A scientific hypothetical reconstruction requires a scientific methodology concerning to reconstruction process and its documentation. An appropriate theoretical and analytical study of virtual reconstruction practice of architectural/archaeological heritage artefacts no longer existing and partially documented, as well as a methodological approach to display the data-processing behind the 3D modelling practice are strictly necessary in order to cover the gap between the interpretation and the original data. In order to validate the 3D modelling reconstruction process and to facilitate the exchange and reuse of information and collaboration between experts in various disciplines we maybe have to look at new standards due to reusability and accessibility of knowledge of 3D digital models: for a better interpretation of digital heritage artefacts we need a comprehensive interpretive method. Because many hypothetical reconstructions are the result of highly complex design decision we decide to focus attention to the cognitive-process. The process of reconstruction is essentially composed by decisions based on various set of input data that are interpreted and integrated. This subjectivity, if not correctly reported, compromises the validity of a whole virtual reconstruction. According to “The London Charter” we need to prescribe a specific method, and to define a guideline for the use of computer-based visualization in relation to intellectual integrity, reliability, documentation, sustainability and access of heritage artefacts. The results concern the definition of a new approach to Paradata Documentation - for creating a conceptual scheme able to clarify the relationship between research sources, implicit knowledge, explicit reasoning - a visualisation-based outcomes – able to show the level of uncertainty related to the reconstructive process of every single element of artifact - and the purpose to establish a “model validation” process, able to define a common and agreed upon standards.
Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons à la classification contextuelle d'entités nommées de type film . Notre travail s'inscrit dans un cadre applicatif dont le but est de repérer, dans un texte, un titre de film contenu dans un catalogue (par exemple catalogue de films disponibles en VoD). Pour ce faire, nous combinons deux approches : nous partons d'un système à base de règles, qui présente une bonne précision, que nous couplons avec un modèle de langage permettant d'augmenter le rappel. La génération peu coûteuse de données d'apprentissage pour le modèle de langage à partir de Wikipedia est au coeur de ce travail. Nous montrons, à travers l'évaluation de notre système, la difficulté de classification des entités nommées de type film ainsi que la complémentarité des approches que nous utilisons pour cette tâche.
Heir to a centuries-old tradition, the phenomenon of collecting ancient pottery, especially Greek and Southern-Italian, is still particularly active, and denoting a still lively adherence to classical taste. The materials of these collections, however, often appear decontextualized, that is to say deprived of their fundamental informative component. Since 2018, through a multidisciplinary approach, the MemO Project, directed by the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padova, has dealt with the study of these materials in order to reconstruct their history and origin, i.e. to systematically recount their memory. This contribution intends to analyze the complexity of the narration of the archaeological data for the decontextualized material and, above all, to detect its informative potential in order to recreate the original context. Through a multidisciplinary teamwork, we intend to present the results obtained in the context of the reconstruction of the history of inevitably inaccessible materials.
A new season of studies on the Etruscan-Roman city of Musarna have allowed us to establish that the city was occupied from the end of the 4th century BC up to the beginning of the 7th century AD, and that its foundation depended on a strategic and economic need of the Etruscan metropolis of Tarquinia, of which Musarna maintained its role of colony up approximately to 280 BC, when the entire territory was conquered by Rome. Later, the inscriptions and the epitaphs found in the site and in the nearby necropolis show that until the 1st century BC the only language spoken in Musarna was Etruscan, and that at least throughout the Hellenistic period, the administrative organization remained based on the model of a large Etruscan city. Therefore, the infrastructural networks, only partially restored later on, are fully Etruscan, as are the entire defense system and some public buildings, including a market and a portico built during various stages of the renovation of the square between the 3rd and 2nd century BC, as well as sacred buildings, such as two temples probably dedicated to Hercules and Bacchus. The excellent quality of the documentation of the urban plan made it possible to undertake a study aimed at determining the city’s spatial tracking practice. Some important considerations and insights on the organization of the territory have already emerged from this study and, in particular, we were able to verify on a territorial basis the size of the design module which had already identified on an urban scale. While this may already be considered an important result, the evidence of a design set on particular geometric properties prompts the investigation to highlight particular aspects of the Etruscan plan.
