements of Archaeological Site on an appropriate scale, to facilitate the visualization the non-expert users. So, it is possible to know the general geometry of the Archaeological Site or the objects visualization found during the process of excavation (pottery, coins ...), including 3D interactive visualizations.



The objective is to use software map servers Open Source (MapServer, GeoServer), and by XML programming, to generate a web visualization environment, friendly and easy, based on OGC standards.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

3 - Beyond INSPIRE: towards delivering richer heritage data in Scotland.

In 2009 the INSPIRE Directive was adopted as a Statutory Instrument by both the United Kingdom and Scottish Parliaments with a view to developing the metadata, Web Map and Web Feature Services, to an agreed timetable, over the next decade. Both the Scottish Government and Geographic Information community in Scotland recognise that although the mandated datasets are helpful in focusing attention on priorities within the context of creating a Scottish Spatial Data Infrastructure and delivering efficiencies across all tiers of Scottish Government, the INSPIRE Directive should be seen very much as a catalyst rather than a checklist.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) recognises the need to and value in sharing the information it curates on behalf of the Scottish public with partner organisations and the wider community for the benefit of the promotion and appreciation of Scotland's heritage. Although, the majority of records in Canmore (http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/), the national inventory of the archaeological and built heritage of Scotland and its maritime waters are not protected through statutory designation, RCAHMS has argued that the information it curates is relevant to and should be considered as part of the INSPIRE Annex I Protected Places theme, even if not a mandatory dataset.

To date RCAHMS has released a point-based Web Map Service for the information in Canmore and is developing further bespoke services for maritime losses and the results of its own aerial survey mapping programme, the first in a series of richer datasets. Web Feature Services will be developed on release of guidance documents from the Scottish Government. Promoting the undesignated heritage of Scotland through INSPIRE raises a number of questions over the appropriateness of applying specifications for regulatory environmental data to the wider cultural heritage and how information, so published, could be understood and used remotely by non-specialists.

Archaeological data is difficult; it is ill-defined and incomplete. Would those accessing data remotely necessarily understand the incompleteness, bias and variability of the record in contrast to the fixed boundaries of most designated datasets? Does the information published under INSPIRE meet both non-specialist and specialist audiences - or are separate services required? The information required to inform a land manager about the evidence for, or character of, a site is very different from the detailed evidence revealed through archaeological investigation. A land manager may need to know if a site is extant, known from documentary sources or revealed through aerial photography or remote sensing whereas an archaeologist should consider evidence from investigation and recording of a site. Delivery of richer spatial datasets for most archaeological investigations remains an aspiration as they require collaborative, participatory approaches from across the profession.

Even if the mechanisms to deliver richer datasets are in place, potential barriers include concerns over intellectual property rights and a reluctance to change working practices though inertia may gradually be addressed through demonstrator services and case studies highlighting the potential benefits in the long term.


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

4 - Cultural Heritage Application Schema: a SDI framework within the Protected Sites INSPIRE Spatial Data Theme
We present a Cultural Heritage conceptual data model built under the European INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community) Directive. Our model develops the Data Specification on Protected Sites, part of the INSPIRE Annex I. Hence its orientation towards georeferenced heritage data. The data model has been developed by an interdisciplinary group made up of specialists in the field of Geomatics and Cultural Heritage. It is our aim to achieve a generic, extendable and interoperable schema. It should be generic enough to embrace all kind of protected heritage data, from an ancient pilgrim's way to the last artifact found in an archaeological excavation, extendable to allow any kind of data producer to adapt the model to the nature of their own information and interoperable to combine spatial data sets from different sources through network services, via Internet. The achievement of these three characteristics features international norms and standards referred to our kind of data. This implies adaptation to INSPIRE as well as to several ISO norms: ISO 19100 series regarding geographical information, ISO 21127 (CIDOC-CRM Model) for heritage thematic data and ISO 15836 (Dublin Core) for document resources. The data model comprehends two main dimensions: cultural entities in a strict sense, and the legislative figures created to protect them. This allows for the representation of cultural objects (i.e. historical buildings or archaeological sites) and their link to their legislative protection, keeping them as separate realities. In order to describe the data model, an international common language has been used: UML (Unified Modeling Language), a standard itself. Thus, we present a class-diagram depicting all legal and cultural entities, in the form of classes with their corresponding relations, attributes, constraints and stereotypes.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

5 - (Not) Integrating cultural heritage in the National Spatial Data Infrastructure of Botswana. Some considerations and challenges.

The Government of Botswana, through the initiative of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), started in 2002, has established an intellectual and practical basis for the use of geographic information and GIS for the purpose of research, monitoring, planning and infrastructure development in the country. As it has been the case in other countries, data that would allow an improved and efficient evaluation of cultural resources, with the aim of allowing their sustainable management, have not been included in the project. The involvement of heritage representatives from the National Museum of Botswana (repository of all archaeological records in the country) was not planned and, as a consequence, not only no input was given on the requirements of cultural heritage data to be incorporated in the infrastructure, but heritage practitioners remained in the dark for what concerns digital data (spatial and not spatial). To date, heritage management in Botswana continues to be mainly paper based. Although some records have been ported to digital platforms no coherent and appropriately documented systems have been created so far to store such data. Why is the state of heritage spatial data digital documentation so far behind when compared to other sectors (land survey and mapping, e-government, etc.) in Botswana? This paper explores the history of the development of the NSDI in Botswana and the parallel universe of the challenges faced by heritage agencies, practitioners and researchers in integrating heritage data and SDI technology.


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

6 - SDI: A perspective from a UK archaeological unit

As one of the largest archaeological units in the UK, Wessex Archaeology create and use a significant amount of digital data. As identified in the session abstract, much of this data has a spatial component. In order to make best use of this data, WA are currently implementing a Spatial Data Infrastructure to underpin much of our work and business processes. This paper presents this SDI as designed, the archaeological processes supported, how it works currently and it will work as modules are added, and how it draws upon and will ultimately provide information to external agencies. The paper will cover the theoretical and practical aspects of design and implementation with emphasis on requirements, workflow, software and hardware platforms. Finally the paper will explore some potential avenues for further improving access to information from third parties more generally (APIs, web services, distributed systems, etc), specifically looking at the ways in which SDI principals and technologies could be applied to local Historic Environment Records and the National Monuments Record, Wessex Archaeology being significant consumers of data from such sources.


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

1 - Data sharing in archaeology: vision, nightmare or reality?

The sharing of data via internet technologies is an obvious and basic principle of our information society today. Based on data accessible free of charge by initiatives Open Data or INSPIRE we are able to observe the independent development of thousands and millions of large and small scale internet applications for traditional web or smartphones. In contrary to the growing amount of data accessible in the web and requested by a wide range of users and developers, it can be stated without doubt that archaeological data are still widely unpublished. Even if forward-looking projects can be observed in certain countries or regions the overall development of digital archaeological data across Europe shows no significant step forward towards an active sharing of data. In contrary to this lack of development we can observe that data resp. information from the field of cultural heritage and especially archaeology is particular demanded by the public and private sector. Information from this field may be part of a high number of applications for different use cases such as tourism or education.


Speakers
CA

Christian Ansorge

Umweltbundesamt (Austria)
AM

Anja Masur

University of Innsbruck, HiMAT


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

9:00am BST

2 - Sea++: Connecting the Ancient World with Pelagios Project

On-line resources that reference ancient places are multiplying rapidly, bringing huge potential for the researcher provided that they can be found; but users currently have no way of easily navigating between them or comparing their contents. The Pelagios consortium, a growing international collective of ancient world projects,[1] addresses the problems of discovery and reuse with the twin aims of helping digital humanists to make their data more discoverable, and of empowering real-world users (scholars and the general public) to find information about particular ancient places and visualize it in meaningful ways. While the project focuses on the ancient world, the methodology and tools developed will be of interest to anyone working with data containing references to geo-entities.

The Pelagios collaboration intentionally includes partners maintaining a wide range of different document types including, texts, maps and databases. In doing so we take some of the first steps towards building a Geospatial Semantic Web for the Humanities.[2]

In this paper we discuss two major elements of the recently completed first phase of Pelagios (a second phase, which has recently been granted funding, will run from November 2011 until July 2012). First, we address the method by which the partners prepare their data so that it can be linked together in an open and transparent manner. Second, we consider the various ways in which the results can be visualized, paying particular attention to the tools and technologies used and the problems encountered. This will include a demonstration of a visualization service that we believe demonstrates the value of lightweight Linked Open Data approaches to addressing problems of discoverability, interconnectivity and reusability of online resources. We will follow this discussion with a brief reflection on the process by which the Pelagios community and services have developed, especially the digital services that have made the coordination of such an international initiative possible. We will conclude by outlining some of the challenges that remain to embedding data and practice in an ancient world online infrastructure, as we develop a comprehensive 'toolkit' that will make it easier for anyone to add their data to the Pelagios multiverse.[3]

Throughout the paper we will discuss real-world practical concerns as well as engage in deeper speculation about the significance of this type of approach for escaping the 'siloing' mentality that inhibits many other data integration initiatives.

[1] Pelagios includes: Arachne, http://www.arachne.uni-koeln.de ; CLAROS, http://explore.clarosnet.org ; Fasti Online, http://www.fastionline.org ; GAP, http://googleancientplaces.wordpress.com ; Nomisma, http://nomisma.org; Open Context, http://opencontext.org ; Perseus, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu; Pleiades, http://pleiades.stoa.org; Ptolemy Machine, http://ptolemymachine.appspot.com , SPQR, http://spqr.cerch.kcl.ac.uk; Ure museum, http://www.reading.ac.uk/Ure .

[2] Harris, T. M., Rouse, L. J. and Bergeron, S. (2010): 'The Geospatial Semantic Web, Pareto GIS, and the Humanities'. In Bodenhamer, D. J., Corrigan, J. & Harris, T. M., (eds.), The Spatial Humanities: GIS and the Future of Scholarship. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

[3] A vision that coincides well with Elliott's discussion of the future of Classical scholarship: Elliott, T. (2009): 'Digital Geography and Classics'. DHQ Volume 3 Number 1.


Speakers
LI

Leif Isaksen

University of Southampton


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

9:00am BST

3 - Archaeology and the Semantic Webs

This paper, based on doctoral research, will consider the relative merits of two different visions of the purpose and potential of semantic technologies. The first part of the paper will summarize a number of trends in the development of Semantic Web, including those in cultural heritage and archaeology, and demonstrate that two divergent approaches have been adopted. The first, here dubbed Mixed-Source Knowledge Representation (MSKR), bears many similarities to the Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Representation research of the 1990s, but takes particular account of Web technologies. The second, Linked Open Data (LOD), is also related to these movements but takes particular account of the philosophy of the Web, as espoused by Tim Berners-Lee. Linked Open Data is concerned with creating a relatively open and strongly interlinked network of resources, whereas MSKR more commonly attempts to locally integrate heterogeneous datasets. A 2010 survey of practitioners applying semantic technologies to Cultural Heritage suggests that both approaches have been influential in this domain but that there is a particularly high correspondence with whether a project is fixed-term (MSKR) or open-ended (LOD). The second half of this paper will be a more in-depth discussion of the MSKR approach and in particular whether semantic technologies can provide beneficial economies of scale within a large but closed consortium. In order to do so, it is necessary to provide suitable and functional infrastructure for both the production and consumption of semantically-formatted data across a community with highly variable technical literacy. Furthermore, the results must arguably be a marked improvement over those that can be obtained from more traditional methods if they are to justify the additional effort from archaeologists. This paper argues that achieving such improvements is likely to be extremely difficult within a closed environment. In particular, it notes that many of the benefits of the Semantic Web rely on network effects which are necessarily curtailed by access restrictions and that the examples of implementation which are so crucial to an emerging technology are also reduced. In contrast, more lightweight approaches are demonstrably easier to implement and build communities around but offer fewer possibilities for inferencing. The paper will conclude by returning to the issues raised at the beginning. What is it that archaeologists (individually and collectively) intend to achieve when they employ semantic technologies and to what extent are they willing to make data their available in order to do so? Until greater clarity has been reached on these topics it may be difficult to evaluate the future potential of digital semantics to the archaeological community.


Speakers
avatar for Graeme  Earl

Graeme Earl

Really excited about CAA2012, and really grateful to the fantastic people who have worked themselves into the ground to make it happen. I hope the conference is cool and that people get a sense of what the Archaeological Computing Research Group and sotonDH are about.
LI

Leif Isaksen

University of Southampton


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

9:00am BST

4 - Linking Roman Coins: Current Work at the American Numismatic Society

This paper addresses the ongoing development by the American Numismatic Society (ANS) of an XML ontology for coins, the Numismatic Descriptive Standard (NUDS), and an open-source collections management and publication application, Numishare (http://code.google.com/p/numishare/). Both are greatly influenced by the tenets of linked open data. In order to facilitate interactions between systems, concepts are represented as URIs hosted by http://nomisma.org. Nomisma.org is a collaborative effort to provide stable digital representations of numismatic concepts and entities. It provides URIs for such basic concepts as 'coin', 'mint', 'axis'. All of these are defined within the scope of numismatics but are already being linked to other stable resources where available. For example, URIs that represent mints are linked via the SKOS ontology to the Pleiades Gazetteer of ancient places. Moreover, concepts may contain as many labels in alternate languages as necessary, making it possible to aggregate search results across multi-lingual collections. Numishare leverages APIs provided by nomisma.org to create rich numismatic metadata, but can also use geonames.org URIs for modern places and the Virtual International Authority File (viaf.org) for personal and corporate names.

The ANS project, Online Coinage of the Roman Empire (OCRE), is a proof of concept of this system. Roman coinage is one of the richest bodies of material in existence for the study of the art, economy, and social life of the ancient world. Although ancient coins have been catalogued and classified in print, existing online databases are partial, unconnected or inconsistent with one another. An authoritative and complete type-corpus of Roman coinage is available in libraries in the form of the ten volumes of Roman Imperial Coinage, which identifies 47,000 discrete varieties. But this resource cannot be found everywhere, is extremely expensive to purchase and, since it is split across multiple volumes, is impossible to search easily as a whole. It is the aim of this project to create the first online type corpus of Roman coinage. OCRE will provide an illustrated listing of all known varieties of Roman coinage of the imperial period, from Augustus in the first century BC to Anastasius in the fifth century AD, in a format that can be searched by emperor, place of production, designs, legends, denominations and metals used. Inherent in the design is the ability to append to the basic type record the details of specimens in collections represented online. Thus it will be possible to accumulate quantitative data, such as weights or metal content of individual specimens, to aid in the construction of data sets usable for statistical analysis of Roman coinage.

The system will provide for information about coin hoards and finds, and it will be integrated with the leading online information source for ancient geography, Pleiades, knowing that it could be potentially linked to any relevant electronic platform or database dealing with the ancient world.


Speakers
avatar for Ethan Gruber

Ethan Gruber

Diretor of Data Science, American Numismatic Society
American Numismatic Society Twitter: @ewg118ORCID


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

9:00am BST

1 - Inside an Artificial Society. Beyond Science Fiction Tales
History only runs once, but inside a computer a virtual model of the historical past would run infinite times. In the computer, we would explore (by altering the variables) the entire possible range of outcomes for different past behaviors. The idea is then simulating inside a computer what we know about actions having been performed in the past and experimenting with the effects they may produce in such a virtual world. That means that, inside a computer, the Past would be seen in the Present as a sequence of finite states of a temporal trajectory. Such a simulation would not "see" the past as it once was nut as potentialities for action, that is, explanations that can take place when it encounters a situation of some sort.A computer simulation should allow us to understand archaeological observables in terms of a priori affordances: relationships between observed properties and the inferred properties/abilities of people having generated those properties. The affordances of any archaeological evidence become obvious in its use and/or formation process. Both involve establishing and exploiting constraints (between the user/producer and the material evidence of his/her action, the user/producer and the natural environment, and the material evidence and the natural environment). In this paper we review the very idea of mechanical explanation defining a mechanism as organized collections of entities and activities that produce regular changes. Under such an account of mechanism, I think we can build a new way of explaining what a social science should be. In so doing, I totally agree with the so called "analytical sociology" approach: the goal of a social scientist is to explain an empirical phenomenon by referring to a set of entities and processes (agents, action and interaction) that are spatially and temporally organized in such a way that they regularly bring about the type of phenomenon the social scientist seeks to explain. In any case, the resulting model is just an hypothesis. It may be more explanatory than the same hypothesis expressed in verbal terms, but it is not yet an explanation. Truth is what the world is, and an artificial society is out of the world. So, we cannot search for validations within a simulated model. Any model needs to be fed by, but at the same time provides feedback to, two theoretical complements which must be formulated independent of the simulation itself: (a) a bottom-up theory of agent interaction (local rules), and of the process from them to social organization (macroscopic effects); (b) a theory of downward causation, showing how agent interaction is modified by the differentiation it contributes to achieve. In the paper we will consider more deeply two levels of analytical explanation: A theory that explains the knowledge about the state of the world an agent generates. A theory that explains the believes about social expectations an agent generates.

Speakers
JA

Juan A. Barcelo

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
FD

Florencia Del Castillo

Autonomous University of Barcelona


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

9:00am BST

2 - Evaluating Prehistoric Population Events in Finland: A Simulation Approach
Due to Finland's geographical location and settlement history, the country has been a genetic isolate. Contemporary studies show that genetic diversity is still slightly reduced among the Finnish population, especially in the eastern part of the country and in males. This diversity reduction and the specific 'Finnish Disease Heritage' could be explained by founder effects and bottlenecks. Archaeologically, there is evidence for fluctuation of population size, including bottlenecks at 4100-3800 BP and 1500-1300 BP.Together with population size estimates based on archaeological data, we use methods and ideas from genetics in order to assess the existence and size of possible prehistoric population bottlenecks. Well-preserved ancient organic remains providing aDNA are practically non-existent in Finland due to the naturally acidic soil. Thus, we employ population simulations to follow genetic changes over hundreds of generations and evaluate the effects of a Neolithic population bottleneck on the past and present Finnish gene pool, with archaeologically justified population size changes. Here, in continuation of our previous research, we apply forward simulations with mtDNA and Y chromosomal haplotypes to trace back possible population histories behind the present day genetic diversity in Finland. The simulations were carried out with the population genetic simulation environment simuPOP.Our model simulation begins at 11,000 BP when the first pioneers settled the country after the last Ice Age. The prehistoric Finnish population is simulated with two archaeologically justified bottlenecks. We split the population into geographic sub-populations, added gender-specific migration as well as migration waves from neighbouring populations, compatible with archaeological phenomena. To follow the assumed demographic events as realistically as possible, we added minor constant gene flow from three background populations: Archaic European, Archaic Scandinavian and Saami. The mtDNA frequencies of the background populations have been assigned according to actual ancient mtDNA haplotype frequencies acquired from published aDNA studies of prehistoric European populations.The preliminary results indicate, as expected, that bottlenecks substantially reduce genetic diversity, at least with the narrowest bottlenecks. Furthermore, a surprisingly small constant gene flow from neighbouring populations clearly outweighs the effects of larger, short-term migration waves. Interestingly, bottleneck severity has a smaller effect on Y-STR than mitochondrial haplotype diversity in these simulations. Compared with our previous simulations, the gender-specific migration brings the simulated genetic diversity closer to the observed contemporary genetic diversity in Finland, especially in the narrowest bottleneck models. A genetic simulation approach enables us to exclude the least compatible scenarios when modelling past demographic events.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

9:00am BST

3 - Pandora's box: the challenge of exploring social simulation models with supercomputers
Computational Social Science is one of the newest and most promising research lines trying to understand human behaviour. Within this context, Agent-Based Modelling is a tool increasingly being used, as it allows 1) to explicit human behaviour at an individual scale, and 2) to detect emergent properties of the system as a whole. An important characteristic of ABM is that social scientists seem more comfortable with this than with other tools (like classical equation based solutions), as ABM provides a friendly framework to integrate social science knowledge.Despite the potential advantages of ABM, there is an ongoing discussion about the way these models should be used. The standard approach for ABM is the design of abstract, simple models with a low number of parameters and agents. Nevertheless, the access to increasing numbers of datasets and computing facilities has opened the door to highly complex and realistic models.This presentation explores the problems and challenges that archaeological simulation modellers need to face if they are interested on exploiting the power of High-Performance Computing (HPC). Complex social scenarios require simulations with advanced artificial intelligence and large numbers of agents. HPCs seem the solution to tackle this added complexity, but little work has been done in order to understand real consequences of using ABM in HPC environments. These systems split a problem in different modules, each of them being executed on a computer node that should communicate with the other ones as little as possible. This idea is exactly opposite to ABM, where agents affect each other, share information, and modify the environment, so the ratio of communication between them is high. Moreover, the analysis of simulation results is difficult, because scientists should be able to explore the model, both in terms of individual traits (adaptation, co-evolution) and emergent global processes (collectives, spatial patterns)We present Pandora as a possible solution to these problems. It is a library specially designed to deal with distributed, fully scalable archaeology-related ABM. This C++/MPI library manages the distribution of executions in a transparent way in any system. Parallelization is automatically organized from spatial coordinates, and each computer node only needs to communicate with its neighbours. This tool is complemented by Cassandra, an application designed to analyse simulation results combining statistics, GIS and visualization.Unfortunately there is no universal answer to the challenge of distributing ABM, and this paper shows how the choice of solutions should basically depend on the relation between time and space scales. We will discuss the issues generated from the use of Pandora in different case studies, developed between archaeologists, anthropologists and computer scientists. These experiences have been useful to detect some of the problems that will be common in large-scale ABM like parallelization of advanced agents, GIS integration, stochasticity of the system and potential bottlenecks. Conclusions describes how these issues can be fixed or avoided, in order to advance towards a generalised use of HPC in archaeological simulations.

Speakers
CL

Carla Lancelotti

CASES, IMF and CCHS Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
BR

Bernardo Rondelli

Institució Milà i Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (IMF-CSIC)
XR

Xavier Rubio-Campillo

Barcelona Supercomputing Centre - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación Twitter: @xrubiocampillo


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

9:00am BST

4 - A High-Performance Computing Simulation of an Irrigation Management System: The Hohokam Water Management Simulation II
The Hohokam Water Management Simulation II is a reimplementation of a desktop-based simulation of the operation of a large-scale irrigation system for a high-performance computing (HPC) environment. The focus of the simulation is the examination of the Hohokam, who lived along the Salt and Gila Rivers in the US Southwest and who constructed and maintained a large-scale irrigation system that was in use for nearly a millennium. The new simulation implementation is specifically designed for the Blue Gene/P supercomputer (BG/P) maintained by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), which can perform operations on more than 163,000 processors simultaneously. The simulation framework used is based in part on the recently-released Repast HPC platform, also being developed at ANL. The simulation makes use of the highly parallel processing environment of the BG/P in two ways: first, by executing single simulation runs across multiple processes, making possible both simulations at larger spatial scales and those at finer chronological and spatial resolution; second, by permitting large numbers of concurrent runs to be executed strategically to explore the extremely large parameter space made possible by various combinations of input data, parameters, spatial and temporal scales, and algorithms available to the simulation. A key component is the use of a relational database to maintain the connection between input and output, and to structure the variant simulations that can be run. Technical and theoretical implications of large-scale archaeological simulation modeling will be discussed, with a special emphasis on the way that the approach allows investigation into the computational aspects of the social system under study. Initial simulation results will be used to illustrate these issues and the additional challenges and opportunities of the HPC approach.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

9:00am BST

5 - Applying Parallel and Distributed Computational Methodology to Modelling Irrigation Agriculture
This presentation creates and applies a computational model of irrigation agriculture in order to study the effects of salinization in Mesopotamia. The model applies a distributed and parallel computational approach that spreads a batch workload to multiple computer nodes within a cluster environment. Benefits of this approach not only allow large-scale testing of many simulation runs, but problems of larger spatial scales are better addressed by using a distributed approach. In this paper, some initial results and discussion are presented showing the benefits to archaeological methods and insights into archaeological theory achieved. Applying some of the modeling results with a larger discussion on how parallel, distributed, and high performance computing could alter and transform how archaeologists approach research problems will also be presented.

Speakers
MA

Mark Altaweel

University College London University of Chicago


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 11:15am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

9:00am BST

1 - Round Table Discussion

The aim of the discussion will be to exchange ideas and practice between practitioners in the fields of archaeological prospection (including near-surface geophysics and remote sensing), data management / information architecture, and archaeological visualisation. Our aims for the discussion are to generate crossdisciplinary contacts and foster co-operation and the adoption of innovative practice.

Technological advances in instrumentation and data processing and storage capacities have meant that archaeological prospection is able to generate exponentially larger data sets, covering large tracts of the landscape. In particular, the arrival of '3D' radar acquisition at very high sampling densities (0.08 x 0.08m cells) has created challenges for storing, interpreting and visualising the data. It is now entirely feasible to study whole landscapes by geophysical means, supported by remote sensing techniques such as Airborne Laser Surveys, Hyperspectral Mapping and Terrestrial Laser Scanning. In the last two years, major projects in the UK (DART- http://dartproject.info/WPBlog/) and Austria (The ArchPro programme at the LBI- http://archpro.lbg.ac.at/) have started. These projects all intersect with GIS, data management, spatial and landscape archaeology, and areas around the visualisation of archaeological interpretations and their presentation to the public. Areas of overlap with the airborne research groups also occur, for example in the field of developing automatic or human-assisted computer based anomaly recognition. At the 9th International conference on Archaeological Prospection in September 2011, it was agreed that CAA was a good opportunity for dialogue across these fields and exchange of ideas, theories and practice. Whilst the focus has fallen on large scale landscape surveys, there are good examples of data management and dissemination strategies for geophysical data using webmapping approaches from other studies, in particular the work in the Vale of Pickering by the Landscape Research Centre (http://www.landscaperesearchcentre.org/index.html) , which was largely collected over a long period of time largely using the traditional 'hand held' manner. We strongly feel that the subdiscipline of archaeological prospection would both be enriched by, and contribute to the enrichment of, the disciplines mentioned above. We would welcome the participation of anyone who feels their research falls into these categories and could potentially be of use, or who has a geophysical problem (question?) to solve. We would aim for a relatively informal discussion and presentation of problems, solutions and areas of agreement. Ideally, we would hope that such a discussion would feed into 'best practice' documentation by way of groups like the GEOSIG (http://www.archaeologists.net/groups/geophysics), MAPSIG (http://www.archaeolandscapes.eu/index.php/news-a-events/news/138-qmethods-inarchaeological-prospectionq-caa-sig.html) and the open methods store (http://methods.okfn.org/wiki/Main_Page).

There are some great things happening across a number of disciplines. It would be good to listen and debate with those who have similar data and interpretational challenges.


Speakers
KA

Kayt Armstrong

Groningen Institute of Archaeology, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Twitter: @girlwithtrowel Personal Page: http://wordpress.com/girlwithtrowel
KL

Klaus Locker

Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro)
JO

Jessica Ogden

L - P : Archaeology Twitter: @jessogden Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/JessicaOgden Personal Page: http://jrogden.wordpress.com


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

9:00am BST

1 - Installation for Interpretation of Archaeological Sites. The Portus Visualisation Project

Visual communication tools help to convey a message between two subjects or targets. The visual communication process is not limited only to typographical or static imagery. I believe there are several disciplines that can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach by blending visual communication methods. In this case Archaeology and Museum Studies. This project presents the designer's interpretation of an archaeological site in order to produce material for the case study. The installation involves several technological elements that complement each other to provide the best interpretation and enhance experimentation. Among other technologies, the installation utilizes Augmented Reality, 3D Modelling, Projection Mapping and 3D Printing to assist in the interpretation of the site. The project will be using the site of Portus, Italy as the example for visualization and will focus exclusively on one of the warehouses. The methodology developed for this project will be transposable to almost any archaeological site. The project attempts also to generalize and standardize a process for the development of these types of installations and interfaces. As we progressively become more multi-skilled, the boundaries between industries become less visible and it is difficult to pre-plan when we require to bring other specialists into the field. The familiarization with these types of projects can motivate other industries to become more open to collaborative research. I believe that one of the main obstacles hindering the implementation of this technology is usually monetary. For this reason this project has promoted the idea of utilizing 'open source' and accessible technologies in order to facilitate the distribution of content. I am attempting to produce a minimum cost project in which open source elements like the Flash Spark Library or the Arduino chipset play essential roles. I think this will motivate other researchers to start introducing this technology and implementing it within more projects, thus promoting interdisciplinarity. This is a project that can be used for experimentation (Archaeologists) or presentation (Museums).


Speakers
JP

Javier Pereda

I am a Graphic Designer interested in Museum Applicatons. I am currently doing a 4 year postgraduate in Web Science at University of Soutampton. Follow me in twitter: @TrinkerMedia


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

5 - 'Tangible Pasts': User-Centred Design of a Mixed Reality Application for Cultural Heritage

Within the research communities of archaeological computing and museum studies there has been vivid discussion concerning the virtual imagery produced in archaeological research, as well as the technologies and modes employed for public engagement and outreach. A significant number of collaborative projects are exploring the potential of Mixed Reality (MR) applications for interpretive archaeology, cultural heritage sites and museums. User evaluation is one of the methods typically used by these projects, either for assessing the interpretive value of such applications, -especially in museum contexts- and/or the development of the technologies employed. However, these evaluations are often conducted at the later stages of the development cycle when there is little time available to make amendments to the project based on user feedback. In contrast, researchers from disciplines such as CSCW and Human-Computer Interaction design applications iteratively, with user evaluation conducted throughout the design process. Our work builds on previous research into MR tangible interfaces and interactive museum installations by attempting to explore alternative modes of engaging the public with archaeological information. For the purposes of this project we designed 'Tangible Pasts', a prototype tangible interface in the form of physical book augmented with digital information. 'Tangible Pasts' combines text, 3D models, animations and sound, enabling users to experience the featured case studies in an intuitive way by seamlessly moving between physical and virtual content. The initial design was presented in the 'Open Exhibition' at the Visualisation in Archaeology (ViA) international conference and was evaluated by a group of visualisation specialists who attended the event. The prototype was is also evaluated by non-experts from other disciplines in order to limit the bias of people related to cultural heritage studies. Based on the suggestions and comments received the application was developed further. This paper will present the concept of 'Tangible Pasts' and the results of the user evaluation study, highlighting the importance of a user-centred, iterative design approach for the cultural heritage sector.The project has been partially funded by the RCUK DE PATINA project.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

2 - Virtual Hands Free Interaction with 3D Objects and Environments
In the last few years many low cost game controllers have been used to sense the user's motion. These range in capability from handheld controllers that can be used for gesture-based control, such as the Nintendo Wiimote and the Playstation Move, to cameras that use computer vision techniques to sense the user's body pose, such as the Playstation Eye. Since Microsoft commercialized the Sensor Kinect, at first stage known as Project Natal, it has been possible to sense the full-body pose without the use of markers or handheld devices, exploiting a low cost device. Sensor Kinect is a motion sensing input device for the Xbox 360 video game console. It's a system that can interpret specific gestures, making completely hands-free control of electronic devices possible by using an infrared projector and camera. Since November 2010 open source drivers have been developed to use the Sensor Kinect also with standard computers and different OS (windows and linux). Lately OpenNI organization and PrimeSense have emerged to promote standardization of these natural interaction devices, and has made available an open source framework for developers. In the field of archaeology and cultural heritage the Sensor Kinect can have a wide range of applications, especially for 3D modelling and mixed/augmented reality applications. For 3D modelling, as a laser scanning device, it basically works exploiting the principle of Time of Flight (TOF), creating point clouds data. Few open source software have been already developed. Since it is a low cost device, it's much more affordable by institutions working in the field of preservation of cultural heritage, which often have to deal with low budgets. However, since Sensor Kinect was not born for this purpose, the most important trades-off, comparing with commercial instruments, are the low range and the poor resolution. The second field of application, which concerns cultural heritage, is the interaction with 3D models in augmented reality environments. Since 3D TV and cinemas have taken the scene in daily entertainment, stereoscopic visualization is no more an added value for visitors experiencing virtual museum and archaeological sites. Today general public demands something more. This new way of coming in contact with digital art and archaeology, like moving an object or walking an environment using just the own body, represent a new way to near and engage old and young generations of scholars, students, normal visitors and fans with the cultural heritage world, which will be seen from a new and different point of view. The use of Sensor Kinect, not for gaming, but for these purposes will move the general experience from the concept of entertainment to the concept of edutainment. In this study we have used a mix of tools, most of them free and open source, for virtual interaction without using any physical controller. The user can move and examine architectures, sculptures, archaeological artefacts just using specified gesture; or explore a church or a palace walking in front of the screen like he/she would walk inside the building.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

3 - iConText - an App for Conveying Archaeological Contexts and Reception Histories of Exhibits to Museum Visitors
We present the concept and implementation for an interactive, multi-touch enabled application for use on iPad kiosks in museum exhibitions. The application enables a wide range of the expected population, including children, digital natives, adults without prior tablet knowledge, and elderly people, to approach information about the artifacts on display. The user interface utilizes both modern multi-touch gesture input as well as more traditional touch screen controls. This way we aim to make the exhibits accessible in different spatial contexts to let users make connections between them and to convey their reception history, i.e. the archaeological research work that led to the reconstruction of the historical contexts. The application lets visitors explore selected exhibits multimodally as virtual postcards (as the central metaphor) from several perspectives: accessing the exhibits from different postcard arrangements, locating them in computer generated renderings of the reconstructed architectural context of Pergamon, recalling them from the exhibition floor plan, or locating them in a panorama painting that presents an artistic view of the past. The object descriptions combine present day photographs of objects and find spots, textual descriptions, historic sketches and photographs, computer generated renderings, as well as links to other objects. The iConText is currently on display in a comprehensive special exhibition about the ancient city of Pergamon at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. We furthermore describe the formative evaluation findings made during the development process and the abstraction of user interface events to facilitate a summative evaluation at the end oft the exhibition (in the fall of 2012). Preliminary results of the evaluation demonstrate the usefulness of the employed methods.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

4 - Personalizing interactive digital storytelling in archaeological museums: the CHESS project
Archaeological museums can be boring to many people because they do not connect to the personal narratives they carry with them and constantly re-build. Indeed, memory institutions need to sustain and even reinforce their attractiveness if they do not want to find themselves standing still "on the conveyer belt of history". They must make cultural heritage more engaging, especially for the young generations of 'digital natives'. A challenge for cultural heritage sites is to capitalize on the pervasive use of such media, while also facing the competition from the leisure-based industry, which attracts visitors through spectacular experiences that include educational and cultural qualities. This is where novel research kicks in. Recent investigations in interactive digital storytelling, personalization and adaptivity, and mixed reality, coupled with mobility-enabling systems, promise a lot to make archaeological knowledge more effectively and engagingly conveyed to the public. The aim of our paper is to present for discussion the potential added value of personalized interactive digital storytelling for archaeological museums through the specific example of an ongoing EU funded project. The principal objective of CHESS (Cultural Heritage Experiences through Socio-personal interactions and Storytelling) is to research, implement and evaluate an innovative conceptual and technological framework that will enable both the experiencing of personalised interactive stories for visitors of cultural sites and the authoring of narrative structures by the cultural content experts. Essentially, CHESS proposes to create narrative-driven cultural "adventures" (thus (re)injecting the sense of discovery and wonder) through hybrid structures, which adapt continuously to visitors, extend over space and time, and involve users in multiple roles and with different interfaces. To achieve this, CHESS will integrate interdisciplinary research in personalization and adaptivity, digital storytelling, interaction methodologies, and narrative-oriented mobile and mixed reality technologies, with a sound theoretical basis in the museological, cognitive, learning, and leisure sciences. This tightly integrated framework is applied and tested with in two cultural heritage renowned sites, the New Acropolis Museum in Athens (Greece) and the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse (France). The different nature of both cultural institutions provides an interesting testbed for the implementation of interactivity in archaeological museums, where in contrast to science museums, interaction is not inherent to the exhibition but added by technology.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

6 - Reconstructing Victorian Newcastle through Augmented Reality and Mobile Technology
For 215 years of its existence the city of Newcastle in Australia has had a diverse history. Its architecture reflects its booms and declines. There are three distinct periods in the city: the convict city; the Victorian city and the modernisation of the 1950s and 1960s. Nothing remains of the convict city. The Victoria city was Newcastle's heyday. However, although there are some significant buildings that still remaining in the city many more have been altered or demolished in the move to modernise the city in the 1950 and 1960s. This paper presents the first stage of a project that would reconstruct central Victorian Newcastle using Augmented Reality (AR) and mobile technology. AR is a technology that can insert digital information into the designers' physical environment. AR appears in literature usually in conjunction with virtual reality, which is an environment where the digital information generated by a computer is inserted into the user's view of a real world scene (Azuma 1997; Barfield and Caudell 2001). AR can create an immersive augmented environment by inserting digital content into the physical space where people work or live. AR has had a relatively slow transition into the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector (Wang, Gu & Marchant, 2008; Wang, & Dunston, 2005) but do include applications in interior design, urban design and planning, mechanical design detailing, and collaborative design. AR technology is envisioned to improve current state-of-the-art of design visualization, review and collaboration. The latest AR applications have combined with mobile technology such as the use of iPhone and iPad as the interfaces, enabling the more flexible and immediate access to the technology and digital information. Although there is copious amount of photographs of the Victorian buildings of Newcastle they are held in various collections and they are viewed as individual pieces rather than a collective whole. There has been the excellent photography book on Newcastle (Turner, 1997); however, their presentation is limited by their static nature and the information they can contain is limited within that 2D format.The combination of AR and mobile technology has the capability of presenting a holist presentation of a building. In 2009, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research developed an AR application. Through an iPhone it allows the user to take photographs of the Brandenburg Gate or the Reichstage these photographs integrate with the software. The software blends corresponding historical photographs over the original photo from the iPhone. It recognizes these two buildings from any perspective and an image covers the original photo with a corresponding perspective of the historic building. Our project applies this existing application to recreate the Victorian City of Newcastle to bring alive the history of the city. It will enhance the existing application going beyond 2D images to create 3D models of the individual buildings and the cityscape. This approach is in its infancy but it has the potential to be developed into a powerful tool for academic research into architectural history and archaeology in reconstructions of lost cityscapes.

