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Over the past decade, we have witnessed an increase in the use of technology, through the creation of virtual itineraries and exhibitions, as a tool to guarantee and increase the usability of museums and more generally of artistic and historical works. In fact, it often happens that many works of art and artefacts of archaeological and cultural importance are not accessible to the public, either because they are kept in museum deposits or because they are difficult to access. In a context such as the current one, however, with an ongoing pandemic that forces most of the population to remain at home, the virtualization of museums, and historical and cultural heritage, becomes the main tool for exploring and enhancing culture. Among the various methodologies used for the creation of three-dimensional models, photogrammetry stands out for ease of use and low cost. This article analyses the use of photogrammetry in 3D modelling, focusing on pros and cons as a rapid, low-cost tool, which makes artworks virtually accessible to the public via museum websites and social network forums.
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This paper considers certain geometrical aspects of three Late Roman oil lamps. Comparison is performed by choosing amongst the geometric indexes in order to single out and estimate similarities and peculiarities of their shape. The preferred indexes chosen were symmetry and a particular size ratio. A difficulty arose from the fact that, since one does not know the numerical variability of the indexes depending on even small deformations, poor information can be obtained. Therefore, using bootstrap resampling the sample distribution is estimated for the two indexes. Through its application, one can build new methods of comparison in order to evaluate similarities and differences otherwise impossible to evidence using conventional methods.
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Multivariate discriminant analyses were applied to the chemical composition data of four groups of fictile archaeological findings from the lagoon of Venice. Three groups are constituted of ceramic fragments of different manufacture, local and imported Byzantine originating from different epochs, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The fourth group is formed of special Middle Age bricks (“altinelle”). Our aim was to first find the chemical characteristic of each group and, on this basis, to classify other unidentified findings. After having verified the structure of the four groups by means of PCA analysis, three discriminant canonical variates were determined: the relative weights of the original variables represent their discriminant power. The groups were also analysed in pairs and their relative discriminating variables were found. Discriminant function on the basis of the three new variates were calculated for each of the four groups and used for their verification. Finally a quadratic PCA analysis was applied to the first two variates of each group allowing, by means of recognition of their geometric form, to also identify non-linear relationships.
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Results of the archaeometric study of Spanish amphoras in Veneto are presented. For this purpose 26 amphoras from the Tomba di Giulietta in Verona were chosen (types close to Dr 7 and Dr 8). The scope of the analytical study was to determine similarities between clays and thus between the amphoras themselves. To conduct petrographic analysis, groups were set-up of Spanish amphoras of both types without determining relationships between various forms and clay bodies. North Italic amphoras were also considered for comparison. The most useful methods of statistical analysis of data of diffractometric analysis are “ipercubo” and Discriminant Analysis. Fuzzy and mixture methods were also used. Applying these methods, samples were compared in order to form groups of similar samples. Instrumental neutron activation analysis was carried out to determine trace elements and the results were processed with Discriminant Analysis. These results enabled us to make clear distinctions between various groups. Studies of these amphora forms are now under way.
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Principal component analysis (PCA) is a widely used multivariate method in archaeology, and is particularly prevalent in archaeometric applications. The paper reviews the use of the methodology in archaeometry, including the choice of data transformation and standardisation. The related methods of factor analysis and correspondence analysis are also briefly considered. Two detailed examples illustrate some of the methods discussed, including uncommon approaches such as the use of ranked data.
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Morphologic and archeometric studies and quantitative analysis were carried out on the common ware pottery from the horrea located in the harbour quarter of Vada Volaterrana (S. Gaetano di Vada, Rosignano Marittimo, Livorno). It is attempted to define the functional, morphologic and technical characteristics of this ware, dated I-VIII cent. AD The relationship between common ware and the other kinds of ware (thin walled, Italian terra sigillata, African terra sigillata etc.) are studied. 64 different fabrics were identified; 65% of the common ware pottery was made on the Northern coast of Etruria; a considerable number of imports from Northern Africa and, in smaller quantities, from Central-Southern Italy and Eastern Mediterranean coasts were also identified. The pattern of trade and the local “Roman” production continued at least up until the end of the VI cent. AD The situation changed in the first half of the VII cent.: Mediterranean commercial trade ended and the local coarse ware pottery, very different from the traditional Roman pottery, became what is recognised as a protomedieval fabric.
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This article is based on the morphologic, archaeometric and quantitative study of amphoras found in room 16 and 17 of the horrea of S. Gaetano of Vada (Li), which form part of the port structures of Vada Volaterrana. The material belonging to the second of the two phases of the building (half of IV-VI/VII cent. AD) have been studied; this has allowed us to delineate commercial flows that, coming from the whole Mediterranean basin, have been related to the Vada Volaterrana harbour on the Northern Etrurian coast. The locally fabricated amphoras represent a large proportion of the finds (14,7%): these were used for wine, and were stored here before being exported. The majority of the imported amphoras came from North-Africa (65,8%), but they were also imported from the Eastern end of the Mediterranean (18,1%). Few, on the contrary, were imported from the Italian peninsula (11,4%), and these above all from the Iberic peninsula (4,7%). Also of note is the lack of imported amphoras from Gallia during the second phase of existence of the building.
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This article discusses a research project about the imported and local amphorae found in the Veneto region. The study is specifically based on fragments of Spanish amphorae found in the Venetian lagoon. Several samples could be clearly identified as fragments of the forms coming from the Baetica region (e.g., Dr 8, Dr 38, Dr 7/11, Dr 20 and Dr 20-23); other samples of very limited number could also be reliably identified. In order to attempt a broad identification we have studied the composition of the pastes of a small number of fragments by means of mineralogical and petrographic analyses. Additionally image processing techniques were also used: in particular, a classification procedure has been designed that will perform morphologic, chromatic, radiometric and spectral analyses on the images of thin sections of the amphorae, taken by a polarising microscope. The procedure could be completed by analysing a larger number of samples, that will allow to establish the decision thresholds used in the classification process; the procedure will facilitate the fusion of data and information obtained with different destructive and non destructive tests of the samples, so that it could constitute a useful tool for the archaeological research.
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This project was established through a collaboration between the Missione Archeologica Italiana in Turchia (Università di Roma “La Sapienza”) and the Istituto per le Tecnologie applicate ai Beni Culturali of the CNR. For this project we selected over 700 ceramic samples found at Arslantepe, coming from structures and layers of IV and III millennium BC The samples were chosen in order to obtain a complete picture of the typological classes coming from the different chronological phases. The use of the ceramic classes and their related structures were also investigated, using traditional archaeometric analyses. Taking into consideration such a large time scale, the aim was to study the socio-cultural and economic development and transformations showed by the technology of ceramic production. The management of such a large amount of data, and the high number of interrelationships, required the use of a computer-based system. Statistical analyses were conducted using the software SPSS, specialised for Social Sciences applications.
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The histogram is one of the most widely used descriptive statistical techniques in archaeology, but suffers from a number of well known problems. These include the dependence of its appearance on the choice of origin and interval width. Kernel density estimates provide an alternative to the histogram and avoid some of its problems. They have been little used in archaeology, probably because suitable software has not been widely available. We illustrate some of the advantages of kernel density estimates through several simple examples. Computation was done using the MATLAB package and routines written by the second author that are freely available. One issue in the use of kernel density estimates concerns a choice analogous to that of the interval width for a histogram. Our routines implement several approaches that are discussed in an appendix.
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The aim of this article is the archaeological and analytical study of Iberian amphorae imported into Veneto (Italy) during the Roman period. The characteristic Baetican shapes Dr 8, Dr 11, Dr 12, fragmentary Dr 7-11 and Pompei VII are compared to the Dr 9-10 shapes of uncertain origin (Baetic or Gallic). The determination by X Ray Diffractometry (XRD) of chemicals Si, Al, Fe, Mg, Ti, Mn, Ca, Na and K and of minerals shows the similarity of the pastes of two groups of amphorae. Using appropriate statistical methods, these data are compared to those of Andalusian and Lionese manufactures.
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This research analyses deposits of Roman amphorae, in order to individuate the trade, exchange of goods and economic-productive aspects of Patavium and its surroundings. The discovery of more than two thousand containers gives a good numerical base and an interesting starting point for the study of food stuffs. Those amphorae are used to reclaim land since the second half of the first century BC to all the first century AD The combined analysis of typological facts, of excavation context and of the materials allows the division of the land reclamation into three phases: the first between the second half-end of the first century BC and the beginning of the first century AD; the second in the first half of first century AD; the third in the second half-end of the first century AD The market in the first two phases seems to be dominated by Italic products with a variation: in the second phase the oil quantity increases and reaches almost the half of the traded amount, whereas the quantity of wine is reduced, differing with the oriental contribution. The relations with far regions are consolidated with the trade of food stuff, such as garum. Third phase is characterised by supplies of local wine of different qualities, especially oriental, and by a huge use of oil.
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An important field of luminescence dating is the authenticity of ceramic art objects. The use of 'authenticity' instead of 'dating' is due to the ignorance of the ambient radiation, and hence the annual dose. The present paper shows a Bayesian approach able to quantify the degree of authenticity. This approach permits to introduce under mathematical models some assumptions (annual dose, fire, artificial irradiation) previously only presented as qualitative warnings in authenticity reports.