CityGML (City Geography Markup Language) is the most investigated standard in the integration of building information modeling (BIM) and the geographic information system (GIS), and it is essential for digital twin and smart city applications. The new CityGML 3.0 has been released for a while, but it is still not clear whether its new features bring new challenges or opportunities to this research topic. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand the state of the art of CityGML in BIM/GIS integration and to investigate the potential influence of CityGML3.0 on BIM/GIS integration. To achieve this aim, this study used a systematic literature review approach. In total, 136 papers from Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus were collected, reviewed, and analyzed. The main findings of this review are as follows: (1) There are several challenging problems in the IFC-to-CityGML conversion, including LoD (Level of Detail) mapping, solid-to-surface conversion, and semantic mapping. (2) The ‘space’ concept and the new LoD concept in CityGML 3.0 can bring new opportunities to LoD mapping and solid-to-surface conversion. (3) The Versioning module and the Dynamizer module can add dynamic semantics to the CityGML. (4) Graph techniques and scan-to-BIM offer new perspectives for facilitating the use of CityGML in BIM/GIS integration. These findings can further facilitate theoretical studies on BIM/GIS integration.
Standardization in spatial data and Cultural Heritage management is one of the main issues in this field of study and the efforts in this direction are twofold, data models and technological development. Regarding the first aspect some preliminary steps towards definition of common vocabularies and conceptual schemas for semantic classification will be analysed and discussed in order to define the open issues and the development strategies. On the side of the modelling languages and data manipulation tools the recent standard definitions and the research efforts are starting to provide a set of application tools for the semantic and spatial data modelling and information retrieving and manipulation. An application of these notions and tools will be performed on an Architectural Heritage case-study and the preliminary results will be exposed.
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.
A clear methodological and philosophical introduction to complexity theory as applied to urban and regional systems is given, together with a detailed series of modelling case studies compiled over the last couple of decades. Based on the new complex systems thinking, mathematical models are developed which attempt to simulate the evolution of towns, cities, and regions and the complicated co-evolutionary interaction there is both between and within them. The aim of these models is to help pol
Il volume contiene gli atti del convegno tenutosi il 24 e 25 aprile 2015 a Villa Savorelli nel Parco Regionale dell'Antichissima Città di Sutri specificatamente dedicato ad una serie di monumenti, i segnacoli funerari, dell'area centro-italica dalla prima età del ferro fino all'ellenismo. Attraverso una ricca serie di relazioni, presentate da parte di archeologi e storici dell'antichità italiani, tedeschi, austriaci e francesi, viene tracciato, per la prima volta, un quadro organico del panorama offerto da questa classe di monumenti, affrontando, attraverso l'esame anche di singoli casi, l'intero spettro delle problematiche che i vari segnacoli presentano.
The Etruscan demon that guided and protected the deceased in the underworld has given his name to a database related to funerary urns produced in northern Etruria (Chiusi, Volterra, Perugia) during the Hellenistic period and often characterised by figurative decorations. The database, called Charun, is at this time dedicated entirely to monuments from Chiusi and is published on the Internet (http://charun.sns.it/). In this database data on the urns, the tombs in which they were found and the related grave goods, have been inserted. Bibliographic information has been collected and the relationships between the various typologies have been considered for each of the artefacts. From a particular urn it is possible to locate the data related to the tomb in which it was found, or from a particular set of grave goods one can find information concerning the specific objects which it included. The most detailed entries are those based on inscriptions, which are particularly common on objects from Chiusi. The web site includes interactive maps which are useful for locating the sites where the urns were found and for analysing their distribution.
Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) has been demonstrated as a powerful tool to assign obsidian artifacts to sources. Newer instruments can even match artifacts from some regions to their sources in a matter of just seconds, not minutes. There remains, however, a reluctance to use pXRF instruments to characterize the sources themselves. Many past studies have used pXRF in a region where the sources have been well characterized using lab-based techniques. That is, earlier analytical work established compositional types for the obsidian sources, and pXRF was later used to sort artifacts into those types. This is due, at least in part, to notions that pXRF instruments are insufficiently accurate or reliable to characterize the sources. The motivations to use pXRF for characterizing sources are similar to those for sourcing artifacts: many more specimens can be analyzed without concern for the financial, practical, and legal considerations associated with instruments in distant facilities. This paper documents tests conducted to investigate the accuracy and reproducibility of pXRF data relative to five laboratory-based techniques (NAA, EDXRF, WDXRF, EMPA, and LA-ICP-MS) with a focus on Armenian obsidian sources. These tests demonstrate that there is no reason to believe pXRF is inherently inaccurate, unreproducible, or otherwise inadequate for source characterization. A case study of the Pokr Arteni source highlights the advantages of pXRF, including the capability to analyze large numbers of specimens, recognize variability, and elucidate field relationships. In these respects, pXRF can facilitate more sophisticated obsidian sourcing studies.