Speakers
NG

Ning Gu

School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

7 - Augmented Reality for the Structural Conservation of Archaeological Monuments
This collaborative research aims to develop an interactive structurally integrated method for 3D archaeological documentation, architectural reconstruction, and engineering structural analysis of ancient monuments based on state-of-the-art augmented reality display techniques and hardware. Interdisciplinary research combining expertise in archaeology, architecture, geology, material science, structural engineering, and 3D visualization is increasingly needed to insure the preservation of monumental archaeological structures as diverse as the Great Hall of Trajan's Markets in Rome and the Huaca de la Luna in Trujillo, Perù. The inherent complexity of these monuments increases the difficulties that normally exist when data are exchanged and correlated between disciplines. Taking advantage of the collaborations developed at the University of Rochester through the new program in Archaeology, Technology, and Historical Structures, this research builds on existing initiatives and expertise in archaeology, structural and computational mechanics and geometric solid modeling, and in state-of-the-art 3D visualization/augmented reality hardware. The scientifically predictive tool we are developing provides an integrated framework: (a) for detailed 3D reconstruction, visualization, and analysis of the original structural features of a complex monument as built in antiquity; (b) for recording events that affect the physical integrity of the monument, causing structural degradation and collapse; and (c) for planning and recording conservation interventions that alter the structural response of the monument to changing environmental conditions. (A full abstract will be given later.)

Speakers
RP

Renato Perucchio

University of Rochester Department of Mechanical Engineering Rochester, New York 14627


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

1 - Approaching spatial context from a new perspective. What can we wait from 'Archaeological Information Science'?

AISc (Llobera 2010) can be defined as an integrative perspective where capturing data, representing, analysing and modelling archaeological events is an interdisciplinary focus. Moreover, we consider AISc as a logical consequence of accumulative experiences process in computer application in archaeology during last twenty years towards a synergy between computational resources and varied and extensive archaeological issues (data capturing process, analysis, representation, etc). Independently on the scale we focus ("intra-site" or "landscape"), we see in AISc a new opportunity in key areas: (i) Congruence between empirical observation of spatial proprieties of artefacts and its possible ways of perception and recording. In this direction, archaeologists need a complement for understand the inherent complexity in archaeological records. For this, virtual reality and analytical visualization are the most powerful issues for solving problems in spatial contexts. At an intra-site level, the possibility of interacting and modelling structures (postholes, hearths, stone alignments), distributions of remains, stratigraphy into a digital environment, is an ideal situation for testing and manipulating different hypothesis without affecting the real archaeological object. From a landscape perspective, the obstacles on representing cognitive approaches and collective behaviours have been widely noted by scholars.(ii) Comprehension of archaeological problems like an extensive network of actions (natural and social) and material consequences located in determinate area, and not in terms of distribution of materials remains that are defined under certain nominal categories. In this sense, statistical analysis is the best option for understanding, in terms of heuristic point of view, the presence of any spatial (and temporal) structure. To this effect, for an adequate understanding, the significance of variation and change is more than the recognition of any insolating cluster into a vacuum space, which is related with the reductionist idea of analysing the space where concrete actions were performed. (iii) Uncertainty as an approach to deal with multidimensional and incomplete structure of archaeological spatial datasets. Fuzzy-logic has been used in certain domains of science as way to extract logic from non-structured data, but its application in archaeology has been recent. Considering the incomplete condition of archaeological record as a conjunction of natural and human actions, fuzzy-logic approaches have started to proliferate in spatial analysis. Modelling and representing vagueness has become a way to interpret the spatial distribution of phenomena that overcome distribution maps of items. Since some authors have enounced its potential, it seems a good moment for develop the potential of this proposal and test if it is able to provide an acceptable connection between archaeological theory and practice. To illustrate the capabilities of this new approach, we will present and discuss some experiences and their proficiency on managing spatial data.


Speakers
AM

Alfredo Maximiano Castillejo

University of Cantabria. Spain Archaeology is more than just a description and quantification of certain material remains of the past. Actually, methodological possibilities have important places left, sometimes, the reflection about materials consequences and interpretation of... Read More →
avatar for Enrique  Cerrillo Cuenca

Enrique Cerrillo Cuenca

Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Institute of Archaeology


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

10 - Bootstrapped Correspondence Analysis in Practice
The concept of using bootstrapping to assess the stability of maps derived from Correspondence Analysis was first presented to CAA 25 years ago. The technique has not, however, been widely adopted although it is discussed by Michael Baxter in his volumes on statistics in archaeology. One probable reason is the lack, until recently, of easily obtained software to undertake such analyses. Routines are now available to perform these analyses in the open-access statistical system R. This paper applies bootstrapped CA to five archaeological data sets, and assesses how the technique enhances the interpretation of the results of CA. The impact of sample size is discussed, and a comparison between methods is presented.

Speakers
KL

Kris Lockyear

Institute of Archaeology, UCL


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

2 - Landscape networks. The spatial reflection of human practices.

In the last decades, archaeology, as many other Social Sciences disciplines, has witnessed the delineation of a new judgment about the engagement between the people and the environment in which they lived (Bordieu 1990). From this innovative viewpoint the concept of the human (behavior) and the non-human (materiality) facts and their relationship have changed. The connection between the people and the world is determined by their previous relationship with the environment. Thus material components and social practices are mutually reinforcing. An individual or collective behavior is not completely understood if we forget the material features of its context. Terms such as "procesual plus" (Hegmon 2003; 2005) or "symmetric archaeology" (Webmoor et al. 2005) are good examples of the renewed approach (revalorization) of the physical aspects of the archaeological record without abandoning the potentialities of the interpretative archaeology and the perception of the archaeological entities.



Landscape archaeology can also adopt this position. The agrarian landscape is a complex reality where many facts have acted to create the compounded environment we study. Our main interest is to understand how past societies interacted with the land in order to create the present landscape. It is obvious that each collectivity is constrained by the physical features of the environment in which they live. However we must recall that the materiality of the natural context is just one agent (as is the individual or the collective behavior) in the network that built up the current landscape. The meaning of these tangible elements "is at least partly determined by its material qualities" (Jones 2004: 328). Those features and properties can be measured and quantified matching with the positive sciences position. It is a necessary requisite to simultaneously consider how the landscape is socially and culturally generated, while also paying attention to its physical and mechanical properties. We can apply this hypothesis to the agrarian landscapes. One of the main objectives of this kind of work is to delineate the temporal and spatial networks that link these tangible entities with the social behavior of past cultures. Some scientific analysis, legacy of natural sciences, could help us to set up patterns of the material aspect of the landscape.



The technological innovations reached in the last decades are useful tools to conjoin both aims, especially considering its potentialities for the (statistical, cartographical"¦) representation of this mixed statement. Until recent years, the GIS (as many other techniques) has failed to recreate all worries of either the natural or social sciences. Nevertheless there have been some efforts to address this fault (Re-presenting GIS Edited by Fisher et al. 2005). The frame of reference of the Euclidean space notion (continuum invariable) is still the most used within the GI Science. In any case it is becoming easier to find new approximations where the representation of the space is constructed on a time-scale basis or even trough qualitative or perceived perspectives, leading us to a "human-centered archaeology of space" (Wheatley 2006).


Speakers
LA

Luis Antonio Sevillano Perea

Instituto de Arqueología - Mérida (CSIC-Junta Extremadura)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

3 - The Distribution Map - One step beyond
The Distribution Map - One step beyondThe distribution map is used to visualise quantities of artefacts found within a site, patterns can be inferred from this. But several questions arise from this: how significant are these patterns? Are they real? At what scale is the interpretation? Also what happens when no patterns are obvious, do we give up?Every site has some patterning of artefacts, be it clustered, dispersed or random. Visually we may interpret heterogeneity within a dataset which statistically is homogeneous. We can manipulate colour ramps to depict what we want to see, rather than what is there, even though this may be applied subconsciously.Point patterns can be analysed in a number of ways as highlighted by Blankholm (1990), however collecting data at point precision can be problematic. Point collection of artefacts can be costly in terms of time and money as well as ironically imprecise. Grid collection methods are far more common practice upon settlements sites, yet this also yields problems. However, there are some techniques which can be applied to identify different types of clustering as well as statistically test the significance of the clustering. Some methods, such as moving average window techniques, may appear useful but when critically appraised problems can be identified. Other local methods such as the Getis and Ord's Gistar (Gi*) and the Local Morans I (Ii) can yield significant insight and go beyond the distribution map.The back drop of this presentation will be the Late Neolithic settlement site of Keinsmerbrug, located in the province of North-Holland, in The Netherlands, the spatial analysis forms part of a wider multi-disciplinary research group. Analysis of two further settlements is on-going and may be incorporated into the presentation if the data is ready in time.

Speakers
avatar for Gary  Nobles

Gary Nobles

University of Groningen Academia: http://rug.academia.edu/GaryNobles Personal Page: http://www.singlegrave.nl


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

4 - From space to graphs for understanding the spatial changes with the medieval and modern fiscal sources
Medieval and modern fiscal documents (fieldbooks, compoix, cadasters ...) provide a rich information on spatial organization of the countryside. They usually describe each plot indicating the owner's name, the surface, the land-use, the neighbours and the location. These lists, which contain hundreds of plots with their relative location, have a great potential for analyzing the spatial pattern of village territories and the evolution of the landscape, especially when there is a series of successive documents for the same territory, as it is often the case. Nevertheless, they have been dramatically under-exploited because it is so difficult to reconstruct the landscape from fieldbooks without maps - and field-maps in France only appear in the 17th - 18th centuries. To overcome this difficulty, we suggest a model of former plots described in fiscal documents based on the use of graph theory. The framework is the ANR project Modelespace (http://w3.modele-espace.univ-tlse2.fr/). The aim is to measure the spatial dynamics between several states of the documentation related to the same territory. The main idea is to transform the spatial information collected on one side from the register and on the other side from former plots' plan into graphs. The translation of spatial data into graphs should allow to set up a bridge between the historical documents, mapped and not mapped. On these graphs each plot corresponds to a vertex and each neighborhood relationship (adjacency) - visible on a plan or described in the documents as neighbour - is an edge. The work is carried out along two complementary approaches: the first focuses on establishing a database dealing with records without map. The second aims at extracting the graph of former plots' plan in a Geographic Information System. The goal is to match the graphs produced by these two approaches in order to analyze spatial change by comparing the graphs since plans or registers alone do not allow it. Firstly, the transformation protocol of plots' plan into graph in the GIS will be developed. The first step is the vectorization of plans according to a topological structure which allows the production of planar graphs of the plots. The second step is the extraction of the dual graph thanks to adjacency matrices. Secondly, we will consider the possibilities of comparing two graphs corresponding to two successive states in the GIS .The first possibility of comparison is simply the exploitation of vertices' attributes describing the parcels (land use, surface, owner) to measure continuities and discontinuities. The second possibility of comparison is related to the spatial transformations themselves. This is to demonstrate, from the graphs, parcels reconstructions at work, that is to say recognize in the transition from one graph to another, the space-time operators of relevant changes in the case of a parcel: creation, stability, expansion, contraction, deformation, fission, fusion. The difficulty lies in overcoming the static comparison of two states to move towards a dynamic representation. The adoption of a time graph would allow us to characterize specific changes.

Speakers
avatar for Xavier  Rodier

Xavier Rodier

CNRS UMR 7324 CITERES Laboratoire Archéologie et Territoire, Université François-Rabelais/CNRS, Tours


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

5 - Open source geostatistics for archaeology: the fauna of Fumane cave
Analysis of spatial distribution of archaeological records integrated by geostatistical technique plays a primary role in prehistoric archaeology for a deeper knowledge of layers of human frequenting. In this work we present an approach by integrating statistics, database and GIS open source tools in an one-solution instrument based on QGIS desktop environment. Since archaeology is an intrinsically spatial discipline, we utilized a spatial quantitative approach like the multivariate geostatistics, which is typically dedicated to mining and environmental analysis, in order to the study of an important archaeological site in the northern Italy (Fumane cave, Verona, Italy), by managing the quantitative fieldwork information as regionalized variables. Therefore, we evaluating interesting spatial correlations by imposing linear coregionalization models on experimental semivariograms and cross-semivariograms, usual geostatistical tools. Besides, we make also spatio-temporal correlations among different layers of human frequenting. Moreover, we carried on such analysis by creating an tool that integrates several powerful R libraries such as Gstat for spatial distribution analysis of data implemented in DBMS PostgresSql with Postgis extension. Analyses performed on Fumane cave's fauna for several chronologic layers show interesting ways for spatially handling the cave regarding to the categories of studied fauna, opening new perspectives to quantitative archaeological studies.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

6 - Zooming patterns among the scales
During the last years digital technologies have been used in Archaeology for the documentation, the management and the representation of the archaeological data. A consequence of this phenomenon is the increasing popularity of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as powerful tools for the organization and the visualization of the archaeological data in relation with the correspondent spatial information, while less attention is paid to the application of spatial statistics for detecting specific patterns of such datasets. As a result, distribution maps are widely used by the archaeologist just as fancy and colourful accessories to use for embellish some publications. The uncritical and intuitive readings of those maps and the lack of a rigorous scientific methodology undermine the opportunity to make sense of such dataset. Therefore, the present paper aims to offer an overview of the existing statistical approaches to settlement patterning in Archaeology by one multi-scalar method (Ripley's K function) and to show both problems and potentiality of such technique dealing with spatial data. I will use as case study the Iron Age I period settlements located in the actual West Bank in order to show as point pattern analyses can help us to detect spatial patterns and investigate if phenomena of attraction or repulsion are mainly related to the first or second order of effects. With the term "first order of effects" I mean that the observations throughout a study area "vary from place to place due to the changes in the underlying properties of the local environment" (O'Sullivan and Unwin, 2003, 79). The second order of effects, instead, is due to the local interaction between the observations. Therefore, in my case, we can say that the different spatial patterns (cluster, evenly or random distribution) of the settlements are either due to the environmental variables (first order of effects), or due to the direct interaction between the settlements themselves. Nevertheless, we have to point out that first/second order distinction is often difficult to detect and we have marked first order of effects when the absolute location are important determinant of observations, while we have strong second order of effects when there is interaction between the locations, depending on the distance between them. Therefore, I will use two different point pattern analyses for investigating if the spatial patterns of the Iron Age I settlements are due to the direct interaction among them or to the environmental variables: homogenous and inhomogeneous Ripley' K functions. I will also investigate different kinds of homogenous Ripley's K functions: global, bivariate and local.

Speakers
AP

Alessio Palmisano

UCL (University College London)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

9:00am BST

8 - Integrating spatial analyses into foraging societies land use strategies. A case study from the Nalón basin (Asturias, North of Spain).

The development of spatial technologies (GPS, remote sensing, digital cartography, aerial photogrammetry and GIS) allows excellent documentation in archaeological site locations, as well as topographic and environmental reconstructions. Similarly, the application of spatial analyses to archaeological evidence, such as site distribution, site viewshed, movement modelling, etc. has provided archaeologists with large, complete and diversified corpus of data. However, those data set are usually treated as a research goal and as a final result, without any previous theoretical reflections on the historical and anthropological issues to be studied and which methodology is the most suitable to address those issues. At the same time, archaeological interpretations and social models are usually based on preconceived models, without a critical integration between spatial analyses results, archaeological evidence and theoretical paradigms. The main aim of this work is to discuss the need for the development of a specific methodology for the analysis of the location and characteristics of Palaeolithic sites, as well as the importance of a regional and integrative perspective for a better understanding of forager societies land use patterns and mobility strategies. A case study from the Nalón basin is presented here as an example of the possibilities of the application of this methodology and perspective.


Speakers
MA

Miguel Angel Fano

Universidad de La Rioja, España
AG

Alejandro García Moreno

Cantabria International Institute for Prehistoric Research, University of Cantabria


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

9 - GIS & Statistical Methods applied on the ager Tarraconensis.
We present in this paper the results of applying various GIS functions and statistics methods to the study the settlement in the ager Tarraconensis, the territory of the roman colony of Tarraco (Tarragona, Spain). The database of sites has been obtained from the results of the diferent field survey campaigns and those sites previously known. Using this information different explorations have been performed on the data. We have analyzed data from a chronological framework that extends from the sixth century BC to the third century AD. In an initial analysis we have been applied the Nearest Neighbor statistic to observe the behavior of the settlement, from a more generally territorial point of view. Then we have applied other methods in which we have modeled the structure and dynamics of the of the settlement. We also provide new data and ideas about the moment in that produces the arrival of the italic settlers, and how they were distributed in this territory at the end of the second century BC.On the other hand we present here explanatory models of the periods of stability in the countryside during the julio-Claudian and flavian dinasties. For example, from Kernel Density results we have analyzed several areas of the country and we have observed its evolution. Later, from a perspective based on natural divisions represented by the watersheds, we have implemented a number of statistics for the same purpose. Finally we have applied a Two steps cluster analysis using positional variables (for example the distance to the communication path, or the distance to water resources, etc.) in order to simulate the organization of settlement along the chronological period studied. These groups have allowed us to establish a model of the social behavior, overlaying the locations of known epigraphic inscriptions, and thus determining the spheres of social power during the flavian period.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

9:00am BST

1 - Detection, recording and analysis of post-depositional transformations to the archaeological record
There have been two broad approaches to dealing with the problems of post-depositional transformations to the archaeological record. The first has been to deny it happens (sometimes arguing on the basis of a misinterpretation of the so-called "law of superposition"), or to simply refer to the potential for contamination, without specifying what can be done about it. To some degree, these responses may reflect limitations of archaeological recording media, which have meant that it has been particularly difficult to record the evidence of post-depositional transformations, let alone to evaluate its significance or possibly even to model it during post-excavation analysis. This paper examines the need for acknowledging the importance of post-depositional transformations to the archaeological record, outlines a potential solution to the problem of recording the evidence, and considers some of the obstacles which will need to be addressed in analysis.

Speakers
GC

Geoff Carver

Archäologisches Institut Universität Göttingen


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

9:00am BST

2 - Crafting Archaeological Methodologies: Suggesting Method Engineering for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Archaeological projects vary enormously in size, complexity, object of study, timescale and other characteristics. Therefore, finding the best possible methodology for any given project is often a difficult task, and most of the time we keep wondering whether the methodology that we are using is, in fact, the best possible one. An inadequate methodological choice can ruin many months' worth of fieldwork, bias the interpretation of data, and slow down or impede cross-project comparison of results.Ideally, a methodology should be perfectly adjusted to the needs of the project; it should be based on well-proven techniques and knowledge; it should be clearly expressed so that it can be unambiguously enacted, communicated and shared; and it should be enhanced over time from the information gathered while it is applied.The approach known as method engineering [1] has been successfully used in some disciplines to achieve these objectives. Method engineering is an approach to the crafting of methodologies that conceives a methodology not as a monolithic black box, but as an assembly of pre-existing components that are selected and composed together from a repository. Each component in the repository encapsulates a proven, reusable "atom" of knowledge with clear indications on how it should be used and combined with other components. Method components often refer to the process to be carried out (i.e. the tasks), the outcomes to generate or inputs to take into account (i.e. products), the people and teams that actually do all this (i.e. producers), and the temporal organisation of all the previous (i.e. stages). Using method engineering, the characteristics of the archaeological project at hand determine what pre-existing tasks, products, producers and stages are selected from the repository and assembled together in order to create a purpose-fit, well proven methodology that can be clearly expressed, enacted and enhanced over time, and suggests what additional method components need to be created specifically for the project.This paper offers a brief introduction to method engineering from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences, and shows how method engineering can be valuable to archaeology in particular. Some examples are given of how a sample archaeological methodology can be put together from the components in a repository. The ISO/IEC 24744 [2] method engineering standard is used as an ontology of methodologies. 1 Sjaak Brinkkemper, Method Engineering: Engineering of Information Systems Development Methods and Tools. Information & Software Technology 38(4): 275-280 (1996)2 ISO/IEC 24744:2007, Software Engineering -- Metamodel for Development Methodologies. International Organization for Standardization (2007).

Speakers
avatar for Cesar Gonzalez-Perez

Cesar Gonzalez-Perez

Staff Scientist, Incipit CSIC
I work in conceptual modelling, metamodelling, and knowledge engineering for cultural heritage.
CH

Charlotte Hug

Centre de Recherche en Informatique Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

9:00am BST

3 - Visualising time with multiple granularities: a generic framework.
Investigating the evolution of historic architecture or archaeological sites often starts with the cumbersome task of putting together various pieces of information, each with its specific precision, scope and reliability. Naturally, time slots are among the main clues analysts expect to spot when filtering and cross-examining.But due to the very nature of historic data sets - heterogeneity, uncertainty, missing data (etc.) - time points and intervals the analyst will identify are often inconsistent in terms of granularity. Time intervals, typically the overall lifetime of an artefact, its periods of construction or modification; may be described by expressions like "between the last quarter of the XIIIth c. and the middle of the XIVth c.", whereas some punctual events may be recorded more precisely, in cases like "fire on Nov 29th 1554" or "town's siege between march 1445 and November 1445".In parallel, describing an artefact's life often implies taking into consideration pieces of information that correspond to regular or cyclic events, where there are also inconsistent granularities. Typically, when analysing an isolated chapel at high altitude, the analyst copes with a fuzzy cyclic behaviour - the chapel is inaccessible due to snow for a certain number of weeks during the year - as well as with a well-defined cyclic behaviour - a pilgrimage is organised yearly. In other words, may it be because of the nature of historic data sets, or may it be because of the heterogeneity of the events we need to report there are very few solutions analysts can count on if they need to visualise in a consistent, insight-gaining manner the time slots they have spotted?In historic sciences, it appears clearly that the handling of multiple time granularities is one of the major bottlenecks in the analyst's visualisation effort. Our research aims at giving analysts means to combine in a single visualisation multiple aspects of the parameter time, and particularly multiple granularities.As a first step, we initially focused on a visual comparison of 25 alternative calendars covering a wide range of historic periods and civilisations (Julian and Gregorian calendars of course , but also Babylon, ancient Egypt, Japan, Incas, Inuits, Burma, etc.). The visualisation sums up thirteen key aspects of calendars (cycles, divisions, period and area of validity, correction mechanisms, etc.) corresponding to alternative time granularities. The visualisation helps underlining legacies, alternative visions of time as linear or cyclic, common or opposing choices, alternative divisions of the year, etc. A prominent service offered by this visualisation is that it enables comparisons at various time granularities "within the eyespan", to quote E.R Tufte.So this first result has been extended to propose a more generic framework for visualising time with multiple granularities. It is applied on two very different test cases - the analysis of an individual artefact's lifetime, and a comparison of stylistic trends inside / between territories.The contribution will present the concepts and ideas behind this research, as well as their practical applications on the tests cases and accordingly its possible benefits for researchers and practitioners in historic sciences.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

9:00am BST

4 - Reconstructing Fragments: Shape Grammars and Archaeological Research
Reconstruction of fragmentary archaeological remains includes a high degree of uncertainty. It is the goal of virtual archaeology to experiment with possible variable reconstructions, to visualize and verify hypotheses (Reilly 1991). Grammars of archaeological artifacts are also a systematic tool of reconstruction, allowing for ambiguity and multiple readings, variant reconstructions and interpretations (Hodder and Hutson 2003). As archaeological research and excavation progresses and new material evidence comes to light, grammars can be modified to account for the new designs, or the new material can verify hypothesized designs generated by the grammars. This work suggests shape grammars for the analysis and reconstruction of archaeological artifacts. Shape Grammars (Stiny 1976; Stiny 2006) is a formal method of computation that addresses the shape and geometric form of artifacts, and is valuable as a descriptive, interpretive, generative and evaluative tool in analysis and design. With a set of rules and vocabulary of shapes, shape grammars can describe and generate possible designs - known and hypothetical, following the same design principles. The visual representation of data allows the archaeologist to evaluate its validity or identify discrepancies more easily than with symbolic and verbal descriptions. Grammars and shape grammars are not new to archaeological research. Hodder used a grammar to describe all the known Nuba designs and also generate other hypothetical designs in the same style (Hodder 1982). Chippindale authored a shape grammar to visually analyze the design of megalithic chambered tombs (Chippindale 1992), and Knight authored a grammar to analyze the Meander motif in Greek Geometric Pottery and show how changes in the grammar account for stylistic change based on temporal/geographic criteria (Knight 1994). These grammars emphasize the continuity in the design principles of a class of artifacts rather than the differences between its instances. This work suggests a shape grammar analysis of the architectural form of ancient libraries in the Greco-Roman world. The importance of this approach is bi-fold; first, it explores systematically and generates the range of variant possible scenarios of reconstruction of libraries in the corpus, based on the surviving fragments; and second, it predicts the design of other hypothetical but possible libraries that might be excavated one day.

Speakers
MM

Myrsini Mamoli

Georgia Institute of Technology, PhD Candidate Massachusetts Institute of Technology, visiting student


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

9:00am BST

5 - The evolution of territorial occupation: Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis applied to different case studies.
A large current archeological work study the space occupation evolution in time by the societies. The observation of these spatial transformations can depend on a geostatistical approach through global and local Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA). The map is a unique exploratory tool. In fact, exploratory spatial data analysis methods provide a way of observing the spatial organizations. By combining these calculation methods, it is clearly possible to bring out spatial structures or put forward new hypotheses. These approaches allow identifying any possible spatial particularities or local clusters at different step of time (Cressie 1993, Fotheringham et al 2000). They are used to create in fine map of change. However, questions remain about how to evaluate the reliability or robustness of these hypotheses and these results? How to compare these spatial forms over time? How to interpret these maps of change? To extend that, firstly, the "statistical sample" used is based on archaeological information including complex inventory properties (heterogeneity, incompleteness, data missing) are not measurable. On the other hand, statistical processes tested in the methods used (K Ripley) are based on homogeneous spatial phenomena, which is not appropriateness to archaeological data. Indeed, Orton has underlined that "their use [of K-Ripley statistics] is based on the assumption of a homogeneous and isotropic point process; there may well be reasons in practice why such an assumption does not hold" (Orton 2004, p. 303), suggesting the Pélissier and Goreaud's approach (Goreaud, Pélissier 2001) wich consists to dissect spatial patterns into different scale. As, archaeologists deal with vast inventories, the recurring question is how to use them? How to incorporate this uncertainty in data analysis? An experience could be carried out with very different geographically and chronologically sets of archeological data from several programs. This experience inspired in part the work of Bevan and Conolly (2006). They are the pioneers to show that the robustness of statistical results could be validated with application of multi-scalar and sampling approaches for each study area. These methods seem to overcome some of the problems of missing data. Finally, one of the perspectives of this experiment is the use in archeology from the comparison of seed points to non-homogeneous point process as developed and described these recent years in the field of ecology (Perry, Miller 2006). These methods are used to explore the soundness of spatial pattern detection for archaeological inventories. A modified form of the K-function suitable for inhomogeneous point pattern is used (Baddeley, Turner 2005), which takes into account the variation of pattern's intensity in space.

Speakers
LP

Lucile Pillot

UMR ARTeHIS 5594 Université de Bourgogne
LS

Laure Saligny

Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Dijon


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

9:00am BST

6 - Handling Notes and Sketches. Management of Different Levels of Archaeological Resolution.
The resumption of excavations at archaeological sites that have a long history of research represents a case in point to observe strengths and limitations in the application of technologies for high-resolution recording and managing archaeological data.The most common situation is, in fact, building information systems in which co-exist different levels of spatial precision and resolution that often force to face problems of correlation and analysis.This is especially true in the case of studies that began in the nineteenth century or that were conducted without attention to the aspects of the archaeological record.In addition, the construction of information systems is often conducted without an adequate theoretical prior and in the absence of a proper analysis of available data and their specific nature.The application of GIS and computer methods of documentation and analysis are, in this case, a resource or a methodological exercise?It makes sense to design systems to manage excavation data collected at different resolutions and with different methodologies?


Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

9:00am BST

7 - 15 more years of computer applications in archaeology

Following in the footsteps of Irwin Scollar's (1997) paper '25 Years of Computer Applications in Archaeology' this paper examines the trends in archaeological computing for the last 15 years, based on papers presented at the computer applications and quantitative methods conference between 1997 and 2011. Scollar discussed the trends he identified in the context of increasing availability of hardware and software, and it is therefore considered appropriate to re-explore this topic given the considerable developments we have witnessed in both hardware and software since 1996. Such an analysis is also timely given that the conference is now entering its 40th year and that in recent years the number of papers presented at CAA conferences has risen substantially. In his paper, Scollar identified a number of themes that he used to classify the broad range of subjects of papers presented at each conference. For the purposes of this paper, the same classification scheme was used to sort and analyse the subjects of papers presented at the CAA conference over the last 15 years. The trends for each of these themes is identified and discussed in relation to the changes in technology available to archaeological computing practitioners. By categorising the papers using Scollar's themes it is possible to see that while there has largely been continuity in research interests since his 1996 paper, several new themes have become increasingly prevalent at CAA that are not adequately described by his original classification scheme. In order to enrich the quantitative data the results of a survey are also discussed, which was conducted to confirm the trends identified in the analysis based on the subjective impressions of practitioners within the archaeological computing community.

This research forms part of the PATINA Project, and is funded through the RCUK Digital Economy Programme.

Scollar, I. (1997). 25 Years of Computer Applications in Archaeology. In L. Dingwall, S. Exon, V. Gaffney, S. Laflin, & M. van Leusen (Eds.), Archaeology in the age of internet: CAA 97; Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology; proceedings of the 25th Anniversary Conference, University of Birmingham, April 1997. Oxford: Archaeopress.

 


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 9:00am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

11:15am BST

1 - MeshLab as a complete open tool for the integration of photos and color with high-resolution 3D geometry data
Even if a precise, detailed geometry is essential for the study and documentation of a CH artifact, lots of information also comes from the color and appearance data. Since a complete reconstruction of the optical properties of an artifact is still hard to achieve, what is normally done is to rely on color data coming from photographic dataset. In this paper, we will describe the tools that MeshLab offers for the generation and processing of color information on a high resolution 3D model. We will show the basic operations available and present actual projects were this tools have been successfully used. The first step in the color management, is to align photos to the 3D model, this operation is possible in MeshLab in a short time by using a very simple interface. The photos aligned in this way may be spatially-explored directly in the 3D space, instead of browsing a folder on the disk, looking at the photos like see-through transparencies suspended in space or projected onto the surface. An interesting possibility is to use also unconventional photos, like photos with annotations, historical photos or even near-visible lighting photos (ultraviolet, multispectral, infrared, thermography….) The spatial exploration of the georeferenced photographic set is a powerful tool but, in many applications, it is needed to have the color information mapped onto the geometry. To this aim, MeshLab offers different color mapping tools to better cope with the different needs of the various datasets. By using the color data from the calibrated images, it is possible to generate detailed, artifact free per-vertex color encoding, fill an existing texture parametrization or generate an entirely new texture mapping, driven by the photographic coverage. The reconstruction of a faithful representation of the actual color of an artifact is often just a first step towards the understanding of the original aspect of the object. Almost always, the current state of an archeological find is degraded: to propose possible reconstruction of the original color of the object is a normal activity for archeologists or art historian. This task, however, is generally carried out on photos or drawings of the artifact, while it would be possible to do it directly on the 3D surface. The Surface Painting tools provided by MeshLab may be used to color the 3D surface using painting-like interface. By using this editing tool, it was possible to produce such proposed color reconstructions, directly on the 3D geometry. MeshLab is the most complete open source software for the creation and manipulation od high resolution 3D models of real-world objects, and the availability of such color management tools is an important instrument for the archeological and CH community

Speakers
avatar for Marco Callieri

Marco Callieri

researcher @ Visual computing Lab, ISTI-CNR, ISTI-CNR
3DHOP Apostle -- Meshlab Cultist


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

11:15am BST

2 - Enhancing surface features with the Radiance Scaling Meshlab Plugin
We present the new Radiance Scaling plugin for Meshlab. This rendering technique allows to depict shape through shading via the modification of light intensities around specific features. The major idea is to correlate the shading with surface feature variations in order to enhance shape details like concavities and convexities. The Radiance Scaling rendering technique works in real-time on modern graphics hardware. As a consequence, surface features can be inspected interactively. Recently, the Radiance Scaling technique has received major interest in the French Archaeology research community, in particular for enhancing details in carved stones and thus improving their legibility.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

11:15am BST

3 - A methodology for the digitization of ancient buildings using open source software tools: the case of the Castle of Bouvignes
Digital 3D models become a necessity in management and restoration of monuments. Specialised companies have the appropriate equipment, methodology and experience to digitise monuments in a fast and qualitative way. For archaeologists, restoration experts and site managers, there are however image-based tools that allow them to take on 3D digitisation projects without major investments or having digitising equipment at hand. We describe the practical workflow of digitising a complex castle ruin and how this workflow can be integrated in archaeology, restoration and site management.







The overall 3D model of the castle ruin was made from aerial photography taken by a drone. The inner details of the castle, including the inside spaces and those parts that were not properly visible from the air, were digitised from terrestrial photography. We also show innovative uses of 3DPDF (based upon simplified and retextured 3D models) for exchange of results with the archaeologists, restoration experts and site managers.







We demonstrate how MeshLab as free software has all functionality to create, merge, align and georeference the 3D data, and to simplify and retexture the final results for exchange and presentation purposes, for such a large scale project.