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Examination of dental development is considered to be an accurate method of ageing non-adults, but ageing adults from dental wear is much less accurate. Miles' method is generally accepted to be the best way we have to derive estimates of tooth-wear ages because it takes into account population variability in wear-rates. Here we develop a Bayesian approach to ageing from dental development and tooth-wear, using a latent trait model and logistic regression to estimate the ages of individuals whose tooth development and/or wear has been scored on ordinal scales. In addition to the original methods this: (a) accounts for uncertainties in tooth development; (b) incorporates in a natural fashion individuals with teeth missing post-mortem. Numerical integrations were performed using Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo techniques and WinBUGS software.
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The study of dental morphological traits in prehistoric populations is a new method of analysis and allows us to determine important characteristics of different human populations. In this paper we study the dental feature traits proposed by the ASU System (developed by Turner et al. in Arizona State University) by means of an alphanumeric and graphic database recording the dental morphological characteristics and the possible dental diseases (caries, dental wear, etc.). These traits are easily observed, and persist many years in dentally harsh life styles, evolving very slowly and without sex dimorphism. The multivariate data set obtained using the ASU System is defined by means of multistate qualitative variables, and the methodology of statistical analysis is the following: - The MMD test (Mean Measures of Divergence) was developed by Sjovold (1977) to observe the differences between two or more previously established and defined groups by means of multistate qualitative variables. It is also possible to test if existing differences among populations are ethnic, cultural, etc. - A Cluster Analysis algorithm developed by one of the authors (Esquivel1988) that enables us to build a grouping using qualitative multistate variables by means of specific developments in Information Theory established by Claude Shannon. Therefore, it is possible to determine the similarities of dental morphological traits between human groups, and compare these results with other previous information from archaeological data. This methodology has been applied to analyse human genetic diversity using exclusively dental morphological characteristics to determine the diffusion of the culture of the Argar, a prehistoric culture which existed in 1300-1500 BC The analysis has been applied to the teeth of 116 subjects belonging to the Argaric culture in the neighbouring settlements of Castellón Alto and Fuente Amarga (Granada, Spain), and the teeth of 58 subjects belonging to the non-Argaric settlement of La Navilla, also 1300-1500 BC, about 150 Kms. Distant. The results show a biological continuity, endogamy phenomena and genetic drifts. Finally, the study of the maxillar pathology like cavities and dental wear tells us about dental health, food and food preparation.
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The detection of ancient palaeo-surfaces and horizons is feasible with various pedological methods. The aim of the biomorph analysis is to provide data on the properties of ancient surfaces by locating the palaeo-horizons and describing their vegetational patterns. While conducting the kurgan research, we have often faced the problem of the precise description and localisation of palaeo-horizons within the stratigraphy of the formations. The biomorph analysis provides data in palaeoecological research through the examination of "phyto" and "zoo" microremains. The so-called "multiple biomorph analysis" works both with organic (spores, pollen, charcoal, detritus) and mineral (inorganic) (phytoliths, spicules of sponges, diatoms) biogenic microparticles that can be recovered from soil/sediment samples. One aim of the quantitative analysis of these particles is the identification of the biomorph content in the relevant fractions of the cultural layers and genetic soil horizons and the graphical display throughout the examined cross-section. The present paper is aimed at introducing the utilisation of the quantitative biomorph analysis in palaeoecology and environmental archaeology.
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The aim of this paper is to provide an update to the debate concerning the production technology of bucchero pottery, as well as presenting new data on the use of raw material for its manufacture and the temperatures of firing. This interdisciplinary research focused on a period of technological changes in bucchero production during the sixth century BC, by applying a quantitative analytical approach using X-Ray powder Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Thermogravimetric Analysis and Differential Thermal Analysis (TG-DTG), and multivariate statistical analyses. A series of samples from northern Etruria (mainly the area of Volsinii) were compared with products from Veii, Ardea, Segni and Pompeii. XRF and XRD analyses provided quantitative results, statistically analysed, concerning the use of raw material, both calcareous and non-calcareous, and the technology of firing where temperatures reached 950°C or above. TG analysis proved that the black surface of bucchero was due to reduced iron oxides and the presence of carbonaceous material on the surface. However, XRD results demonstrated that firing occurred at a high temperature and the ratio between aluminium and iron in the samples led to the formation of hercynite, an iron-aluminate spinel. The results of the study show that during the sixth century BC the changes in technology to obtain a quality bucchero production were related to a sufficiently long soaking period at a high temperature in a reduced atmosphere, regardless of the presence of calcite in the source material.
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The qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis of the unique remains of the Russian nobility of the Middle Ages was carried out in the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia). Neutron activation method was used for experiment. In the course of the research, bones, organics from the skull and hair of seven Russian historical figures who died in the 15th-early 17th centuries were studied. The mass fractions of several elements, including arsenic and mercury (part of the most common medieval poisons) were found in these samples. The comparison of the obtained results with data from similar Russian and European studies made it possible to make assumptions about the probability of the deliberate poisoning of some representatives of the higher Russian nobility. It also gave an opportunity to replenish the elemental composition database of the human remains of that period.
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The purpose of the paper is to introduce a QGIS plugin named ArcheoloGIS. It is developed in PYQGIS and tested by the community of Una Quantum Inc. (Italy). It consists of a decorator algorithm named Tabula Peutingeriana, that outputs points at a regular distance, every one Roman mile, along a given path. The article shows its use, the construction of a possible dataset and its evolution, as well as a case study of its application.
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The Viabundus pre-modern street map attempts to show medieval and early modern traffic connections. However, mapping medieval and pre-modern land routes comes with methodological challenges which are reflected upon in this paper. The reconstruction is based on written and archaeological sources, historical maps, and establishments of traffic infrastructure. Correlating the data with the origin places and finding places of pilgrim badges shows the research potential of the endeavor, as the simple co-visualization of the data already provides interesting connecting points.
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The project of building a cognitive framework to formalise an archaeological language, proposed here, is oriented, not to computerise any archaeological language, but to offer a tool giving a framework mainly for the formalisation and the validation of an archaeological reasoning, as well as to deliver a readable procedure, which completes the conventional natural language of the archaeological publishing. The cognitive framework is based on a decomposition of the methodological iterative procedure into three levels: 1. Acquisition, 2. Structuring, 3. Modelling, in which a cognitive grammar is defined. A cognitive grammar normally defines statements and predicates. The statements have been classified, among the more frequent archaeological statement types, which are generally, for both real and virtual objects, the results of a correlation of intrinsic and extrinsic archaeological information. The predicates are also classified following the nature of decisions they imply, either general to Human sciences, or specific to Archaeology:
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Scientific literature understanding benefits from visual resources, which is even more evident in the case of material cultural heritage. In recent years, journals and publishing platforms have been increasingly offering extensive access to publications via the contextual provision of visual media, such as images and 3D models. The diamond open access journal ‘Archeologia e Calcolatori’, founded in 1990, started publishing its articles in 2005 on its website and has always paid attention to giving proper value and presentation to visual contents related to publications. Indeed, it maintained an online image gallery displaying colour plates from volumes until coloured images started being embedded in the articles’ PDFs (since 2009). Then, in 2021, the journal added images and 3D models as resources together with publications and displayed them both as standalone content and in relation to articles. However, this later work did not include the previous thirty-year-long history of the journal, since it required close cooperation with authors. Thus a new dedicated web application was specifically developed to present a structured and visually appealing archive of about 4000 images. The paper illustrates this application, entitled A&C_IADI (Interactive Atlas of Digital Images).
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Since 2019, the LAD team has been working on the digitisation of the Carte topographique de l’Égypte through a GIS platform. The data contained in this historical cartography, published in the early years 1800s, play a key role in research on the ancient Egyptian landscape, yet they show a still image from the late 1700s. Taking a step towards a Linked Open Data (LOD), this paper illustrates the work of updating the already published dataset of the hydrography of Napoleonic cartography by the LAD team, to which new information useful for the study of the Ancient Egyptian landscape will also be added.
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This paper proposes an overview of practices ensuring the gradual transition of printed archaeological journals, already internationalised, to new models of online scientific publishing. It also examines the economic and organisational means that guarantee the sustainability of these models. Our two research units, the Pôle éditorial of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Mondes and the team Archéologie du monde grec et systèmes d’information of the ArScAn équipe, are both based in the campus of Nanterre, and collaborative discussions between the numerous professionals based there give us a precious glimpse at the evolutions of practices in terms of data management and publication, in a context of Open Science where scholarly publications and data tend to be open more widely and faster.
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The German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, DAI) conducts a variety of different types of field research, each with its own unique documentation requirements: excavations, surveys and architectural surveys. The resulting differences are reflected in the workflows, the recording methods and the documentation. In addition, the DAI’s international work has to comply with the guidelines of the respective heritage agencies in the host countries. iDAI.field is the system for documenting archaeological fieldwork at the DAI. From the very beginning it was developed to meet these very different requirements. The development spanned several years, major versions and associated, far-reaching technology changes. The latest iteration of the application relies exclusively on open source technologies and is published on GitHub under the Apache License 2.0 in accordance with DAI-IT’s open source policy. In order to open up the application to other interested researchers and/or developers, the focus of the last year has been the implementation of an extended configuration interface and the removal of dependencies from the DAI infrastructure. This article outlines the development history, introduces the currently available functionalities, and briefly discusses the data model, followed by an overview of the technologies used. It also describes the development into a real open source product and gives a short outlook on the future plans.
