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.
The article attempts to retrace some of the early years of the scientific activity of Jean-Claude Gardin, throughout a particularly fertile period of about five years that certainly affected all of his subsequent scientific endeavours. Starting in the mid 1950s, Gardin carefully followed the international evolution of documentation systems and tirelessly promoted the innovative methods of investigation that will eventually make him one of the undisputed pioneers of archaeological computing. At the same time, he founded and led highly specialised laboratories that have acted as a breeding ground for the formalisation of archaeological research associated with the process of data representation and classification, as well as the construction of scientific knowledge.
This article presents the first results of the Ancient Hillforts Survey, a large-scale lidar-based analysis and ground-truthing aimed at creating a representative and comparative dataset of hillforts in Italy unbiased by site location or vegetational canopy. An analysis of 15,300 km2 spanning Campania, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, and Apulia detected 305 new suspected hillforts. The area was visually interpreted using image blends of lidar visualizations (VAT method) based on in-house-generated digital terrain models. Interobserver and intraobserver interpretational biases were tested and CORINE Land Cover data used to evaluate the representativeness of the legacy data compared with the new dataset and to estimate the number of sites for no-data areas. The results from the Daunian mountains (Apulia) are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in advancing knowledge of historically under-surveyed areas and in addressing long-term debates. Here, the data showed a novel hillfort system interpretable as Samnite, dating between the 6th and 3rd century b.c.
BIM is often misinterpreted as REVIT as it is introduced as BIM by vendors. The e-book gives a thorough view of BIM including technology, process and people aspects through a lifecycle perspective.
Open Science best practices and policies have been increasingly promoted and adopted in Europe and worldwide to extend public availability of research data and publications, according to FAIR principles. In this context, the so-called ‘Diamond Open Access’ model is particularly relevant since it entails provision of scientific content entirely free of charge, both for authors and readers. The journal Archeologia e Calcolatori adopted this model at a very early stage, when - in 2005 - it started publishing online full-text PDFs and metadata of its articles according to recognised standards, as an Open Archives Initiative data provider. This paper addresses the evolution of ‘Archeologia e Calcolatori’ in the context of scientific publishing in the disciplinary domain of IT applications to archaeology. It focuses on the updates of its OAI-PMH repository, which led to the journal’s inclusion in OpenAIRE as a data provider, and on mapping its current position in the OA Diamond landscape. The paper also illustrates recent implementations of Archeologia e Calcolatori’s website to provide full access to visual and interactive resources, such as images and 3D models, related to its publications, and to relevant metadata, structured according to OpenAIRE’s most recent guidelines. The combined, contextual provision of full texts, visual and interactive resources, and structured metadata – including full annotations and relations turns out to be a pioneering publishingservice in the domain of IT applications to archaeology.
Abstract The IsoMedIta database compiles 6304 stable isotope measurements (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, δ34S, 87Sr/86Sr) from archaeological sites in medieval Italy (c. 500–1500 ce). The data is spatiotemporally referenced and includes bioarchaeological and paleo-environmental descriptions, alongside with other archaeological, biological, historical, environmental and technical metadata. IsoMedIta can be employed to address various historical questions at different spatial and temporal scales. It is also a resource for defining future research agendas and for heritage management.
Recently there has been growing interest in characterising population structure in cultural data in the context of ongoing debates about the potential of cultural group selection as an evolutionary process. Here we use archaeological data for this purpose, which brings in a temporal as well as spatial dimension. We analyse two distinct material cultures (pottery and personal ornaments) from Neolithic Europe, in order to: a) determine whether archaeologically defined “cultures” exhibit marked discontinuities in space and time, supporting the existence of a population structure, or merely isolation-by-distance; and b) investigate the extent to which cultures can be conceived as structuring “cores” or as multiple and historically independent “packages”. Our results support the existence of a robust population structure comparable to previous studies on human culture, and show how the two material cultures exhibit profound differences in their spatial and temporal structuring, signalling different evolutionary trajectories.