This project shows a low-cost methodology to create a 3D model of a castle ruin for restoration, planning of excavations and site management, based on the open source software tools Arc3D and Meshlab from terrestrial photography and aerial photography by drone. We demonstrate the practical and financial implications of this approach. The digitisation methodology proposed can be easily re-applied to other buildings or sites of interest.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 1:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

11:15am BST

1 - Quantitative methods in italian archaeology: a review
The use of quantitative graphs (chronological diagrams, block diagrams and cumulative diagrams) begins, in Italian archaeology, between the end of Fifties and the beginnings of Sixties in the last century, thanks to the work of Renato Peroni (Bronze and Iron Age), in Rome and of Alberto Broglio (Palaeolithic), in Ferrara, following, respectively, the German and the French tradition.. In the following decade also Classical archaeologist began to use quantitative graphs; in 1972 Alberto Cazzella published an article on the Calcholitic in Southern Italy and Sicily in which he used extensively mathematical and statistical methods imported from the Anglo-Saxon world (e.g. the first correlation matrix). Two years later Cazzella and Amilcare Bietti organized a workshop on the use of quantitative methods in archaeology and in 1976-77 Dialoghi di Archeologia published their first important article on the subject, while in a monograph on the recently discovered Iranian city of Shar-i-Shokta of 1977, edited by Maurizio Tosi, it's possible to see the first example of a grave furnitures diagram. In the same years Bietti began to use computers for the analysis of Upper Palaeolithic industries. Significantly, at the same time, "pioneer" articles by Izcovitch and Pezzoli on the use of computer science in archaeology appeared. The introduction of the personal computer shortly after allowed this growing interest to become a reality. The Eighties began with the publication, by Bietti, of the first monograph on the use of mathematical and statistical methods in archaeology and, always in "Dialoghi di Archeologia", of the review article on the use of quantitative methods in the study of Roman pottery by Paul Arthur and Andreina Ricci. The "wave of advance" of processual school in Italian archaeology between 1982 and 1988 caused also a generalized interest for the use of mathematical and statistical methods. As important examples of computer applications to landscape archaeology, it's possible to appreciate the first important works by Armando De Guio on North Eastern prehistory and the introduction of the simulation models by an équipe (between the members the speaker of the present communication) working on Latial prehistory., a sort of forefathers of predictive modelling in Italan archaeology. In 1987 the monograph Archeologia e Calcolatori, by Paola Moscati, was published; three years later the first number of the homonymous review was edited by Moscati, involving many of the main foreign scholars, like Dindjean and Orton, and creating the most important "forum" on the matter. A last "chapter" of this history is the introduction of new methods (functional analysis of objects and GIS) between the end of Nineties and the beginnings of XXI century. From that period onwards, the use of quantitative methods became a sort of routine in the daily archaeological practice in our country, also if unfortunately, only few of the researchers involved in this history gained an academical position and no chairs of "quantitative archaeology" were created in Italian universities

Speakers
AG

Alessandro Guidi

università roma tre


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

11:15am BST

2 - Two heads are better than one - New approaches to identifying the origins of agriculture in Italy with DNA and C14
The introduction of agriculture in Europe is a perennial topic of study, as this marks the transition from gatherer-hunter societies to farming communities, and hence the foundations of our own society today. In Italy the radiocarbon evidence points to Southern Italy as the general location for this event, but the precise location is unknown. Recent biogeographical analysis of DNA from Italian emmer wheat landraces points to Northern Puglia as the location for the original founding population for these landraces. Emmer wheat is one of the founding crops of the neolithic and is unlikely to have been reintroduced later, as more productive wheats were being grown. However the radiocarbon dates from Early Neolithic sites in Southern Puglia seem to be earlier than the Early Neolithic sites in Northern Puglia. A Bayesian statistical analysis of the available radiocarbon determinations from all Puglian Early Neolithic sites throws up the intriguing possibility that the DNA analysis may well be correct, despite the apparently slightly earlier deteminations from Southern Puglia. A previously unidentified Early Neolithic horizon in Northern Puglia seems likely on archaeological grounds, which must be taken into account when interpreting the Bayesian statistical evidence for Southern Puglia. This paper describes the combination of these two new approaches in locating the introduction of agriculture to Italy.

Speakers
CA

Craig Alexander

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

11:15am BST

3 - Analysis of complex overlapping rock art sequences using topological tools: the case of two fragments from Piancogno (Valcamonica, BS, Italy)
The present paper sets out a new approach applicable to multiphase rock art panels where the images were produced by scratching the rock surface. As a test case, two small fragments of stone from Piancogno (BS), Italy, were chosen: fragments showing complex compositions of both figurative and abstract scratching, often overlapping one another. Preparatory analysis involved the following steps: preliminary investigation with a digital microscope to quantify morphometric differences and points of intersection/overlap of the scratched lines; digital photo-mosaic of the engraved surfaces to obtain a very high-resolution image; digital vector tracing of the figures; comparison and checking against the traditional hand-made tracing. The topology of the series of intersections between the incised lines was then analysed through a stratigraphic diagram modeled on the Harris Matrix. The result is a clear understanding of a complex sequence of overlapping and intersecting images - an understanding that would be hard to reach without such a topological/stratigraphic approach. Future applications will focus on understanding certain very complex panels at Piancogno with the aim of establishing a solid relative chronology for these little-studied images.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

11:15am BST

4 - Dating Back Historical Rock Art on Marble Surfaces By means of a Mathematical Model for the Natural Erosion Processes.
The present research started from the need of dating back the rock engravings in the Apuane Alps mountain chain (north-west Tuscany, Italy) which are on horizontal marble surfaces and are characterized by the figures of billhooks (Italian "pennato") traced in contour line and whose chronology and meanings are still unknown. For this purpose, in this paper we present a computer-aided mathematical study of the effects of natural erosion processes on an ancient linear trace engraved on a flat horizontal marble surface. The main goal is to demonstrate that the engravings are still visible after a long time exposure to natural erosion. The mathematical technique used is the so-called Montecarlo method which consists of the study of the macroscopic properties of a granular system starting from the continuous repetition of microscopic stochastic events whose probability laws is supposed to be known. These laws were related to the erosion speeds of the two main erosion mechanisms for limestone, such as the freeze-thaw and the chemical dissolution, this last depending on the average annual rain fall. By using the above described procedure, it was possible to observe the time evolution of the cross-section of the engravings in a time range spanning about 2000 years and to evaluate the trend behaviours of both depth and width of the small moat. From the analysis of these trends and from an estimation of the average annual rain fall, an algorithm was obtained to calculate absolute dating of the engravings. In the last part of the paper, the results of the first experimental application of the present method on the so-called "Billhook Step" (Mount Gabberi, Apuane Alps) are exposed and discussed, also in terms of the influence of both random and systematic errors.

Speakers
PE

Paolo Emilio Bagnoli

Dpt of Information Engineering, University of Pisa


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

11:15am BST

4 - The Use of CFD to Understand Thermal Environments Inside Roman Baths: A Transdisciplinary Approach
Computational fluid dynamics or CFD can provide another tool for the classical archaeologist to use when analyzing ancient structures. It is an engineering technique used to solve problems involving fluid flow and heat transfer. CFD can create an approximation of the temperature distribution, the velocity profiles, and other properties based on the geometry, materials, and environmental conditions that are supplied by archaeological research. Scholars have already applied CFD to the study of aqueducts in the Roman Empire, but there are many other possibilities for its use. This paper presents the benefits and problems of one of these possibilities - the caldaria of Imperial thermae - and provides some preliminary results from an initial case study. The caldarium, despite being the largest heated room in most complexes, has many unanswered questions surrounding its thermal atmosphere. For example, did the hot air rise and gather near the roof? Was the humidity localized above the pools? What air speed was created? The answers to these questions have many implications to the operation of the baths. This project uses CFD in conjunction with classical archaeology to address these questions in a case study of the Baths of Caracalla. CFD itself, however, is complex because multiple variables that affect the results and, as such, many analyses begin with a validation study of a documented example of similar geometry and purpose. For this project, the validation study is modelling the reconstructed bath in Turkey built for the television series NOVA, for which we have the exact dimensions, thereby eliminating archaeological uncertainty. The results from this model are extremely promising. The temperatures match those of presented by Yegül and Couch and velocities are low. Furthermore, they show that humidity did not affect the temperature drastically though it did create new air currents. Finally, the results prove the importance of an aspect often overlooked in previous thermal analyses - the doorway. The exchange with the next room is arguably the most important driving force for the environment inside the caldarium. References: Yegul, F. K., & Couch, T. (2003). Building a Roman Bath for the Cameras. Journal of Roman Archaeology. 16, 153-177.

Speakers
avatar for Taylor  Oetelaar

Taylor Oetelaar

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Calgary. I did my Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering but took two electives in Classical Archaeology and really enjoyed them. I found a way to blend these two fields by... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

11:15am BST

5 - Open source software and quantitative archaeology: converging trajectories?
In 2008 the IOSA Project started dealing with quantitative archaeology from a number of points of view: writing freely available documentation for statistical software, developing a dedicated software library for radiocarbon calibration, and most recently salvaging legacy software from obsolescence by rewriting a software program from the late 1980s. Despite being widely recognised as one of the most advanced programming languages and data analysis environments, there has been little emphasis on R in Italian archaeology: apparently those using it do not care to let others know about it, let alone sharing their scripts and problems. The quantitative archaeology wiki (http://wiki.iosa.it/), despite its fragmentary nature, has not attracted any relevant contribution from Italy. Similar considerations also apply for the IOSACal project, that still has a potential to become a full-fledged radiocarbon calibration and analysis environment.We had no reaction to the mentioned projects from Italy, and in particular we identified a lack of will and expertise in using statistical software. However, open source software has momentum in Italy, and we think quantitative archaeology should try to follow that momentum. Furthermore, we believe that linking statistical analysis with the shared development of software programs (even as short scripts) and raw data is key to the sustainability of such an approach.

Speakers
LB

Luca Bianconi

IOSA Project LinkedIn: http://it.linkedin.com/pub/luca-bianconi/10/632/429
SC

Stefano Costa

Università degli Studi di Siena Twitter: @stekosteko


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

11:15am BST

1 - When, what, where, how and who?
Archaeologists have long clamoured for better access to each other's data. The detailed and feircely contested structure of excavation recording is entirely predicated on the notion that other people will use not only our results, but any and every observation down to the Munsell colour of the topsoil. But examples of reworking data remain scanty, and the experience of working with other people's archives tends towards premature ageing. Many people have argued that this is because of the technological failures of paper and hybrid paper/digital archives and look forward to the day when we can cross corelate inclusions within primary pit fills right across Europe. The challenge, or course, is that while we can't practically answer detailed questions, our brains shy away from asking them. This paper will look at the process of questioning multiple data sets as it exists today to see which areas could do with better support. When are researchers asking questions of multiple sites? At what stages in ther careers and at what stages of a project? What kinds of information are they looking for and at what level of synthesis? Where are they when they are asking these questions, and to what extent are their questions spatially bound? How to they formulate, record and pursue these questions? How formal and clear are their search procedures? And perhaps most importantly who is asking questions of multiple sites?

Speakers
avatar for Sarah  May

Sarah May

English Heritage Twitter: @Sarah_May1


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

11:15am BST

2 - Exploring Semantic Web-based research questions for the spatio-temporal relationships at Çatalhöyük

Çatalhöyük is one of the most important and iconic sites currently under excavation. The data derived from the site has already spanned decades of ongoing work, and has been the focus of innovative theoretical, methodological and technological approaches. Efforts have also been made to, as much as possible, fully digitise and publish the excavation data for use and re-use in the future, including digitising the individual unit data (similar to an individual context, as used in the single context recording tradition), some of which can be accessed online through the www.catalhoyuk.com website. This includes information about the complex stratigraphy found throughout the site, along with comprehensive information associated with each unit. The nature of single context recording allows spatio-temporal relationships to be re-organised and recombined in ways compatible with the way data is structured using the RDF triple format, which is used by the Semantic Web. It is also compatible with the CRM-EH, which is a domain ontology for archaeology, based on the single context recording tradition.One of the most popular reasons for using Semantic Web principles and technologies is as a means to create interoperability between heterogeneous datasets, and successful exemplars of this now exist. In contrast, the data from Çatalhöyük is housed in a bespoke database to facilitate the nuanced intra-site analysis necessary for understanding the site's complexity. As such, there are other features of the Semantic Web, which may help to further unlock the spatio-temporal relationships in the stratigraphy of the site, which are not reliant on interoperability, and have seen fewer exemplars. This is largely owing to both the recent advent of the technology, and the structure and querying of graph data being unfamiliar to most archaeologists. Some of the complexity that might be better understood at the site, includes defining a 'deposit lifespan' for a series of units, which would be based on developing a system of coding time within a stratigraphic matrix. It may be possible to use the querying abilities of SPARQL (and potentially GeoSPARQL) to ask more complex questions of the stratigraphic data, and to allow the 'data haystack' model of graph data to allow easier combining and re-combining of 'deposit lifespans' for analysis under a variety of criteria. This exploration will be carried out with an eye towards how the results might be subsequently visualised. In addition, there may be potential for the use of Semantic Web 'inference' to allow the creation of new data which can be understood from the existing data, at a greater degree than might be possible using more traditional relational data structures.This paper will explore the potential research questions, which may be answerable using Semantic Web principles and technologies, using a subset of data from the Çatalhöyük excavations. It is hoped that this exercise will result in new exemplars of the usefulness of the Semantic Web to archaeology, and the potential for a new and more fluid understanding of the spatio-temporal nature of the occupation at Çatalhöyük.


Speakers
avatar for Holly  Wright

Holly Wright

European Projects Manager, Archaeology Data Service
Holly Wright is European Projects Manager at the Archaeology Data Service (ADS); a national archive for archaeological data in the UK (archaeologydataservice.ac.uk), based in the Department of Archaeology, at the University of York. Her research focusses on field drawing, vector graphics... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

11:15am BST

3 - Comparing the informatics of text and Cultural Heritage: the SAWS project
Ancient texts, like ancient objects, may be regarded as sets of linked and linkable information. Yet, despite many conceptual similarities, there has been little examination of how the use of computational methods of marking-up and linking primary manuscripts can be used to inform the mark-up of primary material culture, and vice versa. Like archaeological contexts, discrete and philologically significant sections of manuscripts require skill both to identify and to record and define. Links between related information pervade archaeology: The Harris Matrix describes links between contexts, and the stratigraphic sequences between them, and database management systems have long been used to link information about artefacts and features across sites, and to enable cross-searching. More recently, approaches such as the CIDOC CRM and Semantic Web have been used to link defined entities of archaeological or cultural heritage information identified by URIs and described and linked using controlled standards such as RDF. This paper will examine the use of such standards and methods in archaeology, and focus on their transference to defining and linking related units of text in original manuscripts. Our case study is primary textual material from the Sharing Ancient WisdomS (SAWS) project. Comprising three international teams from the UK, Sweden and Austria, the aim of SAWS is to present and analyse the tradition of wisdom literatures in Greek, Arabic and other languages, which present complex challenges for linking. Throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, anthologies of extracts from larger texts, containing wise or useful sayings (gnomologia) were created and circulated widely, since few complete texts were available in manuscript form. Focusing on original manuscripts of gnomological texts (not editions), SAWS uses a bespoke TEI XML schema to mark up individual segments identified by editorial experts, which are then linked to parallel segments in other traditions. Parallels include (for example) translations of individual sayings, derivations from a saying in one tradition to another, references to the same subject across traditions, authorship of sayings, and so on. Segments are then linked according to their significant properties, described according to an ontology that extends the CIDOC CRM, and linked using RDF. It is possible to regard such segments as artefacts, albeit of textual, rather than material, nature; and the parallels with archaeological information and sequencing are thus significant. While it would not be useful to impose a straight metaphor of 'textual artefacts' on this material, the theory that they are connected in complex ways owes much to material culture, and the latter's language provides clues for deeper interrogation: what typologies and common attributes can be applied to segments, how do these evolve over time, can one class of gnomic saying be demonstrated to have evolved in response to (and/or under the influence of) another. This paper will provide concrete examples from SAWS to demonstrate how the combination of XML, RDF and CIDOC are being employed; and thus delve deeper than existing secondary literature approaches to archaeological text mining.

Speakers
CS

Christoph Storz

MLU Halle, Germany Sharing Ancient Wisdoms University of Vienna, Austria


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

11:15am BST

4 - From the Slope of Elightenment to the Plataeu of Productivity
The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) has a mandate to provide a digital repository for outputs from research funded by AHRC, NERC, English Heritage and other bodies. Archaeology has seen increasing use of the Web in recent years for data dissemination, and the ADS holds a wide range of datasets from archaeological excavations. However datasets and applications are currently fragmented and isolated. Different terminology and data organisation hinders search and comparison across datasets. Because of these impediments, archaeological data is rarely reused and re-examined in light of evolving research questions and interpretations. The STAR project addressed these concerns by developing semantic and natural language processing techniques to link digital archive databases and the associated grey literature, via an overarching framework (the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, extended for archaeological purposes by English Heritage). STELLAR aimed to generalise and extend the data extraction tools produced by STAR to facilitate their adoption by third party data providers. The extracted data is represented in standard formats to allow the datasets to be cross searched and linked by a variety of Semantic Web tools, following a linked data approach. As a result, the ADS has begun to ingest some of its excavation data into a triple store and expose it as linked data. This paper will briefly discuss the STAR and STELLAR projects to provide context to the ADS linked data. It will also outline the technologies used to develop the ADS triple store and linked data output. In particular, it will discuss the more practical details of creating our triple store, populating it with excavation data, and finally publishing it as linked data. This will hopefully provide some guidance for other interested parties who may want to set up something similar. Finally, with the ADS linked data as a concrete example, an overview of the suspected future directions will be outlined. In particular how we can enrich the existing and forthcoming linked data with both archaeological and non-archaeological data in addition to how the ADS linked data can enrich other data sets. In this sense we hope to identify some of the immediate and potential archaeological questions that can be asked and answered from our linked data.

Speakers
MC

Michael Charno

Archaeology Data Service
SJ

Stuart Jeffrey

Archaeology Data Service University of York
KM

Keith May

English Heritage


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

11:15am BST

5 - Linking data to explore Landscape and Identity in England
Landscape and Identities: the case of the English Landscape 1500 BC - AD 1086 (EngLaID) is an ERC funded project running for five years at the University of Oxford which began during the second half of 2011. To analyse themes of change and continuity in the English landscape, the project will make use of many sources of data which cover England during the relevant period and have become available in digital form over the last two decades. This includes data collected as part of English Heritage's National Mapping Project (NMP), records registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), data collected from Historic Environment Records (HERs), as well as a number of datasets archived at the Archaeological Data Service (ADS). Combining these data from disparate sources presents a considerable challenge. Following a pilot project in 2009 using a small subset of data, we are turning to technology from the Semantic Web. We will be mapping data to RDF and indexing it within a triplestore; as well as providing a basis to query the collected data, this will enable us to keep track of the provenance of all of all of this collected knowledge. To the maximum extent possible, it is our intention to release the resulting dataset as linked data so that others can benefit from, and build on top of, the project's efforts. In order to structure the data, we intend to map it to the concepts defined by the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC-CRM). At the time of writing, we are still early in this process, but we believe that it offers potential to provide consistency in our data which will assist in the searching and analysis There remain many challenges in delivering the technology to support this project including identifying and managing the many sites of artefacts which are represented in more than one of the available datasets; linking the work to use GIS tools to manage and visualise the geographic data with the Semantic Web tools, and representing and managing the differing degrees of precision and certainty which are present across the available data. We intend to present our design for the technology that will support the EngLaId project, and report on progress made and lessons learnt by March 2012.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

11:15am BST

6 - ArcheoInf, the CIDOC-CRM and STELLAR: workflow, bottlenecks, and where we go from here?
This presentation reports on work undertaken to implement the CIDOC-CRM for the ArcheoInf project. ArcheoInf (www.archeoinf.de) is intended to act as a data repository, a database whichcombines and integrates primary archaeological data collected and processed during surveys orexcavations and stored in individual project databases. Although creating ArcheoInf presented anumber of difficulties (many related to terminology), the presentation focuses on an aspect of thecreation of metadata mapped to the CIDOC-CRM for export in RDF format using STELLAR. The"standard" STELLAR templates enable exports into the English Heritage version of the CIDOCCRM, but since ArcheoInf is not concerned with databases or projects using English Heritagedocumentation standards, these had to be modified.The presentation describes the process of mapping existing databases into the CIDOC-CRM andthen creating STELLAR templates for exporting the results of SQL queries into an XML/RDF format.

Speakers
GC

Geoff Carver

Archäologisches Institut Universität Göttingen


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

11:15am BST

7 - @OccupyWatlingStreet: Can we find out Who was occupying What, Where and When in the past?
What do we imagine will be the archaeological remains of the Occupy Wall Street or Occupy London protest camps or events, in say 10 years, or 100, let alone 1000 or 2000 years? Will any evidence survive of where protesters occupied buildings, or indeed when the occupations began, or how long they lasted (a question yet to have an answer at the time of writing this abstract), let alone any idea of who was involved (protesters, homeless people, police, clergy, musicians, etc). While the possibility of an archaeological record of these events surviving my seem unlikely right now, it may be worth noting that buried below the current area of the St Pauls Churchyard occupation is one of the most commonly identified, and to some extent 'popular', layers for archaeologists excavating in London. This archaeological layer is commonly described as "the Boudican fire layer", a direct result of a riotous and destructive occupation and sacking of London in 60-61AD. This paper will explore some of the questions raised about how events might be recognised in the archaeology and recorded or interpreted by archaeologists. It will partly do so by considering the options, using methods currently available, for researching the connections between the site of the St Pauls Churchyard occupations and the relevant archaeological evidence for the events at the time of Boudica which have survived in the archaeological record (noting also that much of the evidence also derives from textual historical sources). Usually in current systems only data from single archaeological investigations, or multiple sites residing in a single database system, are queried or searched and even then queries do not amount to the complexity of, say, "show contexts which are burnt deposits containing finds of animal remains that are directly stratigraphically above a context that has been identified as a floor". This paper will explain how the STAR project (Semantic Technologies for Archaeological Resources) used semantic technologies, utilising an ontology driven semantic search system, to demonstrate the possibilities of searching both data and free text together, across multiple sites and including OASIS archaeological investigation reports. The techniques involved and results achieved may point to new paradigms for how archaeological research may be carried out, reported or re-used in the future. One major issue to be considered is that in order to accurately return all the possible data associated with more complex queries requires considerably more rigor and accuracy in some of the underlying recording systems, and in particular whether people are able to agree on shared meanings in their semantic terminologies. SKOS based thesauri can greatly aid the power of search techniques and enhance the capabilities of joining up data across different but related domains.

Speakers
KM

Keith May

English Heritage


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

11:15am BST

1 - Handling transparency in 3d reconstructed on line environments: Aquae Patavinae VR case study
When we approach the problem of archaelogical landscape reconstruction, often we have to deal with a complex context, that can be hardly interpreted, even by researchers. In our case study, in which we are currently investigating and reconstructing the thermal landscape typical of the Euganean Hills, around Montegrotto Terme (Padova, Italy), within the project Aquae Patavinae VR (in coorperation with University of Padova, funded by MIUR and Veneto Region), the known elements are different and spread along a wide area: there is only a main/primary archaeological site, that is open to the public; others are still under excavation and cannot yet be seen; others are recognizable only through little scattered evidences identified through archaeological and geological surveys, historical studies and remote sensing of the whole area.It's quite evident that we are facing a well-known scientific problem, quite recurrent in archaeology, that regards the interpretation and reconstruction of an archaeological landscape as a single global entity. This issue becomes more and more relevant in the case of a project directed/targeted to non-expert users, through on line virtual archaeology tools. The problem has therefore two faces: one directed to the "user-researcher" and the second one directed to the "user-visitor".We are dealing with this issue adopting two approaches, that take into account the London Charter (especially for data transparency) and Seville Principles:developing an ad hoc workflow whose goal is to build reality-based models, acquired on the field,interpretative/simulation models (connected to the first ones) and not-reality-based models (connected with the second ones), through procedural and manual modelling, both based on historical sources and excavation results. All models, including the 3d paged terrains, are stored on a server together with metadata, accessible only by registered users through a back-end (a CMS accessible on line through a normal browser);evolving the 3d on line exploration plug-in, OSG4WEB (based on the open source library OpenSceneGraph), already developed by CNR ITABC and CINECA, adding new specific features such as: navigation system personalized in accordance with the type of exploration, the scale of the landscape, the visulisation device (fly, walk; touchscreen, natural interaction); specific user interface through which the user can upload on the landscape (all data are GIS-based) both interpretation/simulation models (transparent volumes above the original 3d archaeological remains) and reconstructed hypotethical models;loading system for information in 3d related to used sources and level of reliability;dynamic real time system to add plants directly on the scene, useful in case of gardens reconstruction;optimization system for on line 3d exploration.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

10 - The Invisible Museum
Much care is put into the design of museum exhibits and a substantial amount of funding is frequently dedicated to completing museums with state-of-the-art technology, all this to enhance the visitors' experience. This paper aims to bridge the distance between museums and visually-impaired individuals through modern technologies and the new forms of interaction they can create. The case study involves the Tarxien Temples of Malta façade model which was found in two separate pieces and are presently connected as one model through a sheet of Perspex. This research investigates the model's fragments to propose a virtual reconstruction that seems most faithful to the model's original shape. For the first time in the National Museum of Archaeology in Malta, this model is Rapid Prototyped and placed beside the original exhibit in the museum for all visitors to feel and handle. This enhances the experience a visitor gets from the museum, contrary to when observing objects behind a glass, but it mainly offers the visually-impaired the possibility to visit a museum and experience the heritage through their sense of touch. It promotes accessibility of heritage areas even when these are "invisible".(I, the Recycler, would like to be considered for the CAA Recycle Award. The originators are Heritage Malta.)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

11 - 3D Laser Scanning and Virtual Reconstructions, their integration as research and educational tools for representing the past. Case of study: the Virtual Roman Baths of Edeta.

In the last few years 3D laser scanning techniques have been used more frequently as a means for recording archaeological evidence. This is at least in part thanks to the reliability of the 3D laser scanner. Archaeologists are recognising its extraordinary accuracy, hardly ever paralleled by other instruments. Moreover, the captured 3D point clouds correctly preserve the dimensions of the scanned archaeological information and can therefore be stored and used for future applications. On the other hand, 3D reconstructions of cultural heritage remains often serve purely educational purposes, disregarding their analytical potential. We believe that a combination of both the educational and analytical use of 3D reconstructions might lead to interesting new approaches that will be of interest to a more diverse audience.







This project puts an emphasis on the process of reconstructing the Roman Baths of Llíria, Valencia, the ancient iberian Edeta. The site has recently been deeply excavated and a well-preserved area is currently being converted into a permanent public exhibition. The work carried out involved two separate tasks. Firstly, the 3D laser scanning of the entire site including the masonry and all other archaeological remains like fragments of columns, cornices and so on. Secondly, a hypothetical 3D model of the baths was built using the data captured by the 3D point clouds of the objects scanned.







Handling high resolution 3D point clouds involves a number of issues, in particular when dealing with large sites, as they need to be significantly optimised. Model optimisation very often means that alot of detail will be lost. High resolution results have been obtained, however, in studies focused on the reconstruction of small objects. 3D reconstructions of large sites unfortunately still require using a relatively low number of vertices for them to be easily managed, rendered or, sometimes, animated. This is particularly true when the high resolution model aims to reconstruct real world lighting, texturing or atmospheric variations of the rendered environment.







This paper will address this issue by illustrating the capabilities of 3D Laser scanning for generating accurate virtual reconstructions of past environments that can serve both educational and analytical purposes. Vectorial redrawing of the meshes was used to intensely minimise the 3D point clouds and to create simple solids that allow for easier handling in 3D modelling software. In addition, a combination of low polygon hypothetical 3D models with the textured original 3D meshes has been used to stimulate alternative analyses of the site and, eventually, to extend the general public's knowledge of the cultural heritage these models represent through highly realistic reproductions.


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

12 - Pompei revived Scanning Mission- insula V 1
The Swedish Pompeii Project started in 2000 as a fieldwork initiated from the Swedish Institute in Rome. The aim was to record and analyse a full Pompeian city-block, Insula V 1. Created to encompass all major disciplines promoted by the Institute, the project targets a wider contextualisation of the Pompeian evidence. Pompeii revived is the title used to shelter studies in legacy, whereas the City Gate Seminar has the ambition to discuss the validity of historical analogies as guidance for interpretation of evidence concerning everyday life in the past in a broad sense. The proposed paper presents the initial results of one of the main actions in the context of this project. The aim is to investigate, document and visualize Pompeian architecture by means of different types of 3D-models (both in "as is- and "as was"-models). The use of acquisition techniques like 3D Scanning or Dense stereo reconstruction will increase the knowledge of the relations between the technological infrastructures of the insula i.e. water pipes system, illumination etc. and the distribution of the public and private spaces. Through the use of Virtual Reality Techniques will be possible to visit the Pompeian houses of Casa del Torello and Casa di Cecilio Giocondo understanding the relation between the actual archaeological context and their original outfit. The connection- in the same virtual environment -of past and present will guide the users through a time travel experience. The application will be designed as a virtual infrastructure to drag users from past to present, increasing -through the use of a 3D visual language- the knowledge of the past. In October 2011, the two Pompeian houses were acquired using 3D scanning, and the data were processed to obtain an accurate and complete model. The collected data will be used also to design and test a new web-based access model where the entire dataset will be available for browsing, measurement and data extraction. By combining standard navigation paradigm based on plans and prospects with the natural room-based environment, it could be possible for the users to visit, room by room, the entire dataset. The features of HTML5, like WebGL, will be used to deliver realtime 3D content and interaction. The system will allow taking measurements, snapshot and ask for more complex documentation like cut-through sections or maps views which will be later on computed offline by the server on the whole dataset and delivered to the users. This simple tool enhances the possibilities for the analysis of the documentation of the archaeological remains, proposing a starting point for additional actions like annotation, complex interaction, collaborative work.

Speakers
avatar for Marco Callieri

Marco Callieri

researcher @ Visual computing Lab, ISTI-CNR, ISTI-CNR
3DHOP Apostle -- Meshlab Cultist


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

2 - Combining diverse modeling techniques to produce high-fidelity reconstructions
Virtual heritage is an increasingly important expression of a cultural heritage site's state of research, and one that is also creating new paradigms for understanding the past. Virtual Williamsburg is one of these new paradigms, a digital model of the Virginian city of Williamsburg on the eve of the American Revolution, in the culturally significant year of 1776. The model recreates the Colonial cityscape of Williamsburg as a way of understanding cultural norms and behavior, and as an accompaniment to the visitor's existing museum experience. As such, Virtual Williamsburg is an expression of the latest archaeological data and analysis of the city, mediated through advanced technologies. Access to Virtual Williamsburg will be through an immersive virtual environment that provides interactive web-based tools allowing data browsing, research, and connectivity with other Colonial Williamsburg digital initiatives. From the outset of the Virtual Williamsburg project the goal has been to recreate the physical environment of the city as accurately as possible. Creating this version of eighteenth century Williamsburg has led to many expectations from the model; it is not only seen as a pedagogical learning tool, but also as an adjunct to the public's experience of the physically reconstructed city, and as a unique virtual environment similar to those found in current video gaming technologies. In imitation of modern virtual environment practices, high fidelity to the real world is achieved by mapping the models with images created from photos of the reconstructed city. In most instances, these models achieve significantly authentic results. In order to attain a high order of authenticity, and to take true advantage of highly-intelligent and physically accurate rendering software (namely VRay), select features are recreated at a finer level of detail (eg: a brick wall is no longer an image-mapped plane but actually populated with brick and mortar objects). Although modeling and rendering times can become unwieldy, this method not only adds to the model's verisimilitude, but also allows for archaeological data to be incorporated and evaluated. This paper will analyze the benefits and drawbacks to this and other approaches, looks at hybrid methods, and considers what virtual heritage can also learn from the video gaming industry.

Speakers
PA

Peter Anthony Inker

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

3 - Deconstructing Photorealism: Art or Science?
Photorealism is in the author's opinion a broad and overused term in computer graphics and often many of the processes that are layered (both archaeologically and artistically) to create an image that can be considered visually convincing are overlooked. Discussions regarding the use of engaging imagery in archaeology to reconstruct or convey an idea often focus heavily upon scientific elements, but these only constitute to part of the process that is needed to generate a convincing final render. At present in the 3D community 'unbiased' renderers such as IRay and Maxwell are being adopted more frequently, however they do not currently set the 'standard' for renderers because they do have the same saturation, or provide the same control as Chaos Group's VRay, or Mental Image's packaged Mental Ray. Instead they fulfil a niche that whilst ever growing seems to fulfil a very specific role. This paper will attempt to deconstruct exactly what constitutes a photorealistic image, looking not only at how current technologies are perceived, but also at the important role that artistic mechanisms play in achieving a convincing output and producing visualisations that could rightly be deemed photoreal. Furthermore it will cover how understanding and embracing these processes can be benefitial from a critical archaeologial perspective.

Speakers
GB

Grant Bryan Jeffrey Cox

Southampton University


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

4 - Virtual Environments as an Interpretative Tool: The Example of the Temple of Hercules in Celje, Slovenia
Despite the fact that in the last few decades, digital tools are becoming more and more frequently used for the representation of cultural heritage, their use still concentrates on 3D reconstructions and representations of monuments. Recently, however, projects of heritage virtualization, sometimes already focus on an process or a product, where archaeology can offer the best methods and principles for the interpretation of heritage. Using the example of the so-called Temple of Hercules at Miklavški hrib in Celje, Slovenia, the use of 3D models as interpretative tools is represented here. When an interactive computer simulation is used as a methodological tool, the primary research tool should be digital reconstructions. Virtual environment enables a breakdown of an element, event or action in the past into primary elements, which can be consequently used to create a reconstruction. At the same time, it enables a gradual visualization of separate phases. Virtual reality techniques are thus not only used for representations, but are, above all, interpretative tools, used for the representation of a visual model, while at the same time they can be used to test different theories and possibilities of interpretations. The Celje temple is an example of a specific architectural form, which is so far unique in the territory of Slovenia. At the same time it is a rare example of heritage preserved in situ. The temple was excavated and partly conserved and represented in the 1950s. Based on our present knowledge, the representation of the temple was incorrect. For this reason, it is important to study the site in order to critically evaluate the original reconstruction and to make a proposal for a new one. What has been preserved on the site are the conserved walls of the cella and the partly buried walls of the porticus, which have not been conserved. In addition, 8 toichobates, 14 pillar bases, 3 fragments of either capitals or pillar bases, 1 fragment of an altar, 1 fragment of a marble fence, some fragments of tuff lintels, 2 fragments of an architrave built into the nearby church, have been preserved. In order to create a 3D reconstruction of the temple, the first step is to draw the preserved architectural elements in 3D environment. The next step is to include photographs into the 3D drawing by the use of single-image-based modelling. After that, the drawings are corrected by the use of homography, and architectural elements are included into the 3D plan of the site. Digital tools in case of Hercules' temple are used for an accurate documentation of architectural elements in order to analyse traces of construction and interpretation of architectural block processing. Furthermore they are offering the interpretation of integration of preserved elements within the rest of architecture. 3D enviroment offers the possibilities for reviewing the location of preserved elements within architecture. With creating a 3D model based on photos at the same time enables a realistic apperance of reconstruction. The temple of Hercules at Celje therefore represents an example for the use of new approaches of documentation, analysis, interpretation and reconstruction of cultural heritage architecture. This contribution represents the basis for the complete reconstruction of the temple, which is the final goal of my doctoral thesis, titled A Pseudoperipteral temple with portico: The Temple of Hercules at Celje.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

5 - VR of a 1st century AD Roman city. Pollentia: architecture, topography, geography
In this talk I will review my work on a 3D Virtual Reality model of the Roman city of Pollentia (Alcúdia, Mallorca, Spain). The story of this city began with the Roman conquest in 123 BC, but its first structures date back to 70/60 B.C. It spread and developed from the 1st century BC until the 3rd AD, when a great fire destroyed part of the city. After that episode, the site passed through different phases, including a Late Antique occupation. This Virtual Reality project is directly related to my PhD thesis that will be defended in 2012. It is focused on the architecture and urbanism of Pollentia in the period between the 1st cent. B.C. and the 3rd cent. A.D. In a first stage the state of the art has been studied. The research on the ancient excavations from the 20s and 30s of the 20th century has been particularly useful regarding the relocation of lost archaeological data, and for the topography of the city. The following step has been to document the buildings in detail, analyse their architecture and contextualise them within the Western Mediterranean. Hypothesis about their elevations, chronologies and urban organization raised from these analysis, and I proposed myself to build a 3D VR model of the city for a single phase, as a way to focus on architectural features from the elevations, to present the results of my research, and to visualize the volumetry of the buildings. The VR model takes into account the buildings standing during the 1st century AD in the forum of the city: the Capitolium, the insula of tabernae, the square and two small temples. They have been built with Autodesk AutoCAD and 3ds Max, in part during a research stage at the Computing Archaeology Research Group. In order to represent my hypotheses on the urbanism and topography of the city, and to simulate a urban background, a model with Procedural CityEngine of the rest of the city was created, and then exported to the model in 3ds Max. The location of the city, in an isthmus between two large bays in the NE part of Mallorca, offers a great visibility of maritime traffic of the area, and it was one of the reasons for the foundation of Pollentia. I thought it would be interesting to represent this landscape in my model, and this has been achieved with two different processes. The first one was to create a terrain model of the surrounding geography. The second one was to use a spherical photo as a spherical environment, simulating both the remote landscape (horizon) and the sky at a time. The final result is a model where hypothesis on architecture, urbanism and topography are represented in a feasible geographical environment. The further purpose of this model is to be a tool for other analysis as illumination and circulation patterns. It will be specially relevant to apply structural simulations to this model, which I hope to be one of the issues in the future.