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The Etruscan town of Cerveteri and its territory have been investigated since the 1980s by the Istituto di Studi sulle Civiltà Italiche e del Mediterraneo Antico of the Italian CNR, becoming a field of experimentation for computer applications to archaeological surveys and excavations. In recent years, a new multimedia project, aimed at creating an interactive itinerary, has been planned in order to develop the Caeretan information system and experiment with the potentials of new webmapping and webGIS tools. This article gives a general overview of the Italian panorama in this sector of applications and describes the main steps of the itinerary (from the Villa Giulia Etruscan National Museum in Rome to the town of Cerveteri, following the Roman consular road the Aurelia) as well as the procedures to be followed for its accomplishment.
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The study of the urban alignment of the settlement of Pyrgi and of the arrangement of the sacred areas was favoured by its abandonment after the phase of Romanization and by the possibility of performing large-scale research over its territory. The harbour and the sanctuary of Pyrgi were a fundamental pole of attraction for foreign haunters as the outpost of the metropolis of Caere. Their development was strictly linked to Pyrgi’s favourable geographical position along the Tyrrhenian maritime routes and to the presence of a water spring. The settlement was founded at the end of the 7th century BC, and was connected to Caere by means of a large road. The excavations conducted since 1957 by the Sapienza University of Rome next to the terminal section of the Caere-Pyrgi road brought to light a large sacred district. The new excavation area (2009-2016) is located in the district between the sanctuary and the settlement. It includes different buildings datable to 600 BC-4th century BC erected along a pebbled road that departs from Caere-Pyrgi and leads towards the harbour. The buildings, together with votive deposits and a fire-altar, outline a residential quarter that was perhaps attended by a priesthood, where ceremonial practices were also performed. The new evidence can be related to the sanctuary itself and sheds light on its overall organisation. The results of recent fieldwork have also contributed to a better understanding of Pyrgi’s urban alignment, possible defensive systems (suggested by the Greek name Pyrgoi) and the topographic relationship with the later Roman maritime colony. Thanks to the involvement of scholars from different disciplinary fields, wide-range research is being carried out to reconstruct the original landscape and the evolution of the coastline, with an aim to determining the morphology of the coast and the harbour in the Etruscan period.
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The development of the “Caere Project”, conducted by the Istituto per l’Archeologia Etrusco-Italica of the Italian National Research Council as part of the “Cultural Heritage” Special Project, has made it possible to establish a unique and comprehensive model for the digitalization of excavation data within a GIS platform. This model has been developed to record, process and publish data coming from the excavations conducted by the Institute in the central area of the urban plateau of the ancient Etruscan town of Cerveteri. From the outset of the project, much attention has been placed upon the discussion of methodological and technical issues, in order to form a framework for data acquisition and processing. The methodologies adopted and processes adhered to are described, with particular reference to the problems of: data representation and encoding, standardisation of the descriptive language, application of Spatial Analysis techniques, creation of a multimedia software for data diffusion and publication.
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As part of the Caere Project, the author describes the diverse stages that have characterised the acquisition and encoding in a digital format of the excavation diaries through the application of SGML. This encoding language for electronic documents is focused mostly on describing the internal structure of the data and the information contained in the text. The SGML syntax in some aspects is complex, and inevitably this has been an obstacle to the diffusion of the language. The transcription and the encoding of the diaries have been completed and a flexible querying system of the SGML documents has been created. The decision to use the Internet in order to distribute information has also implied a study of the viability of converting SGML documents into XML, which in the last few years has been replacing SGML, from which it derives. However, the completion of the encoding project of the excavation diaries does not represent the final stage; in fact, it is the new phase that it has initiated which is important: further DTDs will be created which will allow the acquisition and encoding of the descriptions of every find. The user will be able to navigate and explore the textual data and, where a more detailed study is required, analyse the objects together with the topographical information.
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The author describes the experimentation of the Text Encoding Initiative Lite for the encoding of published archaeological documents, a part of the research program of the Caere Project. In fact, the experimentation with SGML as a tool for documenting, querying and subsequently interpreting the yearly diaries of the Vigna Parrocchiale excavations suggested expanding the use of this encoding procedure to also include published archaeological reports, particularly those associated with other monumental features in the urban plateau of Cerveteri. As a case study, the encoding scheme of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Lite, integrated by the DTD already defined, has been used in the publication of the excavations conducted in 1912-13 by Raniero Mengarelli, in the same area of the Vigna Parrocchiale, and published in «Studi Etruschi» in 1936. In order to verify the flexibility of this encoding method within different types of archaeological publications, the same procedure has been experimented on another text written in 1937 by Raniero Mengarelli and extracted from «Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità».
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Fifteen projects, running in a variety of hardware and software environments, are reviewed from throughout the United States and Mexico; work in other parts of the world by North Americans is also represented. Most applications occur at the regional level and represent either state sponsored archaeological management data bases or research databases. Most employ GIS to manage regional data queries and undertake visualization tasks; others focus more analytically on patterns of prehistoric settlement and land use at the regional level, with predictive models of archaeological location a management expression that relies heavily on research and analysis. Large interest is also shown in comprehensive within-site databases. Remotely sensed satellite data are being employed to construct base maps at the regional level while geophysical information is being incorporated in within-site databases. Although cost-surfaces and viewshed studies receive relatively little focus, there seems to be large interest in multitemporal studies that compare cultural differences and settlement patterns across the fourth dimension. The linkage of GIS with virtual reality and the increasing importance of the World Wide Web point to future directions the technology will take.
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There is a great deal of interest in the application of GIS within UK archaeology and, consequently, many varied examples. Rather then attempting the difficult task of itemising these, this paper discusses important themes which are emerging from the maturing understanding and usage of GIS technology within archaeology and more widely. These include issues such as establishing standards and the archiving and accessibility of digital data. It also makes a distinction between Cultural Resource Management and research led application. For each application area, the current position is offered together with discussion of relevant theoretical and practical issues.
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The present article is an attempt to emphasise some methodological concerns and evolutionary trends that characterise the use of GIS in Italian archaeological research. The cognitive base to attain this synthesis was offered by the analysis of answers to the questionnaire on “GIS and Archaeology”, that was distributed in the framework of the “Caere Project”, promoted within the more general “Progetto Finalizzato Beni Culturali” of the Italian CNR. The description of the results obtained follows a general definition of GIS and their capabilities. Computerised archaeological projects in which GIS are used nearly cover the entire national territory, from the Valle d’Aosta to Puglia and to the two principal islands. We have also recorded Italian projects that study archaeological areas outside the national limits. In general, there is a rather limited use of GIS in the management of archaeological excavations; in fact, the use of CAD software is more diffused. One of the emerging issues in GIS applications in archaeology is the distinction between projects carried out by institutions dealing with the administration and safeguarding of the national cultural patrimony and those carried out by the academic and research institutes. Cultural Resource Management in Italy is generally connected to the activities carried out by central and regional offices under the direction of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and addressed to the problems of management, safeguarding, maintenance and exploitation of the national patrimony. As for GIS projects carried out in the framework of the research sector, one of the characteristics of Italian studies seems to be the presence of two areas of investigation: the first one pertains to regional studies while the second one is devoted to the study of ancient towns, either abandoned or obscured by modern evidence.
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This paper is an attempt at an overview of recent GIS activities in Eastern Europe. The paper is composed of three parts. In the first section organisational characteristics and the historical background of Eastern European archaeology are briefly presented. The second section focuses on current GIS activities in most Central European countries. In the final section, general trends in archaeological GIS research and practice are summarised. In this section some suggestions for improvements through international co-operation are drawn. The paper is followed by the abbreviated results of the replies to the Caere Project questionnaire.
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In 2018 the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo set out on a three-year basis project, the ‘Risk Map of Floors Surfaces’, with the aim of preserving and monitoring all the in situ floor coverings of the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill areas (mosaics, sectile, cement floors, spicata). In order to systematically address this methodological approach a team of archaeologists, architects and restorers designed and created a comprehensive and functional information management system, the ‘Risk Map of the Mosaic and Marble Surfaces’, together with a web-based application with integrated webGIS tools. The platform is used daily to record historical-archaeological and archival data and it has become an essential tool in planning interventions in the field. This approach brings the Parco to move from emergency maintenance to a continuous cycle of systematic maintenance. At the end of the first three-year phase of the project, an interactive web map was published online in May 2022 to share selected data related to the ancient floors of the Parco with public users. At this stage, the web map (https://cdrweb.parcocolosseo.it) allows to obtain descriptive texts and a gallery of images of the ancient floors; there are plans in the next future to improve data sharing through API and web map services.