Selected pottery sherds coming from the Ayanis, Dilkaya and Karagündüz excavations in eastern Turkey and dated from the Early to Middle Iron Age were examined as regards their composition by using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The objective of the study was first to investigate the potential of the LIBS technique in the compositional analysis of pottery and further to explore correlations in spectral data, by using chemometrics methods that would possibly enable discrimination among different sherds. This work is part of a broader study aiming to examine clay variability both before and during the Urartian State period and to explore possible relationships and differences among pottery objects from fortresses and settlements or settlements and cemeteries on the basis of the clay composition of sherds. Preliminary results demonstrate that by using the LIBS technique it is possible to analyse pottery sherds in qualitative and semi-quantitative ways, providing information on the clay and slip composition. Furthermore, encouraging results have been obtained by carrying out principal component analysis (PCA) on the LIBS spectra, which suggest that in certain cases, it is possible to directly correlate spectral information with the origin of pottery sherds.
Change and Archaeology explores how archaeologists have historically described, interpreted, and explained change, and argues that change has been under-theorised. The study of change is central to the discipline of archaeology, but change is complex, and this makes it challenging to write about in nuanced ways that effectively capture the nature of our world. Relational approaches offer archaeologists more scope to explore change in complex and subtle ways. Change and Archaeology presents a posthumanist, post-anthropocentric, new materialist approach to change. It argues that our world is constantly in the process of becoming and always on the move. By recasting change as the norm rather than the exception and distributing it between both humans and non-humans, this book offers a new theoretical framework for exploring change in the past that allows us to move beyond block-time approaches where change is located only in transitional moments and periods are characterised by blocks of stasis. Archaeologists, scholars, anthropologists and historians interested in the theoretical frameworks we use to interpret the past will find this book a fascinating new insight into the way our world changes and evolves. The approaches presented within will be of use to anyone studying and writing about the way societies and their environs move through time.
A keynote presentation at the 2012 Computer Applications in Archaeology (CAA) conference in Southampton (UK) proposed the use of grand challenges as a vehicle for identifying and pursuing major advances in Digital Archaeology. At the same time, it was argued that this should be a collaborative venture. This was taken forward at a round table session at the 2014 CAA in Paris, and a number of papers in this volume were presented there. This paper introduces the concept of grand challenges for Digital Archaeology and seeks to define their key characteristics.
The AEC industries as well as the heritage sector are facing a number of issues that relate to the management of building digital data. Two of the most prominent ones are the interoperability of data and data longevity. In order to better understand the extent of these issues for the general AEC industry and heritage buildings sectors, an online survey was designed to help quantify them and reveal the opinions of professionals and academics in the field. The online survey highlighted a clear latency in BIM adoption in the heritage sector as only 51% of the heritage participants use BIM in their projects compared to 63% of AEC participants. The reasons for this were further explored in the participants’ comments, as most of the reasons revolved around the issues of BIM data interoperability and longevity, considering the complex and interdisciplinary nature of heritage projects. The survey responses highlighted that data longevity is a crucial challenge for the heritage sector in particular as the need for future re-accessibility of digital data is clear in the results, showing that more than 82% of the heritage participants need to re-access their data in the future. The results also showed the prevalence of BIM interoperability issues and highlighted that the heritage sector is more prone to interoperability issues compared to the general AEC industry as 67% of heritage BIM participants and 50% of AEC BIM participant have faced some issues of BIM interoperability. In total, 72% of the standardised BIM participants agreed that standardised BIM formats could be a promising solution to mitigate the interoperability challenges, while only 57% thought that standardised BIM formats are reliable in their current status. Moreover, the online survey explored the variation in the needs of different disciplinary groups including rates of BIM adoption, use of standardised BIM formats, and needs for access to different heritage buildings data categories. Participants also presented their views on what would be an ideal medium for long-term storage of heritage buildings digital documentation data for future access, with some views being sceptical concerning BIM in its current status. This paper presents the findings of this extensive online survey.
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.
RELOAD intends to re-evaluate the marginal areas of northern Tuscany to demonstrate their central role in the dynamics of management and perception of space between the Roman conquest and late antiquity. Considering that landscape archaeology, complemented by an anthropological perspective, allows a deep understanding of the linked dynamics of social and ecological systems, the project is expected to fill a gap of knowledge about ancient landscapes in northern Tuscany analyzing the case of Volterra to provide innovative interpretative models through a multidisciplinary methodological approach and a diachronic perspective. Integrating all available sources with new data collection, RELOAD approaches landscape complexity in a flexible way. Introducing for the first time in archaeology the concept of ‘antifragility’, RELOAD engages in the wider debate about adopting concepts and techniques from different fields for archaeological and historical reconstruction. The paper presents the project and preliminary data regarding the challenges and the potential benefits of applying agent-based model simulations to test the validity of approaching the past through the lens of ‘resilience’ or ‘antifragility’ leading to alternative reconstructions of the human-environmental interactions.