Speakers
BV

Bartomeu Vallori-Márquez

I am mostly interested on architecture in Roman archaeology and informatic tools applied to it, especially 3D modelling techniques. I am also interested on structural analyses such as finite elements analysis. Thanks to my mainly humanistic background, I am particularly concerned... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

6 - Restitutions of architectural hypotheses in an archaeological 3D GIS
Who never dreamed to travel through space and time? The convergence of GIS, archaeology, architecture, and 3D modeling allowed by the non-stop growing of computing power and network flow tends to have it feasible. Using Internet, we can nowadays view virtual 3D monument rebuilds in a 3S GIS. But by querying the prints of the past, the archaeological information is subject to imperfection (vagueness, uncertainty, lack…) that we need to collect, store and propagate in the construction of new results. In those processes, restitutions could be realized using a 3D GIS. In order to deal with it, we choose to work in the fuzzy set theory framework and confidence indices. Therefore, the consideration of this imperfection in archaeological hypotheses in analyses, productions and restitutions should be studied. The search of realistic visual restitution leads us to present as a reality a more or less hypothesis. Therefore, we lose the richness of the confidence level that we have in our built or acquired knowledge. This raises the question of accessibility to the degree of validity of the provided visual information. Indeed, in order to face to question about the validity of realistic 3D representations of buildings, it seems interesting to provide a dynamic perception of knowledge with its quality. Geospatial imperfect information visualization is an important issue. Several approaches were proposed in the literacy in the framework of 2D visualization: mapping, GIS, scientific data visualization, urbanism, archaeology, etc. Current approaches study the combination of the third dimension and time. Some visual paradigms may be mobilized for allowing their dynamic perception, adaptable according to the accepted truth level. We propose to "wear glasses of reality" which according to the objective of the visualization may allow us to distinguish different level of hypotheses, for which we use several rendering technics according to the accepted level of truth. In order to permit this kind of process, our proposition consists in reversing the virtual reality paradigm: the more realistic the visualization, the more hypothetic the restitution (the more distant to the data). If we want to visualize the world with a high correspondence to the confidence we have in the knowledge, and if we know only few things, we use a "cartoon type" representation paradigm. To the opposite, if we would view the restitution through a realistic view, the information we perceive is a complete virtual construction. Some intermediary levels are proposed where the more confident data are the more realistic and the less confident are the more "cartoon". We illustrate it on several archaeological restitutions with simulated confidence indices. This approach gives a good mean to interact with data restitution and their quality.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

7 - Modeling Stonehenge: visualisation, auralisation, apps and films
This paper discusses an ongoing project exploring digital modeling of Stonehenge. It begins by discussing the importance of sound in multimedia contexts, discussing perception as an act of looking and listening. It explores methodologies of acoustic modeling and auralisation, as well as synchronised presentation of auralisation along with 3D visualisation. It will illustrate the acoustic analysis data that can be generated by acoustic modeling, and the possible uses of such results, as well as methods of 3D sound presentation using ambisonic decoding. It discusses the creation of a 3D model of Stonehenge from a 1993 photogrammetric scan, as an experimental interpretation of the site's possible orientations in prehistory, and the use of interactivity and stereoscopic vision to display the model. It discusses and illustrates a project transferring the model into an iphone app, and the advantages and restrictions of such a process. The paper concludes in a discussion of future plans for the project, for further modeling, and reflects upon the level of detail required for such visualisation and auralisation projects, as well as assessing the challenges raised by such work.

Speakers
RT

Rupert Till

University of Huddersfield


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

8 - Digital Models - Associative Geometry: the peculiarity of monuments in extension. The eighteenth-Century Lisbon Aqueduct as a case study
Nowadays, the existing information on heritage goes beyond the physical concept. The invention of internet, and the development of information and communication technologies, has changed how museum collections expose their collections, how they interact with the public and with the patrimonial object beyond



simple reproduction of works. Despite the discussion associated with virtual museums, the main advantage of making an object part of a virtual museum is promoting its interpretation within its environment, which is a regular procedure on scientific studies.







This research reflects on the three-dimensional representation of monuments that, by their character and function, spread out through a large territory which difficult the survey procedure and therefore the elaboration of the digital models. So it is sought to formulate a methodology to apply in similar cases. For that, it is evaluated the potential of the use of these digital tools, complemented with others that explore the association of geometry with alpha numeric metadata. Associative geometry allows the model to automatically adapt to new data, thus avoiding the need for a completely new reformulation of future updates, on occasion of the discovery of new information.



Additionally the virtual model is intended to allow "visits" in loco.



And as a case study, it is presented the Águas Livres Aqueduct, National Monument which extends along a vast area of the territory of Lisbon and Tagus Valley as an application of these concepts, procedures very common in today's architectural design: geometry and metadata.







The monument modelling, which went through the use of different software and file conversion, enables us to obtain a tool which can be used in the current management of this eighteenth century building that can still have an active contribution to sustainability of public water supply. Thus, it was used a dataset drawings concerning the original project, focusing the main pipeline, model that is finished and which we present its



potentialities. Since the use of standard components - conduct and ventilation holes - can be adapted and adjusted to any specific metric size of real-world, the 14 km length of the monument (approximately 8 english miles) may now, in collaboration with his patron, be confronted on the territory (geo and conservation status of its geometry) in order to test and to assess the functionality of the tool now developed. This systematization aims to contribute to balanced reuse of heritage buildings, both in real and virtual point of view.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

11:15am BST

9 - The medieval settlement of Montieri, from archaeological excavation to 3D reconstruction
Based on the results of the surveys and historical sources, a complete three-dimensional reconstruction of the architectures of the Village, focusing attention on the most important buildings. The 3D reconstruction helped scientists to make hypotheses regarding the original architecture and layout, and helped tourist to visualize and understand better the ancient site Given the great number of important monuments and archaeological sites that exist in Italy, many of them tend to be undervalued or even ignored because of the nearby presences of better known sites or monuments. Besides the remains are usually in such a bad state of conservations that only expert or scholars can understand their context. This is the case of Montieri, a small medieval mining settlement situated in south Tuscany, between the two well known towns of Siena and Volterra. Even if the settlement is not well known, there exists interesting examples of architecture, typical of XII and XIII century. Not only are there dwellings i.e. "tower-houses" but also: the Mint of the Bishop of Volterra, where coins were minted; a unique example in Italy of a "esa-petals" church (only ten examples of which exist in the world); the Bishop's residence, a palatial building adorned with rare architectural elements; entrances to the silver mints and the surroundings area where the silver was purified and smelted before being taken to the Mint. This being the case, the University of Siena in collaboration with the Local Authorities of Montieri, in the last few years have been involved in studying in the archaeology and architectural of the village in order to reconstruct the original layout and its development. A number of archaeological excavations and architectural surveys have been carried out on the sites using photogrammetric techniques. To improve people's knowledge and understanding, the 3D reconstruction images have been used in scientific journals and magazines and in video form in a documentary, shown on the national TV network, regarding the history of the village. The case study is on-going and will be updated over the next few years as new findings come to light. In the actual paper the methodology, tools and the aims of the projects will be discussed in detail. In particular attention will be focused on the various stages of work progress, and on the reliability and transparency of the data used in the 3D reconstruction

Speakers
avatar for Daniele Ferdani

Daniele Ferdani

Researcher, CNR-ITABC


Tuesday March 27, 2012 11:15am - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

1:15pm BST

CAA Committee Meeting
Tuesday March 27, 2012 1:15pm - 2:00pm BST
Building 65a, 2251

2:00pm BST

1 - Data acquisition, processing and integration: A submerged Middle Palaeolithic site case study
Digital data including geophysics, geotechnical and seabed sampling data is routinely acquired as part of offshore surveys for assessing submerged landscapes. Different software packages are used for acquiring and processing the different survey elements. However, recent developments in visualisation software now allow for a more seamless integration of datasets for interpretation. The potential for Middle Palaeolithic sites to survive beneath the sea in northern latitudes has been established by intensive investigation of a part of the North Sea known within Area 240; a marine aggregate licence area situated 10km off the coast of Norfolk, England. The fortuitous discovery of Palaeolithic handaxes and other worked flint in gravel dredged from Area 240 led to a major programme of fieldwork and analysis, funded by the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund. The programme tested a range of methodologies to gauge their effectiveness in identifying and assessing sites of this type and produced an interpretation of the area set within its wider context. The investigations included: · Detailed re-examination of geophysical and geotechnical data from industrial surveys; · Intensive geophysical survey using four different methods of sub-bottom profiling (surface-tow boomer, pinger, chirp and parametric sonar); · Adaptation of ecological sampling methods to recover further worked flint from the seabed; · Coring to obtain complete samples of the sedimentary sequence from 10 locations in the vicinity of the site; · Paleo-environmental assessment and analysis, and scientific dating using radiocarbon and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL); · Overarching synthesis and interpretation. The investigations demonstrated the presence of landscape features ranging in date from >500,000 years ago to around 8000 years ago. The handaxes and other worked flint are associated with deposits dating to the Wolstonian period, between 250,000 and 140,000 BP. The investigations confirm that the artefacts are not a 'chance' find, but indicate clear relationships to submerged and buried landscapes that, although complex, can be examined in detail using a variety of fieldwork and analytical methods. This paper will focus on the digital acquisition and processing of geophysical data and the integration of the geophysics results with the spatial data generated from the geotechnical data that were used to investigate the site.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

2:00pm BST

2 - Acoustic Data in Underwater Archaeology
The approach in archaeological research today is to fully utilize non invasive methods and technologies for data collection. In marine or underwater archaeology most of the procedures in the so called remote sensing field comes from acoustic sensors or sonar technology. In the past decade a vast hydrographical data was more or less systematically collected for different purposes in Slovenian sea and inland waters. These include bathymetric single-beam and multi-beam data, side scan sonar data of coastal belt and sporadic sub-bottom profiler data. Among these, bathymetric data especially multi-beam echo-sounder (MBES) data, stands out as being the most precise and complete. Archaeological applications of MBES are diverse and depend mainly on the deployment vessel, water depth and the system used. On the one hand it can be applied as precise tool to map surface structures of underwater sites and on the other hand as tool for general prospection of extensive areas in order to discover new sites with archaeological potential. Bathymetric data also represents a good starting point for any further geophysical prospection. The focus of this paper will be on MBES and parametric sub-bottom data with case studies that demonstrate why acoustic prospection is an essential part of any research in underwater archaeology.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

2:00pm BST

3 - Trials and tribulations of wreck visualisation using Multi-Beam Echo Sounder data.
This paper will compare the use of multibeam datasets to their terrestrial equivalents such as those derived from lidar and laser scanning. Although all three of these systems can produce point clouds based on XYZ data, the reduced density and greater diffusion of points can create challenges when processing bathymetric data, particularly when surveying wrecks at greater depth. This paper will examine strategies for improving data collection through survey methods and discuss the potential of using water column data. We will also look at how these data are processed to visualise wrecks and aid archaeological interpretations. This will include looking at how software packages can be best utilised when visualising wrecks for both single surveys and monitoring programs.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

2:00pm BST

4 - Managing data from multiple sensors in an interdisciplinary research cruise
In December 2012 the Applied Underwater Robotics Laboratory (AUR-lab) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will conduct an interdisciplinary research cruise on the outer coast of Norway. The objective of the cruise is to test integrated operations from the university's' research vessel RV Gunnerus, using multiple platforms and sensors for underwater monitoring and documentation of both water column and seabed. Deploying a range of sensors (SSS, MBES, ADCP, CTD and Cameras) from AUV, ROV and the RV in integrated and/or parallel operations call for structured yet flexible procedures for planning, preparation and execution. This paper will focus on the sensor data management of the cruise. Much of the data processing and interpretation will have to be done in near real time as results from some work packages will define the scope of others. The paper will present the main challenges of establishing a GIS for archiving, analysis/interpretation and visualization of data from multiple sensors for a range of users from different disciplines.

Speakers
OO

Øyvind Ødegård

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

2:00pm BST

1 - 3D Representations from Reflectance Transformation Image Datasets: A case study from early Egypt

We present a visualisation technique which uses the set of digital images captured in an illumination dome for the construction of 3D representations of material surfaces. In conventional practice (Mudge et al., 2005) the images are processed by the reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) technique to generate a file that represents the variation in intensity when the surface is illuminated from any direction. This enables interactive display of the object as if illuminated by a 'virtual torch' under control of the observer, and provides a useful means of enhancing the contrast of surface relief. We have developed an alternative means of processing the image sets, using the photometric stereo technique (MacDonald, 2011) to extract surface normals. The method achieves a higher angular resolution than in the normals derived from the RTI representation (Malzbender et al., 2001) by employing many triplet combinations of the lamps in the dome. From these the height of each point may be accurately reconstructed, producing a digital terrain model of the surface. The method will be illustrated through a case study on the early Egyptian (c. 3100 BCE) Hunters Palette, a shield-shaped slab of mudstone elaborated with relief-carved figures of humans and animals (Petrie, 1953). Smaller less-elaborate mudstone palettes were used to grind minerals such a malachite and galena, perhaps for cosmetic purposes. The Hunters Palette lacks evidence for mineral grinding, but its surface bears a range of other marks which can aid our understanding of its 'life history'. Such surface details are difficult to discern in conventional photographs and are often ignored in line drawings, but with the aid of RTI images (acquired as part of the AHRC-funded RTISAD project, see Earl et al. 2011), the finer details of surface topography can be visualised in striking detail. RTI analysis is already providing new insight into the manufacture process and the embodied actions and habits of the artisan(s) who created the scenes, from the direction, sequence, and depth of carving to possible tool types and techniques (see Piquette forthcoming). One area of the Hunters Palette in particular shows intriguing evidence for recarving, where it seems that the position of the rope may have been altered. Making sense of these surface transformations provides challenges which can be overcome by deploying RTI capture data in new ways. We extracted surface normals using 36 of the 76 images in the set taken in the dome, corresponding to all LED lights of zenith angle greater than 22° to avoid self-shadowing of the object surface. From the normals the surface gradients (partial derivatives in X and Y directions) were calculated and the height reconstructed. Cross-sectional profiles through the digital terrain map show clearly the depth of the carving with an overall maximum peak-to-trough amplitude of approximately 9 mm, and fine details of 1 mm in depth, as in the pleats of the hunter's kilt. The reduction of height in the stone above the hunter's back is clear in the vertical section, suggesting reworking.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

2:00pm BST

2 - Re-reading the British Memorial: RTI and memorial inscriptions in British churches

Re-reading the British Memorial: RTI and memorial inscriptions in British churchesThis paper will describe the initial findings of a project which has sought, in collaboration with local history and photography groups, to develop a methodology for Reflectance Transformation Imaging as a means of documenting and interpreting church inscriptions and memorials.Churches and cemeteries constitute a physical historical archive of the communities which they serve. The inscriptions and memorials found throughout churches and their grounds provide a valuable textual record of the history of the community within which they are situated. The materials, styles and craft exhibited in memorials provide insights into the people who commissioned and created them.Attempts to document church inscriptions using traditional methods have been moderately successful. However technical limitations have resulted in a fragmentary record with weathered inscriptions often remaining unreadable. Furthermore, traditional documentation techniques have been largely unable to meaningfully represent materials, tool-markings, erosion levels and other significant data.The value of RTI as a technique for recording and reading inscriptions has been demonstrated in several case studies. The technique also has great value in the degree to which it is easy to use and affordable. Consequently it represents a highly suitable method not just for the academic community but also for community groups to record, study and disseminate material from churches. Local-level participation, alongside national collaborations, documenting and disseminating inscriptions using RTI has the potential to greatly improve understandings of, and access to, this unique and nationally important collection of material.The purpose of the project has been to demonstrate RTI to local churches. Through collaborations with local history groups and photography groups, gravestones and memorials are recorded using RTI. As well as assisting these groups in the recording process the project has also trained group members in the use of a methodology for the adoption of the technique using their own equipment so that they can continue to use RTI and can train others. The project has also offered assistance to these groups to disseminate results of these recording sessions online, with an aim to make these collections available, not only for local, but for national and international study.


Speakers
GB

Gareth Beale

University of Southampton
My PhD is an AHRC funded Collaborative Doctoral Award, with Herculaneum Conservation Project and the University of Southampton.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

2:00pm BST

3 - Multispectral Image Analysis of a Censored Postcard from 1942
Multispectral imaging comprises the analysis of objects within different wavelengths to reveal features which cannot be seen by the human eye. In the field of art conservation (e.g. color measurements) and investigation (e.g. analysis of underdrawings in paintings) multispectral imaging techniques, such as Infrared/Ultraviolet Reflectography and Ultraviolet Fluorescence, have been applied. The same methods can be used in historical document analysis to reveal palimpsests and to enhance the legibility of ancient manuscripts. Within this paper the question is raised, if a Jewish postcard from 1942 censored by the Nazi Party, can be made legible by applying multispectral imaging in combination with laser cleaning. Hence, this paper gives an introduction to multispectral imaging techniques and its results in historical document analysis.

Speakers
FH

Fabian Hollaus

Vienna University of Technology Institute of Computer Aided Automation Computer Vision Lab
FK

Florian Kleber

Computer Vision Lab Institute of Computer Aided Automation Vienna University of Technology


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

2:00pm BST

4 - Multi-spectral imaging of historic handwritings

Multi-spectral imaging has proven its usefulness for the examination of ancient manuscripts, since it enhances the legibility of vanished or erased writings. Hence, this non-invasive conservation technique facilitates the work of philologists. This paper is concerned with the acquisition and digital processing of multi-spectral images containing historic writings. The manuscript pages examined contain an overwritten historic text and an overlying handwriting, which is considerably younger than the overlying text. The younger texts are visible under all wavelengths utilized, while the older texts are best legible under UltraViolet illumination. This work presents efforts, which have been taken, in order to make the ancient writings readable. At first the image acquisition setup is detailed and the image processing methods, which have been applied, are explained in the second part of the document.


Speakers
FH

Fabian Hollaus

Vienna University of Technology Institute of Computer Aided Automation Computer Vision Lab
FK

Florian Kleber

Computer Vision Lab Institute of Computer Aided Automation Vienna University of Technology


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

2:00pm BST

5 - RTI and Graphical Visualisation

This paper will consider the possibilities for the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and specifically Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) in the simulation of archaeologically derived materials. PTM was designed to enable complex surface shading of simulated textures, as an enhancement to bump mapping. However, whilst PTM and RTI files cannot be included in the rendering pipeline of standard tools such as Mental Ray we discuss in this paper the opportunities for repurposing RTI data in visualisation work.RTI is unique in allowing for the capture of a high resolution, highly versatile surface record whilst utilising commonly available, highly affordable equipment and software. Consequently RTI has become increasingly ubiquitous as a method for archaeological recording and a large and growing body of data exists. This paper will present some of the techniques which have been developed at the archaeological Computing Research Group at the University of Southampton which allow RTI data to be adapted and meaningfully incorporated into conventional rendering pipelines.The presentation will describe several projects including the reconstruction of the paintwork of the Roman Statuary from Herculaneum and the virtual reconstruction of the House of the Stags from Herculaneum all of which have incorporated RTI data in different ways. The methods covered in this paper will include the re-use and adaptation of normal maps generated from RTI data, the use of RTI data as a means of conducting metric comparisons with rendered outputs.


Speakers
GB

Gareth Beale

University of Southampton
My PhD is an AHRC funded Collaborative Doctoral Award, with Herculaneum Conservation Project and the University of Southampton.
GB

Grant Bryan Jeffrey Cox

Southampton University
avatar for Graeme  Earl

Graeme Earl

Really excited about CAA2012, and really grateful to the fantastic people who have worked themselves into the ground to make it happen. I hope the conference is cool and that people get a sense of what the Archaeological Computing Research Group and sotonDH are about.
HP

Hembo Pagi

Archaeological Computing Research Group University of Southampton


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

2:00pm BST

6 - Advances in the computational photography tools: Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and Algorithmic Rendering (AR)

This talk will present an overview of the latest developments in RTI and AR technologies.

Reflectance Transformation Imaging

RTI creates digital representations from image sequences where light is projected from different directions. The lighting information from this image set is mathematically synthesized into an RTI image, enabling a user to interactively re-light and enhance the subject's surface in incredible detail.

We will examine multi-spectral RTI and the hidden topological landscapes disclosing under-painting and drawings in the infra-red and the fine surface information disclosed in ultra-violet wavelengths. We will discuss RTI of subjects under magnification using macro and microscopic optics as well as updates in viewing technology.

New developments in the related technology Algorithmic Rendering (AR), which uses the same data sets as RTI, will also be presented. The development of new AR technology by Princeton University and Cultural Heritage Imaging is supported by a significant grant from the National Science Foundation. The end-product will be an open-source tool which will extract and merge visual information available only under certain lighting conditions, certain wavelengths, or certain imaging modalities. Users will be able to generate high quality, comprehensible illustrations for documentation, scientific study, and sharing with colleagues, collection visitors, and the public.

New software tools to better collect and manage the metadata surrounding the creation of RTI and AR will also be discussed. This "digital lab notebook" is a critical element in the generation of scientifically reliable digital representations that enable future reuse for novel purposes, assist the long-term digital preservation of the virtual representations, and aid the physical conservation of the digitally represented museum materials.

RTI is undergoing rapid adoption in the US museum conservation field. A US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) sponsored training program is bringing a four day RTI training to all six masters programs in art conservation in North America, as well as four regional museum trainings open to museum professionals. As a result of this program over 150 museum professionals and pre-professionals will be fully trained in RTI technology, in addition to the many institutions that are adopting RTI outside of this program including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Speakers
avatar for Carla Schroer

Carla Schroer

Director, Cultural Heritage Imaging
Carla Schroer is co-founder and director of Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI) a non-profit corporation that develops and implements imaging technologies for cultural, historic and artistic heritage and scientific research. Carla leads the training programs at CHI along with working... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

2:00pm BST

7 - An improved algorithm of artifact restoration based on image reassembly (long paper)

Some artifacts have been broken before excavation due to erosion, lithosphere pressure and human's destruction. With the quick development of the 3D capture devices, more and more experts do researches on matches of fracture surface to restore artifact by the 3D geometry information of the fractures. However, the algorithm is complex and the cost of data capture is high. Meanwhile some of artifacts are shape-plane, such as bronze mirror, eaves tile of Han dynasty, etc, all of which are the significant artifact of ancient China. In this situation,3D contours are not the only parameters to match several fractures.In this paper, we propose an effective algorithm to achieve virtual restoration of shape-plane artifact on the basis of image reassembly. Firstly, we use digital camera to obtain image of all the fragments at once time so that the errors of projection and scope are omitted in the procedure of data capture. It is much easier to obtain the shape than the approach of rangefinder. Then image processing are performed containing two parts: (a) As all the fragments lies in the single image, watershed algorithm is adopted to mark various fragments ;(b) the exact contour of each fragment is extracted and traced. Thirdly, we represent the fracture contour lines as numeral sequence and compute the longest common string to match neighbor fragments. In order to accelerate the speed of matches, we segment the contour line to sub-curves by angular points. According to the correspondence common curve, we compute the rigid transformation of the neighbor fragments by least squares method. We repeat the above steps between neighbor fragments and the reassembly result is taken as new fragment. All of the fragments will reassemble together. However, there exist accumulative errors after several times reassembly so that the last fragment cannot match the initial one closely, evenly match error. Finally, in order to overcome this issue, we propose an optimization method to estimate the rigid transformation for each fragment which makes the global distance between the neighbor fragments smallest. Following the scheme of virtual restoration, we can reassemble the artifacts in practical terms. A prototype system has been developed and applied to restore several artifacts.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1177 Streamed into room 1095

2:00pm BST

9 - Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior, 1500-1700: the case of digital decorative textiles

This paper will introduce the funding from a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Funded research network that will investigate peoples' experience of household life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - the time in which Shakespeare was writing - and consider how we might use this information to enhance our experience of visiting historic properties in the twenty-first century. The network will use the latest developments in computer science and cognitive science in order to understand how the domestic interior was experienced in early modern England. The network has brought together researchers in the humanities and sciences, conservators, museums curators and heritage professionals, including individuals from English Heritage, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Historic Royal Palaces and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The participants are experimenting with, for instance, virtual reality environments that recreate historic atmospheric effects and eye tracking equipment that measures where and for how long we look at our surroundings, and see how this technology might be used to reconstruct historical perception. In order to make the task more manageable, we are going to focus on a specific case study - "˜how did early modern men and women respond to decorative textiles in their houses?'







Further details at: http://www.kent.ac.uk/mems/domestic%20interior.html


Speakers
avatar for Graeme  Earl

Graeme Earl

Really excited about CAA2012, and really grateful to the fantastic people who have worked themselves into the ground to make it happen. I hope the conference is cool and that people get a sense of what the Archaeological Computing Research Group and sotonDH are about.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

1 - Etruscanning 3D: an innovative project about Etruscans
Etruscanning 3D is a European project in the Culture 2007 framework, that involves a consortium of museums and research organizations from 3 European countries to explore the possibilities of new visualization techniques, in order to to re-create and restore the original context of the Etruscan graves. The project is in progress and will last until 2013. Main objectives are:- International cooperation in the development of presentation techniques, to be proposed during exhibitions in the Netherlands (two important exhibitions are already open in Amsterdam and in Leiden), Belgium and Germany and for permanent use in Italian museums; - digital acquisition, digital restoration, 3D reconstructions and final communication of Etruscan graves and collections through innovative VR systems. We focus on two important Etruscan tombs: Tomba Regolini Galassi, in the Sorbo necropolis in Cerveteri, and Tomba 5 Monte Michele, in Veio. The finds from these tombs are mostly in museum collections and the existing (empty) tombs are not always open to public. By making 3D reconstructions of the tombs and of the objects which originally were found inside, we can re-create the ancient contexts. The techniques used for 3D representation are various: laser scanning, fotogrammetry, computer graphics, according to the typology and topology of the artifacts. A 3D reconstruction is not simply a digital replica of a real grave: we want to create an experience that can bring visitors inside the ancient etruscan mind and culture. The Regolini Galassi tomb, of the VII century B.C., is the one we have already reconstructed in 3D and implemented in a VR environment; the paper will present this work. It is one of the most remarkable Etruscan graves, famous not only for its rich contents, but also for the many objects that show the Orientalising influence. As the process of virtual reconstruction of the Regolini Galassi grave tries to visualise this tomb at the moment it was closed, we have been forced to ask ourselves very practical questions regarding the placement of the objects and their original position, their original shape and colors . We have had to re-evaluate and re-interpret all of the available, unclear, sources to seek answers to difficult questions. We explain the main steps we have applied in interpretation management. This is necessary in order to be able to update this process, to show the uncertainty in the reconstructions and, finally to enable and facilitate multidisciplinary research. From a technical point of view the most innovative element of the VR application for the Regolini Galssi tomb is the paradigm of interaction based on natural interfaces. The public has the possibility to explore the virtual space, to get near the artifacts and listen to narrative contents from the voices of the prestigious etruscan personages buried inside, just through the body movements, in the simplest and natural way. Walking in the space front of the projection, on a real map of the grave, he moves also in the virtual space, going deeper in the tomb, close to the objects and make storytelling emerge.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

2 - Etruscanning 3D project. The 3D reconstruction of the Regolini Galassi Tomb as a research tool and a new approach in storytelling
The Regolini Galassi tomb in Cerveteri, discovered in 1836 by the priest Alessandro Regolini and the general Vincenzo Galassi, is one of the most remarkable Etruscan graves we know. Despite the fact that many scholars have studied this grave, certain mysteries remain about the tomb. Since the grave was discovered and documented, but not methodically excavated and since the objects were purchased by the Vatican Museums one year after the discovery, much of the information on the exact location of the objects within the tomb was lost. This explains the many different, often contradictory reconstructions that were subsequently published.By developing a 3D reconstruction of this tomb we have been forced to re-evaluate and re-interpret all of the available sources in order to seek answers to difficult questions and make a digital simulation. In order to use this tool in a transparent we are documenting the interpretation process in a blog, tracking any updates to this process, presenting the uncertainty in creating the reconstructions, securing the data, and, finally, for enabling and facilitating multidisciplinary research.The project has been developing through a complex methodological approach; from the collection of existing data, to new topographical digital acquisition. Several ontologies of data have been acquired and elaborated: point clouds from laser scanner, photogrammetric data, computer graphics and GIS. From the 3D model of the tomb as it exists today, we have obtained a new model to present the tomb as it could have been in Etruscan age; with the objects contextualized inside, based upon historical sources and archaeological interpretation. The same we made for the objects, through a complex work of digital restoration in collaboration with experts. The final virtual reconstruction has been optimized to be implemented in an innovative VR application using natural interfaces and destinated to european and italian museums. All the interpretative and technological aspects will be presented in this paper.Virtual storytelling is another fundamental element of the project. We are dealing with new storytelling approaches, directly connected with the experiments in the interaction.The project is still in progress and will be concluded in 2013 but we have presented the VR application, in its first results, in occasion of some important exhibitions in Amsterdam, and Paestum, in order to test the public reaction. In these cases we began a monitoring activity on the public through an observational (non-interactive) methodology, that we consider fundamental to understand how these new approaches impact the public favour and expectations. In the paper we'll refer about this aspect.

Speakers
AP

Augusto Palombini

Ricercatore, CNR - Istituto per le Tecnologie Applicate ai BBCC
CR

Christie Ray

Allard Pierson Museum


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

3 - Evaluating Virtual Museums: archeovirtual test-case
Evaluation activities are highly useful since they can improve and enhance the research domain. That is true also in the newly born field of practice as Virtual Museums. Setting up a good process of analysis and evaluation can have an important impact on the creation phase of a virtual museum, in any of the following fields: virtual heritage and digital assets, interface design, interaction and immersive technology, visualisation tools. How can we effectively build a virtual museum in order to reach certain goals, such as knowledge exchange, cognitive improvement, cultural heritage communication, etc.? Up to now, we still do not have many extensive studies and statistics, a part from visitors studies, general or more specific in the digital domain such as those focused on web sites or interface design analysis. Consequently it is very difficult to build up a reliable and effective grid of indicators helpful to analyze, study and communicate such kind of results for a real improvement of the research.Hence, how can we evaluate the success of a virtual museum? Which are the criteria and the parameters we can use as reference? What kind of method, if exist one, we should adopt?These are the reasons why an European project focused on virtual museums, v-must.net (www.v-must.net), has an entire work package dedicated to quality evaluation through an wide interactive laboratory experiment.Although a previous attempt has been carried on during the exhibition "Building Virtual Rome" 2005 in Rome (Forte, Pescarin, Pujol 2006), the results of that study has not reached to enough detail, due to a lack of strategy to face the complexity of evaluating and comparing different digital applications. Therefore a second attempt has been carried on in November 2011, within the exhibition of Virtual Archaeology, Archeovirtual 2011 (www.archeovirtual.it), organized in Paestum, Italy.In this paper we will describe the following issues:the object of the evaluation (virtual museum) and its characteristics, based on the work currently in progress in v-must.net;the goals of the evaluation and expected results, such as:definition of principles to be used to further evaluate virtual museums (i.e. London Charter);testing virtual museum categories, as defined by v-must.net project;understanding if there is a gap between the visitor expectation and the visitor experience;taking into consideration the comparison of similar installations;analysing developers aims and comparing them with effective visitors feedback.the adopted strategies and the three evaluation methods (observation, short interview, written survey) selected for the specific case study of Archeovirtual, an exhibition of virtual archaeology projects with several different types of virtual museums;the survey at Archeovirtual 2011;the preliminary results.References:Forte M., Pescarin S., Pujol Tost L., VR applications, new devices and museums: visitors's feedback and learning. A preliminary report, in "The 7th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2006)", Short Presentations, M. Ioannides, D. Arnold, F. Niccolucci, K. Mania (Editors), 2006


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

2:00pm BST

5 - Back into Pleistocene waters
The faster and faster development of technological tools and methodology in the domain of virtual archaeology raises new fundamental challenges such as, on the one hand, the need of new, original and fully immersive applications, on the other, of more effective ways to translate into such emotional representations the careful of the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental analysis in order to make it visible by the public. This paper focusses on the new virtual comunication system planned by the Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage of Italian CNR, for the Pleistocenic Museum of Casal Dè Pazzi in Rome. The Museum is built around a 40x10 mt pleistocenic floor consisting in the ancient riverbed of the Aniene river, at about 200.000 bp, thus also containing the palaeoenvironmental records of such a phase (elephant tooth, plant remains, etc.). Starting from a detailed definition of the geomorphological and environmental conditions, the resulting data became the basis for a virtual reconstruction process carried on by the most advanced photorealistic terrain generator softwares, that led to the cut of highly impressive rendered movies. The planned systems implies a four projector complex. One couple is targeted to the archaeological floor (the ancient river bed), to create on it, in the darkness and with immersive audio track, the waterflow effect of river refilling. The second projector couple is targeted to the front wall, to show an episode of every-day naenderthal life in a fully reconstructed virtual environment. The same scientific contents will also be used for a parallel application: a flash, touchscreen-based, serious game on neanderthal life, targeted to childhood's learning.