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In the field of Cultural Heritage, the technological advances of recent years have enriched and optimised the possibility of documenting and studying ancient graffiti with a wide range of low-cost and non-invasive methodologies. The most popular are digital photogrammetry SfM (Structure from Motion) and RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) methodologies. The RTI is a powerful tool that, through the use of open source software, enables the documentation of data that are difficult to visualise, facilitating the recognition of traces and marks on the surface of objects. On the other hand, the SfM 3D models are increasingly replacing documentation with traditional photographs. This ‘almost excessive’ production of three-dimensional models is not often accompanied by an adequate exploitation of all their potential uses. This research aims to investigate the possibility of using a high-resolution 3D model for the implementation of virtual RTI processing, a hybrid method that combines 3D, virtual manipulation and 2D technologies in a fast and intuitive workflow suitable for the documentation of a wide range of archaeological monuments. The process sees the 3D model from the SfM survey being illuminated and photographed in a virtual dome in the open source Blender environment; therefore, the images generated are processed with RTI Builder software.
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Hypertext allows a personalisation of the information, with the possibility of creating multiple manuals with various levels of complexity. Therefore, Hypertext is an excellent didactic tool for education, and indeed schools frequently use hypertext to explain historical and artistical questions about Cultural Heritage.
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Personal computers are able to organise complex information and to develop didactic experiences. In particular, new software makes use of audiovisual techniques, controlled by the computer, to create interactive experiences. This article discusses some of the principal interactive programs utilised in art exhibitions and highlights the power of multimedia programs in didactic activities. Some suggestions are also made regarding the use of multimedia programs.
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The use of multimedia to study history and archaeology is the principle of the application created by a Parthenopean IT company, the Ceaprelda srl, with the collaboration of a group of archaeologists coordinated by the author. The fusion between specialist competence and technology has allowed us to create a unique multimedia product, that can claim of being the first on floppy disk with archaeological and artistic emphasis. On the computer video it is possible to navigate the real and exact itinerary through territories, archaeological places, towns of particular historical-artistical interest or in the halls of museums. In every page of text a series of “windows” can be opened showing with monographic index-cards, curiosities and historical information, accompanied by photographs. The software is able to simultaneously process a high amount of information (texts, photos, graphic elements and sound) in an interactive form using the Windows operating system. Through applying a generic level of global authoring, the same project model always appears according to the specific requirements dictated by the contents; to design the program structure the Hypermedia Design Model (HDM) was considered, though this model refers generally to a hypermedia context. The project model has therefore allowed for the creation of a multimedia product, that led to the production of two titles: “Campi Flegrei” and “Napoli Mirabilia”. The structure of the text is based on a series of “entities”, to be considered as wide thematical classifications (e.g. contexts, itineraries, cards), each one formed of “components”, connected to it by contents and pattern. The reading scheme, with textual (descriptive pages) and visual (photos present on each page) information, is structured on the series of applied “links” that consent the admission to the various entities: moreover through an infinite series of logical and detailed paths (web), transversal readings of contents can be obtained. It is also possible “to navigate” in the text with the help of topographic maps. Using the “Print” function the various itineraries can be transformed into a little guide-book, while the “Search” key allows for a specific word search in the text, for a faster and more refined consultation. The series of technological innovations has allowed us to “simulate” the conditions of real visits. Other itineraries have also been created in the same manner. In particular, these are for the Southern Etruria (A. Naso, with an introduction by M. Cristofani) and Paestum (E. Greco and I. D'Ambrosio). This particular method of management and research has been used for purely educational purposes, but the software can be adapted to become an instrument for scientific research.
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The Council for British Archaeology (CBA), The British Academy, and a number of British university archaeology departments are in the process of establishing an electronic journal for archaeology. The journal will be full refereed and set a high academic standard. It will accept contributions from archaeologists throughout the world and will therefore be aimed at an international audience. Both the production and dissemination of the journal will be network-based, ultimately available to all via the Internet. The journal will publish the results of archaeological research including excavations reports (text, photographs, data, drawings, reconstructions, diagrams, interpretations), analyses of large data sets along with the data itself, visualisation, programs used to analyse the data and applications of information technology in archaeology. As well as the delivery of a regular electronic journal, the project will provide (i) a detailed description of the process of establishing and managing an electronic journal, (ii) definition of a suite of access and navigation tools that will allow the readers to use the journal, and (iii) a contribution to cultural change through the increased use of electronic media. The first issue of the journal will be available within a year from the start of the project in August 1995. This paper presents the business plan for the journal.
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This paper presents an update of my work on producing a tool for compiling and organizing electronic excavation archives with hypermedia function. The key to providing a usable tool lies in its flexibility to be incorporated with existing practices and software. As much data is already being processed and stored on computer, it would be an advantage to be able to continue using this data in its present format, without having to alter it. Therefore a program has been designed that will be able to cope with the diversity of formats in use and allow most users to continue their existing practices with existing programs and data collections, but with the added functionality and improved data access. The Open Hypermedia System MICROCOSM, which provides a useful and flexible framework to group the data within the excavation report lay-out, is being adapted for archaeological requirements. While MICROCOSM already offers good data organization and linking facilities that do not need to be improved further, tools that will aim to solve archaeological problems are being added. This involves the writing of a number of Visual Basic programs which will then perform these functions.
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On the occasion of this Symposium, we have reported on the new results of research activity on multimedia techniques, that Ceaprelda srl has been developing from many years in the field of cultural heritage. Our latest products (Etruschi-Etruria meridionale, Paestum, Campi Flegrei - 2° ed.), archaeological and artistical itineraries, have been now all realized on CD Rom, allowing a great development of technical potentialities as to the old floppy disk; CD use allowed us to make progress above all in the aspects of sounds, of quantity and quality of images, of animation (with complex and faithful reconstruction of ancient buildings, realized in 3D Studio on the base of archaeological surveys). To design the programme structure we have considered the reference of HDM (Hypermedia Design Model), but the products are not more realized in DB Fast 2.0, like for floppy version, but in Visual Basic 4.0. We have also elaborated a proposal to avoid the complex problem of incompatibility between "spreading communication" and "scientific communication" in the sphere of cultural heritage: we have provided for introduction in our multimedia itineraries of a section named "Lavori in corso" ("Works in progress") with a marked scientific feature, containing recent discoveries, researches and studies results and the most important cultural activities in the area of our itineraries. We believe, in this way, to have created a product for cultural fruition that, thanks to technological progress, gives widespread information aimed to specialists, and also makes them available to a wider public, not necessarily specialized in that sector.
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This paper focuses on the Euesperides program, a hypermedia application for the public presentation and interpretation of archaeology and the main issues related to its design and evaluation. The project was set up in Oxford in order to explore some of the questions concerning the effectiveness of multimedia for exhibition interpretation. The computer program presents the history and archaeology of the classical Greek colony Euesperides in North Libya. The application was designed for a temporary exhibition organized by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in autumn 1995. It aimed to offer contextual and interpretive information about the objects on display, and also to demonstrate aspects of archaeological theory and practice. The paper discusses the structure of the program and the ways user input affected design choices. At several stages through the design process, formative evaluation was carried out with different groups of the targeted audience (schoolchildren, adults, students). This offered valuable feedback about the content, language, screen design, navigation, and user interface of the program. Summative evaluation was also conducted to explore the use of the hypermedia program by the visitors in the gallery. The paper refers to the methodology used, outlines the questions that the survey addressed, and presents the first results.
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In addition to the objects exhibited in the show-cases, the "Villa Sulcis" Archaeological Civic Museum in Carbonia enables the visitors to integrate their knowledge of the archaeological settlement of Monte Sirai (which is about 6 km away from the town) and to adequately visit it. In fact, two multimedia work-stations were recently established in the Museum, that illustrate a programme on the Phoenician and Punic settlement. The work-stations include a computer and a big screen and are located in two rooms, one of which is expressly equipped for students. The programme is articulated in five different sections which, other than present information collected in more than thirty years of research, gives also the results obtained during the last excavations. The documentation is made up of maps, drawings and photographs. In addition to the introduction, the four remaining sections are divided on the base of topics, identified by the following key-words: "History", "House", "Death" and "Sacred".
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The archaeological Museum of Bologna has produced a graphic computerized video on the Saqqara tomb of General Horemheb and its reliefs. At the beginning of the nineteenth century merchants of archaeological antiquities emptied the tomb: some of the reliefs which decorated its walls were taken away and sold to various European and North-American museums. Five of these are now in the Archaeological Museum of Bologna. In the years which followed its first discovery, the tomb was newly covered by the sand of the desert and was found out again only in 1975 by G. Martin. The publication of these excavations enabled experts to develop an hypothesis of the tomb reconstruction which has been subsequently reproduced on a video that allows visitors to enter Horemheb tomb "virtually". The video has been made by Antonio Gottarelli (TE.M.P.L.A. Tecnologie Multimediali per l'Archeologia): it will be available for sale on CD (interactive version) and videotape. A small portion of the video, a few seconds with reduced spatial dimensions, is available at: http://www.comune.bologna.it/bologna1/Cultura/Museicomun/Archeologico/VirtualEgyptian.htm1.
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The paper illustrates the role of interactive multimedia for museum professionals in Emilia Romagna region. Their introduction is affecting the role of the traditional museum, but their effectiveness for exhibition interpretation has not been explored in depth until now. The authors discuss the problems that museum professionals have had in the use, implementation and evaluation of multimedia: the main is the lack of an adequate communications strategy in the museum educational projects. The paper presents the results of a survey on the use of multimedia program in an archaeological museum in Emilia Romagna. The evaluation project was carried out with different groups of one targeted audience: schoolchildren. The evaluation has investigated if visitors spend more time with the objects after using the application or are they distracted and absorbed by the novelty of the technology, and in general if the program creates a positive attitude towards archaeology and museums.