This paper describes IsoArcH, a new web-based database of isotopic data for bioarchaeological samples from the Graeco-Roman world and its margins. IsoArcH was designed as a cooperative platform for the dissemination of isotopic data and associated archaeological information. IsoArcH follows the open access model and is freely accessible online (http://www.isoarch.eu). Created for paleodietary, paleomobility and paleoenvironmental reconstruction research purposes, IsoArcH compiled to this day published isotopic data for human, animal, and plant remains, as well as organic residues, from nearly 300 sites. All data have been georeferenced allowing for their display on ancient world maps and placement into their contemporaneous geopolitical background. In this paper, several data-driven examples are shown to illustrate the research potential offered by IsoArcH.
The present volume is a collection of papers given at a workshop on urban development in Ancient Egypt which was held at the AAS in November 2006. The articles cover a wide variety of themes within the frame of this general topic, and aspects of urban development are dealt with from very different points of view. The structure of specific building types (F. Doyen, S. Hendrickx), as well as the spacial (E. Czerny, I. Forstner-Müller, M. Lehner) and social (M. Bietak, K. Spence) organisation of settlements are dealt with, including questions of settlement geography (A. Graham). Specific problems are given consideration, such as entrance protection in Nubian fortresses (C. Vogel) or the question of external supply versus self-sufficiency at a remote place like Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham on the Libyan border (S. Snape). One can find both the analysis of the diachronic development of a specific site throughout history (C. v. Pilgrim) and a general study on urbanism during a given period, Graeco-Roman Egypt (W. Müller). J. Kahl’s analysis of texts shows that cities in Ancient Egypt were allegorized as females with human properties. Within a chronological frame from the Old Kingdom through the Roman Empire, many different aspects of sites such as Tell el-Dabca, Giza, Kahun, Amarna, Karnak, El-Kab, Elephantine, Aswan and Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham are discussed.
Adria nasce come emporio e almeno dal tardo Arcaismo assume la fisionomia di una città etrusca per cultura e per lingua. Gli scavi condotti in città per oltre due secoli hanno restituito una ricca documentazione epigrafica che conta 212 iscrizioni etrusche e centinaia di graffiti. Nel panorama degli studi su Adria, il ruolo dell’epigrafia appare così assai rilevante. Rilevanza confermata nel quadro dell’Etruria padana, dove il nucleo adriese è al secondo posto per quantità dopo quello di Spina, e compete anche con alcune fra le più importanti città dell’Etruria propria. Ma l’aspetto forse più importante risiede nella continuità, dato che le attestazioni più antiche risalgono al VI sec. a.C. e le più recenti a cavallo di II e I sec. a.C., restituendo così lo spaccato di una comunità sopravvissuta…
Archaeological data is always incomplete, frequently unreliable, often replete with unknown unknowns, but we nevertheless make the best of what we have and use it to build our theories and extrapolations about past events. Is there any reason to think that digital data alter this already complicated relationship with archaeological data? How does the shift to an infinitely more flexible, fluid digital medium change the character of our data and our use of it? The introduction of Big Data is frequently said to herald a new epistemological paradigm, but what are the implications of this for archaeology? As we are increasingly subject to algorithmic agency, how can we best manage this new data regime? This paper seeks to unpick the nature of digital data and its use within a Big Data environment as a prerequisite to rational and appropriate digital data analysis in archaeology, and proposes a means towards developing a more reflexive, contextual approach to Big Data.
The research project “Mouseion Topos” (in English: “Museums Place”), focusing on traditional local settlements situated at three Aegean islands, aims to contribute to the promotion of their physiognomy and intangible cultural heritage by connecting regional museums with each settlement. The present article, part of the project’s initial phase, via the application of the HERMeS methodology (version 1 and 2) and the development of the associate digital documentation tools, identifies and records the architectural and urban elements influenced by each settlement’s intangible cultural heritage as listed by UNESCO and presented by their corresponding museums. The research findings revealed connections between the museums’ content and the documented tangible heritage based on the formulated conceptual and heatmaps, which can be used at the early design stages of the current project’s interactive applications, especially in mobile tours. Finally, the research findings verify that despite the limitations and issues for further research, the introduced HERMeS methodology and digital tools are reliable and contribute to the respective field’s theory. The paper also provides beneficial deliberation on digital architectural heritage documentation methods and interactive technologies, highlighting points and areas of interest that the tourist industry, technology designers, museum curators, and architects can employ.