Speakers
AP

Augusto Palombini

Ricercatore, CNR - Istituto per le Tecnologie Applicate ai BBCC


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

6 - The Virtual Museum
This paper aims to reflect about how Cultural Heritage museums have been affected by the introduction of the concept of Virtual Museum, and are in turn affecting its development. To that end, it will firstly examine its philosophical roots and summarize how the museum's concept and its relationship with audiences have been modified by it. Then, it will review previous characterizations and current uses in order to suggest a new, more comprehensive definition of it. Finally, it will consider different theoretical frameworks that have been recently proposed for its definitive integration. The idea behind this paper is that the definition and implementation of the Virtual Museum revolves around its conceptual distance to the physical visit, which is ultimately determined by the museological tradition of each country. As a consequence, the real potential of Information and Communication Technologies for museum communication and learning online has not been completely unfolded. The solution may be found between a shift in mentalities and the limits of technological flexibility.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

7 - Mapping the museum: artefacts to hand - A 3D tablet interactive visualisation, reaching from the museum into the showcases
"Mapping the museum" is a museum visualisation system running on tablet devices, enabling selective fruition of historical and archaeological data on the iPad platform.The experiment has been led, as a proof of concept, with the partnership of ComPart Multimedia (an Italian company, which developed the device software) and the "Museo Nazionale del Ducato di Spoleto", Perugia - central Italy.The museum was inaugurated in 2007, inside an evocative fortress, and extends over more than 1000 square meters with 15 halls arranged on two floors. The works of art on exhibit there date back from the 4th to the 15th Centuries AD, documenting the transition from the Roman age to late antiquity. The museum collection includes sarcophagi and gravestone inscriptions, together with floor mosaics, 6th Century AD sculptures, or artefacts belonging to places of worship from the Lombard Ages. The paintings section includes Romanesque works of art as well as some lesser known Italian Renaissance masterpieces. This project, focusing on the precious grave goods exhibited in the showcases and on the massive reliefs dominating the museum halls, aims at a user-friendly visualisation for a wide range of users.The final result is interactive fruition of the museum and its exhibited items, by means of surrounding views, videoclips, HD photos, virtual reconstructions and text contents.The application guides and accompanies users in a 3D-360° content exploration through the museum halls. Several markers identify points of interest: tapping on them, a 360° view of the hall or videos or a 3D reconstruction of an item is allowed. With only a few taps, ancient artefacts take shape on a tablet right at a finger's touch, allowing a dynamic and comprehensive experience of the museum. All the minute features of small finds or sculpted stones can be explored by users just rotating them or zooming at the required level of detail.The framework was developed using Xcode for tablet software, Blender for 3D reconstruction, and photo stereo matching software for 3D visualisation of the artefacts, using professional cameras, still sets and lighting for the shootings.New generation tablet and mobile technologies are among the most promising ways to enhance the visiting experience in museums, and sometimes to reproduce selected contents remotely; their enthusiastic adoption by the general public makes them suitable vehicles for such an experiment. The innovative idea of this project consists in the opportunity to explore the museum, and to handle exhibited items, from the smallest find to the sarcophagus, enjoying fine detail views, thanks to the tablet technology mixed to open source software.The main goal of the project is an application dedicated to museums, but portable to several other research fields. It reinterprets museum items in a digital format, allowing ease of navigation, with no lack of accuracy. Portable devices are becoming every day a more promising means of making complex data available to public audiences, who can enjoy full sight of interesting objects at will and according to their preferences.TO BE CONSIDERED AS SHORT PAPER


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

8 - Interactive workspace for exploring heterogeneous data
In this paper we present our work done in collaboration with the Israel Museum on developing interactive and intuitive tools for exploring the world of the ancient community of Qumran, that was behind the creation of Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known surviving copies of Biblical and extra-biblical documents. The goal of the project is to create online space in which heterogeneous information from various sources such as description of object, plans of archaeological excavations, ancient text interpretations, video segments can be used to help better understanding of the life of the ancient community. Our work is motivated by the idea that modern user interfaces in combination with huge amount of digital information should serve as an interactive space that improves use of available information and transformation of data into knowledge. When interacting with digital information, presentation layer and user interfaces should not act as constraints on how information is used, but should create possibilities for many different interpretations. Our idea is that highly interactive and customizable user interfaces can improve interaction between users and content. Search functionality is one of the most important aspects of digital interaction since it serves as one of the entry points to digital space. We present interactive visual search forms that can easily be customized by users, to best suit their needs for information. We think that users should be able to modify and personalize the way search is done. By being able to experiment with various searching solutions, users can get better understanding of the content in the starting phase of interaction. Presentation of search results is another important aspect of interaction. It is important to let users manage how information is presented to them. Users should be able to modify general layout of result presentation, size of objects in lists, number of presented objects, shapes, colors and other visual properties. Together with adjustable presentation of search results we are working on developing search tool that will let users collect interesting results of specific query, store it together with results from other queries, and explore it later, from single window. Set of available results is always available to the user independently of the current search, and visualization techniques used to present relations between results. In this way we want to give complete control to the user when performing the search, and later when exploring results. When users just want to explore content without any specific target in mind we provided browsing capabilities for users to easily and intuitively move over the information space. We propose a graph based data model in which every data item is represented as a node of a graph, and various metadata descriptions as edges over the graph. We also experimented on how information visualization can be used as another entry point to information space by providing multiple perspectives of data and support search of different types of information from a single place.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

2:00pm BST

1 - Pursuing the past: Current approaches to integrated geophysical surveys of Roman urban landscapes in the Mediterranean
Since the establishment of a research collaboration between the British School at Rome and Archaeological Prospection Service of Southampton in 2001, approximately 60 separate geophysical surveys have been undertaken throughout the Mediterranean, the majority focusing upon Roman settlements. These surveys have invariably involved the application of a range of techniques, adapted according to the requirements of the individual site. The approach taken has differed from that of many surveys by recognizing that analysis of Roman urban sites is best served by employing a range of geophysical and archaeological techniques within an integrated archaeological strategy, rather than simply using geophysics in isolation. Whilst magnetometry has primarily been successfully applied to study large open areas, a different methodology has had to be defined in order to study similar sites in restricted urban contexts. The significant number of surveys that have now been undertaken allows for some important conclusions to be drawn regarding the application of geophysics for the assessment of a variety of Roman sites. It is important to understand site topography, site-formation processes and the character of the extant (or in process of excavation) archaeological remains, and how these will affect the survey results and our interpretation of them. This paper will discuss the impact of combining magnetometry with resistivity, georadar, systematic surface collection, aerial photography and topographic survey. Each urban site raises a distinct archaeological challenge and it is contingent upon archaeologists to develop a strategy to extract the maximum information about the layout and character of buried remains. This paper will begin by exploring the results of some of these surveys, and then discuss some of the methodological and practical issues.

Speakers
SH

Sophie Hay

University of Southampton and The British School at Rome Twitter: @pompei79      


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:00pm BST

2 - Integrated survey, mapping and interpretation of abandoned Roman towns in Adriatic Italy
Since 2005 a team from Ghent University (Belgium) has coordinated intensive non-invasive intra-site surveys on several abandoned Roman towns in central-Adriatic Italy. These high resolution field surveys include : geophysical surveys (such as GPR surveys , geomagnetic prospection and earth resistance surveys), active aerial photography (including Near Infra Red and UV photography from UAV), geomorphological surveys, surface artifact collection, geomatic and micro-topographical field observations. A GIS-based integration of all survey data, maps and re-studied legacy data has procured a formidable database for the computer aided digital 3D mapping and interpretation of these complex ancient sites. This work, incorporated in the EC funded project Radio-Past, not only contributes strongly to the understanding of Roman urbanization in this part of Italy, but also supports and innovates the use of integrated approaches to geospatial mapping and analysis in archaeology. Several advanced ways of data analysis and fusion will be discussed, in the light of currently available commercial and open source software solutions.

Speakers
FV

Frank Vermeulen

CHERCHEUR, Ghent University
Archaeologist Professor Roman Archaeology and Archaeological Method


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:00pm BST

3 - 'The whole is more than the sum of its parts'- Geospatial data integration and analysis at the Roman site of Ammaia (Marvão, Portugal)
Non-destructive geospatial survey methods for the interpretation of archaeological sites have become increasingly more popular within the last decade due to the significant technological progress in equipment and data processing techniques. Individual methods can contribute pieces of invaluable archaeological information in fine resolutions and with higher accuracy than ever before, while the synergistic application of different geospatial approaches has proved capable of offering new possibilities for archaeological interpretation; the integration of datasets deriving from a variety of different survey methods can increase the interpretive value of results produced by individual techniques, and offers enriched visualizations and analyses of the sites under investigation, which were not previously possible without destructive intervention. This paper will discuss the management, integration, visualization and analysis of data collected with the use of multi-method non-destructive approaches at the Roman site of Ammaia within the framework of the EU funded project "Radiography of the past" (Radio-Past -www2.radiopast.eu/). To date, archeological research at Ammaia has offered an unusually large amount of diverse multidimensional datasets derived from geophysical survey (magnetometry, electrical resistance, GPR survey), topographic survey (total station, DGPS survey), aerial photography, excavation, terrestrial laser scanning, and 3D reconstruction of buried architectural remains. This very rich data collection makes the site an illuminating case study for examining various issues associated with the application of integrative geospatial approaches in archaeology. This paper will focus upon the integration of 2D and 3D datasets, data fusion methods, as well as the possibilities offered by commercial, free and open source software for enriched data interpretations.

Speakers
EP

Eleftheria Paliou

Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades da Universidade de Évora Universidade de Évora Academia: http://uevora.academia.edu/EPaliou Personal Page: http://eleftheria121.wordpress.com/
FV

Frank Vermeulen

CHERCHEUR, Ghent University
Archaeologist Professor Roman Archaeology and Archaeological Method


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:00pm BST

4 - Dionysias Archaeological Project: the discovery of a new town in Egypt through Remote Sensing and GIS
In the ancient Arsinoite nome, the modern Fayyum oasis, located to the West of the Nile valley and fed by a tributary of the Nile river, many of the villages were built around the perimeter of the cultivated area. They were mostly built on high points not reached by floods or irrigation, but many of them sit under later occupation. This region is certainly the best synthesis of the archaeology of Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, but there is still an immense amount to be investigated. Despite recent archaeological researches in the Fayyum region, the sense of how villages were spatially organized is still missing. The presented research was made under the Dionysias Archaeological Project led by University of Siena (Italy) in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt. The principal aim was to give a new light to the discussion about the organization and the planning of Graeco-Roman towns in Egypt, which is till now strongly deficient. Different kinds of Remote Sensing techniques were applied, such as Satellite Imagery and Geomagnetic prospection in an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach. During the first two years of research a survey of Geomagnetic prospection has been carried out using a Fluxgate Gradiometer FM36 (Geoscan Research). An area of 10.8 hectares was prospected, divided in a regular grid of 270 squares. The measurements were taken with 0.50 m of sample interval and 1 m traverse interval with a total number of 216.000 readings. The field work of the magnetic prospection was punctually registered with a custom made form, in order to record all the archaeological features visible on the ground. All the information were stored in a relational database and then imported in CAD-GIS platform, in order to reach new information from GIS based spatial analysis. The map of buried features gained with geophysical prospection was improved with the help of Satellite Image interpretation. The use of a high resolution multispectral and panchromatic image (GeoEye-1) - 56 square km wide with a resolution up to 50 cm on the ground - gave the possibility to detect features not visible or partially visible on the ground. Once images were stored in a digital form a high range of processing techniques were used to enhance contrast, brightness, edge detection, defects removing. Those records were all processed in a GIS based system integrated with a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The maps were draped on two DEMs with different spatial resolution: the ASTER Global DEM which covers the entire region of the Fayyum provided by the NASA.gov website; a more precise DEM realised using a Differential GPS within the area of the site of Dionysias. The paper presented will show the outstanding results that shows precisely the entire organization of the site of Dionysias with the different quartiers, road network, city walls etc. These results are promising for further investigation in the same region with the same methodology.

Speakers
GC

Gabriella Carpentiero

Department of Archaeology and History of Arts, University of Siena, Italy Academia: http://alegrafast.academia.edu/GabriellaCarpentiero


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:00pm BST

5 - Multi+ or Manifold Geophysical Prospection?
Geophysical methods are used as a way of acquiring information related to the subsurface features of archaeological sites. They have been successfully used to map subsurface architectural relics, recognize the limits of settlements and the plan of ancient cities, identify the various habitation phases and reconstruct the palaeo-environmental conditions of a region. Even though the current tendency is towards the fast reconnaissance of the archaeological sites through multi-sensor, multi-electrode or multi-antenna systems, the particular approach is deficient in areas that need a much more thorough attention. Even more, there are cases where the application of a single method may be inadequate to reveal the underlying archaeological features due to the type and conservation of the features and the surrounding geological or soil context within which they are located. The detailed mapping through the use of multiple geophysical techniques is of increased value since their joint employment can offer a more integrated image of the subsurface. The amalgamation of multiple geophysical techniques can provide complementary evidence of the subsurface monuments, filling up the shortages that can be produced from a single survey approach and increasing the confidence level of the proposed targets. In order to justify the employment of multiple geophysical techniques and how they address a variety of archaeological questions, the particular paper will draw examples from diverse case studies in relation to the archaeological issues involved and the way of contribution of each method, spanning from shallow depth magnetic and soil resistance mapping to medium depth prospection techniques such as ERT and seismic surveys. Furthermore, it will examine ways of processing various datasets, their correlation and how it may be possible to make the best possible usage of them in terms of the archaeological interpretation.

Speakers
AS

Apostolis Sarris

Institute for Mediterranean Studies Foundation for Research & Technology, Hellas


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:00pm BST

5 - Rural Life in Protohistoric Italy: using integrated spatial data to explore protohistoric settlement in the Sibaritide
This paper will introduce a research project that employs a complex set of spatial data to examine sites primarily identified from field walking over a ten year project in northern Calabria (Italy). Our core aims are to understand what these protohistoric pottery scatters represent in archaeological terms, but also the processes by which they form and are discovered in the present. Our project combines new information from different types of geophysical survey, excavation, intensive fieldwalking and geoarchaeological and geomorphological studies with an existing body of knowledge containing LiDAR data, current and historical aerial photography, current and historical maps, landscape classifications, geological and cadastral data, as well as historical archaeological site inventories. We will briefly present technical problems and solutions relating to the spatial integration of such data sets, particularly the steps necessary beyond simply displaying them within the same projection and coordinate system. We will then focus on problems in the integrated analysis of heritage, remote sensed and geophysical data, which require a specialist understanding of the way the data has been obtained and processed. The problems of utilising historical data such as aerial photographs from the 1940's and 1950's and topographical survey information from the 1960's will be considered. One of the benefits of this integration process are enriched site descriptions that place ceramic sites within their landscape and historical context for heritage management purposes, since the addition of geophysical and geoarchaeological information gives indicators of the state of preservation of the remains. We will present the results of work in 2011 with a specific focus on the integration of geophysical, field walking and geoarchaeological information at varying scales.

Speakers
KA

Kayt Armstrong

Groningen Institute of Archaeology, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Twitter: @girlwithtrowel Personal Page: http://wordpress.com/girlwithtrowel


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:00pm BST

6 - Multi-method archaeological prospection in the Brú na Bóinne WHS, Co. Meath, Ireland.
The Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend in the Boyne (Brú na Bóinne) is one of only two archaeological World Heritage Sites within Ireland and arguably Ireland's best known archaeological landscape. Most widely known for its three large passage tomb cemeteries (Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth) and its abundant megalithic artwork.As part of an ongoing research programme within the WHS, a comprehensive GIS was constructed, incorporating lidar data, multiple vintages of vertical aerial photography, geological information, archaeological site data and latterly WorldView 2 8-band satellite imagery.These datasets have been subject to systematic survey using a variety of visualisation techniques (SkyView Factor, multi-direction hillshades; solar insolation modelling; LRM) and vegetation indices (NDVI; Tasseled Cap).Selected low profile sites, identified through lidar survey, have also been subject to geophysical investigation. These research efforts have yielded significant numbers of new potential archaeological features, many of which are now beginning to feed back to the Irish recorded monuments list.This paper presents results from multi-method prospection, varied methods of visualisation and geophysical groundtruthing of sites, and highlights the value of such multi-stranded approaches in an intensively studied archaeological landscape.

Speakers
SD

Stephen Davis

University College Dublin


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:00pm BST

7 - Above and below: an integrated approach to the analysis and visualisation of data from topographic and geophysical surveys
This paper outlines an integrated approach to the analysis and visualisation of remote sensing data developed as part of ongoing research focused on the Iron Age hillfort at Moel-y-Gaer Bodfari in Denbighshire, North Wales. Moel-y-Gaer Bodfari is one of a series of well-preserved Iron Age hillforts on the Clywdian Range, a group of hillforts which until recently have been studied little and were poorly understood. Topographic and geophysical surveys were carried out as part of the initial phase of a research project intended to place the hillfort into its wider landscape context. Research is intended to provide a rich dataset for comparison with other Clwydian hillforts surveyed as part of the recent Heather and Hillforts project and inform our understanding of the chronological and social complexities of these sites. A wide range of complimentary datasets were generated during the course of the initial phase of research at Moel-y-Gaer Bodfari, including surface data from the analysis of LiDAR data and conventional topographic survey and sub-surface data from multi-sensor and multi-depth geophysical surveys. An integrated approach was developed to synthesise these datasets and provide baseline conditions for subsequent phases of the research project. This approach comprised three elements, namely: 1) morphometric analysis of LiDAR data to extract features, generate break line plots and produce an interpretative plan of the hillfort and associated earthworks; 2) multivariate analysis of LiDAR, magnetic and resistance data to locate and identify any potential archaeological features/deposits within the interior of the hillfort, and; 3) voxel-based visualisation of LiDAR and multi-depth resistance data to assess the structure and configuration of the ramparts and entrance(s) to the hillfort. Integration of the surface and sub-surface datasets has significantly enhanced understanding of the Iron Age hillfort at Moel-y-Gaer Bodfari, identifying previously unrecognised earthworks including an inner rampart in the south-west quadrant of the hillfort and a counterscarp or rampart along the eastern edge of the hillfort. The approach used to integrate these datasets has wider utility beyond the study of a single site and extends existing approaches to the analysis of LiDAR data and data fusion employed in archaeological research.

Speakers
CM

Christine Markussen

EnviroSystems Management, Inc.
JP

John Pouncett

Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre B

2:15pm BST

1 - Re-introducing FASTI Online: FASTI and Furious
Between 1946 and 1987 the International Association for Classical Archaeology (AIAC) published the Fasti Archaeologici. It contained summaries of excavations throughout the the former Roman Empire, however, spiraling costs and publication delays combined to render it unsustainable. AIAC's board of directors thus decided in 1998 to discontinue the publication and to seek a new way of recording and disseminating archaeological data. With the support of the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) FASTI Online was developed by L - P : Archaeology and first launched in 2003 using ARK (the Archaeological Recording Kit). Excavation projects since the year 2000 are published in note form including some basic information about the site as well a summary of each season of intervention in both the local language and English. ARK provides a web based interface for site administrators to enter new data, and gives public users free and open access to view and query the live database.As web technologies have evolved since the inception of FASTI, recent strides have been made to improve the administrator and user experience of FASTI, as well as increase interoperability between other existing online resources. As such, FASTI now offers the 'standard' spatial data interoperability toolkit (GeoRSS, KML, WMS/WFS, etc.). FASTI has also been extended to include and link to online resources such as Geonames and Pleiades to better enable administrators in locating present and ancient world place names when entering and displaying site locations. In addition, by extending and linking FASTI sites to Pleiades via the Pelagios Project, we have been able to further maximise the impact of the data, and as FASTI is a dataset of ongoing and recent excavations we are actively contributing a unique resource to the corpus of knowledge about the Ancient World.This paper aims to recap the successes and failures of the first 9 years of FASTI Online, with the hopes of shedding light on some of the practicalities of maintaining a sustainable, online, open access project in cultural heritage. We hope to also re-introduce FASTI to those already familiar, as well as reveal some of the latest improvements and work in the realm of Linked Open Data being carried out in collaboration with the Pelagios Project Partners. By extending the reach of FASTI Online data and publicising the latest improvements, it is our aim to generate increased interest, use, and re-use of this ever-growing online resource for archaeological interventions in the Mediterranean.Further information can be found:AIAC's FASTI Online: www.fastionline.orgPelagios Project: pelagios-project.blogspot.comPleiades: pleiades.stoa.orgThe Archaeological Recording Kit: ark.lparchaeology.comL - P : Archaeology: www.lparchaeology.com

Speakers
JO

Jessica Ogden

L - P : Archaeology Twitter: @jessogden Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/JessicaOgden Personal Page: http://jrogden.wordpress.com


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

2:15pm BST

2 - Half open or half shut? Can digital archiving and Linked Data resource discovery provide the best of both worlds?
English Heritage (EH) Intrasis Archiving and Linked Data (IALD) project is exploring the methodologies and best practice for creation of full digital archives from Intrasis and other related systems used in excavation and analysis, along with the generation of associated Linked Data for deposition with the Archaeology Data Service (ADS). This paper presents work that has gone into preparing various datasets as Linked (Open) Data, and will consider whether different circumstances of that creation and utilisation require the use or not of the ()s around L(O)D. This will include discussion of issues relating to database structures and content and the integration of controlled vocabulary terminologies using the RDF/XML based SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System) W3C standard. It will consider the intellectual work necessary for mapping from database structures developed in Intrasis to the Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM and CRM-EH), and how this is aided by tools developed by the related research work of the STAR/STELLAR projects (http://hypermedia.research.glam.ac.uk/kos/stellar/). While it is widely acknowledged that the positive benefits of making data openly available online, wider access; facilitating re-use; promoting knowledge transfer, greatly outweigh the negatives, that does not mean that we can ignore the negative issues. There are reasons why bodies and organisations have been established to 'curate' certain information and most archaeologists would acknowledge that it is not necessarily a good idea to simply publish the precise location details of Hoards or other archaeological sites with valuable finds (whether of great financial or intellectual value), because of the very real risks of heritage crime. So there may be viable reasons why it is not a universal good to simply 'open everything up' in the same way. There exists already some good practice from custodians in deciding how to go about doing so. To some extent that is why we already have Intellectual Property Rights, but IPR also serves to protect the rights of individuals in circumstances where a slogan of 'open data for all' might not be ideal. In academic circles in particular we do not generally condone merely plagiarising another person's data or literary text and publishing it without due acknowledgement, let alone attempting to make commercial advantage from doing so - perhaps the nearest academic equivalent to nighthawking an archaeological site? Academic attribution and data citation may also be crucially important for elements of trust and provenance, and also for maintaining research threads that enable researchers to follow research threads through links to other information. The paper will also consider the potential to join up new data with legacy data (Intrasis based techniques are equally applicable to all previous EH databases in MS-Access and other systems), along with data generated by other related historic environment domains (e.g. Architectural Survey, Aerial Survey, Maritime and Remote Sensing data).

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

2:15pm BST

3 - Reflections on the rocky road to E-Archaeology
Bridging the gap between humanities and science (or, according to other classificatory schema, between social and natural - or between "soft" and "hard" - sciences), archaeology should be an ideal discipline for digital applications. The reality has, however, proven otherwise, offering an opportunity for examining the way various disciplines adopt - or adapt to - technological change. The diversity of potential data sources available to archaeologists makes it easy to understand how archaeology could benefit from the use of new technologies, especially since archaeology has long been criticised for producing too much data. More important is the fact that much data has always been difficult to access, stored either in remote archives or published in obscure journals of limited distribution or limited edition monographs. Computing has simply added more items to the menu - more data from more data sources - without necessarily addressing continued problems of data accessibility. That there are other aspects worth considering will be shown by examining the example provided by the ArcheoInf project. Developed by researchers at the Universities of Göttingen, Dortmund and Bochum, ArcheoInf was intended to provide German Classical Archaeologists with a long-term repository for primary excavation data. Until recently, it has been fairly common for each archaeological project (excavation, regional survey to discover new sites, etc.) to develop its own database. Since most of these used their own data structure and terminology, it is often difficult for data to be shared between one project and another, even in those rare cases when the databases themselves are accessible. So it was intended that ArcheoInf would integrate individual site databases into a single, easily-accessed database, and thereby provide a service similar to others which have already been successful elsewhere (notably the UK and Ireland). Development of ArcheoInf has been hindered by an unexpected problem in the form of a lack of willingness on the part of prospective users to submit data that can be imported into our database, not even for testing purposes (i.e. to see if the import and search processes work). Thus we face a vicious circle: we can't test the system because we don't have any data, and it is difficult trying to attract prospective users if we can't show the system in operation. So technical problems aside, development has been delayed because of the need to create "synthetic data" which simulates results. So the question is: why should something so useful and so obviously necessary be so difficult to implement? Why aren't archaeologists interested in benefiting from "digital humanities"? The presentation considers a number of answers to these questions, and a number of ways the problems they represent might be overcome.

Speakers
GC

Geoff Carver

Archäologisches Institut Universität Göttingen


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

2:15pm BST

4 - Web Services, XML and Ancient Documents
How can Web Services and XML aid the interpretation of ancient documents? This research is a part of the authors thesis, which demonstrates how IT tools would be able to aid the reading of ancient documents through the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) prototype (Roued-Cunliffe 2010) connected to a word search Web Service called APPELLO. APPELLO was an extra tool developed for the thesis to show how Web Services and XML could enhance a system such as the DSS by enabling ancient document datasets to be available as open content. This paper will focus on APPELLO, Web Services, XML and how this can aid the reading of ancient documents. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines a Web Service as 'a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network' (Haas and Brown 2004). For the development of APPELLO I have used the RESTful (Representational State Transfer) architecture (Fielding 2000) as it is currently the simplest and most lightweight Web Service architecture. The design of APPELLO is built around the use of XML. Both the datasets aggregated by APPELLO and the output from APPELLO is formatted in XML. In terms of output I have used TEI, which is currently the most popular method of encoding electronic texts within the Humanities academic community (Deegan and Sutherland 2009: 81). Input must currently be formatted as EpiDoc (Elliott 2008), which is a customisation of TEI that 'removes irrelevant elements from the main body of the TEI, and it adds provisions for the specific kinds of transcription, analysis, and metadata that are essential for epigraphic work.' (Roueché and Flanders 2006). However, it would not be too strenuous a task to include input in other XML formats. APPELLO is a word search Web Service, which means that it is a service to which a query about a word can be sent and an answer about this word is retrieved. With APPELLO it is possible to send a whole word or a word pattern in a URL and retrieve all the words that fit this pattern and the documents that contain these words as a TEI formatted list. In terms of the DSS this can be used to suggest words to scholars as a part of their decision making process. However, this is furthermore a useful tool for the open source publication of a set of ancient document editions such as the Vindolanda Tablets Online II (VTO2 - http://vto2.classics.ox.ac.uk/), which has integrated APPELLO as an index searcher instead of the index at the back of a printed volume. This allows for a much more interactive searching experience of the tablets and enables an interconnectivity between the tablets.Acknowledgements: This research is a part of the author's thesis: "A Decision Support System for the Reading of Ancient Documents" at the Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford. It is funded by an AHRC Doctoral Studentship attached to the e-Science and Ancient Documents (eSAD) project (http://esad.classics.ox.ac.uk/). I wish to thank Prof. Alan Bowman, Prof. Sir Michael Brady, Dr. Melissa Terras, Dr. Segolene Tarte, Dr. Charles Crowther, Margaret Sasanow and John Pybus for their support throughout my research. References:Deegan, M. and Sutherland K. (2009) Transferred Illusions: Digital Technology and the Forms of Print. London: Ashgate. Elliott, T. (2008) EpiDoc Website: About EpiDoc. http://epidoc.sourceforge.net [08.11.2011] Fielding, R. T. (2000) Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures. D.Phil Thesis, Information and Computer Science, University of California. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm [08.11.2011] Haas, H. and Brown, A. (2004) Web Services Glossary. http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/ [08.11.2011] Roueché, C. and Flanders, J. (2006) Introduction for Epigraphers. http://epidoc.sourceforge.net/IntroEpigraphers.shtml [08.11.2011] Roued-Cunliffe, H. (2010) Towards an Interpretation Support System for Reading Ancient Documents. Literary and Linguistics Computing, 25 (4), 365-379.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

2:15pm BST

5 - What does the Holy Grail look like? Defining open data in archaeology and the related issues
A piece of content or data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement toattribute and share-alike ( http://opendefinition.org/ ). Driven by demands on government, freedom on information and an increased perception of their value, open data have seen dramatic growth in the past two years: is archaeology part of this general trend? Are we ready to embrace open data on a non-episodic basis? The aim of the working group on open data in archaeology is to explore what does it mean to make archaeological data open and what processes are required to make it happen. There are three major goals: 1. Individual and institutional advocacy 2. Ethical discussion and consensus-building (e.g. a basic agreement on the above open definition) 3. Knowledge transfer (licenses guidance, wider academic context, repositories etc.) The link between funding, publication and open data is a key area for advocacy of open data. So, the need to encourage national funding agencies, and international ones (private or public) to build in open data policies into the requirements of their grants and to check for such a track record in subsequent grants. On the other hand, there is a need to make open data a more relevant part of the publication and research process, and not just an afterthought. At the level of individual advocacy, producing open data can increase the value and impact of one's work (just like open access). Is this a different agenda to the one espoused for 'interoperabilty' (linguistic, technical, etc.)? Yes, it questions/reopens debate about whether rich semantics and structured ontologies are really more important than liberal licensing and access. Is quick and dirty, but open more important? Are the two in step with each other or potentially at odds?2. Ethical discussion Discussion on ethics and formulation of ethical guidelines are necessary to deal with ethical dilemmas about e.g. sharing data across sovereign borders, or the existence of justifiable delay in making data open (e.g. a grace period to allow for individual use). With specialisation in terms of geographic regions, time periods, kinds of archaeological expertise -- has also come balkanisation. There are very few attempts to synthesise at a large scale, and typically in the rare cases that this occurs, it is on the part of one-off mega-projects whose data also remains closed. Open data provides a pathway for us to return to the kinds of synthetic perspectives last possible many decades ago. 3. Knowledge transfer The working group encourages researchers to actively avoid producing and using closed data wherever possible. (e.g. not mixing closed data with open data in analyses wherever this is avoidable). Wiki-style advice and best practices for those who choose to go open" are among the intended deliverables.

Speakers
SC

Stefano Costa

Università degli Studi di Siena Twitter: @stekosteko


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

2:15pm BST

6 - OpenAccessArchaeology.org- A Case Study in Facilitating Open Access in Archaeology
This paper reviews the work of the project OpenAccessArchaeology.org. This project developed out of a project that looked at the perceived quality of archaeology journals and the costs to subscribe to them. Having no subscription costs open access journals were put into a list and shoved to the side. This list eventual made its way into a blog post, then a webpage, and finally into a dedicated website with a custom search engine, recently released database, and dedicate blog.







The process of this transformation serves as an excellent case study into:



"¢ the pitfalls of open access publishing



"¢ best practice of open access publishing



"¢ the creation of a central open access resource







Specifically this paper will look at both the breadth and depth open access publications and its context within the larger world of disseminating results and data in archaeology. It will present observations on how open access publications can increase their reach and impact in both the field and wider world. Finally, this paper will take the lessons learned in this case study to layout possible future progress into the dissemination of open content in archaeology.

Speakers
DR

Doug Rocks-Macqueen

University of Edinburgh


Tuesday March 27, 2012 2:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1097 Streamed into room 1163

4:00pm BST

Poster - VR as a tool for Ancient architecture. Examining some buildings in the eastern side of the forum of Pollentia (Alcúdia, Mallorca, Spain)

Virtual Reality has become nowadays not simply a way to graphically represent archaeological hypotheses concerning space archaeology or architecture, but also a tool within the process of interpretation of remains. As it is a suitable technique to visualise 3D environments, it helps to perceive correctly volume, perspective and proportions, all features that can be hardly represented in traditional 2D archaeological drawings. The process of building a VR model will be a continuous testing of major and minor hypotheses, and formulating new questions as new needs show up. These questions lead to new interpretations, more fieldwork in search of new data and search of parallels. This conception of VR has allowed us to propose a solution for the evolution of two close buildings in the NE area of the forum of the Roman city of Pollentia (Mallorca, Spain). Pollentia was founded after the Roman conquest of the Balearic islands (123 BC), probably between 70 and 60 BC. During the last 10 years archaeological research in the site has uncovered an area of the Forum where several walls overlap, and some of them even remained isolated at some moment, without any connection to others. Altogether makes difficult their architectural interpretation. The building of a VR model has allowed an approach to the evolution of this area. A building ("Building A"), belonging to one of the first phases of the city in the Republic, stood northwards. In the Early Empire, a new building with a fine opus sectile pavement ("Building B") was raised up southwards, overlapping the southern part of the Building A. Some of the walls of Building A remained destroyed to their foundations and isolated within the boundaries of Building B, while others were completely removed to clear the area for the new building. The evolution of this spot is difficult to follow until the 4th cent. AD, when the Building B was altered, probably related to a renewal of the city after a great fire that affected the city around 270/280 AD. The abandonment is also confusing as it seems to be abandoned slowly somewhere in the Late Antique period and affected by an Early Medieval necropolis. The interpretation of the evolution of the area E of the forum, through VR offers a feasible solution to the problem of interpreting poorly preserved structures, and it may be a good help to plan new archaeological campaigns.

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Speakers
BV

Bartomeu Vallori-Márquez

I am mostly interested on architecture in Roman archaeology and informatic tools applied to it, especially 3D modelling techniques. I am also interested on structural analyses such as finite elements analysis. Thanks to my mainly humanistic background, I am particularly concerned... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 4:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Illuminating Africa’s past: using Reflectance Transformation Imaging techniques in documenting ancient graffiti at Musawwarat es Sufra

Several thousand incised graffiti adorn the sandstone walls of the Great Enclosure at Musawwarat es Sufra (Sudan), a unique sacral building complex dating to the Meroitic period (c. 270BC-AD350) of the Kingdom of Kush.

The often finely incised informal inscriptions and images – rare evidence of non-official art and ritual practice – are threatened by accelerated weathering and the negative side effects of increased tourism. Several past attempts at documenting the hitherto unpublished graffiti corpus have been hampered by limitations inherent in traditional photographic and other graphic recording techniques. In 2009 white light scanning was tested on some graffiti with good results, but its high cost and the loss of important colour information limited its application.

In 2011 low-cost Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), which captures surface details in different lighting conditions, was tested on a large sample of graffiti. RTI is based on traditional raking light photography, where multiple images are taken from a fixed camera position using a light source that is moved between exposures. Results of the recording exercise are extremely encouraging although the outdoor field conditions posed various challenges, such as the restriction of the ideal hemispherical movement of the light source (i.e. the flash) due to walls or the ground as well as the sheer impossibility to prevent camera movement due to strong gusts of wind. Nevertheless, several hundred graffiti were captured and processed during the past field season, contributing to the virtual preservation of the graffiti corpus.

The processed RTI images can be viewed using open source viewer-software, which offers various visualisation tools. These display even finest graffiti detail that can be studied under different lighting conditions and surface rendering modes. It is planned to make the processed RTI images available for study via the open access Musawwarat Graffiti Archive.


Speakers
CK

Cornelia Kleinitz

Institute of ArchaeologyHumboldt University Berlin
HP

Hembo Pagi

Archaeological Computing Research Group University of Southampton


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - 'TOMOBIKI Night' - a Japanese Archaeo-GIS Ustream programme

Thursday, March 29 02:00-04:00 pm

 

This talk presents "TOMOBIKI Night!!" - a self-produced Ustream programme on archaeology and related fields of research and technologies in Japan (http://ustre.am/fAyw). The Ustream is an online broadcasting service, and is now broadly used for independent talk sessions, music and other entertainment programmes, and also academic presentations. It is very easy to get started: All we have to prepare is a computer with broadband Internet connection and webcam. The "TOMOBIKI Night!!" programme is coordinated by the authors, and is broadcasted every tomobiki day (every twelve days in average according to the Japanese lunar calendar system) [1][2]. It has been broadcasted for twenty-four times from August 2010 to November 2011. The contents include the latest news, current issues on archaeology and related fields, introduction of useful computer applications and tools, and upcoming events. Guests are occasionally invited from related fields such as geography, geomorphology, and geospatial engineering, to give an informal and interactive talk about their research. The audience gives comments in real time through Twitter gadget (Social Stream) embedded in the interface of the Ustream viewer. Such an interaction advances exchange of knowledge, experience, and ideas of research to form a new, real, and interdisciplinary academic connection. [1] Ako, T. and Y. Kondo (2011) Archaeo-GIS Workshop's USTREAM "TOMOBIKI Night!!" at the Dawn of Academic Social Media. Paper presented at Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2011, held at Makuhari, May 22-27, 2011. http://www2.jpgu.org/meeting/2011/yokou/MTT034-02_E.pdf. [2] Kondo, Y., G. Matsumoto, Y. Seino, T. Ako, W. Fukui, M. Sugiura, T. Uozu, and H. Yamaguchi. (in press) A union of dispersed knowledge and people: achievements of Archaeo-GIS Workshop 2007-2010. CAA 2011 Proceedings.


Speakers
avatar for Yasuhisa Kondo

Yasuhisa Kondo

Associate Professor, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature
Originally, I studied archaeology and GISciences (The University of Tokyo PhD 2010). I am currently interested in open science, participatory action research, and transdisciplinary research promotion for environmental archaeology (e.g. http://paleoasia.jp ) and socio-environmental... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - (Re)seeing the engraved block of El Mirón Cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria, Spain)

Some sets of prehistoric parietal engravings are palimpsests, making the analysis of their motifs complex and difficult. This is partially due to the loss of color information from each successive engraving over time, by removing the patina from the surface. In this sense, engravings also behaved like color lines. Unfortunately, the aging of these features may have made the tone of the surface rather homogeneous, only preserving the geometric information of the engraving grooves. When documenting prehistoric engravings, graphic solutions based on light and shadow relationships are insufficient. Hence, we need to find strategies that permit us to characterize more efficiently engraving groove families. The purpose of this project is, therefore, to distinguish different geometries of strokes (i.e. morphology, depth, length, width) in order to attempt to isolate the motifs and determine possible types of engraving tools. In this vein, it seemed interesting to take the sets of engravings in El Mirón Cave - a site that has been excavated by González-Morales and Straus since 1996 - as an extraordinary test case for the application of 3D scanning. The subject consists of an accumulation of linear engravings on a large block that had fallen from the cave ceiling atop a Lower Magdalenian cultural layer and then was covered by later Magdalenian archaeological deposits, all of which are radiocarbon dated, facts which has allowed dating of the engravings between 16000 BP and 13000 BP. The collection of 3D digital data was done with a structured light scanner. We used different fields of view (FOV) at resolutions ranging from 50 µm to 280 µm, to test the required level of detail to be used also in other similar engravings. We present here a few strategies based on semi-automated curvature extraction and other volume issues.