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The author describes the difficulties in making good use of Personal Computers for educational finality in Italian museum. These difficulties are produced by computer world disorder and by collections complexity. A good solution may be to realize a general communication's plan for museum. Therefore Personal Computers acquire a specific role in connection with the other media.
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The use of electronic equipment and resources in the storage of written and image data is described. In particular, it is shown how, on the occasion of a coin exhibition, the multimediality was successful in joining news about the history of coinage with the coin files data base. The immersion of this web in the Internet let a conspicuous number of clients ask queries, either for general or for scientific interest. Finally, we think that if a good number of data banks could be gathered in a single web, we could reach the aim to obtain a great "Coin Data Bank" from different sites, in the respect of their single peculiarities.
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In the long term amber research work programme, carried out by the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Milan, an Internet node project has been recently created with the collaboration of the Institute of Informatic Multimedia Technologies of the C.N.R. of Milan, to facilitate the collection, the registration and the exchange of multi disciplinary information on this argument. This node is based on files, organised on different fields of interest (such as the archaeological, literal, geological, chemical, paleobotanic or paleozoological one), and it can be looked up in different kinds of paths by various users. The file consists of cards, texts, images and bibliographic information in the shape of hypertext. It can be adapted with the contributions of external users, passed through specific tools and e-mail. Among the numerous file nodes, the archaeological one is now the best structured and it gives more elaborated and articulated paths, as many different researches can be made with direct interviews - of multiple shapes - as well as with paths, guided by links set up by key words or sensitive maps.
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A programme for the remote access of archaeological images and texts has been set up by myself and Dr. O. Casazza, who works in the Department of Advanced Technology at the Uffizi Gallery, and has taken part in the RAMA project (Remote Access to Museums Archives) since 1994. The main aim of the RAMA project is to develop a multimedia system which allows museum to give access to their archives via telecommunication networks. Without changing the museum archives organisation, the RAMA system provides remote access to existing museum database using broad band telecommunication networks to transmit texts, still images, videoclip and sounds. Our project consists of several parts: 1) Experimentation of RAMA system in the archaeological sphere in order to point out advantages, faults and all changes of the research. For this experimentation the Beazley archive of Oxford has been used; 2) Chances of using RAMA system through the structures of the Unità Operativa CNR - Uffizi supervised by DIE (Department of Electronic Engineering - University of Florence) supervised by Prof. Vito Cappellini as RIG (Roma Interest Group) and/or RUG (Ram User Group); 3) Creation of a card, using images for a following Implementation of a database. This database is useful for the archives of photos and drawing, e.g. the Banti archives and the Paribeni archives of the University of Florence.
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The East Mediterranean Pottery Project. Exchange of specialized data on the information superhighwayThe information superhighway, technology has made it possible to create world wide multiple server databases for scientific and humanistic research. These allow a deeper level of exchange of data in archaeology than news services and information about excavation projects. The archaeological information passed along Internet channels is bringing scholars to think together in a way never before seen in the history of the research. The Israel Antiquities authority East Mediterranean Pottery Project is an attempt to enable searches on multiple database servers containing information about ceramic objects in museum and private collections. The search engine is based on HTML forms that provides a platform and operating system independent environment required by a widely distributed database search. The two main obstacles in the expanding of the system are terminological problems arising from language and usage differences and the Jack of a common system for type identification. The suggested solutions include the creating or adopting on local level of a pottery Thesaurus that allows extensive conceptual aliasing between distributed databases and the adopting of the DELTA syntax for passing typological identification keys between different databases. The future will show how the launching of the EMP project will be received by the international community and what is the growth potential of this and other similar scientific projects appearing on the information superhighway.
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IAEI website description.
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The authors announce a new Electronic Journal completely dedicated to the study of Landscape dynamics. The Journal, called «Evolutions», accepts contributions also of lesser known topics or areas, on the condition that they are treated in a diachronic way. Papers on landscape evolution in periods of transition are specially welcome: Greek/ Roman, Roman/Early Medieval and Medieval, prehistoric /protohistoric and so on. In order to encourage a methodological and thematic exchange as wide as possible, no geographical and cultural limits are imposed. Address: http://www.evoluzioni.com.
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This article is a short review of the history of representation and structuring of archaeological information in computer applications as from HW/SW growing technical development. In the seventies and eighties databases were the most popular and widespread application of computer technology to archaeology. In the eighties micro and personal computers dramatically increased database research projects. This uncoordinated growth led to a plethora of disparate systems incapable of information exchange, although this phenomenon did considerably increase the normalization and standardization of archaeological data. Starting at the end of the eighties, GIS application to archaeology became more and more popular and the number of GIS research projects quickly increased. In adopting GIS technologies, however, the archaeologist must be aware of problems connected with specific nature of spatial data (cartography is always a simplification of the real world) and their accuracy. In the last five years, network communication, and above all the Internet, have assumed a central role in archaeological research and the communication standard protocols derived from SGML will be a central tool for improving public access to the archaeological heritage and for enabling teaching and research.
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Review article.
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Archeologia e multimedialità: il sito Internet dell'abitato protostorico di Sorgenti della Nova (VT)This article introduces the Web Site of Sorgenti della Nova, a proto-urban settlement located in Southern Etruria and inhabited in the Final Bronze Age (11th - beginning of the 9th century BC). The web site was implemented thanks to collaboration between the Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità of the University of Milan and the Istituto per le Tecnologie Informatiche Multimediali of the National Research Council in Milan; it contains not only general information about the settlement but, in particular, digital records on the archaeological finds of Sorgenti della Nova (records and drawings). Further, an analysis is made of the different forms of study and data dissemination offered by multimedia techniques as opposed the traditional forms of finds publications. In conclusion, a complete description of data organisation and structure of the site is offered as well as what is probably the most interesting topic for the archaeologist: the three basic methods for consulting finds according to their typology, chronology or topographic position in the settlement. The site is available at the following URL: http://jargo.itim.mi.cnr.it/ Nova.
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This paper describes a database management system created for organising the data which emerged during an investigation conducted by a team from the University of Florence in Petra, Jordan. The subject of the research are Crusader settlements in Transjordan and, in particular, the castle system of the Petra valley; the study employed a methodological approach based on so-called “light archaeology”, that is a set of methods typical of European Medieval archaeology like “landscape archaeology” and “standing structure archaeology”. The study, which is still in progress, has revealed the key role of Petra in the territorial organisation of Transjordan during the Crusader period. By focusing on Wu’ayra, the most important fortress of the Petra valley, by means of a series of trial trenches, the project has documented the different settlement stages of the site. It is now apparent that the site was defended by a double wall overhanging the surrounding wadi with a single access and fourteen square towers on the outer ring and the inner walls, and an extreme defence nucleus, the fortified church, inside the cassero, in the centre of the system. Of the nine stages studied so far, three concern the Crusader settlement, one a very short occupation by the Ayyubids, and five correspond to the phase of abandonment of the castle with subsequent occasional use by Bedouin communities. The investigation will eventually evolve into a wide ranging study of the Crusader border, from Antioch to Aqaba. The computer project consists of a database management system, which is based on a Java servlet, a software which uses the HTTP protocol to generate and submit HTML pages “on demand”, and which can be viewed using a common Internet browser. This helps communication and simplifies access to data, which can also be shared on-line. Future developments will include spatial information, based on freely available GIS software. A particular feature of this investigation is the close connection which is maintained between computer technology and archaeological methods, which envisages new forms of co-operation in interdisciplinary research and new skills that draw from both disciplines.
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Review article.
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Thanks to the great development in the use of the Internet, even in Archaeology the Net can be exploited both as a means to spread new research results, and to create a dialogue between different institutions like Universities, Superintendences, archaeological and cultural associations. Nowadays, through thousands of web sites, users have acquired a good experience in surfing and are able to choose which site to visit and not. This article presents a detailed description of our web site for Medieval Archaeology, which counts more than 6000 web pages since it was put on line in 1996. It has become a benchmark and a starting point for every kind of research in medieval archaeology on the Internet.
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This article offers a summary of the Oxford University's Beazley Archive of Classical Archaeology and Art work since 1999 (for the period 1988 to 1999 see the tenth volume of this journal). The most important developments have been the migration of all of the Archive's databases and educational programmes on to the web (www.beazley.ox.ac.uk); the diversification of materials studied and methods of presentation; the imminent amalgamation of more than twenty databases into one searchable master dataset. This five-year summary is divided into three parts: the first part relates to the content and presentation of the Beazley Archive, with particular reference to the Pottery Database and the recent three-year project to digitise the CVA volumes for the web, which was granted to the Beazley Archive by the Union Académique Internationale; the second part relates to the technical structure of the datasets, storage and back up facilities and the third part relates to the nature and extent of the Archive's electronic assets and their relation to others in the University of Oxford.
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Tele-archaeology, in its basic sense, may be defined as the use of telecommunications to provide archaeological information and services. Two different kinds of technology make up most of the tele-archaeology applications in use today. The first is used for transferring information from one location to another. The other is multi-way interactive knowledge distribution. In this paper we examine the possibilities of tele-archaeology, and offer a general framework to implement this technology. The main positive effect of tele-archaeology is the move towards a real 'distributed interactive archaeology', which means that archaeological knowledge building is a collective and dynamic series of tasks and processes. An individual archaeologist cannot fully explain his/her data because the explanatory process needs knowledge as raw material, and this knowledge does not exist in the individual mind of the scientist but in the research community as a global set.