The Wādī Bahla region of the Sultanate of Oman entered the record of the areas of archaeological relevance forty years ago, thanks to the work of the Harvard Archaeological Expedition. Among several Bronze Age sites, two Iron Age sites were identified and numbered BB15 and BB4. Site BB15, now widely known as 'Salūt', was also visited shortly afterwards by Beatrice de Cardi. More recent excavations at the site, by the Italian Mission to Oman (IMTO) in cooperation with the Office of the Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Affairs, have provided the opportunity for a more detailed survey of Iron Age remains located nearby. The latter include areas of settlement, places of burial, and other possibly contemporary features. The surveys gave back a substantial surface collection of pottery, which has been extensively illustrated and can be compared with the pottery typology established by the excavations at Salut, which also easily finds parallels from other Iron Age sites in southeastern Arabia. New data allow a refinement of the chronological sequence of the area, while distribution maps resulting from this investigation, and consideration of the variety of sites, can be compared with similar data and Iron Age settlement patterns found elsewhere in south-east Arabia.
ᚑᚌᚆᚐᚋ (Ogham) Steine sind mit der frühmittelalterlichen Ogham-Schrift versehene Monolithen, die vor allem in Irland, zwischen dem 4. und 9. Jahrhundert errichtet wurden. Viele von ihnen sind in “der freien Wildbahn” oder in Museen für die “Volunteer Community” einsehbar. Dieser Vortrag beschreibt die Dokumentation, Modellierung und Veröffentlichung dieser archäologischen Fundgattung in Community Hubs wie OSM und Wikidata mit der Nutzung von Linked Open Data Technologien. Mehr auch unter https://pretalx.com/fossgis2023/talk/Y8JWWP/
The development of increasingly powerful Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is progressing continuously, so that these systems equipped with high-resolution sensors can be used for a variety of different applications. With the Matrice 300 RTK, Da-Jiang Innovations Science and Technology Co. Ltd (DJI) has launched a system that can use the high-resolution camera Zenmuse P1 or the laser scanner Zenmuse L1 as a recording sensor, among other sensors. In order to investigate the geometric quality of these two sensors, HafenCity University Hamburg, in cooperation with LGV Hamburg, NLWKN in Norden and the German Archaeological Institute in Bonn, flew over the 3D test field in the Inselpark in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg on 5 August 2021 with the P1 camera and the L1 laser scanner. Using the Matrice 300 RTK as carrier platform, the test field was recorded in various configurations at altitudes between 50 m and 90 m above ground. Prior to the UAV flight campaign, 44 marked ground control points (GCP) were signalised in the test field, which had already been surveyed by LGV in 2020 using geodetic measurement methods to achieve a coordinate accuracy of ±5 mm for each GCP. The results of aerial triangulations as well as 3D point clouds generated from image data and laser scanning are compared with reference data in order to demonstrate the accuracy potential of these measurement systems in this paper.
The In.Res.Agri project aims to optimize the understanding of Roman agricultural landscapes in Southern Italy by integrating topographical, archaeological, environmental, and textual data within an innovative data-science platform. It focuses on examining the resilience of Roman agrarian landscapes, specifically through elements such as centuriation, route networks, and settlement patterns. The project employs both traditional survey methods and advanced technologies to recover, interpret, and manage archaeo-topographical data related to centuriation. Key methods include using Machine Learning for the automatic detection of centuriated fields, spatial analysis of both legacy and new data, and the use of annotated epigraphic and literary sources. All collected data will be implemented into the Digital_Groma platform, which will feature a digital archive and a webGIS for data display and querying; data will be exposed adhering to FAIR principles. In.Res.Agri will focus on regions in Campania (Vesuvian Area, Irpinia) and Puglia (Tavoliere), exploring the link between contemporary landscapes and Roman centuriated agro-ecosystems. This research is crucial for understanding the impact of environmental changes on Cultural Heritage, aligning with the priorities of the European Commission and UNESCO. The Digital_Groma platform will be accessible to researchers, tourists, and public institutions involved in archaeology, urban planning, and cultural heritage protection.