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Speakers
avatar for Vera Moitinho de Almeida

Vera Moitinho de Almeida

Postdoc Researcher, STARC-CyI; LAQU-UAB
Vera Moitinho de Almeida is a post-doctoral fellow at STARC-CyI and is affiliated to LAQU-UAB. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), focusing on technological and functional analysis of archaeological objects, using 3D models and Reverse Engineering... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - 3D Macrowear Analysis of Sculpture techniques in the Manufacture of the Neolithic Stelae with Horns of the Serra de Mas Bonet (Vilafant, Catalonia)

The construction of a large railway infrastructure in 2008 led to the discovery of a prehistoric settlement in the Serra de Mas Bonet, in the Catalan region of Alt Empordà. During the fieldworks numerous negative structures of various functions and types (cabins, lodge funds, silos, pits, among others) were documented, as well as a broad diachrony ranging from the 5th to the 2nd millennium cal BC. The best represented occupation phase is the late Neolithic (late 4th millennium cal BC), characterized by different negative structures, as well as a good preservation of its deposits. The most unique and unparalleled known finds of such deposits are a set of stelae with carved horns on blocks of sandstone. Our proposal is based both on formal analysis and three-dimensional study performed with a 3D structured light scanner of one of the stelae and experimental replicas, which have permitted to analyse, to describe and to compare the different types of macro traces. At the end of this experimental project, we aim to understand the technical process used by the craftsman and associate the observed macro traces with different gestures, carving techniques and used tools.

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Speakers
avatar for Vera Moitinho de Almeida

Vera Moitinho de Almeida

Postdoc Researcher, STARC-CyI; LAQU-UAB
Vera Moitinho de Almeida is a post-doctoral fellow at STARC-CyI and is affiliated to LAQU-UAB. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), focusing on technological and functional analysis of archaeological objects, using 3D models and Reverse Engineering... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - A survey on archaeological Web Gis: interoperability, usability, interface from the beginning to the future development

The aim of this paper is a critical survey on the webGIS in Archaeology and their real usability. At the First time a GIS on the web was called WebGIS, now are used also different terms as Webmapping and webcartography, but often is not well discriminated if there is a different meaning or not. Furthermore the WebGIS is a technology that allow to be presented spatial information in a user friendly format on the Web. Summarizing this kind of system allow for: data archiving, data creation, data editing, data analysis, query building, data visualization. The power of the platform is the possibility to have a different access by different users, generally the users are able to do: consultation of database and geographic maps; making queries and refine search in the database; creation of thematic maps with different layers; thematic selection and printing; draw spatial entity; administrator users can modify and update the database. In the last years thanks to the Open source applications there was a growing up of WebGIS projects, also small works were put on the web in order to disseminate the data and to improve the collaboration between the people. In the Osgeo website it is possible to download some applications and find all information (http://www.osgeo.org/) about the free system for instance MapServer, Geomaja, Geoserver. But WebGIS is not only OS and there are different programs, the most used are : ESRI ArcIMS, Intergraph GeoMedia WebMap, Autodesk Mapguide (Enterprise, but also OS). Different matter concerns the API of GE applied in some works. There are a lot of archaeological WebGIS projects, but the issue is that are these project useful for who? Which is the main aim? Spread data or a way to disseminate the know-how to the archaeological community? Which kind of data are shared? Are their used only for strict audience or for widely range of users? How long the web pages are loaded dynamic and quickly? Moreover most of these projects after a few years are not developed more, the websites did not work anymore, also often the interface is not really user friendly and the server is too slow, at the end are not "attractive" for the internet community.The purpose of that survey is try to understand through the exam of the past projects which is the future of the WebGIS in archaeology and the next developments in terms of Open Knowledge and cultural dissemination.


Speakers
avatar for Anna Maria Marras

Anna Maria Marras

Research fellow, Università di Torino
I am an Italian archaeologist. The first archaeological love interest was in Phoenician-Punic culture in Sardinia, after that I started to study the roman landscape in North Africa. The main aim of my research is the study of the landscape in all its shapes in order to have an holistic... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Across the river. Spatial analysis in the middle bassin of Ripoll river (Catalonia, Spain)

The aim of this project is the definition of a methodology, designed to create socionatural models able to improve our understanding of ancient populations dynamics and settlement patterns. We propose the integration of Geographic Information Systems exploiting the advantages of free software combined with traditional archaeological techniques (field walking and survey). This work shows the application of this approach in a particular case study of the NE Iberian Peninsula, the middle basin of Ripoll river (Catalonia, Spain) as well as the theoretical and methodological discussions about the use of spatial analysis in archaeology. Also, we used the Libre Office suite for the creation of the database, and Quantum GIS and GRASS for geographical modeling and spatial analysis.The latest rescue excavations in this area has generated a huge volume of information about prehistoric sites. Nevertheless, it is not being used by common research due to the fragmentation and heterogeneity of data. There is some evidence that these prehistoric settlements have been closely related to the location of various water bodies and fertile soil areas.In particular, the Ripoll river are home to the first human groups established within this region. The river and its basin offered Paleolithic groups and early farmers a wide range of animal resources, plants and materials. This landscape was formed by rolling hills and meadows, forests, natural water springs and streams. Moreover, the river can be understood as a place of passage, a real path of cultural transmission and economic and social communication.We suggest spatial analysis and geostatistics as a basic research tool to explore these questions in relation to our area of study. This type of techniques are able to combine geographical, ecological and cultural variables. For this reason we suggest that they could be used to validate or refuse old hypotheses. Moreover, GIS can also integrate data coming from different paleoenviromental analysis, as well as radiocarbon dates.The main aim of this work is to present a useful methodology to integrate data from areas where a high number of rescue excavations were developed. In this sense, spatial analysis and predictive models are excellent tools devised to improve the planning of new excavations and support better management systems.


Speakers
MY

Maria Yubero-Gomez

University of Barcelona


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - An integrated remote sensing approach for regional geoarchaeology in northwestern India

Remote sensing (RS) data quality is improving exponentially. Ever higher resolution and acquisition facilities have become accessible in the last decade. In archaeology, satellite imagery has been widely used for detecting surface and subsurface anthropic features. In the last years the use of RS has been extended to reconstruct past environmental conditions, modelling subsistence strategies and evaluate conservation and visibility of the archaeological record (Lasaponara and Masini 2011). Here we present the use of RS data and newly acquired field data for the understanding of present geomorphology and taphonomic processes affecting geoarchaeological evidence preservation and visibility. Our case study is based in North Gujarat, India, an ecotone region strongly affected by changes in seasonal precipitation and climate. The present physiography is the result of a "fossilized" landscape where records of environmental variability and settlement dynamics of hunter-gatherer and agro-pastoral communities during the Early to Middle Holocene are readily accessible. Present work focuses on a) classification of regional main land covers, b) detection of sedimentary processes and c) changes in geomorphological features for a better understanding of settlement patterns. Research propose a multiscale approach integrating: 1) multispectral response of vegetation and sediments on LANDSAT, ASTER, and IKONOS imagery; 2) regional altimetry (SRTM, ASTER GDEM, GPS survey); 3) historic maps and imagery (such as declassified CORONA); and 4) ground survey for validating remote sensing results (sediment analyses, plant cover, archaeological site location). Preliminary results propose a definition of new socio-ecological patterns suggesting a different story of the transition from hunter-gathering to agropastoralism in north-western India


Speakers
BR

Bernardo Rondelli

Institució Milà i Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (IMF-CSIC)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Application of RTI in Conservation

Recent developments in RTI technology lead to the growing number of applications of RTI as a tool for examination and analysis of surface detail, documentation, as well as a means of communication, dissemination and presentation. The present work is focused on RTI's contribution to the conservation objectives, namely, accessibility, durability, integrity and practicality. Applications of RTI on a large number and variety of artefact types and materials, derived from the Hellenistic cemetery of Derveni, in Macedonia, Greece, reveal hidden details, related to every phase of the objects biography, such as manufacture, use, decay and conservation. It clearly demonstrates the crucial role of RTI as a preventive conservation measure, which limits the human-object interaction considerably and can be valuable in case of fragile artefacts. Furthermore, the application of microscopic Highlight RTI not only meets the conservation needs for microscopic level of detail, but also signals interesting developments of the technique, which can broaden its application in the cultural heritage sector and particularly in conservation practice.


Speakers
EK

Eleni Kotoula

PhD studentUniversity of Southampton Faculty of HumanitiesArchaeological Computing Research Group LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=154784253&trk=tab_pro Academia: http://soton.academia.edu/EleniKotoula


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Bayesian Influence in Radiocarbon Dating.

Linear models have been important statistical techniques fordealing with any experimental science. One important topic in this area is to detect influential subsets of data, that is, observations that are influential in terms of their effect on the estimation of parameters in linear regression or of the total population parameters.There are a lot of studies in radiocarbon dating to purpose a value consensus removing possible outliers after the corresponding testing. An influence analysis for the value consensus from a Bayesian perspective is developed in this paper.ABSTRACT SUBMITTED FOR POSTER SESSION



Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Deconstructing the present

It is a common practice for people visiting an archaeological site to imagine what that place could have looked like during the period when it flourished. 3D modelling is an overwhelming, infinitely powerful dream tool since we can modify, rebuild, animate and experiment with all our thoughts freely without ever causing any damage to the site itself. This, however, was not the case in the past. When the Megalithic Temples of Malta were excavated they looked very different to what they look like today. Wanting to preserve has played a strong role and so has wanting to reconstruct. In the 1950's, a part of the Hagar Qim Temples' façade was rebuilt, shaping it to the façade we have today. Old paintings document the state in which this façade was originally seen when uncovered after being excavated in 1839. This research makes use of old documentation (photos, paintings, drawings, engravings and lithographs) as data from which to extract geometrical features which determine the monoliths and other large stones, from the façade under investigation, that need to be excluded from the virtual 3D model in order to visualise the Hagar Qim façade as it was discovered, before the physical reconstruction of the fallen slabs and monoliths took place.(I, the Recycler, would like to be considered for the CAA Recycle Award. The originators are Heritage Malta.)



Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Digging out uncertainty from the ground

The problem concerning the use of data collected on the surface as reliable indication of sub-surface remains represents a crucial issue for the practice of archaeological surveys, at both regional and site level. Any sort of surface investigation postulates a correlation between surface and sub-surface remains by over-estimating the value of the data collected on the surface. Nevertheless, there are clear evidences (e. g. geological post-depositional factors, past and actual human activity, etc.) showing the unreliability of the surface remains as data to trust for detecting spatial patterns and archaeological features both on regional and intra-site level. The surface collection may offer a biased understanding of the original population for a series of causes: 1) local movements of finds can merge clusters that were originally separated; 2) surface finds are likely to move down a slope; 3) collection rates can be affected by alluvial and aeolian natural processes; 4) the burial of a site by sediments moved by gravity (Colluviation); 5) collection rates depending on the skills of individual surveyors; 6) tillage can damage artefacts and confuse the spatial patterns of finds collected on the surface. Therefore, the present paper aims to acknowledge uncertainty as a quantitative estimation of error present in data collected by surface investigation and to show how all measurements contain some degree of uncertainty generated through systematic error and/or random error. I will show, by using different case studies, how the existing kinds of probabilistic sampling techniques (e. g. systematic sampling, random sampling, and judgmental sampling) can cope with the problem represented by the missing data. Finally, I will offer a range of possible solutions (e.g. Bayesian statistics, further archaeological excavations, remote sensing techniques) addressed to reduce uncertainty by correcting for systematic error and minimizing random error and to assess how the patterns characteristics of the surface remains approximate to those of the parent population.


Speakers
AP

Alessio Palmisano

UCL (University College London)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Distribution analysis of bone findings in the prehistoric site of Mondeval de Sora (Belluno - Italy): issues and proposals

The use of total station in the excavation of prehistoric sites and the processing of the excavation data with GIS has been introduced gradually since the 90s of last century. Such use is intended, among other things, to determine the spatial coordinates of the different archaeological objects, in order to perform an analysis of their distribution within the occupation area. This type of study aims to identify a possible intentional use of space by the ancient inhabitants, an aspect which could not be applied prior to the introduction of the practice of coordinating the findings, because of the lack of necessary data (spatial coordinates) of the individual findings. The only possibility is to readjust the excavation data and the database associated with them. This paper presents the results obtained from the attempt in this direction, made for a stratigraphic unit of the site Mondeval de Sora (Belluno - Italy), excavated from 1986 till 2000.Mondeval de Sora is situated in the heart of the Dolomites (South Western Alps, Italy) at an altitude of about 2150 m asl; it represents a key deposits for the study of occupation and exploitation patterns of mountain areas on the Southern slope of the Alps during the early Holocene. This site was characterized by the presence of large quantities of finds, so that it became necessary to excavate through the square and sub-square method. For this reason the only data related to the findings from this site, which were useful for analysing their spatial distribution, were the number of objects, broken down by type and material, found in each square. A further complication arose also because the squares of side 1m, were excavated through sub-squares with sides of 33 cm, or 25 cm, or 10 cm, due to the abundance of findings, and sometimes a single square was excavated through several layers (up to 3), each consisting of sub-squares with different size. The first part of the work was dedicated to homogenize the number of findings which were redistributed into sub-squares of 33 cm, for all the squares; then the database was changed in order to make it usable within a GIS. Finally, an analysis was made of distribution of the finds, which for this work were only bones. This analysis was performed by the method of interpolation, using the Krige algorithm, and through a classification of the different sub-squares, using the statistical method of "quintiles", adapted to the needs of this case. In the final phase of the work the results obtained with the two methods were compared, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each.

 

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Speakers
MC

Maria Chiara Turrini

Università di Ferrara (Italia)Dipartimento di Biologia ed Evoluzione


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Enemy at the Gates - Prediction models of the siege tactics at the castles in the 15th century

Medieval war conflicts were in close connection to the landscape. It is known from the Czech medieval military orders that there was an appeal to use advantageous positions in the landscape. Study of resources allows us to identify several tactic principles which were considered standard or at least highly-desirable. These tactics can provide us with patterns in archaeological sources which can be, however, predictable by GIS analyses with certain accuracy.







This paper is aimed to use of the combination of several computer applications:



3D scans and 3D modeling, ArcGIS usage for extraction spatial datasets with combination LiDAR layer and building the spatial prediction model, and processing of the spatial datasets in factor analysis. The aim of the application is other archaeological object, than have been ever used. In this way it is complex of computer application applied on the small range conflict areas. The result of this paper is the method of the construction the spatial prediction model of the castle siege in the 15th century probably usable in wider Europe territory.



The dataset for the prediction models were extracted from rectified plans, LiDAR layers and geodetic measuring of the siege relicts and projectiles. The dataset contains number of 595 features which has been discovered in last 30 years. From raster layers were extracted data for the factor analysis and limit spatial data. From the results was constructed spatial prediction model. One of the conditions in the model was presence or absence in the active shooting castle area. This area can be reconstructed with metal detector investigation or with the computer simulation. We can map the place with the use combination 3D model of the loopholes and 3D scans of the weapons in the case of so far standing castles. The final spatial prediction model was constructed with conditions and count on the prepared raster layers. Prediction models were tested by archaeological researches and metal detector surveys.


Speakers
PK

Petr Koscelník

The University of West Bohemia


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Exploring the Future Roles for Archaeological Photography

The topic of this paper is photography's role in capturing archaeological sites and spaces in the modern and contemporary world. In a move away from photography serving as a mere form of documentation in archaeology, this paper highlights photography's emerging role to actively capture and depict the motion and subtleties that exist within the archaeological site. Photography can indeed serve as an active medium, in which the interaction between humans and their environment can be more fully captured and represented. This new form of photography demonstrates the medium's emerging role in capturing both the ephemeral and lasting aspects commonly associated with archaeological sites, and the ways in which photography can create a phenomenological experience for the viewer. This greater level of accessibility in archaeological photography not only reconstructs the archaeological site, but also extends the experience of the site to a greater audience through the use of sensory means. At the same time, this paper will also explore the role that digital media tools such as meta-data and macro play in enhancing the experience of archaeological photography. This paper explores examples from current and past fieldwork to highlight the new role that photography can play in archaeology.

 

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Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Exploring the Future Roles for Archaeological Photography

The topic of this paper is photography's role in capturing archaeological sites and spaces in the modern and contemporary world. In a move away from photography serving as a mere form of documentation in archaeology, this paper highlights photography's emerging role to actively capture and depict the motion and subtleties that exist within the archaeological site. Photography can indeed serve as an active medium, in which the interaction between humans and their environment can be more fully captured and represented. This new form of photography demonstrates the medium's emerging role in capturing both the ephemeral and lasting aspects commonly associated with archaeological sites, and the ways in which photography can create a phenomenological experience for the viewer. This greater level of accessibility in archaeological photography not only reconstructs the archaeological site, but also extends the experience of the site to a greater audience through the use of sensory means. At the same time, this paper will also explore the role that digital media tools such as meta-data and macro play in enhancing the experience of archaeological photography. This paper explores examples from current and past fieldwork to highlight the new role that photography can play in archaeology.

 

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Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Exploring the Future Roles for Archaeological Photography

The topic of this paper is photography's role in capturing archaeological sites and spaces in the modern and contemporary world. In a move away from photography serving as a mere form of documentation in archaeology, this paper highlights photography's emerging role to actively capture and depict the motion and subtleties that exist within the archaeological site. Photography can indeed serve as an active medium, in which the interaction between humans and their environment can be more fully captured and represented. This new form of photography demonstrates the medium's emerging role in capturing both the ephemeral and lasting aspects commonly associated with archaeological sites, and the ways in which photography can create a phenomenological experience for the viewer. This greater level of accessibility in archaeological photography not only reconstructs the archaeological site, but also extends the experience of the site to a greater audience through the use of sensory means. At the same time, this paper will also explore the role that digital media tools such as meta-data and macro play in enhancing the experience of archaeological photography. This paper explores examples from current and past fieldwork to highlight the new role that photography can play in archaeology.

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Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - From 3D GIS to ArcheoGIS: First Steps towards a Timeless Conceptual Model

In the last decades, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have shown their potential to uncover spatio-temporal relationships between various objects and layers. Although archeologists have more and more utilized these techniques to analyze and interpret relationships between features on site, a full understanding of the possible advantages of the technology is for many still lagging behind. This shows the need to develop a comprehensive GIS for archaeological data which is not only cost-efficient and easy to use, but above all tailored to the requirements of people dealing with archaeological data in the field or as a primary source of information. It is clear that a three-dimensional GIS for archaeologists could hold many advantages over the traditional GIS tools which are mainly oriented towards a 2D representation and analysis of objects in a single time-frame. 3D visualizations have already proven to be valuable tools to record the state of a site and later revisit it in a virtual environment, long after it has been destroyed or heavily altered. Even more importantly, having a 3D overview of the different structures and objects on a site allows for topological and spatial analysis and a better understanding of the relations between the different excavated objects and stratigraphic layers. Overall, a 3D approach would not only enable new ways of handling this specific type of data but could be a starting point for new or improved methodologies all along the chain from fieldwork over analysis to reconstruction. Problems with developing such a system are mainly related to the broad diversity of archeological data and its inherent complexity. The data itself is intrinsically three-dimensional requiring a fully-fledged 3D GIS that is able to cope with the diversity in spatial, geometric and semantic information. Moreover, the temporal aspect that is linked to each of these information particles pushes the requirements even further towards a system that enables handling the fourth dimension and all its associated vagueness and fuzziness. In this project, we are currently examining the 3D relationships between structures and objects on several archeological sites. This should allow us to detect common characteristics that can be the subject of new or improved methods of 3D analysis that aren't feasible in a 2D approach. Both these characteristics and the data model used to register and analyze them have an influence on the requirements for the development of a full 3D archeological GIS. Therefore, the first step is to identify the most significant characteristics, to implement them in an extensible data model and test its robustness in the analyses expected to be most commonly used. Since this research is part of a bigger project, the next steps should eventually result in a formal definition of a conceptual data model with a common archaeological vocabulary and semantic, geometric and topologic description of archaeological objects that will be put forward as an extension of the GML data structure.

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Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - From concept to practice – experimental archaeology and cultural education

A workshop has been built at the school camp at Costesti (near one of the Dacian Fortress, from the Orastie Mountains - a UNESCO site). This combines experimental archaeology, with the need for education and protection of the historical monuments. With the help of volunteers this 3D project has come to life. With donated materials there are now reconstructed artefacts reflecting the Dacian and Roman civilizations, a pottery kiln, a forge and a potter's wheel.

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Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Geophysical survey in North Africa: Archaeological research by the British School at Rome and Archaeological Prospection Services of the University of Southampton

As part of the wider geophysical and topographical research programme that is conducted by the British School at Rome (BSR) and the Archaeological Prospection Services of the University of Southampton (APSS) on the behalf of its commissioning partners, recent research has focused upon a number of sites in North Africa.
The use of geophysical survey is emerging in Sudan. Over recent years a series of survey projects in northern Sudan conducted by BSR and APSS has produced significant results at the sites of Amara West (The British Museum), Sesebi (Cambridge University) and Sai Island (University of Charles-de-Gaulle, Lille 3). Through the application of magnetometry, combined with topographical survey, highly detailed plans of these sites have been recorded, helping to determine excavation and conservation strategies.
Together with the Università degli Studi Roma Tre, a detailed magnetometry survey has commenced around the monumental site of Leptis Magna in Libya. Survey work has focused in the necropolis to the east of the city and has begun to reveal a detailed plan of the area and the distribution of the mausolea in the cemetery. Further seasons are planned to extend the survey around the area of the port, as part of the wider Roman Ports Network project beginning undertaken by the University of Southampton and BSR.
Finally, a detailed geophysical survey has been undertaken at the Roman town of Utica in Tunisia, together with the Tunisian Institut National du Patromonie and the University of Oxford. The results of the pilot season have begun to reveal a detailed city plan, focusing on an area to the east of the city between the amphitheatre and theatre.
The poster presents a summary of the current research being conducted by the BSR and APSS in North Africa focusing on a number of key Roman and pharonic sites.

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Speakers
SH

Sophie Hay

University of Southampton and The British School at Rome Twitter: @pompei79      


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Google Earth, GIS and Stone Walled Structures in Southern Gauteng, South Africa

[will also be presented at GEO1 for 5mins]In South Africa, air photographs were frequently used in the 1960s and 1970s to map the distribution of stone walled pre-colonial structures. The principal objective was to classify different ruin types, and to explain the diversity of types by associating each with a different historically known cultural or linguistic group, ultimately in order to reconstruct the peopling of this landscape. New and readily accessible technologies such as satellite imagery (especially through the software Google Earth) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) justify revisiting the regional distributions of these stone-walled structures. These new tools can be usefully deployed to re-examine stone-walled settlements in the high plains (Highveld ) of South Africa to gain a more complete understanding of the pre-colonial sequence of change in social, political and economic organization. To this end, a long term project is investigating the spatial archaeology of pre-colonial stone-walled structures (SWS) in an area of more than 7000 square km between Johannesburg and the Vaal River, in the southern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. The survey area covers the entire basin of a major tributary of the Vaal River, the Klip, and two adjacent drainage basins. To facilitate the survey, these basins were subdivided in fifteen polygons, each bounded by major roads. Each polygon is being systematically surveyed on satellite imagery in Google Earth. In all survey polygons the initial step of tagging the site clusters has been accomplished by various research assistants at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at Wits University. The subsequent steps of the survey include tagging each individual site, digitizing its outline for area calculation, classifying each SWS according to existing and modified typologies, and finally carrying out a range of spatial analyses using GIS software. In one of the polygons, Pam 1 in the center of the study area, the survey has progressed to the last stage. This poster describes the analysis and interpretation of the spatial patterns in the distribution of SWS in Pam 1. The results show significant changes in settlement patterns through time from dispersed homesteads to nucleated towns during the last two centuries before colonial times. These echo similar patterns reported in the neighboring North West Province, where they have been interpreted as a sequence of evolution in social, political and economic complexity.

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Speakers
KS

Karim Sadr

University of the Witwatersrand Academia: http://wits.academia.edu/KarimSadr Personal Page: http://www.karimsadr.com/


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Integrating remote sensing techniques: the Penedes-Garraf (North-Eastern Spain) landscape case study

This project focuses on the study of the transition between Iron Age and the Roman period from a landscape perspective, using as a case study the Garraf and the Penedes, a mountainous and a lowland inland plain respectively in northeastern Spain. Previous archaeological research has indicated the existence of different economic activities in these two areas. The Penedes has provided evidence for the existence of Roman centuriated field systems (Palet 2003) while large livestock enclosures have been documented in the Garraf region, which seems to be associated with intensive pastoral activities during the Iron Age (Cebrià et al. 2003).This study endeavours to assess the existence of any synergies between these two activities and territories spanning the Iron Age to the Roman period, and address questions, such as whether the Iron-Age pastoral-based economy was substituted by Roman extensive agricultural practices or both activities could have been possibly integrated into a single economic approach.To investigate these issues an assessment of all the archaeological data available in these areas was conducted. This included firstly, a detailed analysis of the archaeological evidence present by systematic data collection by querying the Catalan Archaeological Sites Record (IPAC) and by fieldwalking to allow a better understanding of the chronology, typology and distribution of these activities. Secondly, a set of remote sensing techniques were used for the acquisition of new data. Given the physical differences between Penedes and the Garraf Massif, diverse but complementary methodological approaches needed to be implemented. For the assessment of centuriation in the Penedes area a combination of multispectral remote sensing, stereophotogrammetrical-derived microrelief analysis, survey and excavation were conducted (Orengo and Palet 2011). In the case of the Garraf area, high and eroded slopes and dense shrub vegetation rendered the application of multispectral image analysis and microrelief development very difficult. Therefore, in order to conduct photo-interpretation in this area, it was necessary to employ the 1985 and 1996 vertical aerial photographs, taken after wildfires burned down the vegetation in wide areas of the massif allowing a better visibility of the area. Block aerial triangulation procedures allowed obtaining orthoimages where hidden enclosures could be located.This poster presents the projects workflow and the first results of the application of this methodology, highlighting how the use of specific remote sensing techniques according to the physical character and history of the study area can offer more thorough insights into past human landscape uses.SUBMITTED AS POSTER


Speakers
IC

Irene Cruz

Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC).
HA

Hector A. Orengo

Landscape Archaeology Research Group Department of Archaeology, University of Nottigham


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Interpreting the evolution of the Roman villa of Sa Mesquida (Mallorca, Balearic Islands) through VR and DEM models

The Balearic Islands (Mallorca and Menorca) were conquered by Rome in 123 B.C. through a campaign lead by the consul Quintus Cæcilius Metellus. Written sources inform of the foundation of two cities in Mallorca, Palma (nowadays capital of the island) and Pollentia (Alcúdia). With the Roman occupation, a progressive new organisation and exploitation of the countryside was also witnessed. However, evidence of ancient Roman villas is still very scarce, and the first examples are dated from the Augustan era (27 BC-14 AD). The villa of Sa Mesquida, on the western coast of Mallorca, is one of the few examples documented and partially excavated in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century. The remains preserved belong to a structure, beginning in the Augustan era, composed of a series of rooms organised around a courtyard, a pottery kiln for coarse ceramics and a cistern that was used later as a rubbish dump in Late Antiquity. A recent project developed in 2010 provided new data concerning stratigraphy, architectural evolution and the activities that were developed during its history. This new set of data allowed us to create a preliminary hypothesis on the architectural form, distribution and evolution of the building. This hypothesis will be represented in a Virtual Reality model of the building, which is part of the interpretative process. New questions emerged during the construction of the model, and fresh hypotheses have been addressed as a result of this process. Furthermore, the environment of the archaeological site has been changed through history. The first main alteration has been a draining work that affected the wetland beside the coast. Touristic development provoked an extensive urbanisation of the area that destroyed part of the site, and the preserved structures remained surrounded by modern buildings. The ancient landscape was very different than what we can see today, and it is important to take into account the visibility that could be witnessed from the site towards the wetlands, the sea and other archaeological sites of the area. To achieve a realistic approach, the villa virtual reality model was incorporated to a terrain model of the surrounding geography. In future research we will explore the possible impact of the location of the villa on the landscape.


Speakers
BV

Bartomeu Vallori-Márquez

I am mostly interested on architecture in Roman archaeology and informatic tools applied to it, especially 3D modelling techniques. I am also interested on structural analyses such as finite elements analysis. Thanks to my mainly humanistic background, I am particularly concerned... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Intrasite spatial analysis of the cemeteries with dispersed cremations

The cemeteries with dispersed cremations were the main burial type in Estonia during the Iron Age. The essential characteristic of them is their collective nature and intentional indistinguishability of the individual burials. It seems that the burned bones and artefacts are scattered over the grave field in irregular manner, although there could be some cremations in the pit also. The cremations are mostly without containers. The intrasite spatial and quantitative methods which are usually applied for cemeteries with separate individual burials are not suitable for the analysis of dispersed cremations because of the specific nature of the latter. In the paper I will introduce the results of the intrasite spatial analysis of the Iron Age cremation cemetery of Madi, Estonia. Spatial data of artefacts, bones and charcoal were studied on two levels. First, the material from cemetery were analysed as point pattern data with the aim to find out the regularity in spatial distribution. After that, smaller clusters and concentration areas of finds and bones were taken into closer consideration. Different analysis methods were used: autocorrelation, density analysis, nearest neighbour analysis, mean centre analysis and minimum distance analysis. The digital spatial analysis combined with multivariate statistics allowed to take account many variables simultaneously and to study their relationships and distribution pattern in detail. As a result, the new understanding of the funerary rituals performed on the burial place and formation process of the dispersed cremation cemetery is presented.

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Speakers
MK

Marge Konsa

PhD student, Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu, Estonia


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Investigations at Roman Maryport. Integrated use of Geophysical Survey Methods to investigate the Extra-Mural area of a Roman fort.

This poster presents the results of an intensive geophysical survey conducted in 2010 in the areas to the east and south east of the Roman fort at Maryport, Cumbria. Magnetometry, resistivity and Ground Penetrating Radar were applied at the site, and provided varying responses to the archaeological deposits in the area. Integration of the different datasets using GIS and interpretation layers facilitated a more comprehensive understanding of the archaeological features across the extra-mural area.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - LiDAR data evaluation for archaeological purposes in Northwest Iberia

We seek to evaluate the potential for archaeological purposes of a set of LiDAR data, with a density of 0,5 points per square meter, made publically available by the Spanish National Geographic Institute (IGN) in the framework of the PNOA (Plan Nacional de Ortofotografía Aérea) project. This data will be compared with other available LiDAR datasets with a higher point density. Different case studies in Northwest Iberia will be presented.

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Speakers
JF

Joao Fonte

Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit) Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Linking the Data of Ancient Sumer

This work-in-progress examines the potential of Open Linked Data applications for Assyriology from the multidisciplinary perspective of Web Science. The study focuses on cuneiform material from the ancient Near East, limited to tablets from the Ur III period (c. 2100 BC) as published by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). The corpus consists of the metadata, transliterations and high-resolution digital images of the original tablets, which were written in antiquity by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay. During the four millennia of the history of script, individual signs underwent typographical changes and semantic shifts as well as being used for writing a number of different, even unrelated, languages. Semantic representations of the polyvalent values of each individual sign are as challenging as the accurate visual representations of this 3D script. The CDLI object records several possible anchoring points for a web of Linked Data. Its database is already an amalgamation of the collections of a number of museums and higher education institutions, and semantic enriching is a logical continuation of existing processes to interconnect and disseminate this data. It will enable a more diverse research base within Assyriology, beyond the traditional approaches of translation and comparative analysis of texts linked by genre, language or provenance. URIs will be assigned to occurring entities within the content of the text (locations, individuals, year names) and the object’s metadata (housing institution, provenance, date, socio-political period), aiding cross-referencing and forming a clearer image of each object, location and personal biography. Publishing the CDLI data in a machine-readable format (non-proprietary formats and as linked RDF) will allow for its use in innovative ways, and linked to projects reliant on separate and heterogeneous data streams. Digital Heritage is a multidisciplinary domain that lends itself well to the budding discipline of Web Science. Within this Web Science framework, the aim has been to examine the potential of human factors and technological possibilities in equal measures. The parameters of the discussion are set at determining whether technological advances will be the primary driving force in the future of Assyriology, or whether the social dynamics of the discipline itself determine which aspects of potential technical advancement are adopted and utilised. As part of this examination, the potential of Citizen Science as a tool for generating Linked Data and opening up a perceived niche-community of scholarship to a wider audience is discussed. Whether a more varied approach and diversity of perspective as brought on by non-specialist to the field are a major factor in the future of Assyriology remains one of the unanswered questions of this on-going project.

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Speakers
TN

Terhi Nurmikko

I am in the first year of a PhD and my research is funded by the RCUK Digital Economy Web Science Doctoral Training Centre.  I'm a student at the University of Southampton, UK.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Low-cost Photogrammetry and 3D Scanning: The Case of El Nia'o Cave's Paleolithic Rockwall Paintings Documentation

The documentation of Prehistoric rockwall art is one of the most interesting and developed applications of 3D scanning, since it allows to obtain high resolution documentation of this kind of manifestations. However, in spite of the generalization of these kinds of applications, it is still an expensive technology beyond the funding possibilities of many research projects. However, alternative low-cost methods can be implemented in order to provide small projects with funding limitations with this kind of documentation. In this poster, we present the methodology used for documenting the Paleolithic rock wall paintings from El Niño cave (Ayna, Spain). Using a total station, digital photo camera and the ArcGIS software, a 3D photogrammetric reconstruction of these paintings was made, despite the limited funds available. This reconstruction provides a useful documentation for Paleolithic paintings analyses and heritage management, as well as a valuable tool for the popularization of Paleolithic rock wall paintings.