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The ICT revolution in archaeological studies is producing thousands of digital data: interaction can be the key word to make more easy and efficient their access, communication, use, and analysis. It is well known that a lack of standardization is one of the most important limitations that prevent efficient interaction between different data sets. Interoperability and comparability of different archaeological data sets may increase interpretation and analysis. The paper outlines current developments in archaeological data standardization, and looks forward for an easier and more efficient process of integration of different kinds of data. The paper focuses in particular on the possibility of exploiting peer-to-peer and shared technologies to build archaeological data networks in an easy way, disseminating the standardization in a down-to-top way, avoiding technical and practical problems related to the hierarchical imposition of new formats. The paper addresses the possibility to realize and make available on the Internet a free tool to build an archaeological data community, with free access, validation, etc., to share data making the most of free text-based standards: XML, X3D, etc. The overall benefits of the proposed file-sharing solution can be summarized as follows: integration of different data typologies; standardization; interaction and networking; modularity; human readability; cooperative creation of vocabularies, graphical libraries, utilities, tools.
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The «Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology» (acronym JIIA), at the URL http://www.jiia.it/, online since the 10th of October 2003 is a full-text and peer reviewed journal oriented to “alternative” Open Access publishing, formed by experimental personal initiative and on a non-profit basis. The aim of the JIIA e-journal is the dissemination of scientific communications in archaeology, antiquity sciences and archaeological applied sciences: it is therefore interdisciplinary and intercultural. The Journal web site, originally static, has been completely renewed. The repository, created with open-source MyOPIA, MySQL Online Publications Index Administration , allows matching to the OAI-PMH protocol and hence metadata harvesting. The Journal appears as a novelty in a sector which, in our country, is still in its infancy. The article also discusses problems related to on-line editing and open archives.
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The excavation conducted since 2002 by the Department of Archaeology of Siena University in the s.c. Byzantine District near the Pythion shrine in Gortyn (Crete) gave the opportunity to develop some methodological reflections about the documentation of the cognitive process performed during archaeological excavations. From this point of view, GIS represents the end-point of an archaeological documentation system that links finds to their physical dimension and spatial position. But GIS appears to be at a hard point when it comes to recording the other side of archaeological information, linked with non-material evidence, functional and non-spatial relationships. This is the kind of information that emerges from the interaction between the clues and finds system and the reading/understanding ability of the team that does the fieldwork. This kind of interaction finds a better form of expression in a “narrative” language (multi-vocal excavation report and video recording). At the same time the opportunity of using a wiki as a platform for a web-based reconstruction of the team’s “mind map” was experimented. With this kind of system every piece of information can find its “place” for archiving, discussing and publishing.
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The Interactive Guide INandOUT, created as part of the project “Signs of pre-Roman cultures in land and landscape” and sponsored by the European Program “Culture 2000”, aims at experimenting new forms of comprehension by creating a direct link between site-visiting, excavations finds and archival research using the newest available technologies (notebooks, Tablet PCs, etc.). The Interactive Guide INandOUT answers the visitor’s need to contemplate the single work he is observing inside the site or museum and to observe it together with the entire site, at the same time. In short, it can place the visitor outside the site while still taking him through each single step of the excavations. Two goals have been achieved: first of all an informative net was created, covering vast open spaces (such as those found in archeological sites) and smaller indoor spaces (such as those found in museums), and using wireless technology (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, UMTS). Second, this net was filled with multi-medial contents, such as animations, movies, images, sounds and voices, in order to enhance the correspondence between inside and outside, between the single object and its original environment. The visitor’s position is identified by means of tags RFid (Radio Frequency Identification). These simple and quite “invisible” radio transmitters, spread all over the site, interact with the client-driver (the Tablet PC) given to the visitor. By receiving different specific codes the Guide recognizes where the visitor stands and sends him the most specific and contextual information. Last, but not least, the RFid system considerably reduces both operation and maintenance costs. The Tags used to activate the multi-medial information on the visitor’s Tablet PC are small, easily attached (even only using glue) and easily removed if necessary, long lasting, ideal for open and external spaces, and, most important, they need no power supply.
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This article describes two learning activities on Greek art and my reflections on the design elements which were influenced by the principles and recommendations that are particularly useful for distance education. The project arose out of a desire to emulate online the classroom experience of studying and analysing images of Greek art and had two goals: to provide students (1) with an opportunity to practise on their own visual analysis and interpretation of Greek images and apply them to new examples; and (2) with comprehensive but progressive feedback that would guide them in their way of thinking to reach the correct answer. In the Greek Art module, the activity assists students in dating vase paintings. Each example offers a choice of chronological periods in which to place the image. Errors in selection are used constructively, with the feedback providing hints on which elements of the image to pay attention to in order to arrive at the correct dating. Correct answers are accompanied by questions guiding students to consciously justify their selection. In the Greek Mythology module, the activity assists students in the identification of figures involved in mythological depictions. By clicking on the figures students can see not only the correct answer but also a series of questions that guide them to justify their answer by referring to the specific features on which they based their identification. These interactive activities can be used at the students own pace and provide immediate and constructive feedback. At the same time, they allow reflection before the correct answers, given in small successive steps, are revealed. The activities are linked to learning outcomes and prepare students for future summative assessment. They are a pedagogically sound computermediated tool to encourage active, deep and reflective learning.
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The Archéologie du monde grec et systèmes d’information team (CNRS – Paris X – Nanterre) presents a survey of the web resources available for Archaeology in two parts, the first dedicated to developments and use of web products, the second to information retrieval. This article is focused on practices: access to research results transposed from a traditional edition to a web site; hybrid diffusion and original contents specially designed for the Internet; retrieval tools usually used, such as Google, distinguished between “portals” designed and developed by archaeological institutions: these portals allow researchers and students to find selected and qualified information. At the end of the text, we present our web sites: Mélanges électroniques en hommage à René Ginouvès, Bibliographie de l’architecture grecque, «Cahiers des thèmes transversaux», Chronique Internet pour l’archéologie.
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The website Impero Romano e Intellettuali Greci presents a selection of texts by Greek authors from the first imperial age on the topic of the Roman Empire. Each of these texts is tagged to identify the most important issues concerning the empire of Rome. These tags provide electronic access to the most significant passages in which some of the most important Greek intellectuals living between the first and second centuries BC published and circulated their ideas about the Roman Empire. All of the passages are presented in the original Greek and are accompanied by an abstract in Italian in which the context and content of the passage are summarized. With the presentation of each passage the larger work from which it is cited is indicated, in addition to essential information regarding the dating of and the circumstances under which each work was composed.
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This paper presents the preliminary results of the Project T.Arc.H.N.A., Towards Archaeological Heritage New Accessibility, partially funded by the European Union, as part of the Culture 2000 Programme. Tarchna is the Etruscan name of the ancient city of Tarquinia and T.Arc.H.N.A. is the name of a model of the virtual Museum. Thanks to the use of modern technology, combined with a deep knowledge of history and archaeology, it has been possible to create a tool useful for both scholars and the wider public, which is also available for other situations. Through the cooperation of experts from two different fields – Computer Science and Archaeology – an innovative system of accessibility to the Cultural Heritage in the field of research, education and dissemination has been designed and implemented. One of the first results of the project is the restoration in its entirety of the original Tarquinian Heritage, much of which is scattered all over the world, lacking in contexts and anthropological meanings. Scholars are thus enabled to deal with this Cultural Heritage as a whole and to bring the single document from the environment that produced it, to the environment of the modern user, thus filling the gap between the document and its interpretation. In this way the public can learn the main features of the Etruscan culture and understand the research of scholars.
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The paper deals with the results of the LandLab Project, aimed at the reconstruction of ancient landscapes. The use of the Internet for presenting the results of the scientific research is discussed through the presentation of two web applications, which have been implemented by the Laboratory of Archaeological Computing of the Dept. of Cultural Heritage - University of Lecce, Italy: the WebGIS of the pre-Roman settlements of the Salento region and WODOS, the on-line version of the ODOS excavation data management system. The web-based applications are aimed at developing new approaches to the problem of data preservation and data dissemination. They use the methods and technologies available in the field of Information and Communication Technology for the transfer of data, information management systems and multimedia communication in the reconstruction of ancient landscapes and cultural systems. The project is unique in the geographical context in question here, in that it represents the first thematic laboratory for research into the ancient landscape completely based on web programming and Internet technology.
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The paper presents the project for the publication of archaeological excavations conducted from 2001 to 2006 by the University of Milan in collaboration with the University of Pavia at Calvatone-Bedriacum (CR), in the area of the Domus del Labirinto. The project proposes to test a new form of communication, which permits to offer complete information on the research carried out over the years. In particular, the project aims at a more effective and immediate form of communication, mediated by the use of a multimedia support such as the DVD, with the purpose of developing a functional model for the edition of any archaeological excavation. The innovative and experimental publication on DVD, made possible by the contribution of the Regione Lombardia (Assessorato alle Culture, Identità e Autonomie della Lombardia), has allowed us not only to present the analysis and interpretation of the excavations, through a large number of images, but also to provide the full documentation of the archive - inventories, recording sheets, photographs, drawings, plans - which is usually excluded from publication, for obvious problems of space and costs.
