Big Data in Archaeology Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the Greek Chapter of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA-GR) 21-22 October 2021, 2024
Thessaloniki Toumba is a multi-period mound settlement in Central Macedonia, Greece, founded duri... more Thessaloniki Toumba is a multi-period mound settlement in Central Macedonia, Greece, founded during the Bronze Age and inhabited until the Hellenistic period. Continued re-building, occasional clearance episodes, and, finally, the establishment of a burial ground on the top during the Byzantine era resulted in a highly complex stratigraphy. In the context of a project aimed at presenting the site effectively to the public, different episodes of the history of House B were reconstructed and presented in 3D based exclusively on legacy data compiled over 25 years of excavations. The need for more extensive use of legacy data in archaeology, especially in cases of presenting old excavations to the public, has been repeatedly highlighted because of the huge amounts of information amassing underexploited in archaeological archives since the early days of scientific excavations. The issue persists primarily because of the variable quality of the data in terms of extent and accuracy and of the obsolete form they are preserved in. This paper presents the workflow implemented for the operationalization of the legacy data collection available from the excavations conducted at the site of Thessaloniki Toumba between 1988 and 2013 with the aim to reconstruct and present to the public the biography of House B.
We present two significant patterns of osseous artifact production during the Final Late Bronze A... more We present two significant patterns of osseous artifact production during the Final Late Bronze Age at the settlement mound of Thessaloniki Toumba in the northeastern Thermaic Gulf region in northern Greece and compare with data published from the same and neighboring regions. One pattern is the use of long bone fractures for shaping awls. The other is the production of pins from deer antlers. Awl manufacturing is consistent with the practice of the use of broken bones for a variety of tools, which had been common since the Early Bronze Age. The antler pins and some rare, elaborate objects, such as barbed-and-tanged points and horse bits, indicate innovation and interactions across different spatial scales toward the end of the Bronze Age. Research into the manufacturing processes may provide a more detailed understanding of the cultural and technological significance of these artifacts.
The Holocene marine transgression in the Aegean Sea area has significantly impacted prehistoric s... more The Holocene marine transgression in the Aegean Sea area has significantly impacted prehistoric societies. Toumba Gona is a tell site located at the mouth of the Anthemous River, east of Thessaloniki Bay. According to earlier research, the site should be dated at most to the late stage of the Early Bronze Age. Geoarchaeological research by means of electrical resistivity tomography, vibra‐coring, sedimentological analysis, and radiocarbon dating shows, however, that the direct proximity of the site witnessed the maximum marine transgression around 3000–2500 BC and the human habitation phase before the 3rd millennium BC, before the transgression. The coastline began to recede due to the delta progradation, which resulted in the formation of extensive marshes to the south of the Toumba. The increased fluvial activity since the end of the 4th millennium BC is relatable with the progradation of the Anthemous River's bay head delta. Human occupation was recorded before and after the marine transgression thus suggesting human persistence in the coastline environment.
The tell sites of Thessaloníki Toumba and Kastanás provide us with two of the most important LBA ... more The tell sites of Thessaloníki Toumba and Kastanás provide us with two of the most important LBA and EIA vertical stratigraphies for Central Macedonia. These two sites belong to differ-ent settlement categories, the one is a small, probably secondary site (Kastanás, perhaps re- ...
The scope of the present paper is to scrutinise the evidence regarding settlement continuity, esp... more The scope of the present paper is to scrutinise the evidence regarding settlement continuity, especially where continuous replication of the same buildings is involved, and to investigate how it was practiced in Late Bronze Age mound settlements in terms of building methods. Furthermore, we aim to investigate how building continuity or change related to people’s lives and the spatial organisation of their mundane activities and social practices which concerned their biological and social reproduction.
Big Data in Archaeology Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the Greek Chapter of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA-GR) 21-22 October 2021, 2024
Thessaloniki Toumba is a multi-period mound settlement in Central Macedonia, Greece, founded duri... more Thessaloniki Toumba is a multi-period mound settlement in Central Macedonia, Greece, founded during the Bronze Age and inhabited until the Hellenistic period. Continued re-building, occasional clearance episodes, and, finally, the establishment of a burial ground on the top during the Byzantine era resulted in a highly complex stratigraphy. In the context of a project aimed at presenting the site effectively to the public, different episodes of the history of House B were reconstructed and presented in 3D based exclusively on legacy data compiled over 25 years of excavations. The need for more extensive use of legacy data in archaeology, especially in cases of presenting old excavations to the public, has been repeatedly highlighted because of the huge amounts of information amassing underexploited in archaeological archives since the early days of scientific excavations. The issue persists primarily because of the variable quality of the data in terms of extent and accuracy and of the obsolete form they are preserved in. This paper presents the workflow implemented for the operationalization of the legacy data collection available from the excavations conducted at the site of Thessaloniki Toumba between 1988 and 2013 with the aim to reconstruct and present to the public the biography of House B.