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Speakers
AG

Alejandro García Moreno

Cantabria International Institute for Prehistoric Research, University of Cantabria


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Mapping the Late Iron Age of the Vredefort Dome, South Africa

Explores the difficulty in mapping Late Iron Age sites of the Vredefort Dome and solutions employed in overcoming them. Evaluates various techniques, from aerial photography to GPS mapping, to overcome the various challenges presented by the local conditions. Explores several analytical possibilities in a GIS environment with these maps.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Modelling Neolithic site location with MaxEnt

This poster presents a predictive modelling study of the Neolithic settlement system in the Boucle du Vaudreuil, a micro region of 1860 km2 in the Seine Valley (Eure, France). The analysis focuses on the environmental context of the sites, particular topography, geology and soil capacities for agricultural production. We analyzed the environmental context of Neolithic excavated and surveyed sites in the area through principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. In this way, we established environmental 'signatures' of settlement locations that could be used as input for predictive modelling. The MaxEnt software was used to extrapolate and visualize the results. This program was developed by ecologists for modelling species distributions for presence-only species records. It estimates the relationship between species records and the environmental and/or spatial characteristics of the sites (Elith et al. 2011). Since the program is designed to work with insufficient samples it is very suitable for archaeological predictive modelling as well. MaxEnt provides probability map estimates by establishing the covariance between sites and environmental parameters. The poster presents a test-case study. We will also discuss the limits of this predictive modelling method, in particular the problem of model validation with non-random samples and the relevance of the parameters used for the analysis. Reference: Elith, J., Phillips, S.J., Hastie, T., Dudík, M., Chee, Y.E., Yates, C.J., 2011. A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists. Diversity and Distributions 17, 43-57. Submission for CAA2012

 

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Speakers
CL

Claira Lietar

Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne UMR 7041- Arscan - Protohistoire européenne Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie 21, allée de l'Université 92023 Nanterre Cedex


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - No more pencils, no more field books'¦ Archaeological drawing from total station data and digital photography

The use of total station in the archaeological excavation has undoubtedly revolutionized the collecting and recording field methods, with several advantages over the traditional practices: faster and more accurate measurements, easier handling of spatial and provenience data, immediate availability of data for visualization, real time analysis and interpretation, among others.Combining these advantages with the ones from digital photography, an effective tool is created for the graphic recording of stratigraphic profiles and archaeological structures, with the ability to eliminate errors associated to traditional tape measured drawings. The method is based on the arrangement and rectification of a series of close-up and general photographs with three-dimensional coordinates taken from a set of preplaced numbered pushpins. These will allow, in addition to the high precision in the vectorization of features, the inclusion of the photographs and subsequent drawings into the site grid space using GIS. This poster will focus on the comparison between the described method and the traditional tape measuring process, applied to the drawing of a burial context from a Portuguese Late Mesolithic shellmidden. The results provide levels of accuracy and resolution with errors less than 1mm from the total station/photograph method, which also reveal a greater exactitude in the representation of the detail of the skeletal elements.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Ontology-based Collaborative Image Annotation

Interdisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists and archaeologists is enabling the development of innovative digital technologies in a variety of areas. Tracing Networks is a Leverhulme-funded research project that brings together archaeologists and computer scientists to investigate networks of crafts-people and craft traditions across and beyond the Mediterranean region, between the late Bronze Age and the late classical period. In recent years, archaeologists have gathered a massive amount of images, Cross-team knowledge sharing and analysis are vital for their research and being able to retrieve the right images, in the right context, and with the right level of confidence is essential.We explore the use of semantic web technologies and introduce an ontology-based collaborative framework for image annotation, which allows users to tag concepts, relationships in the pictures and storing context regarding users. The framework also provides a systematic way to represent and combine uncertainty of statements as well as user-credibility measurement, which can be used for ranking search results. It addition, we are working on a GraphML-based query builder, which provides assistance to archaeologists who has difficulty with writing query for RDF data.(short paper or poster)


Speakers
YH

Yi Hong

G14 Computer Science Building Department of Computer Science, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Paris and its urban area at the intersection of history and geography (9th-19th century)

In consideration of the growing interest in urban space studies, the ALPAGE project (ALPAGE is a French acronym for « diachronic analysis of the Paris urban area: a geomatic approach ») aims at producing data and tools to understand the long term relationships between spaces and societies in Paris. This project is a three year research program funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and it involves the work of 4 laboratories with the collaboration of various partners : LAMOP (project leader), ArScAn, LIENSs, L3i, COGIT, IRHT, the Parisian topography centre, APUR. The above have come together to collaborate on building a Geographic Information System (GIS) for the Parisian area in the preindustrial period. The creation of such a GIS enables to reconstruct the oldest parcel plan of Paris - the Atlas made by Vasserot between 1810-1836 - and to spatialise historical data from the Middle Ages and modern times (walls, aristocratic mansions, sewers, centennial floods, manors, parishes, etc.). When linked with the old urban fabrics, these data show the diachronic structure of the urban morphology. During the project, the 910 urban block plans of the Vasserot atlas (the oldest parcel plans of Paris) have been thus georeferenced and vectorised. As a result of the active collaboration between historians, geomaticians and computer scientists specialised in automatic vectorisation, this co-production of spatial reference data has allowed the project to take into account the natural and social dimensions of the Parisian urban space. This work has firstly allowed us to study the geometrical characteristics of parcels through different criteria including; density, shape diversity, and the geometric orientations of the road network and of the parcels. These identified morphological characteristics are then explained by social practices that redefine these shapes over a long term period. Secondly, the spatial dimension of these historical vectorised objects has been analysed : influence of walls and road network on the parcels, inheritance of past flows on the feudal domains and the sewers. Thirdly, to improve the understanding of Vasserot's data, plans dated from 1300 to 1380, have also been georeferenced to allow for the comparison and confrontation with medieval texts. Thus, the geocoding on the Vasserot's road system of the taxpayers of the Parisian royal tax in 1300 has been possible. Finally, an original development of the project, unplanned in its beginning, has been to provide all this new knowledge to everyone through a digital webmapping platform. Data co-produced by researchers involved in the ALPAGE project are now freely visible and stackable with current parcel data obtained by agreement with the Paris planning agency. This webmapping platform may meet certain expectations of members of the civil society that have emerged during the project, such as redefining the scope of protection of the Marais according to the shape of the wall of Charles V. More information about the ALPAGE project is available online: http://lamop.univ-paris1.fr/alpage and http://websig.univ-lr.fr/alpage_public/flash/.


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Photographic rectification and photogrammetric methodology applied to the study of construction process of the Provincial Forum of Tarraco (Spain)

The purpose of the proposed study refers to the correct application of the photographic rectification and photogrammetric methodology used as graphic support for the understanding of the constructive processes of Roman structures.The analysis of construction processes of the Provincial Forum of Tarraco involved the need of an accurate and essential graphic documentation, the achievement of which may suffer from practical limitations typical of urban environment (space, time, financial and technical resources, etc.). Depending on the structure of interest and the amount of available data, a two-dimensional reproduction or a digital model was used. In both cases, according with the location of the archaeological evidence, the data were collected with or without the use of topographic control points. However, while for the two-dimensional reproduction a single photo was required used to carry out the specific photographic rectification, for the digital model pairs of photos were necessary to get the stereographic view. The image and data processing allowed the identification of an incredible numbers of information and details about the construction processes of the many of the structures of the Provincial Forum, nonetheless, often the size of such structures beside the modern urban enviroment give time-space limitations. The applied computing methodology led to obtain two-dimensional images as well as digital models in a straight, fast and accurate way; the images and the models obtained have been successfully used in different studies, among the others: the study of the modulation used in the building of the structures and the exact identification of the working tools used for the manufacture of building materials; interesting the high accuracy of the analysis allows not just the mere identification of the type of the working tools but also their classification based on the size of the footprints left in the worked pieces. In conclusion, the combinations of orthoimages obtained through the software PhoToPlan (Kubit) and the digital models of the structures elaborated through the program Topcon-Image Master represented a perfect solution to get the results of our interest.


Speakers
MS

Maria Serena Vinci

Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica (Tarragona, Spain)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Prehistoric settlements, burial sites, ritual places reprocessed by GIS

Because a GIS enables geospatial collection, management, analysis and visualisation of comprehensive data records, it is especially well suited for digital processing of excavation documentation. Valuable originals are spared and saved as a result. Access to the data is optimised and information from different data resources can be integrated and analysed collectively. Translation rows in a database enable the creation of maps in different languages within minutes, which is a big support for the international teamwork. Only well structured and high-quality data input with the corresponding metadata for the data source and processing allows for the best possible results.In contrast to the paper plans of an excavation documentation, in GIS the objects should be drawn in full size and with the necessary details, even if they are not or just partly visible and covered by other objects. When editing in GIS one has to work in reversed stratigraphy from bottom to top. Photographs and literature give the necessary background information to improve and sometimes modify the original excavation drawings. An identification code, for example a Museum number or the name of an excavation field could be used as a connecting link between the databases and the digital plans. The fact, that one is able to show how the different features are arranged, for example in a 3D animation, is a considerable support for analysing, which would never have been achieved by ordinary studies. The transformation of the spatial data from the local System into a UTM coordinate System allows the comparison with other data from the surrounding.The geospatial analysis of data from the war booty sacrificial sites of Northern Europe dating back to the Roman and Migration periods clearly demonstrates the possibilities offered by GIS in relation to archaeological matters. For example, the excavation documentation from the sacrificial sites of Ejsbøl, Illerup Ǻdal, Thorsberg and Nydam in Denmark has been systematically scanned and edited. Countless photos and excavation drawings as well as database entries are now linked with the plans and provide insights into the various deposition stages or simplify the reconstructions of military and personalised equipment on the basis of situation analyses of the individual elements. The wealth of possible applications is illustrated by topics relating, for example, to settlement developments and structures as well building constructions in the framework of GIS-based analysis of settlements and central sites such as Hedeby and Wurt Elisenhof. The visualisation of physical structures proves its worth also in the reconstruction of tomb complexes, such as the wooden burial chambers of Neudorf-Bornstein in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde/ Germany or Poprad-Matejovce in Slovakia.Old excavation documentations contain important information about our past. We should dig them out again and use them for further analysis. Special efforts have to direct the process towards standardizing techniques, so that information from one country can be compared and exchanged with that of another.

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Speakers
KG

Karin Göbel

Foundation Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen - Schloß Gottorf - Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Preparing High Resolution DTM to Prospect Ancient Roads in Saxony (Poster)

The surveying department of Saxony ordered the creation of high resolution DEM data. The airborne laser scans of about 18 415 km² will be finished in 2011. ATKIS-DGM2, a set of interpolated data with 2m-grid and an accuracy of +/- 0.2 m consists of over 4.6 billion points within about 5200 files. This treasure shall be provided for daily archaeological use.While the methods are clear in theory, there are some challenges in processing large amounts of 3D-data in practice. The experiences using ESRI ArcGIS 10 software with 3D Extension are shown. Based on a description of the solution with ArcGIS Model Builder, problems and chances of the used tools are illustrated in the presentation. Results of this project part are hill-shades of all available DGM2 data and a terrain-model that supports the generation of TIN and 3D-views of dedicated regions.Based on these data, combined with previously georeferenced historic maps and high resolution remote sensing data (DOP, CIR) it is possible to prospect large regions from the desktop. In this manner over 400 km of ancient roads where studied, assumed to be part of the Via Regia and the "Frühbußer Straße". The Result is a documentation of visible preserved remains from ancient roads, just like hollow ways or crop-marks, for concerns of heritage protection.Most details of the used methods are well known, but falling prices allow the application even with rather low budgets. The method supports the practice of heritage protection not only for small project regions but state wide for the entire region of Saxony.

 

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Speakers
RG

Reiner Goeldner

Archaeological Heritage Office in Saxony


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Pursuing the Past: Geophysical prospection services in the Mediterranean

The regular application of geophysical and topographical survey techniques to evaluate archaeological sites has been the most recent addition to landscape surveys in Italy carried out by a partnership between the British School at Rome (BSR) and the Archaeological Prospection Services of Southampton (APSS), a unit within Southampton University.
The creation of a focused team based at the BSR providing a service of geophysical and topographical surveys, draws upon the specialised skills and expertise of experienced researchers. The service also benefits from the academic support and resources provided by the BSR and the University of Southampton.The initiative has been extremely successful since its inauguration in 2001 and has participated in a vast range of chronologically diverse projects, most notably, the Portus Project, as well as projects of Italian and foreign research institutions within Italy. The wide distribution of the geophysical work over much of Italy is testimony to the variety of the commissioning bodies which include Soprintendenza, Italian and foreign universities, Province, Regione and local Comune. More recently, the BSR and APSS have begun to extend the geographical spread of their surveys across the Mediterranean, with ongoing work commissioned by partners in Spain, Libya, Sudan, Tunisia and Montenegro.The poster presents an overview of the research that has been undertaken, the results achieved, and the range of techniques that are used in the field.

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Speakers
SH

Sophie Hay

University of Southampton and The British School at Rome Twitter: @pompei79      
AJ

Alice James

British School at Rome


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - QueryArch3D: A 3D WebGIS System linking 3D Visualizations to Archaeological Data

This poster presents a new 3D WebGIS System—called QueryArch3D— that allows archaeologists to search and query segmented 3D models that are linked to a spatial database via a virtual reality landscape—in this case the ancient Maya city and UNESCO World Heritage site of Copan, Honduras. In 2009, the MayaArch3D Project (http://mayaarch3d.unm.edu) was begun to explore the possibilities of integrating GIS and 3D digital tools for research on ancient architecture and landscapes. This interdisciplinary, international project brings together art historians, archaeologists, and cultural resource managers with experts in remote sensing, photogrammetry, 3D modeling, and virtual reality. Some of the questions that we seek to address using the QueryArch3D tool include: What are the research possibilities for 3D models linked to underlying archaeological data? How can we store and curate 3D models for the future? How can we create an online resource for researchers of Maya architecture where they can compare and study geo-referenced 3D models and attribute data? How can we perform quantitative and qualitative comparisons with other Maya structures and analyze architecture in larger spatial and temporal contexts? Like traditional databases, this tool can curate, query, and compare 2D digital objects (such as drawings, maps, diagrams, text, photographs, and videos). However, what is unique and technologically cutting-edge is that QueryArch3D enables users to 1) integrate and edit 2D and 3D data of multiple resolutions, 2) to perform attribute and spatial queries of archaeological data, and 3) to visualize, compare and analyze 3D buildings and artifacts—all in a single online, navigable virtual reality landscape. Developed in collaboration with Dr. Giorgio Agugiaro and Dr. Fabio Remondino at the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) in Trento, Italy, the QueryArch3D tool links both low resolution models and high resolution reality-based and hybrid models to an open source spatial database (PostgreSQL with PostGIS) via a virtual reality environment that runs on the Unity 3 game engine. The poster summarizes the plans that the project has for its next stage of development, and concludes with a critical assessment of the research possibilities that QueryArch3D can offer archaeologists in terms of organizing, searching, and visualizing data, and identifying patterns over space and time.


Speakers
HR

Heather Richards-Rissetto

University of New Mexico (USA)Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK), Trento, ItalyAcademia: http://fbk.academia.edu/HeatherRichardsRissetto


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Rendering 3D Archaeological Visualisations in Avaya's WEB.ALIVE

Realistically rendered and textured virtual spaces can be created in AVAYA'S web.alive platform by importing high polygon models and scaled accurately reproduced textures. In addition MellaniuM has successfully developed an application for utilizing all the archaeological virtual assets developed in 3D Studio Max over the past several years. It is possible therefore to create interactive environments of archaeological significance that can be accessed through the Internet and available to up to 40 participants. This poster exhibit will be accompanied by a live demonstration of networked PC's to illustrate the collaborative potential of this application

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Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Rock Art on the Cloud: Spatial Data Infrastructure about Horn of Africa rock art

This paper presents ARANO (West African Rock Art, in its spanish intitials), an Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI for the research and management of the rock art of the Horn of Africa. This SDI is based on the use of free software, which aims to share data in a context of open access to information allowing to different research groups to share a cooperative framework. Beyond the technical aspects of ARANO, that have already been published (Fraguas, 2009), we discuss the usefulness of the cloud, and technologies related to data management in a context of open access, as a means to overcome the scientific and technological gap between North and South, in this case the western and african scientific communities. The methodology employed in the construction of, the ARANO SDI is discussed as an operational example of the potential of the combination of data sharing technologies in Internet and free software as tools for define a socio-political engagement for the information technologies.

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Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Royalty and Rust: Tidgrove Key Reconstructions

In 2007 the Tidgrove key was found during excavations near Kingsclere, Hampshire. A residence of Henry II, the site highlighted a complex that included a series of buildings, including a large cellar. At the foot of this structure lay a heavily corroded key. A new CT scanner at the University of Southampton revealed wire inlay over the shaft, and the fine cutting of the wards. Earlier this year, the Archaeological Computing Research Group at Southampton began to work on virtually reconstructing this artefact and how it may have been used

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Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Settlement patterns in Drahany Highlands: GIS and quantitative methods based approach

Previous extensive research in Drahany Highlands provided us with a complete medieval settlement network and in some cases also with medieval field systems. Results of this research could be used for further analysis based on GIS and quantitative methods. The basic goal of this paper was reconstruction of past landscapes, impact of human activities on the landscape, the choice of settlement location and changes in the settlement pattern.The remains of deserted medieval villages and their fields were vectorized and displayed in GIS. This provided us the basis for the reconstruction of past landscapes whereas extent of ploughlands has been delimitated with the help of archaeological prediction. On this basis (and also thanks to comparison with the current settlement patterns) it is possible to observe land use and the impact of human activities on the landscape. We could also try to answer the question of land degradation in the Middle Ages. Wide spectrum of spatial features together with their evaluation with the help of quantitative methods enabled us to obtain the regularities in the lay-out of villages and their field systems. Thanks to this it is possible to reveal the main principles which could have determined the choice of location for the settlement areas (especially placing of residential areas and their surrounding fields). Subsequently, during the Late Medieval and Early Modern period approximately half of all villages deserted. We could identify the factors which could expressively influence the process of abandoning the villages. We have pursued the vulnerability of settlement and specified the unsuitable environment for settlement. In addition to this, we have attempted to identify the circumstances which could prevent the complete desertion as well as to define the optimal environment for settlements.

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Speakers
LC

Lucie Culikova

Department of Archaeology University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
LH

Lukáš Holata

Department of Archaeology University of West Bohemia


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Simulated paths, real paths? The study case of the Iberian Cessetania (iron age society)

In this poster we show two different ways of studing the ancient communication in the Iberian Cessetania (Tarragona, Spain. 6th century - 2nd century bC), and how we will finally compare both results. This research has some problems such as the big changes in the landscape after thousands of years, or the fact the traditional paths have been substituted for modern roads. It will be a big effort but we think it is important to go on in archaeological research of Iberian societies, because nobody has done this kind of studies yet and it surely will open new horizons in the research.We decided to focus our investigation between 5th and 3rd century bC, because this was the period when the Cessetanians developed completely their principal sites, and the settlement was definitely organized into a hierarchy. For trade, paying tributes or war there might have been paths which communicated all these sites.We will conduct the first part of research with GIS. The use of this technology for spatial archaeological studies is well known, we will work with it to calculate the possible paths using Arcgis software.On the other hand, we will do the second part of research with archaeomorphological methodology, working with historical and modern cartography, ancient and current aerial photography and field work, looking for paths or its parts that we can consider ancient ways.When we will have done this two preliminary researches, we will share them and we will look for coincidences and differences. Our aim is to compare the results of virtual reality with the real world, in order to check if it is worth to work with it. With these elements, we will try to answer the initial question of this poster.

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Speakers
JC

Joan Canela Gràcia

Institut Català dArqueologia Clàssica (ICAC) Academia: http://icac.academia.edu/JoanCanela


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - The application of the modern recording standards in the Romania's museums

I'll represent samples of databases models for the archaeological artifacts used in the museums of Romania, for a better understanding of the special needs in a country where the illegal traffic of cultural artifacts is still taking its toll. The only proposed national program for the evidence and recording of the archaeological objects is DOCPAT for a centralized recording management. Nevertheless, the protection of cultural patrimony it's a necessity when proposing general recording datasheets to be generally followed. Therefore, when the artifacts are various the databases models should differ as an essential factor for the patrimony management.



The presentation focuses on the type of the program and the special needs not yet included in it according to the international standards.


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - The ideal bedfellows: How the Social Web and Archaeology became friends

The ideal bedfellows: How the Social Web and Archaeology became friends This paper summarises an analysis of the possibilities for Archaeology that the increasing ubiquity of the social web in society presents. In particular, the extent to which the use of social media tools to proliferate information quickly and informally could impact on the work in the sector. The research analyses how Archaeology's approaches to interpretation are developing alongside social web movements, and considers the possibilities offered for access to archaeological data within the sector, as well as the public. The work includes an analysis of the issues of current approaches to improving access to data and interpretation being used by archaeologists, incorporating key approaches from community archaeology, public archaeology and archaeology as a practice. A exploration as to why Archaeology's take-up of the social web has been varied is supported by the idea of a need for a review of the possibilities for new technologies. The paper will suggest ways to address the extent to which the social web can benefit Archaeology and the public that it serves. Current thinking around the impact of the web on society is used throughout this research, in order to support conclusions. This paper will conclude by putting forward various methodological strategies for adoption of social web technologies within Archaeology, based on the findings from the analysis.


Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - The Journal of Open Archaeology Data (JOAD)

This poster presents the recently launched Journal of Open Archaeology Data (JOAD). JOAD encourages the open archiving of data, rewards researchers, and makes data publicly findable. The journal features peer reviewed data papers describing archaeology datasets with high reuse potential. We are working with a number of specialist and institutional data repositories to ensure that the associated data is professionally archived, preserved, and publicly available. Equally importantly, the data and the papers are citable, and reuse will be tracked. JOAD is part of the new Ubiquity Press Metajournals platform, which also includes journals for research software archiving

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Speakers
avatar for Brian Hole

Brian Hole

CEO, Ubiquity Press


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - The Portus Project: Simulating the Ship-sheds

Under the direction of Professor Simon Keay from the University of Southampton, recent excavations at the site of Portus saw the discovery of a massive building. The Roman port, located near to Rome's international airport was once the maritime port of Imperial Rome and the discovery may have played an important role in ship manufacture. The building is rectangular in form and extended 145m along the Trajanic hexagonal basin, nestled in the very heart of the waterways. Using procedural modelling techniques such as City Engine and then transferring these into high fidelity rendering within 3DS Max, the Archaeological Computing Research Group at the University of Southampton, led by Dr Graeme Earl, developed a range of interpretations to examine the many possibilities for both the aesthetic and practical uses of this building. This poster will explore the current developments in the application of these technologies to this structure

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Speakers
GB

Grant Bryan Jeffrey Cox

Southampton University
avatar for Graeme  Earl

Graeme Earl

Really excited about CAA2012, and really grateful to the fantastic people who have worked themselves into the ground to make it happen. I hope the conference is cool and that people get a sense of what the Archaeological Computing Research Group and sotonDH are about.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - The Sapelo Island Data Digitization Project

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Historic Preservation Division (GA DNR HPD), in conjunction with Digital Antiquity, recently conducted a project to convert records of archaeological investigations on Sapelo Island, Georgia to a digital format and to curate these data in the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR). Sapelo Island is one of Georgia's thirteen major barrier islands, with a diverse culture history ranging from Archaic Period American Indians to the present-day Geechee of Hog Hammock. While the State of Georgia maintains digital site files, these generally only contain site forms, field reports, and locational information for a given site. To supplement these records, GADNR HPD received grant funding to digitize additional records of archaeological investigations conducted on Sapelo Island. Access to background and supplemental data, provided via tDAR will make more information available to a wider audience and ensure long-term data preservation.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - The use of GIS for comprehensive analysis of heterogeneous data collected at the Preobragenka-6 burial ground

The Preobragenka-6 burial site is located in the Western Siberia. The site dates to the 3-d millenium BC and belongs to the Odinovo culture of the Bronze Age.At present there are 76 burials investigated. There are a lot of heterogeneous data of the site: archaeological, anthropological, paleozoological, paleobotanical, radiocarbon dating, etc. The entire set of data provides an opportunity to investigate various processes of influence and transformation of the Odinovo culture and to contribute greatly to the understanding of the cultural development of Sibiria at the Bronze Age.To integrate and analyze the entire set of data, we used a computer system based on GIS. Applied approaches and methods and the results we present in the form of a poster.


Speakers
OP

Olga Pozdnyakova

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
ER

Elena Rybina

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Visitor movement and tracking techniques. A visitor-sourced methodology for the interpretation of archaeological sites

Tuesday, 27th March, 4:00 - 6:00pm

Part of my on-going research on movement in augmented archaeological sites, investigates how architectural remains and interpretative on-site infrastructure impact the way we move in such spaces. Taking into account that each archaeological site has a certain spatial character, it is suggested that design approaches should be informed by formal observation methodologies of how the site itself affords movement (Peponis et al. 2004). It has also been argued that visibility constitutes a critical factor which influences visitors' spatial behavior (Kaynar 2005). A critical point of this research is to develop a hybrid model for managing movement around archaeological sites and to revisit design methodologies for visitor itineraries. Apart from recognised forms of observation and the collection of qualitative data about visitors' movement, technologies such as eye-tracking, GPS body tracking and geo-tagging are deployed. This poster will demonstrate the methodology followed in order to document visitors' movement in the archaeological sites of Gournia in Greece and Portus in Italy, and obtain an insight of the patterns of movement influenced by certain affordances provided by the sites. References:Kaynar, I. 2005. Visibility, movement paths and preferences in open plan museums: an observational and descriptive study on Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum. In Proceedings (Volume II) 5th International Space Syntax Symposium, Delft, the Netherlands. Peponis J, Conroy-Dalton R, Wineman J, Dalton N, 2004, "Measuring the effects of layout upon visitors' spatial behaviors in open plan exhibition settings" Environment and Planning (B): Planning and Design 31, 253-273

This work has been partially funded by the RCUK DE PATINA project.

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Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Visualizing History: Visualization of Archeological and Architectural Sites

Introduction The proliferation of new technologies have provided archaeologists and architects with many novel ways to record, represent and investigate archaeological sites with standing structures and subsurface features. At the University of Notre Dame we have formed an interdisciplinary team of experts from Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Center for Research Computing and the Office of Information Technologies to investigate and develop new digital imaging and documentation techniques and workflows. One goal is to explore ways of using new digital technologies to document and bring inaccessible field site experiences back to the lab and classroom. Another aim is to create precisely rendered 3D images of cultural artifacts and historic sites to allow in-depth research and display via the Internet. Technologies Our project is currently exploring how best to combine two primary technologies into a single interactive system for cataloging, analyzing and displaying both point and raster data at extremely high resolutions. The two primary technologies we are using are the Gigapan System which enables high resolution digital cameras to create extremely high resolution explorable panoramic photographs and the Leica ScanStation, a time-of-flight laser scanning system capable of creating point clouds with a resolution of 0.5mm for highly accurate field measurement, virtual reconstruction and 3D visualization of World Heritage and culturally significant national and local historic sites. This poster explains and illustrates recent work by the University of Notre Dame Digital Historic Architectural Research and Material Analysis (D.H.A.R.M.A.) group documenting the Roman Forum and two Buddhist tomb sites in India using Gigapan and Leica ScanStation equipment and post processing workflows to combine the data in unique ways. In July 2010 the D.H.A.R.M.A team of Notre Dame School of Architecture faculty and students traveled to the Roman Forum - the center of political, religious, commercial, and judicial life in ancient Rome. Permission was granted by Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma, Minstry of Heritage and Culture and the Archaeological Service to accurately measure and draw the monuments and ruins at the Roman Forum. The team produced 27 scans, 30 panoramic views, scaled drawings, detailed images, in addition to hand-measured data. The India sites will be scanned and photographed in January 2012. Further work is being coordinated with research specialists from the Notre Dame Center for Research Computing to create an open-source, web accessible method capable of fusing gigapixel images with laser point cloud data sets to create accurate, interactive 3D models.As part of the poster we plan to incorporate 2D and 3D images utilizing a short-throw pico projector to further explain and illustrate recent work by D.H.A.R.M.A. in Rome and India with Gigapan and Leica ScanStation.

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Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster- ADeX for Protected Sites - Steps towards Standardisation in German Heritage

Today's boundaries often cut through culturally homogenous landscapes of the past. That's why archaeological research cannot stop at state borders and also heritage protection benefits from cross border views. Because every state of Germany is culturally independent, we find a very differentiated situation of data models for archaeological information. So the exchange of archaeological information within Germany and externally is not easy at all. These problems strengthen dealing with protected sites.Authorities of archaeological heritage protection are more and more required to open their data to the public. Initiatives like INSPIRE and GDI-DE aim at improved and smooth information exchange. Therefore the commission "Archaeology and Information Systems" of the Association of State Archaeologists in Germany is concerned with conceptual, technical, economical and legal problems, it is a platform to exchange knowledge and experiences. Special teams work on recommendations to harmonise and standardise archaeological data models, on solutions to archive digital archaeological data and on legal aspects of geodata.The development of the Archaeological Data eXport standard (ADeX) was initiated by the commission "Archaeology and Information Systems" and was implemented by its modelling team. The aim is to develop a simple standard for exchanging archaeological data between all relevant institutions throughout Germany and to export archaeological data to third parties, for example to INSPIRE.As result of extensive analysis of data structures used in various archaeological institutions, a core set of attributes describing archaeological areas was chosen and integrated into ADeX. Based on this, the current work is to define attributes describing (legally) protected sites. This version of ADeX-INSPIRE shall be compatible with INSPIRE and with recommendations of the Association of State Archaeologists ("Opinions on Archaeological Heritage Protection and INSPIRE Protected Sites").The presentation describes the current standard ADeX 2.0 with its extensions for protected sites and INSPIRE.

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Speakers
RG

Reiner Goeldner

Archaeological Heritage Office in Saxony


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Investigations at Roman Maryport. Integrated use of Geophysical Survey Methods to investigate the Extra-Mural area of a Roman fort.

This poster presents the results of an intensive geophysical survey conducted in 2010 in the areas to the east and south east of the Roman fort at Maryport, Cumbria. Magnetometry, resistivity and Ground Penetrating Radar were applied at the site, and provided varying responses to the archaeological deposits in the area. Integration of the different datasets using GIS and interpretation layers facilitated a more comprehensive understanding of the archaeological features across the extra-mural area.



Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:00pm BST

Poster - Photo-realistic Reality: The Level V "Shrine of the Hunters" at Çatalhöyük

The Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, currently directed by Ian Hodder from Stanford University was discovered during a survey in November of 1958. The site highlighted an area covering 32 acres of space on the Turkish Konya plain and the first series of excavations, headed by James Mellaart produced a wealth of archaeological material. One of its many famous features consisted of well-preserved wall paintings spread throughout ten differing layers of habitation that provided an exciting insight into both the culture of its Neolithic inhabitants and on a wider scale, the emergence of human sedentary society. One of the many buildings uncovered in this series of excavations was a highly decorated level 5 structure, nicknamed the "Shrine of the Hunters". It was found directly half way through the ten levels of occupation that spanned the site and in total it had four separate painted murals, spread across the entirety of the room. This made it one of the most ornate areas found to date at the site. For over forty years a true representation for this series of paintings had not been undertaken until the summer of 2010, when MSc Student Grant Cox in conjunction with the Archaeological Computing Research Group at Southampton began to develop reconstructions to place the artwork into a virtual context. Achieving this ambition was important visually and analytically because it enabled alternative interpretations to be developed and the wider space to be explored.

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Speakers
GB

Grant Bryan Jeffrey Cox

Southampton University
avatar for Graeme  Earl

Graeme Earl

Really excited about CAA2012, and really grateful to the fantastic people who have worked themselves into the ground to make it happen. I hope the conference is cool and that people get a sense of what the Archaeological Computing Research Group and sotonDH are about.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:00pm - 8:00pm BST
Building 65, South Corridor

4:15pm BST

1 - Developing tools for semi-automatic classification of phytoliths: a plea for help with image processing
Phytoliths are an important marker for past human activities related to the exploitation and use of plant re source for consumption and other reasons. The study of phytolith is a relatively new approach within archaeobotany in comparison with macro-remain or charcoal analysis. However, they constitute our only source of information on plant-related activities in all those instances where macro-fossils (seeds, fruits, charcoal) are not preserved for physical, chemical or taphomonical reasons. The microscopic identification of phytoliths is a lengthy and time-consuming process, highly based on the specialist level of experience and knowledge. Indeed, the taxonomical classification of phytoliths is complicated by the biological nature of these inorganic particles that form inside plant cells. As so, phytoliths pertaining to the same category can in fact assume several slightly different forms, with particles that can converge into different categories. A proposal was made to develop a general framework to incorporate first-order logic (FOL) clauses, that are thought of as abstract and partial representations of the environment, into kernel machines that learn within a semi-supervised scheme. The framework relies on a multi-task learning scheme where each task is associated with a kind of unary predicate defined on the feature space, while higher level abstract representations consist of FOL clauses made of these predicates. The challenge is to demonstrate that, in presence of relatively small collection of supervised examples, the performances of the kernel machines are significantly improved by feeding them with a domain-specific knowledge base of logical clauses. Preliminary experimental analyses studied the effect of the introduction of the constraints in the learning process for different dimensionalities of the input space, showing that the accuracy gain is very significant for larger input spaces, corresponding to harder learning settings, where generalization using standard kernel machines is often difficult. The main interest in the proposed approach is then twofold: From a purely computational perspective, it opens the doors to a new class of 'semantic-based regularization machines' in which it is possible to integrate prior knowledge using high level abstract representations, including logic formalisms. On the other hand, the 'phytoliths identification' problem in the Archaebotany context has characteristics that promisingly match the strengths of the present approach: (i) scarcity in the number of examples; (ii) high intra-category feature variability; (iii) intensive use of domain expert knowledge. Finally, phytoliths constitute, in this perspective, a case-study tool to develop a multidisciplinary approach that can be used for the automatic classification of different (organic and inorganic) types of objects as well. The classification system thus developed will be based on the analysis of images (in the present case, photographs of phytoliths taken with a microscope). We are looking for possible collaborations with image processing experts who can help us building a collection of supervised examples of phytolith morphotypes needed to test the system. The challenge is to develop a system that can, from a photograph that show several objects similar in colour and shape, to isolate phytoliths from the background noise. Any volunteers?

Speakers
CL

Carla Lancelotti

CASES, IMF and CCHS Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
BR

Bernardo Rondelli

Institució Milà i Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (IMF-CSIC)


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

4:15pm BST

2 - FKI - A New Research Institute for Culture and Computer Science in Berlin, Germany
The University of Applied Sciences HTW Berlin is currently developing a new research institute for culture and computer science (FKI) to support and extend research in this field. The building is still under construction and, according to plan, will be inaugurated in 2012.







The FKI is designed to accommodate several projects that are already existent within the different faculties of the HTW. These projects stem from diverse fields of research, such as games and interactive media, e-learning, information and communication systems, and cultural heritage preservation.







In the course of the existing projects such as "žPoseidon" or "žHardmut", our research teams were able to establish ties to renowned cultural institutions, for example the Jewish Museum Berlin, or the Museum of Islamic Art that is situated in the building of the famous Pergamon Museum. The projects included developing new forms of presenting culture and cultural heritage with mobile multimedia guides, interactive presentations, and digital storytelling devices based on RFID technology for exhibitions that were displayed by these museums.







In addition to the existing projects mentioned above and possible follow-ups, we would like to expand the field of research the FKI is concerned with. We are interested in designing new projects that enable us to test our presentation systems in new environments, such as excavation sites or other outdoor areas. Besides, we are looking for collaboration in the fields of interactive 3d visualisation of archaeological heritage and virtual archaeology.







Since one branch of the FKI will focus on socially relevant topics of computer science, we can also imagine a collaboration with people or institutions using, implementing, or developing open access approaches in order to digitally present their cultural heritage data.







We hope to find people and institutions interested in cross-national collaboration with our young but ambitious research group.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

4:15pm BST

3 - 21st Century Archaeology- How Do We Make an Archaeology Curriculum that Involves Digital Devices Beyond Token Programs?
While current archaeology students are surrounded by digital devices their use of it in an archaeological classroom setting is very limited, for example only using word processor software to write papers. Furthermore, their understanding of how these devices operate is peripheral at best, with most students not able to articulate what HTML is let alone what is has to do with the internet. This collaboration seeks ideas and techniques to embed digital practice and most importantly theory into an archaeology curriculum. Preferably beyond the common practice of specialized classes on the subject but whole process that encapsulate all classes and concepts in an archaeology curriculum. This collaboration will start off with few suggestions and ideas around the topic of webpages but all aspects of digital technology are open for discussion from GIS to Ipads. Any ideas for the incorporation of digital into an archaeology curriculum are welcome.

Speakers
DR

Doug Rocks-Macqueen

University of Edinburgh


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

4:15pm BST

1 - A Database for Radiocarbon Dates. Some methodological and theoretical issues about its implementation
More than 500 dates have been recorded for the prehistory of northeast Iberian peninsula. Such data have been stored in a database which can be accessible though internet (http://www.mac.cat/eng/Recerca/Catalunya-C14). Users can download the data and query the database for relevant information on the chronology of different archaeological contexts: from Late Paleolithic to the first colonial foundations in Western Mediterranean, and distinguishing the classical key artifacts as: cardial ware (neolithic), bell beaker (calcolithic), megalithism, bronze age metallurgical types, urnfield, etc.Although very usable as it is, the database can appear as too traditional, reduced to passive queries. In this paper we will deal with theoretical and methodological questions about how archaeological and chronological data can be transformed into knowledge. That means that the user does not ask for specific bits of data knowing all its characteristics, but the system guide the user to define the chronology of a particular context based on similarity calculations between artifacts, spatial relationships between them, and Bayesian associations between stratigraphical order, radiometric information and archaeological formation processes.The purpose of the paper is basically theoretical, suggesting ways of enhancing ordered lists of data in order to be able to build archaeological knowledge. In too many occasions, archaeological explanation is reduced to the presentation of data. We develop new methods of relating different sources of information based on artificial intelligence to make this possible.We present the general architecture of an expert system to help users to select the appropriate archaeological information and calculate posterior probabilities for chronological estimates based on contextual data.Our project addresses the concept of Telearchaeology, or "archaeology accessible on distance" as a necessary requirement to move from archaeological heritage reduced to the state of "mute stones" to a comprehensive knowledge(s) base. In the information-saturated era new methods of efficient and meaningful retrieval of relevant information and knowledge are urgent.