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This article describes the results of a project related to IT applied to the city of Lucca in the Roman era (Tecnologie informatiche per la conoscenza e la comunicazione di Lucca romana), which was conducted as part of a Ph.D. program in Technologies and Management of Cultural Heritage at the Institute for Advanced Studies IMT Lucca. The work done can be divided into three separate stages, each of which is distinguished by the utilization of specific surveying tools. The first to be set up was GIS LUCA (Looking at an Urban Context Archive), where all the existing documentation on Roman Lucca was archived (maps, iconography, surveys, images, descriptive data). The information processed in LUCA provided data for the creation of the three-dimensional model of Roman Lucca, whereby the walls, main monuments and arteries, which still identify the town as Roman today, are represented in a schematic yet scientifically correct way. Additional experimentation was conducted as part of the research. Using an innovative three-dimensional relief technique, the ZScan, which enables cloud points to be taken from a photographic scan, three-dimensional models of the pillars of the eastern gate were elaborated, as well as three arches of the Roman amphitheatre that have been particularly well preserved. Lastly, the website www.luccaromana.com was created to publish the results that were obtained. The site proposes numerous knowledge paths around the ancient town by means of a range of highly innovative access methods, that provide a global yet synthetic description of Roman Lucca, which is a result of the research and experimentation conducted as part of the project.
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The creation of a homogeneous and normalized database with a 3D viewer is the ultimate aim of a project that was created to meet the needs of the archaeological, academic and scientific community, but also of the less specialized public. Benefiting from computer innovation and virtual reality, with increasingly "real" and intuitive interfaces, only improves the accessibility and comprehension of archaeological studies. Thus, interactive databases, used scientifically and for the dissemination of culture and information, will promote the importance of sites. VisArq. 1.0 offers precisely this, a visualization of archaeological information of the province of Zaragoza (Spain) and a protocol of action which, in its first version, attempts to offer a modus operandi, in which the standardization, unification, and display of data is the ultimate aim.
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In May 2012 in the historic center of Palermo, Sicily, thanks to the Fondazione Sicilia the Palazzo Branciforte was opened to the public after a long and costly restoration based on a project by the Italian architect Gae Aulenti (http://www.palazzobranciforte.it/). For the creation of this innovative cultural center, the University of Foggia was responsible for the execution of the archaeological museum project and the multimedia system, which is presented in this paper. The activities were conducted by a group of young experts from different fields with the assistance of researchers and technicians from the Laboratory of Digital Archaeology. The paper describes the production process of the multimedia system and the method used to create digital content for the cultural heritage that effectively uses a wide spectrum of normally underused skills and proposes an innovative approach to technologies, creativity and knowledge.
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The paper investigates the perspectives of applying the smart city paradigm in the Archaeology and Cultural Heritage field, thus outlining the emerging concept of Smart Cultural Heritage and Smart Archaeology and proposing an integrated approach, in which the fundamental value of the cultural framework is acknowledged in the complexity of the smart paradigm. The theory of Cultural Commons, moreover, is invoked as a basis for the study of the advantages of sharing common resources (such as cultural heritage and the related digital information) within the Communities, identified in their inclination to innovation by means of the Evolving Networks model. In this context, the Or.C.He.S.T.R.A. project proposes a participatory and cooperative complex system of heterogeneous information on the ancient center of Naples as a case study, ranging from mobility, to health, energy, and cultural heritage, to support the smart exploitation of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, for citizens, visitors and tourists while fulfilling the requirements of sustainability and eco-friendliness. The first experimentations of this methodological approach are presented, with focus ranging from archaeological exploitation to participated management of cultural heritage, to educational innovation. The integration of these aspects multiplies their potential, and influences the value of cohesion and density of networks of shared goods and services in the area, supporting the spread of innovation in the community, and creating value in the territory, thus impacting the possibility of the appearance of the tragedy of cultural commons.
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Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.
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Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.
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The author illustrates some recent events promoted in Orvieto (the ancient Etruscan town of Volsinii) by the Fondazione per il Museo ‘Claudio Faina’. After a brief description of the scope and aims of the Foundation, which was established in 1957, attention is focused on some exhibition projects that make use of computer-based technologies to illustrate and disseminate information on the Museum collections, encouraging a greater interaction between scholars and the general public. In particular, the author focuses upon the recent exhibition ‘Voci ritrovate. Archeologi italiani del Novecento’. The exhibition was conceived by ‘digging’ in the Archives of the Foundation, a research work that enabled the ‘discovery’ of a series of tapes in which the voice of some of the greatest Italian archaeologists and historians of the last century were collected and preserved. Original Rai radio recordings of the Sixties and Seventies of the 20th century enrich the collection and a dedicated website allows visitors to listen to some valuable considerations on the profession of archaeologist. The scope of the Foundation is now to implement the website and create a digital sound archive.
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The development of new media for use as tools to collect, register and create data has opened innovative and original mediascapes where several forces are involved in an effort to provide a historical explanation of the past. Augmented reality is not a simple virtual object but is also a historical fact, which has modified the offline world. The huge amount of data poured into cyberspace have multiplied the actors involved in the construction of historical and archaeological interpretations and produced different discourses in competition with each other about the past. The ‘democratization’ of knowledge conveyed by the web has opened new semantic spaces and challenged the old rules about authority of knowledge. Today, archaeology must deal with the logic inherent in these new rhetoric spaces and with its particular way of making discourse about the past through the web.
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In this paper the Author presents the results of a survey, which was created as a preliminary study that was part of the ARCA Project, a Ph.D. research project which started in November 2015. The purpose of the interview was to gather information about web sites related to archaeological projects and research, directly collecting feedback from users in order to analyze real world experiences and expectations. The questionnaire was prepared in collaboration with experts from other disciplines (psychologists, UX and UI experts, etc.), in order to promote an objective and scientifically valid approach, and obtain meaningful results. It is structured in 7 sections, for a total amount of 50 questions and practical experiences. One hundred and twenty people were invited to take part in this evaluation process; in a preliminary phase the interview was submitted to users coming exclusively from the Cultural Heritage Department of Padua University. Subsequently, it was opened to a wider audience from other universities and in other countries, to gather as much anonymous evidence as possible about functional feedback and user needs, also trying to map perception changes depending on origin, age, occupation and education. The collection and analysis of data allowed us to proceed further in the study and to develop software suitable for the presentation of different types of data from archaeological research. The final prototype will be evaluated through two case studies: the excavation of Nora and the Ca’Tron Project.
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Over the past two decades, there has been a proliferation of software to create great 3D models of archaeological sites and objects, and there has been plenty of thought and discussion on data models for finds. The results of those efforts have been made public through institutional websites and specific portals, but now, a further step is necessary: the cultural heritage data and (meta)data need to be taken into the semantic web. The Heritage Online Visualisation Engine (further: Heron VE) provides tools for documenting, visualising and disseminating the semantic relations between sites, objects, documentation and narratives. Heron VE is scalable: it can be used to tell the story of a particular archaeological complex, but it can also illustrate relations between sites and objects which are widely separated in both time and space. With Heron VE, dissemination of (meta)data can take many different forms: Heron VE contains modules for presenting and reporting on data, but it can also be used to provide data only, for example in several XML-formats or in N-triples. The designer of Heron VE has 25 years of experience with cultural heritage data in the field of archaeology, museums and libraries and has been working on the structured dissemination of cultural heritage data, first in the semantic web and now within the framework of linked data. This paper will illustrate the journey towards Heron VE, including considerations regarding the adoption, adaptation or rejection of existing data models and ontologies. It will also contain examples. These will mainly be based on data regarding sites of former castles and stately homes in the Netherlands, but it will become very clear that the Heron VE can be applied to many different cultural heritage datasets, including those regarding ancient urban areas.
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Monte Bibele is an archaeological settlement of the 4th and 3rd century BC with a village, a necropolis and a votive deposit. Earlier, during the 14th and 13th century BC, in the same area there was a small village of sub-Apennine facies attributable to the late Bronze Age. The Second Iron Age settlement is just a part of a larger demographic reorganization of the Apennines, as is also proved by the recent discovery of the Monterenzio Vecchio necropolis and votive deposit, on the opposite side of Idice Valley. These are small settlements located close to the main routes of both sides of the Apennines and populated by Italic (Etruscans, Umbrians, Ligurians, etc.) and transalpine peoples (Celts) allied to control the surroundings. Of the architectural structures of Monte Bibele, the best known are those of the village, in the part of the massive called ‘Pianella di Monte Savino’. It has an Etruscan foundation, over an area of about 7,000 m2, in part still to be explored, and documented in its final phase in the late 3rd century BC, when the village was sealed by a sudden fire. Archaeologists of Te.M.P.L.A. (Research Center for Multimedia Technologies Applied to Archaeology of Bologna University’s Department of History and Cultures) over the last decade, have made many models of houses at Pianella. Reconstructions are based on direct feedbacks (archaeological data) and indirect comparisons (historical sources, traditional architecture). The first model was virtual, followed by a real one made near the Museum of Monterenzio, and by the two new houses made directly in situ, thanks to EU funds for the development of Emilia Romagna used for renovating the archaeological and naturalistic area of Monte Bibele (Por Fesr 2007/2013).