The article presents activities and specific technologies connected to a multidisciplinary project, developed within the 'Caere Project' (http://www.progettocaere.rm.cnr.it) and conducted by researchers of the CNR-ITABC and the University of Molise. The goal of the research is to contribute to the archaeological documentation of the Etruscan town of Cerveteri (Rome-Italy), employing a vast array of technologies for the 3D reconstruction of the landscape. The research is also aimed at integrating instruments for topographic relief and innovative methodologies of surveying (DGPS, total stations, 3D laser scanning), to collect geometrical and morphological data at territorial and site scale. A geophysical survey in the Vigna Parrocchiale area, located in the centre of the urban plateau, was carried out using geoelectric methods of investigation to enable archaeologists to detect subsurface structures. The results obtained and illustrated in this paper will be validated by the reopening in the near future of the excavations by CNR-ISCIMA.
The article describes the topography and the main archaeological features of the 'Vigna Parrocchiale' area, located on the urban plateau of the ancient Etruscan town of Cerveteri, where a geophysical survey has also been carried out (cfr. Colosi et al., this volume). The accurate description of data coming from field surveys, excavations and archival research makes it possible to recognize in this area a long archaeological stratification from the Villanovan through to the Roman period. These results, achieved over many years of archaeological research, can be profitably linked to those coming from the application of geophysical surveying techniques. The article closes with a technical Appendix, relevant to a magnetometric survey carried out in 1987 during the excavations conducted by CNR in the 'Vigna Parrocchiale' area.
Ricostruzione virtuale della Tomba dei Capitelli nella necropoli della Banditaccia a Cerveteri, esemplificativa della tomba-casa etrusca. E' stato incluso anche un potenziale corredo e una simulazione delle deposizioni .Al modello 3D si accompagnano alcuni rendering 360 della tomba attuale (come è) e ricostruita (come era, da due punti di vista all'interno della tomba.Una mappa indica il loor posizionamento in pianta. A ciascun rendering si associano contenuti narrativi riferiti alla vista generale e ad alcuni elementi di approfondimento (identificati da maschere semantiche). Inoltre sui rendering è mappato anche il back end scientifico: il livello di affidabilità della ricostruzione è indicato con colori simbolici (rosso: elementi archeologici documentati in situ; azzurro: elementi soggetti a ricostruzione o restauro virtuale di un risarcimento derivante da evidenza fisica; verde: elementi ricostruiti in mancanza di concrete evidenze attraverso processi comparativi o deduttivi; giallo chiaro: anastilosi tipo 1: riposizionamento di frammenti esistenti ma rimossi o ritrovati in giacitura secondaria e attualmente conservati in altro contesto; giallo scuro: anastilosi tipo 2: ricostruzione o restauro virtuale del frammento riposizionato in anastilosi virtuale). Infine a completamento del back end scientifico ai vari elementi ricostruiti virtualmente sono associate le informazioni relative alle fonti e ai processi interpretatativi che hanno supporttao l'ipotesi ricostruttiva. Il gruppo di lavoro è multidisciplinare ed include istituzioni di ricerca e industrie creative.
Most Neolithic pottery, except for some high quality fineware, is thought to be made of local material. However, in order to be able to conclude whether certain types of fineware were contemporaneously imported or not, considerable archaeometric analysis is required as well as the systemization of the acquired data. The development of CeraMIS, an interdisciplinary database management system for analytical results of raw materials for pottery (geological samples of clay and temper) and pottery artefacts (archaeological samples) is modelled on earlier ceramic provenance studies. It is an innovation established as part of a German-Hungarian bilateral project on "Long distance trade in Neolithic pottery". The database management system contains two main components: the SQL database and the software CeraMIS that organizes the storage of data. Applying a logical, already traditional methodological procedure of provenance analysis on archaeological pottery, in this paper results of petro-mineralogical and geochemical investigations of the samples are presented. The collection of results on surface treatment (painting, slip, and other techniques), investigations by non-destructive, high-resolution methods is also an important part of this procedure. Moreover, one of the important features of the database is that of clarifying the differences between analyses made on complete vessels, shards, the clay paste, temper and surface treatments. To present the results of these complex investigations and make the information available to specialists involved in this field of research, we have developed a software solution based on client/server architecture. The client software CeraMIS connects the server via the Internet, so that the user does not need to install any additional software. The database can be queried using traditional search methods. The system is designed in a way that makes further amendments and extensions possible without loss of data. It is updated and tailored according to the experience acquired during its use. The system functionalities, data structure and data content are regularly revised according to the requirements of the users and data providers.