Speakers
JA

Juan A. Barcelo

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
GC

Giacomo Capuzzo

Autonomous University of Barcelona Academia: http://uab.academia.edu/GiacomoCapuzzo


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

4:15pm BST

2 - Constraining flexibility: moving entity relationships from structure to data

Early in the development of Heurist (HeuristScholar.org) we developed a strategy for building relationships between heterogeneous entitities. Those relationships - themselves stored as entities - were typed, time-stamped, annotated and directional, and could be created without limitations on the type of entitites linked or the number of links created.This strategy has served us well in numerous projects, but it places the onus on the researcher to build sensible relationships. With the increasing use of Heurist for complex, multi-contributor resources, including excavation records and historical encyclopaedias, we have needed to move to a more controlled system of entity linkages. In this paper we will describe our strategy for term-based relationship constraints and demonstrate how it is used in the construction of a complex database of legacy excavation data from the site of Zagora, Greece (used as the case study for our workshop on Heurist). We will also show how constrained relationships are embedded as fields in data entry forms to facilitate data entry.We believe our strategy of term-based relationship constraints and relationships embedded in data entry forms provides a good model for building coherent networks of entities. However the system is still evolving and we will contrast it with alternatives, such as fixed relationship models defined by database structure, and invite feedback on ways it might be improved.


Speakers
avatar for Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Honorary Associate, University of Sydney
Web-based databases and GIS/mapping applied to historical and archaeological applications. Mobile/tablet applications for field data collection and delivery of historical and cultural tours, Augmented Reality, semantic web


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

4:15pm BST

3 - Information Models as Representations of Paradox of Change and Control in Digital Infrastructures
The abstract presents the concept of digital infrastructure (DI), and an associated theory of social dynamics as an attempt to address the paradox of control and change that is concretized in information models and standards in archaeology. The theory derives from sociotechnical information system research (ISR).CIDOC object-oriented Conceptual Reference Model is an example of emerging global information infrastructure. It has an established position "as ontology of culture heritage information" and offers extensible semantic framework for combining information and data. This is proved by the attained official standard (ISO 21127:2006).In ISR the DIs have been framed as a missing agenda. The interest has reawakened to theorize their nature and design. Originally they have been defined in the nineties. Recently they have been rephrased "as shared, unbounded, heterogeneous, open and evolving socio-technical systems comprising an installed base of diversified information technology capabilities and their user, operations and design communities". They spread over specific systems' boundaries and applications' functionalities. DIs have not been understood as relevant research subjects (IT artefacts) in ISR, although digitalization has changed the world from organized structures to heterogeneous networks. DIs are evolved for integration of heterogeneity, to guarantee future use of information. The method for interoperability is the use of standards, which concerning DIs can be observed from theoretical and methodological perspective.Archaeological information models have a position in the network of social dynamics in DIs. According to theorists, DIs have to be organized flexible on stable basis; to be in control but autonomous. Technical stability is needed for their functionality and social stability to agree data definitions and interfaces. This leads to standardization and to the paradox of change and control in DIs. Technology is a control point, which controls connections in sociotechnical system, such as behaviour, use of products and applications. It may restrict emerge of new control mechanisms and provoke conflicts. Recent articles have presented that research in mechanisms for co-creating of technology, services and information use could produce guides for designers, managers and policymakers. The theory offers a theoretical background for research questions from archaeological perspective considering information modelling design and use. In archaeology digital curation and combining of diverse data sets produced by manifold actors is challenging. The designs and their specifications for DIs have to anticipate the future purposes of archaeology. Requirements for these designs have recently been discussed. Technical, metadata and content standards are crucial for the data integration. As control points, standards and technology can have implications on archaeological practises, knowledge production and scientific procedures. Archaeology is a process of selection, fragmentation, interpretation, or transformation, translation and reiteration. It shares a vision 'to save past for the future'. Reflection of this relation is on-going in archaeological theoretical and methodological discussions. DI point of view offers a new position to theorize the methods and practises used in archaeology. The awareness of evolving DIs, control points and their effects, both opening and restrictive could deepen these reflections. [presentation preference: long paper, short paper]

Speakers
TT

Teija Tuulia Oikarinen

University of Oulu, Finland


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

4:15pm BST

4 - '˜The metadata is the message': communicate knowledge through metadata
Revisiting the well known statement coined by Marshall McLuhan 'the medium is the message', this paper wants to stress the importance of the metadata as medium for the communication of knowledge and understanding. Cultural heritage professionals deal with heterogeneous and numerous datasets that are different in format, description, shape, context and so forth. This implies an everyday choice regarding the methodologies to adopt in order to record, describe, document, interpret the available information. In this perspective, communication is intended to be not a final step or an outcome but it is a vital process that goes through the description of all the passages. The ability to communicate information ensures the long term preservation, enabling the scientific community, third party data providers and users to reuse the data for different scopes, possible re-interpretations and processing. Based on these assumptions, STARC developed a metadata schema that enables to communicate in a transparent way all the steps, decisions and methodologies involved in the chain of the documentation and creation of three-dimensional data of different case studies outcomes. Moreover, the paper will address the experience gained from the STARC contribution to European digital libraries projects.

Speakers
PR

Paola Ronzino

The Cyprus Institute
avatar for Valentina  Vassallo

Valentina Vassallo

The Cyprus Institute


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

4:15pm BST

5 - Ontology-Enabled Community Annotations in Archaeology
The wide adoption of technologies that enable users to connect to each other and to contribute to the online community has changed the way that content is organized and shared on the Web. Social tagging to annotate resources represents one of the innovative aspects introduced with Web 2.0 and the new challenges of the semantic Web 3.0. In many online applications, it is possible for users to upload their own content or links to existing content and to organize it by use of tags, i.e., free-form keywords. Such applications, examples of which are delicious, flickr, and BibSonomy, are commonly referred to as Collaborative Tagging Systems and they use the Internet to harness collective intelligence. In this paper we present a project aiming at the design and implementation of a CollaboRative Environment for Students and Teachers, named CREST. CREST can be used in a broad range of collaborative applications and enable multi-authoring, using information in educational interactions, indicating information source, maintaining information, structuring information and adding meta-information, and sharing information among participants. The nature of the collaborative learning involves intensive interactions and exertion of knowledge effect. It cannot be achieved without the capabilities of the participants to manage their knowledge. The participants are required to contribute through annotations that may include features such as comments on multimedia objects: text, 2D/3D objects, audio, video, virtual graphical spaces. In general terms, an annotation is a relationship between one object and another. In this project we investigate several methods of displaying these relationships. By distributing to users the power to create, edit, store, and retrieve objects and annotations, we promote development and re-use of meaningful content. Such environments can have great utility for the development of virtual learning and research spaces. Formal ontologies generally produced by experts are opposed to heterogeneous tags added by numerous users with various profiles. Here we propose a model taking advantages of both semantic and participative approaches. The goal of this model is to help developing applications for sharing resources into communities of practice. It is based on a progressive indexing in which users progressively structure metadata, to finally allow semantic reasoning by computers and a shared vision of the domain by humans. This model integrates a social bookmarking tool, namely SEMANTICSCUTTLE (2010), offering original features like tags structured by relations of inclusion and synonymy, or wiki spaces to describe tags. Another integrated facility is the tagging system of 2D objects achieved through ANNOTATION PILOT (2011) and a 3D ontology-enabled semantic annotator, ShapeAnnotator (AIM&SHAPE, 2004). The environment was developed and tested with students and teachers activating in the field of Archaeology.

Speakers
avatar for Manuella Kadar

Manuella Kadar

Romania
University of Alba Iulia


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

4:15pm BST

6 - Connecting Archaeology and Architecture in Europeana: the Iberian digital collections
In recent years cultural heritage has found new communication channels for spreading and disseminating through Internet. In 2005 is funded a project for building a digital library of European culture, known as Europeana. The main objective of this project is to enable people digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. The aggregation of content in this network is carried out gradually through direct cooperation between institutions and Europeana or through the foundation of projects for this purpose. In this sphere of action is funded by the European Commission the project CARARE (Connecting Archaeology and Architecture in Europeana, ICT Policy Support Programme 2009, c. 250 445). CARARE aims to increase the quantity and quality of digital content in the field of archeology and architecture available in Europeana. It also provides aggregation services for users and enables access to 3D and Virtual Reality content.CARARE is one of a suite of projects to help further develop of Europeana. It plays an important role in involving Europe's network of organizations responsible for investigating, protecting, informing and promoting unique archaeological monuments, architecturally important buildings, historic town centre's and industrial monuments of World, European and National heritage importance alongside the existing national, regional and local content providers.The Andalusian Center of Iberian Archaeology is member of CARARE as content provider. Our contribution focuses on the aggregation of 2D and 3D contents regarding to the archaeological remains of the Iberian culture. Specifically, is planning the implementation of two collections within Europeana. On the one hand, will be accessible online a reference collection of archaeological wheel ceramics recorded in Andalusia. This collection has been developed within the Excellence Projects of the Andalusian government (CATA, HUM-890). At the present it contains 1350 records of ceramic vessel and fragment. On the other hand, will be also available in Europeana an image databank for teaching and dissemination of the Iberian culture. This collection contains approximately 2000 images compiled by the CAAI.With the addition of both collections will be released the most characteristic and essential elements of the archaeological Iberian heritage, bringing content for Iberian culture to Europeana users.In this contribution the contents of both collections are defined and the methodology for aggregating digital contents (2D and 3D) will be exposed. Also a reflection about the possibility for having content on-line will be done.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre C

4:15pm BST

1 - The Hinterland of Portus. Integrated Analysis of Geophysical Survey Data and Remotely Sensed Imagery in the Tiber Delta
Recent study under the Portus Project (www.portusproject.org; www.heritageportal.eu) has provided the opportunity to look at the pattern and extent of natural and man-made features across the Tiber delta as a whole. The area represents one of the most prominent coastal zones on the west coast of Italy, and forms an important area of past and present human activity from the early Neolithic onwards. The aims of the present research are to understand the effect of human influence on the natural environment, and assess the establishing of patterns of settlement in relation to the changing geomorphology of the delta. An integrated strategy of analysis and fieldwork has been conducted, with assessment of air photographs held by the ICCD, and access to remotely sensed satellite data to map the archaeology and geomorphology of the area. Extensive fieldwork has also been conducted between 2008 and 2011 across the Isola Sacra in the central area of the delta, principally using magnetometry to map at high resolution all archaeological features over an area of 150 hectares. This is in addition to previous fieldwork between 1998 and 2006, where over 220 hectares of the Roman port and its immediate surroundings were mapped. Results of this integrated strategy have revealed a number of extensive features related to the natural development of the delta, and to past human interaction with the landscape. They include a map of the prograding deposits across the central portion of the delta, and patterns of deposit associated with the meandering course of the Tiber, together with man-made channels and field divisions, and a later complex of canals associated with connecting the Roman port at Portus with the river Tiber and the sea. Recent discoveries also indicate possible connections between the port and the town of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber.

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

4:15pm BST

2 - Integration of the New Ohmmapper Resistivity-Meter and GPR Investigation in Lixus Ancient Town (Morocco)
The application of geophysical methods to investigate the near-surface soil layers containing anthropic manufactures has been recognized as an important element of archaeological research by the international community. Geophysics can be used to rapidly delineate the presence of archaeological buried structures without invasive and expensive stratigraphic excavation. In particular, resistivity surveying can be used to understand the geometry and the depth of the anthropic element buried in the subsoil, due to the different resistivity properties between the potential archaeological targets and the surrounding environment; by GPR methods it is possible to easily produce high definition maps of buried remains, thanks to the transmission of high frequency radar pulses from a surface antenna into the ground. Geoelectrical data are traditionally acquired with a galvanically-coupled resistivity system. The most practical difficulty is to emplace electrodes in the soil; this operation is time consuming and prevents the fast realization of the investigation, especially in case of a three-dimensional survey. This problem can be avoided using the new OhmMapper (Geometrics Inc.) capacitively-coupled resistivity system designed to be pulled along the ground as a streamer that realizes an almost continuous profile. The main problem of the OhmMapper resistivity-meter is the length of the instrument and the consequent necessity of a lot of space to use it. To avoid this problem in small spaces, we use the multi-frequency GPR RIS MF HiMod (IDS S.p.A.), top level product dedicated to underground mappings: the 200 and 600 MHz dual frequency antenna is the ideal solution to quickly realize an accurate mapping of the subsoil in archaeological context. In order to verify the presence of buried structures and bedrock in the subsoil of the ancient town of Lixus (Larache - Morocco), we carried out some geophysical surveys in different areas using GPR and OhmMapper resistivity-meter. The site of Lixus is located on the northern Atlantic coast of Morocco, on the bank of the Loukkos River, approximately 80 kilometres south of Tangier and adjacent to the city of Larache. Thanks to the archaeological excavation carried out on the hill of Lixus it appears that the archaeological site had different building stages from the Phoenicians (8th century BC) until the Marinid dynasty (14th century). We decided to use GPR in restricted areas to detect buried structures under the foundation of the visible archaeological structures; we set a grid characterized by parallel and perpendicular lines close to each other to intercept the walls: we created several resistivity maps at different depths from a few centimetres from the ground surface to two meter deph. Instead we used the OhmMapper resistivity-meters along the dirt roads of the hill in order to locate the buried section of the city walls and the depth of the sandstone bedrock, which is untouched by anthropic activities. The resistivity and GPR data were also compared with magnetics data acquired in the ancient town of Lixus. This multi-method approach permits us to check the data from several independent measurements and increase the geometrical and physical information useful for interpretation.


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

4:15pm BST

3 - The effects of seasonal variation on archaeological detection using earth resistance: Preliminary results from an ongoing study
Abstract Electrical resistance geophysical surveys are known to produce variable results at different times of the year. This is a problem which can often lead to a misinterpretation of an archaeological feature under investigation. The dynamic relationship between a natural soil matrix and an archaeological feature is a complex one which greatly affects the success of its detection through electrical resistance. For electrical surveys, the change in contrast is mainly a function of moisture and ion concentration within the soil, the geology and the environment in which the archaeological deposits are situated. This paper will present the initial stages of a study monitoring the gradual variation of moisture by electrical methods over a selection of test areas. Monthly earth resistance surveys have been conducted over the last six months over known ditch features on four sites.Introduction The success of an electrical resistance (ER) survey is dependent on many pedological, ecological, geological and archaeological variables which exist within the natural landscape. The prospection method of resistance survey is greatly affected by soil moisture content, which changes, both diurnally and seasonally throughout the year. Past studies have not looked at archaeological detection in traditional 'problem' areas such as those on clay geologies or areas of low contrast. Past research has thus concentrated on large ditch features in areas of high contrast and not fully investigated why the detection problems exist.Benefitting from a multi-disciplinary framework, as part of The DART Project, the research includes monthly geophysical data collection from four sites, and will incorporate data from parallel investigations into archaeological detection using hyper-spectral and spectro-radiometry survey, soil analysis, and time domain reflectometry (TDR) and weather measurements. This will allow a full environmental and geophysical case history for each site to be built, and enable the targeting of ER surveys at the 'best detectable' times, based on telemetry from the TDR and weather data.At the four test areas, a Twin-Probe multiplexed earth resistance survey has been conducted every month since June 2011 and will continue until October 2012. By using a multiplexer to increase the separation of the mobile probes at each data station, deeper volumes of earth can be measured. Each resistance survey yields a dataset from 4 sequential depth investigations.Preliminary resultsThe key of detection is 'contrast' between the feature under investigation and the surrounding soils so initial data analysis from the surveys is looking at the data collected over the ditch features and comparing these readings to a selected 'background' response as well as the complete dataset. By calculating the percentage difference between these populations, we are able to assess how the contrast between the ditch and background is changing and becoming more (or less) detectable.The results will be compared to the local weather in the area to assess its impact on the changing geophysical contrast.

Speakers
RF

Robert Fry

The University of Bradford Twitter: @robfry2000
avatar for David  Stott

David Stott

I do archaeological remote sensing. I'm part way through a PhD at the University of Leeds on the DART project looking at how environmental factors determine contrast in passive optical imaging data. This means aerial photography, multi-spectral, hyper-spectral and thermal imaging. I... Read More →


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

4:15pm BST

4 - Using Time Domain Reflectometry to monitor the geophysical properties of archaeological residues
Aerial and geophysical methods are widely used and valuable techniques for the detection, mapping and curation of the fragile archaeological resource. However, the changing geophysical properties of the soil, which vary spatially, seasonally and throughout the day, and their effect on sensor responses are poorly understood. A long term monitoring strategy to record the changing conductivity, permittivity and temperature, and the differences in these factors between an archaeological ditch feature and the surrounding soil matrix at different depths was thought to be of some benefit for informing future use of these technologies. The use of geotechnical properties, such as moisture content, density and particle size distribution, along with local weather data collected on site can be linked and used as a proxy for the geophysical response and feature contrast, through the use of dielectric mixing models. This paper aims to present a novel method for examining these contrast factors using Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR), a long standing electromagnetic technique used to monitor soil moisture in environmental, engineering and soil science research. The design and development of a monitoring station, suitable for a long term data collection strategy, and the methodology for field installation will be discussed. Particular attention will be given to the challenges faced, and the methods used to solve them. The large raw waveform datasets collected by the stations also present a challenge for interpretation, requiring processing to produce geophysical properties. Attention will also be given to the mathematical methods for interpreting these raw waveforms and the development of an automated script in MATLAB, capable of converting the waveforms to permittivity and conductivity values. Finally, some preliminary data from the monitoring stations will be presented to highlight the type of information the project is producing, and its significance is briefly discussed. This research forms part of the DART project (Detection of Archaeological residues using Remote sensing Techniques), a three year, multi-university and multi-disciplinary project. It aims to enhance knowledge of the science behind the detection of archaeological features using aerial and geophysical methods, particularly on soils which are traditionally unresponsive, such as those with high clay content.

Speakers
avatar for Daniel  Boddice

Daniel Boddice

DART Project School of Civil Engineering University of Birmingham Twitter: @DanBoddice http://dartproject.info/WPBlog/


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

4:15pm BST

5 - Higher precision at higher speed: Geomagnetic prospection near the threshold of sensitivity with the digitiser LEA D2
A new multi-channel digitizer for fluxgate gradiometer arrays is presented. It is characterised by a very high measuring resolution, broadband ADCs of 24 Bit bandwith, sampling rates up to 500 Hz and flexible GPS interfaces. Extensive field tests with several sensor types have been realized since 2010. The ruggedized and waterproof digitizer was succesfully applied in several large-scale archaeological prospection projects in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Jordan and Turkey. The advantages of the new geomagnetic system are shown by large-scale prospection examples of archaeological structures of very low magnetisation. Especially sites situated in sandy environments are often characterised by unfavorable conservation conditions for organic remains due to an increased acidity of the soil. But compared to other fluxgate arrays even very small magnetic anomalies in the range of ±1 nT can be detected in these soil types. Case studies from several sites in Germany and Turkey are presented. The economic advantages of fluxgate magnetometers especially in large-scale prospections of archaeological sites and landscapes provided the starting point of the efforts to improve multi-channel fluxgate systems. In contrast to alternative magnetometer types applied in archaeological research like caesium (Cs) or SQUID probes, fluxgate magnetometers can be assembled to large arrays (6 to 16 probes) with comparatively low costs. Only such arrays allow the fast and efficient prospection of large areas. The most important precondition for the successful application of fluxgate arrays in archaeological research is a high-quality data logging exploiting the dynamic range and the maximal resolution of the probes to a maximum extend. Using a high-resolution broadband data logger with high sampling rates (up to 1000 Hz) the lower measuring accuracy of fluxgate sensors compared to Cs or SQUID sensors can be fully compensated. Fluxgate sensors can provide equivalent results to Cs sensors in archaeological prospection. The approx. twentyfold better accuracy of Cs sensors (ca. 0.01 nT) compared to fluxgate sensors (ca. 0.1 to 0.2 nT) take only in few cases effect in archaeological applications. The reason for this is, that the crucial factor for the successful detection of archaeological structures and objects is the the ratio of their proper and the ambient magnetization. The ambient magnetization (caused by geological and anthropogenic structures) superimposed by the magnetic anomalies of the archaeological targets determines the practical range of the required measuring resolution. Due to this limitations the dynamic range of archaeological magnetograms rarely drops under ±1nT. Below this range of ±1nT the magnetograms are usually oversaturated i. e. geological and anthropogenic influences dominate the results. From 2009 to the beginning of 2011 the new multi-channel digitiser LEA D2 for geophysical measuring systems was developed. The project was funded by the ZIM program of the German Federal Ministry of Economy. By the end of 2011 the digitiser was prepared for a broader commercial exploitation.

Speakers
CM

Cornelius Meyer

Eastern Atlas Geophysical Prospection Berlin, Germany


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1173 Streamed into room 1093

4:15pm BST

1 - The Application of Finite Element Method to the Structural Study of Vaulted Monumental Buildings in Opus Caementicium
The finite element method (FEM) is currently applied to a wide number of structural design problems including the propagation of fractures in large un-reinforced concrete structures, such as dams. In the present paper I will discuss the applicability of FEM to the static and dynamic analysis of structures in opus caementicium, the results it produces when applied to monumental vaults, and how these results can be used to reconstruct the design philosophy, the historical lineage, and the structural life of these monuments. Where possible, I will draw comparisons with the application of funicular polygons to similar structures. The paper will include examples from structural studies of the Domus Aurea of Nero, the Trajan's Markets, the frigidaria of the Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, and the Basilica of Maxentius. (A full abstract will be given later.)

Speakers
RP

Renato Perucchio

University of Rochester Department of Mechanical Engineering Rochester, New York 14627


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

4:15pm BST

2 - Structural analysis of earthworks and wooden systems: a support to restore the neolithic monumental architecture
Non-megalithic burial structures (Passy-type monuments) are important for the emergence of the monumentality to the early Middle Neolithic (Cerny Culture, 4700-4300 BC) in the Paris Basin (France). However the appearance of their architecture remains poorly understood: it is long ditched monuments, sometimes dug over 300 m. As, they underwent such erosion, no superstructure is kept in elevation. A 2D simulation and 3D restoration projects (STP3D projects) was used to test a large number of architectural hypotheses: the presence of a mound, fences, structuration and subdivision of the monumental space.These virtual restorations are based on stratigraphic observations made on the field and a posteriori (establishment of an erosion model), but also on ethnographic and experimental observations.We use Structural analysis techniques which are commonly used to evaluate the design performance of buildings. Nevertheless, few of these methods are used in archeology to analyze earthworks. This may be because the indices stratigraphic field surveys seem to be enough to establish architectural interpretations. But, with the higher efficient computing capacity currently available on desktop PC's, more intensive computational methods can now be applied by the researcher to explore questions of structural possibility and stability. Numerical methods including Finite Element Methods (FEM) and its variants can be used to understand potential modes of structural failure.Passy-type monuments had to be visible and imposing buildings with an obvious social and symbolic role. These structures had apparently a fairly long life, punctuated by reconstruction and maintenance of ditches, of mound and fences. Until a state of ruin, they are perhaps still visible in the landscape. We tested the stability of earthworks, ditch, embankment and mounds to the effects of duration of time, etc.. Moreover, it seemed important to assess the strength of wooden structures: the resistance of timber buildings (timber gravers and wooden fences) under the weight of large mound.The use of specialized geotechnical methods allows verifying a number of issues. It permits proposing high mounds of more than 5 m. They could have a relatively short life without repairs and cleaning ditches. This experiment / simulation accelerated by the FEM shows that the earthworks erode at high speed, perhaps across a few months. This result minimizes the imposing appearance provided by the frozen image of the virtual restoration. Moreover, according to field data, the sepulchral architecture could resist in short time under the influence of mass filling. With this project, we could approach a lot of issues to understanding this kind of structures:- Time: short time (lifetime of a monumental structure, lifetime of a necropolis) ; long time (lifetime of the monumental landscape)- Space / Landscape- Erosion

Speakers

Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

4:15pm BST

3 - Theoretical Structural Archaeology
Over twenty years ago, I bought a computer and CAD software, only to discover that it took hours to print a shaded view of an Iron Age roundhouse, and besides, sticking a cone on top of a cylinder did nothing to advance my understanding of the archaeology of prehistoric timber buildings. So I returned to the basic data and to working on paper in plan, section, and elevation. Prehistoric structures in Britain are largely evidenced by postholes, often in such numbers, that most archaeologists are content to pick out circles and rectangles on which to base their report, and ignore the rest of the dataset. However, thinking about structures in terms of 'shape' has led to simplistic models and inappropriate cross-cultural comparisons. My research into understanding postholes has concentrated on reverse engineering timber structures from the known position of their posts, which ultimately leads to a consideration of how timbers were joined together. Initially, I worked back from the medieval period, but more recently, I have worked forward from LBK buildings, which are the starting point for the range of technologies that both require, and support, complex built environments. Modelling the relationship between an archaeological ground plan and the original superstructure requires a detailed consideration of tools, carpentry, building technology, and trees. It leads to ideas like offset jointing, reversed assembly, and importance of ties, unfamiliar concepts to most archaeologists. However, with such ideas comes a basic set of principles that both explain the spatial distribution of archaeological features, and are a guide to the use of CAD to reconstruct and understand prehistoric architecture on a timber-by-timber basis. Understanding the basics of posthole archaeology, and the technological culture it represents, unlocks the potential of CAD systems a research tool, making it possible to reconstruct buildings from LBK longhouses to Woodhenge in virtual reality.

Speakers
GC

Geoff Carter

[Newcastle & Leicester University]


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

4:15pm BST

4 - Reconstruction of Ruined Archaeological Structures Using Structural Analysis Methods
Examination of material remains of previous human societies help to study past human behaviour in archaeology. One of the most important remains includes the ruins of historic buildings. The use of computerized recording equipment and three-dimensional plotting are essential tools for researchers to recreate a ruined structure for reconstruction and further analysis. However, the reliability of the precision of the reconstructed model can be very controversial due to the absence of historical information and fabric loss. Structural analysis can be an effective or alternative tool for reconstruction. On the basis of failure mechanism of the ruined structure, possible hypothetical forms can structurally be analysed under the associated loads and the resulting behaviour can be assessed to determine its actual form. Therefore, based on a multidisciplinary approach, a novel methodology to reconstruct a historic structure will be presented in this paper. Following laser scanning to produce the complex geometry of a structure and ground penetration radar techniques to estimate the material properties of inaccessible parts, finite element model will be generated and plausible original forms of the construction will be evaluated based on the static and modal analysis results.

Speakers
AE

Aykut Erkal

Research Officer Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering 6 East, 3.14, University of Bath Claverton, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

4:15pm BST

5 - Structural assessment of ancient building components
The pediment of the temple of Artemis at Corfu is one of the very earliest remains of monumental Greek temple construction. As indicated by the style of the sculptures of the pediment, the pseudo-dipteros has to be dated towards the beginning of the 6 century BC. This temple, the "first and mightiest example of the developing stone-architecture", according to Gottfried Gruben, has suffered extensively since antiquity, leaving us with only a highly fragmented image of the monument. Excavated by Gerhardt Rodenwaldt in the beginning of the 20th century and reconstructed by Hans Schleif the temple is documented in two volumes. Little subsequent work has been done, so our understanding of the temple remains reliant on these two volumes. The reconstruction has been questioned, though only minor aspects have been successfully resolved. This paper interrogates the plausibility of the pediment sculptures in their position as proposed by Hans Schleif. Structural analysis shows that a different position for these pivotal sculptures has to be found on the temple, otherwise it cannot be structurally viable. This triggers a revised reading of the architectural reconstruction which calls into question the whole plan. In fact, the supposed pseudo-dipteral temple plan has to be reconsidered; after all, this scheme for temples was invented, according to Vitruvius, by Hermogenes during the 2nd century BC.

Speakers
AE

Aykut Erkal

Research Officer Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering 6 East, 3.14, University of Bath Claverton, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK


Tuesday March 27, 2012 4:15pm - 6:15pm BST
Building 65, 1143 Streamed into room 1167

6:15pm BST

6:30pm BST

CAA Hungary Chapter Meeting
Tuesday March 27, 2012 6:30pm - 7:30pm BST
Building 65, 1163

6:30pm BST

6:30pm BST

6:30pm BST

6:30pm BST

 
Wednesday, March 28
 

8:00am BST

9:00am BST

2 - Through the Reading Glass – Re/presenting Knowledge Without Pages

Archaeological Computing and Digital Humanities are contested disciplines.  Variously described in contemporary scholarly discourses as ‘emerging’ and ‘established’ - both push knowledge creation and remediation forward, often crossing disciplinary boundaries.  By embracing innovation the disciplines explore how digitality supports, augments, and acts as a catalyst for the transformation of data into knowledge or the even more contested term ‘meaning’, which remains at the centre of Humanities’ concerns.   The glass screen changes how we experience artifacts - dynamic linking environments, augmented reality, and virtual reality, require new effort as writers and readers in all disciplines situate themselves simultaneously or asynchronously in new dimensions. However, a key issue persists: how can we communicate this knowledge in the best possible way? Both disciplines are concerned with information visualization, interpretation, knowledge representation, and developing an engaged participatory scholarship that negotiates new forms of narrative arc.


Speakers

Wednesday March 28, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

1 - Guerilla Foursquare: A digital archaeological appropriation of commercial location-based social networking.
One aspect of the emerging field of digital archaeology involves the use of digital geo-technologies to create and disseminate location-based archaeological information to both academic and non-academic audiences. However archaeological projects more often than not lack the resources or expertise necessary to create tailor-made applications, resulting in the ghettoisation of digital applications to only the 'have' projects or museums. However in many situations existing services fulfilling a similar purpose could, at relatively low cost, be repurposed for archaeological projects. A specific case-study using the foursquare service in central London will help shed some light on the potential for (mis)use of existing services. Users of foursquare 'check-in' at various locations on mobile devices to access recommendations, locate friends, or gain digital control of venues. Through the inundation of the foursquare service with archaeological sites within the Roman city, digital archaeologists will create a palimpsest of past urban landscapes. By appropriating an existing service rather than creating a new application, a greater non-archaeological audience can be accessed. Public users can explore this landscape as well as contribute additional layers of narrative, or 'tips', ultimately creating a digital application evolving beyond the scope of the initial project. In addition to understanding ways to achieve the goals of an archaeological application, this case study will also address the potential crossover for such digital landscapes in tackling questions within the field of digital humanities.

Speakers
avatar for Andrew  Dufton

Andrew Dufton

Brown University Twitter: @jadufton
SE

Stuart Eve

University College London L - P : Archaeology Twitter: @stueve


Wednesday March 28, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, Lecture Theatre A

9:00am BST

1 - The recording of rescue archaeology data from rural test trenching by the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP - France) in the Rhône Alpes area : elements of archaeological metrology

Archaeological data combines both spatial and descriptive dimensions. In the particular framework of rescue archaeology in France, our aim is to evaluate archaeological potentials by carrying out systematic surveys on lands concerned by development projects whose realization threaten archaeological sites. The results of these evaluations will allow the archaeological state departments to consider whether an exhaustive excavation should be carried out or not.



In this context, various internal reflections led us to (i) test theoretical sampling strategies to be set up on sites and to (ii) establish an experimental operating chain or protocol for archaeological data to be recorded by INRAP teams in Rhône-Alpes area. This will combines different skills, tools and measurement techniques.



This approach aims to record and archive data in consistent archaeological stratigraphic context, to be adapted at a regional scale through field dataset recording, later integrated into an archaeological database (BDA) using PC-tablet, and topographic - GIS measurements.



The exploratory potential of the GIS tool and its ability to produce various analytical maps in a same space are used to assess archaeological potential of fields and helps with site analysis.



This presentation exposes in detail the operational scheme from the test trenching strategy to the conception of the archaeological database up to the graphical restitution of the spatial information, as well as the type of tools used. The different techniques and methodologies, as well as their limits, are presented here.


Speakers
BM

Bertrand Moulin

National Research Institut of Preventive Archéology


Wednesday March 28, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

2 - Paperless Recording at the Sangro Valley Project

This paper presents the results of the Sangro Valley Project's (SVP) deployment of a paperless recording system in a mixed environment of excavation and survey. It also discusses some advances made in archaeological photography. Finally, it presents preliminary results from ongoing experiments with automatically generating Harris Matrices from a FileMaker Pro database and with using iPads and iPhones as GPS units for survey. Over its first sixteen years the SVP employed various formats to record, store, manage, and analyze its data. The opening of a new site in 2011 provided an opportunity to reconceive the project's data systems. The University of Cincinnati's Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia pioneered the use of Apple's iPad in 2010 for paperless recording of basic excavation data. Building upon their success, the SVP developed and implemented its integrated paperless recording system in FileMaker on both laptop computers and iPads. The paperless system pushes digitization of data into the field—replacing traditional recording on paper forms, followed by subsequent transcription into computer systems, with direct data entry into the database format. Data about each context, small find, environmental sample, and level were captured in the field using the FileMaker Go app on iPads. Later, specialists in the labs entered more detailed information about small finds, pottery, tile, and other items into the server-based FileMaker Pro database. Each of the two survey teams used iPads to record data as well. Another area of workflow improvement was in site photography. Previously, documentation photos of the site taken during excavation were captured with digital cameras, with the images subsequently uploaded, labeled, captioned, and stored on a server. As the season progressed the field supervisors tended to defer these processes, leading to errors. To remedy this, the project employed the Eye-Fi Connect X2, an SD camera memory card with built-in WiFi and associated software. This technology enables direct communication between the cameras and iPads, allowing photographs to be immediately labeled and captioned in the field, and enabling a significant improvement in accuracy. The new technology quickly proved to have many advantages over traditional recording methods—much quicker exchange of information between the field personnel and specialists; immediate labeling and captioning of photos taken in the field; a significant decrease in human error through automation; improved consistency of terminology by using a structured vocabulary of options; increased efficiency by eliminating the need to scan and digitize paper records; an increase in the accessibility of information to all staff members; and improved back up. The paperless system proved to be a resounding success. It was used for excavation, two survey projects, and recording by specialists. While there were some growing pains, the benefits far outweighed the costs. For any large archaeological project, data organization is critical. The flexibility of both the hardware and software allowed the SVP to finally integrate several types of research into a single, cohesive database. This approach has enormous potential to revolutionize the way archaeological data is collected, managed, analyzed, and disseminated.

Websites:

www.facebook.com/SangroValleyProject

www.sangro.org



Wednesday March 28, 2012 9:00am - 11:00am BST
Building 65, 1145 Streamed into room 1157

9:00am BST

3 - Tablet computer as a documentation tool for excavating an archaeological site: practical employment in the field and future possibilities

In the last decade a flexible system of documenting archaeological excavation has been developed in Slovenia thru practical employment in the field (even in remote or inaccessible areas) that allows for an accurate and fast gathering of archaeological field data with a bare minimum: a research team of at least two people, a total station, a digital photo camera and a laptop computer with CAD software and a module specifically designed for fast and automatized processing and managing of gathered data. The system of documentation is so well established and practically tested in the field that allows relatively easy workflow even for a team with almost no prior experience working with total station or CAD computer software. The system is electrically independent since all of the mentioned instruments operate on batteries. But to work comfortably, we need a color printer on site in order to provide the team with up to date information of the situation at the site usually by printing 2D plans of daily situations and of the photogrammetric photographs of details or sections of the site. The printouts are necessary since constantly checking the situation on the computer during excavation is not practical (the computer preferably being located in a location secure from the elements). The invention of the newest generation of tablets and smartphones has given the field archaeologists so much more than just rendering printers on site redundant. We had an opportunity to test a tablet computer on a site which is still being excavated. Using a tablet computer enabled us to view