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OpenHistoryMap aspires to become the open source geographical system for archaeological information, both from an academic and an educational point of view. There are many fragmented online web-GIS experiences targeted at very specific projects, but no tool enables a broader overview of both research and studies. For these reasons, in order to create an Open Access platform, one of the most important aspects is the creation of tools that can facilitate both the sharing of archaeological spatial and temporal information as well as the easy reuse of the generated data. OpenHistoryMap is supposed to create a tool that is both a map of the archaeological world as well as a repository for the connected data within structured research papers. The project finds its roots first of all within the collective experience of ‘archaeology’ that refers to non-expert users, and in the second place within the academic scientific experience of research centres and universities. While the first approach gives an integrated and reliable picture of the cultural item, the second provides consistent and solid datasets with a perspective on the mixture of specific types of information.
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The paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary project which aimed at the dissemination of some archaeological remains producing multimedia contents from multisensor surveyed 3D data. The scope of this application pertained to the use of 3D detailed models as a base for some video-installations with the aim to arouse the visitors’ emotions and improve their museum experience. This work has been applied to the Arch of Augustus located in the archaeological site of Susa and to two ancient Roman marble statues, found in the city of Susa in 1802 and now displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Turin. The Arch of Augustus is in a remarkable state of conservation. Its decorated frieze tells about the peace between the Romans and the Celts but it is difficult to see for visitors at the ground level. A multisensor 3D survey, by means of laser scanning technique and photogrammetric method, made it possible to process a detailed 3D textured model, which provided the base for the creation of a life-size model to be placed in the Museum of Susa on which a designed didactic video map is projected, which explains the meaning of the frieze. The two statues, known as ‘busti loricati di Susa’ and representing two Roman emperors, were surveyed with a photogrammetric method with the aim of processing two 3D models representing the statues before the 19th century restoration, on the basis of archival sources. These models provided the base for a video installation for the museum which simulates a holographic projection and explains the different armour parts highlighting them in sequence. Nowadays modern metric survey technologies allow us to collect and process very detailed 3D models able to satisfy a wide variety of applications field, from specialized representation to didactic final uses in museums exhibitions.
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In this paper, we reviewed 20 years of development of 3D based IS to support archaeological and AH artefact knowledge, management and communication and their theoretical work basis. In detail, we illustrated our experiences showing the advantages and limits we had observed after extensive use. In conclusion, we have illustrated a new paradigm based on IoT-related technologies, potentially able to overcome existing problems, and the theoretical foundation of the new framework that has been designed, the concept of the Smart Cultural Object, sources and recipients of advanced information and related technological underpinning.
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The research project VisualVersilia 3D aims at offering a new method to record and visualize the territory and its heritage by matching the traditional reading of documents and the potential use of modern communication technologies. The purpose of the project is to define a methodology that can be applied to material culture, as well as to other types of contents and contexts, to enhance the characteristic features of the territory and its heritage. The innovation of the project consists in the development of a procedure for documenting current and past historical times and integrating their 3D visualizations with rendering, capable of returning an immersive virtual reality for a successful enhancement of the heritage. The research implements the methodology in the archaeological complex of Massaciuccoli (Massarosa, LU), one of the best preserved roman site of the Versilia area (Tuscany, Italy). The activities briefly consist in: 1) analysis of all types of available sources; 2) metric three-dimensional survey by laser scanning technology addressed to the structures and buildings of the complex; 3) laser scanning data processing; 4) realization of virtual 3D rendering related to Roman and current condition for documentation and conservation purposes; 5) creation of virtual tour of the site in its current form, on the basis of spherical images then enhanced by texts, and 3D models of the Roman age.
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The Virtual Museum of the Upper Calore Valley is a website which allows visitors to travel in time and space through and have access to various information on monuments, towns, culture, history, wine and food of the Hirpinian territory. By accessing six fictional videos on characters drawn from local history, users can also experience a historical overview, from the Longobard invasion up to the Unification of Italy, through the troubled periods of the Kingdom of Naples. The project works by open source software for video editing, GIS elaboration, and image processing. The browsing platform is based on the earliest release of the Aton framework created by CNR ITABC for browsing large-scale geographical and architectural data, with advanced features for graphic rendering, stereoscopic view, online representation of complex geometry and resolution through powerful paging algorithms. Aton is compatible with every modern HTML5 multimedia standard and is a powerful tool for historical storytelling.
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In 2020, the Samian Research database began a process of integrating its data within Wikidata through the creation of a set of Samian Research Wikidata items, including Samian Ware Discovery Sites, Samian Ware kiln sites and kiln regions, comprising accurate or approximate geospatial information and a backlink to the Linked Open Data hub ‘archaeology.link’. This approach of creating designated Wikidata items is an efficient way to map the enormous geographic reach of our subject and to call attention to many European archaeological sites and excavations that hitherto lacked a Wikidata identifier. The site of Corinth illustrates an exemplary issue to be solved: ambiguity and different archaeological concepts and ideas. E.g., is it correct to merge Corinth as a Samian Ware Discovery Site with the archaeological site of ancient Corinth? To solve the issue, the broader Wikidata community must be enlisted. This paper describes the challenges in the use case of Corinth and offers solutions within Wikidata.
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The Linked Open Ogham Data Project was set up in 2019 by the Research Squirrel Engineers Network and supported by the Wikimedia Germany Open Science Fellows Program in 2020/2021. In 2022 an Ogham survey was done in Ireland to record Ogham stones in the field and museums. The project aims at providing and integrating Ogham Data in community hubs such as Wikidata and Open Street Map (OSM). This paper shows a hybrid Ogham LOD workflow, based on the idea of Open Science, Open Software, Open Data and the FAIR principles to create re-usability and modular IT infrastructure with community standards and commonly-used interfaces. Furthermore, the paper shows examples of Ogham stones from the Dingle and Iveragh Peninsulas in OSM and gives a deeper insight into the inscriptions and mentioned Ogham-specific formula words and names.
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The case of city of Ancona highlighted the lack of specific software for the management and digitization of the archaeological data stored in the archives of the Superintendence. The archives contain many heterogeneous data that can help to understand the history of the archaeological sites, from their discovery up to the information archived from the numerous research or rescue archaeology excavations that have taken place over time. The normalization of all the archival data within a single relational database associated with their specific geographical nature, thanks to an overall view and an in-depth review of the data, shed new light on both edited contexts and archaeological evidence that had not yet received an adequate study and that had not been entered into a system that considers nearby data. This software does not replace existing cataloging systems, such as SIGECweb, but it aims to support the cataloging activity using the same standard and at the same time allowing the Superintendence to use the data for the protection activity and for their study.
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In the framework of the project ‘Castelseprio, centre of power’, the authors began excavating the structure known as Casa Piccoli in 2021. The area, already investigated by Piccoli in the 1970s, presents itself as an interesting case study for the application of an open and integrated solution for the management of stratigraphic data, specifically pyArchInit. Being an academic excavation project and, therefore, characterized by both research and training issues, it was decided to progressively and incrementally include the use of pyArchInit within the documentation protocols on site and post-excavation, over the three years of the permit granted by the Ministry of Culture for the excavations. Master’s degree students who participated in the excavation, at the end of the planned period, will have the basic skills to use the plugin also in a professional environment. At the end of the first two years of implementation, a SWOT analysis will show the results obtained within the site for both training and research purposes.
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This paper illustrates the usage and potential of the pyArchInit plugin, an open source tool created in Python language for the management and overall analysis of archaeological data on a single georeferenced platform (QGIS). Some of the functionalities of the application are highlighted in relation to the archaeological survey conducted in 2021 within the area of the Roman theater and the former Bosone spinning mill, in the historic center of Fano (PU), in the Marche region. Specifically, at the same time as the stratigraphic archaeological excavation operations were carried out, we proceeded directly on site, with the detailed management of both the identified stratigraphic Units and the finds recovered during the excavation, with direct data entry. In this way, it was possible to deliver to the Superintendence all georeferenced information layers in Gauss Boaga Est (EPSG3004) reference system, manageable in different GIS platforms and easily usable as a scientific research instrument for protection and planning of cultural heritage.
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The collection of stratigraphic data has been done for years with offline tools like the Microsoft Access software, which was considered a user-friendly tool with the ability to print standardised context sheets (like the Italian ministerial US sheets) directly and ‘without’ the need for technical expertise. It is well known to the scientific community the limitation inherent in this type of approach: the data is not shared online and is not easy to be collaboratively edited; the data is locked within a proprietary format with repercussions on medium- to long-term preservation; and it is not immediately possible to integrate the data with other projects due to a lack of precise reference standard. Despite these issues, the offline approach remained viable in a whole range of situations where it is necessary to have a fast and easy-to-manage database. This contribution starts from the hypothesis that an offline standardised and encapsulated tool in an open format (such as SQLite, LibreOffice Base or MySQL), editable with open source software, can offer additional solution because it is easy to use and disseminate in the form of a free, downloadable template. EMdb aims to collect and manage not only stratigraphic data but also reconstructive unit sheets to cover the need to analyse, interpret and validate scientific hypotheses in the field.