We present two significant patterns of osseous artifact production during the Final Late Bronze A... more We present two significant patterns of osseous artifact production during the Final Late Bronze Age at the settlement mound of Thessaloniki Toumba in the northeastern Thermaic Gulf region in northern Greece and compare with data published from the same and neighboring regions. One pattern is the use of long bone fractures for shaping awls. The other is the production of pins from deer antlers. Awl manufacturing is consistent with the practice of the use of broken bones for a variety of tools, which had been common since the Early Bronze Age. The antler pins and some rare, elaborate objects, such as barbed-and-tanged points and horse bits, indicate innovation and interactions across different spatial scales toward the end of the Bronze Age. Research into the manufacturing processes may provide a more detailed understanding of the cultural and technological significance of these artifacts.
The Holocene marine transgression in the Aegean Sea area has significantly impacted prehistoric s... more The Holocene marine transgression in the Aegean Sea area has significantly impacted prehistoric societies. Toumba Gona is a tell site located at the mouth of the Anthemous River, east of Thessaloniki Bay. According to earlier research, the site should be dated at most to the late stage of the Early Bronze Age. Geoarchaeological research by means of electrical resistivity tomography, vibra‐coring, sedimentological analysis, and radiocarbon dating shows, however, that the direct proximity of the site witnessed the maximum marine transgression around 3000–2500 BC and the human habitation phase before the 3rd millennium BC, before the transgression. The coastline began to recede due to the delta progradation, which resulted in the formation of extensive marshes to the south of the Toumba. The increased fluvial activity since the end of the 4th millennium BC is relatable with the progradation of the Anthemous River's bay head delta. Human occupation was recorded before and after the marine transgression thus suggesting human persistence in the coastline environment.
The tell sites of Thessaloníki Toumba and Kastanás provide us with two of the most important LBA ... more The tell sites of Thessaloníki Toumba and Kastanás provide us with two of the most important LBA and EIA vertical stratigraphies for Central Macedonia. These two sites belong to differ-ent settlement categories, the one is a small, probably secondary site (Kastanás, perhaps re- ...
The scope of the present paper is to scrutinise the evidence regarding settlement continuity, esp... more The scope of the present paper is to scrutinise the evidence regarding settlement continuity, especially where continuous replication of the same buildings is involved, and to investigate how it was practiced in Late Bronze Age mound settlements in terms of building methods. Furthermore, we aim to investigate how building continuity or change related to people’s lives and the spatial organisation of their mundane activities and social practices which concerned their biological and social reproduction.
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Age and inhabited until the Hellenistic period. Continued re-building, occasional clearance episodes, and, finally, the
establishment of a burial ground on the top during the Byzantine era resulted in a highly complex stratigraphy. In the
context of a project aimed at presenting the site effectively to the public, different episodes of the history of House B
were reconstructed and presented in 3D based exclusively on legacy data compiled over 25 years of excavations. The
need for more extensive use of legacy data in archaeology, especially in cases of presenting old excavations to the
public, has been repeatedly highlighted because of the huge amounts of information amassing underexploited in
archaeological archives since the early days of scientific excavations. The issue persists primarily because of the
variable quality of the data in terms of extent and accuracy and of the obsolete form they are preserved in. This paper
presents the workflow implemented for the operationalization of the legacy data collection available from the
excavations conducted at the site of Thessaloniki Toumba between 1988 and 2013 with the aim to reconstruct and
present to the public the biography of House B.
Age and inhabited until the Hellenistic period. Continued re-building, occasional clearance episodes, and, finally, the
establishment of a burial ground on the top during the Byzantine era resulted in a highly complex stratigraphy. In the
context of a project aimed at presenting the site effectively to the public, different episodes of the history of House B
were reconstructed and presented in 3D based exclusively on legacy data compiled over 25 years of excavations. The
need for more extensive use of legacy data in archaeology, especially in cases of presenting old excavations to the
public, has been repeatedly highlighted because of the huge amounts of information amassing underexploited in
archaeological archives since the early days of scientific excavations. The issue persists primarily because of the
variable quality of the data in terms of extent and accuracy and of the obsolete form they are preserved in. This paper
presents the workflow implemented for the operationalization of the legacy data collection available from the
excavations conducted at the site of Thessaloniki Toumba between 1988 and 2013 with the aim to reconstruct and
present to the public the biography of House B.