This paper details the characterisation of 34 obsidian artefacts from Sha'ar Hagolan in the Jordan Valley, a major Pottery Neolithic Site of the southern Levantine Yarmukian culture (6400–6000calBCE). Employing an integrated approach that melds sourcing data from EDXRF spectroscopy with the artefacts’ techno-typological characteristics, we contrast Sha'ar Hagolan's lithic traditions with those of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic southern Levantine sites in the context of alleged socio-economic disruptions in the Pottery Neolithic. The results indicate that community's obsidian consumption habits largely followed deep-time regional traditions (with only the slightest decrease in relative quantities), i.e. the use of Cappadocian raw materials (Göllü Dağ and Nenezi Dağ) to make pressure blades, and occasional projectiles, with only a small proportion of eastern Anatolian products (Nemrut Dağ). While the Sha'ar Hagolan material seems to embody continuity of southern Levantine cultural tradition, other broadly contemporary assemblages attest to the initiation of new procurement networks, and novel modes of consumption that reflect the increasing degree of cultural heterogeneity of the period. Finally, the distribution of obsidian across the site does not support the idea that social distinction at Sha'ar Hagolan was part-based on the preferential access to these exotic resources.
The phenomenon of lost villages in the late Middle Ages is a topic as complex as it is stimulating for historians and archaeologists. It raises many questions regarding the causes of the abandonment. To answer these questions, systematic studies are required along with detailed surveys of the investigated areas in order to detect the lost villages and to understand the relationships between sites and landscapes. In this context many problems arise, among them, for example, the detection and identification of anthropogenic and geomorphological features. This is a difficult task, especially for complex areas and settlements built on the top of hills and mountains, as in the case of Yrsum, located in the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy). In Yrsum, field work, the study of historical sources, the processing and interpretation of satellite imagery and DTM derived from Lidar survey, allowed us to reconstruct the urban shape of the village in its different functional and spatial components as well as to identify features linked to geomorphological pattern. This opens new investigation perspectives for both the assessment of endangerment of the cultural site and the study of the factors which caused the abandonment of this emblematic study case.
In the naturalistic decision-making literature, intuitive cognition is at the heart of a pattern recognition–based decision model called the recognition-primed decision model. Given the importance of intuitive cognition in naturalistic decision-making theory, we explore the question of what makes intuitive cognition effective for decision making and, in so doing, present an extended empirical and theoretical foundation for the intuitive component in naturalistic decision making. We theorize that intuitive cognition is effective because it (1) possesses a capability for grounded, situational meaning making (sign interpretation); (2) is operative over extended work intervals involving interruptions; and (3) is instrumental in handling situated complexities of everyday living. Other characteristics of intuitive cognition and its foundations are discussed. We propose that intuitive cognition represents the core of cognition—grounded, situational meaning making—whereas analytical cognition represents a form of an intellectual exoskeleton that provides added capabilities (e.g., working memory).
Il volume propone un'introduzione rigorosa e multidisciplinare a un campo di studi in continua espansione ed evoluzione, con una prospettiva che valorizza la tradizione di studi italiana, pur collocandola nel vivace scenario internazionale. I saggi che lo compongono forniscono una mappa della “galassia” delle Digital Humanities, articolandosi in due parti: la prima si concentra su aspetti metodologici fondazionali e trasversali a tutti i saperi umanistici; la seconda presenta una serie di approfondimenti su temi di ricerca e risultati conseguiti in specifici ambiti disciplinari. Il testo, rivolto agli studenti, agli studiosi e agli operatori nei settori culturali e comunicativi, dà una visione delle possibilità offerte agli studi umanistici dalla transizione digitale. Cogliere queste opportunità permetterà di superare la fase della “difesa” di un passato glorioso per rivendicare la centralità di un sapere capace non solo di misurarsi con le sfide complesse dei tempi presenti, ma anche di contribuire alle prospettive di quelli avvenire.
