PhD researcher on Prehistoric Archaeology at Autonomous University of Barcelona Address: LAQU, Laboratory of Quantitative Archaeology Department of Prehistory Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra Spain
Despite first applications of machine learning in archaeology date back to the late 90s, it was n... more Despite first applications of machine learning in archaeology date back to the late 90s, it was not until 2019 that its use began to spread. What advantages does this methodology have that the previous methods do not have? Can it be applied in all fields of study? This contribution aims to answer these questions through an exhaustive review of the archaeological studies carried out with this methodology and by developing a model with a specific algorithm, Bayesian networks, to explore its benefits and limitations.
The present contribution focuses on investigating the interaction of people and environment in sm... more The present contribution focuses on investigating the interaction of people and environment in small-scale farming societies. Our study is centred on the particular way settlement location constraints economic strategy when technology is limited, and social division of work is not fully developed. Our intention is to investigate prehistoric socioeconomic organisation when farming began in the Old World along the Levant shores of Iberian Peninsula, the Neolithic phenomenon. We approach this subject extracting relevant information from a big set of ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological cases using Machine Learning methods. This paper explores the use of Bayesian networks as explanatory models of the independent variables-the environment-and dependent variables-social decisions-, and also as predictive models. The study highlights how subsistence strategies are modified by ecological and topographical variables of the settlement location and their relationship with social organisation. It also establishes the role of Bayesian networks as a suitable supervised Machine Learning methodology for investigating socio-ecological systems, introducing their use to build useful data-driven models to address relevant archaeological and anthropological questions.
Thesis dissertation, University College Dublin, 2018
This study investigates the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearbandkeramik cu... more This study investigates the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) in southern Poland (5500-4500 cal. BC). According to the literature, a social change occurred at the beginning of the middle LBK, when organic inclusions (e.g. bone, chaff) were substituted by ceramic additives and quartz inclusions. This change in raw material selection has been traditionally related to symbolism and tradition, an interpretation difficult to see in the archaeological register and which cannot be considered valid without examining other possible hypotheses. This study revolves around a central question: Why were organic inclusions substituted by mineral and ceramic additives in the Middle and Late LBK periods in Southern Poland? The methodology employed combines experimental archaeology and laboratory tests designed for engineering materials (Vickers hardness test, three-point bending test and water absorption technique) with the objective of evaluating all the possible interpretations to explain this change. It also presents the dichotomy between modern specimens tested in the laboratory and the archaeological sherds studied in archaeology, and also evaluates how this can be approached to obtain representative results. In summary, this unique study attempts to go one step further in understanding the LBK community through the examination of temper selection and their impact on production and performance on ceramic vessels.
Treball Final de Grau Arqueologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2016
Els contenidors ceràmics van ser fabricats per tal de cobrir diferents necessitats de les persone... more Els contenidors ceràmics van ser fabricats per tal de cobrir diferents necessitats de les persones del passat. Tanmateix, per què l'artefacte ceràmic sigui eficient, ha de tenir unes aptituds específiques i diferenciades específicament relacionades amb les feines en que ha d'usar-se. Aquestes aptituds venen definides per a les seves propietats físiques i mecàniques, les quals poden ser manipulades durant el procés de manufactura per part de l'artesà. Així doncs, la caracterització d'aquestes ens donen per una banda, les aptituds i, per l'altra, ens permet identificar processos d'especialització en la fabricació d'aquests artefactes. Si bé és cert que s'han realitzat fins el moment alguns (molt escassos) estudis referents a una o altra propietat dels vasos ceràmics, no hi ha cap protocol específic que defineixi com articular de manera extensa aquesta vida de recerca. Davant d'aquest buit, aquest treball presenta quines són les diverses propietats mecàniques i físiques més rellevants i es realitza una proposta d'anàlisi global, interrelacionada i a
EAA Conference 2020. Session Ceramic is Fantastic: The Life-Cycle of Pottery through Cross-Disciplinary Studies, 2020
The study presented will investigate the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearb... more The study presented will investigate the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) in southern Poland (5500-4500 cal. BC). According to the literature, a social change occurred at the beginning of the middle LBK, when organic inclusions (e.g. bone, chaff) were substituted with ceramic additives and quartz inclusions. This change in raw material selection has been traditionally related to symbolism and tradition, an interpretation difficult to see in the archaeological register and which cannot be considered valid without examining other possible hypotheses. This study revolves around a central question: Why were organic inclusions substituted by mineral and ceramic additives in the Middle and Late LBK periods in Southern Poland? The methodology employed combines experimental archaeology and laboratory tests typically designed for engineering materials (e.g. three-point bending test) with the objective of evaluating all the possible interpretations to explain this change. As a result, relevant insights were obtained about the production process of prehistoric pottery and the technological properties of different ceramic ‘recipes’ determining the vessel’s function. Importantly, the dichotomy between modern specimens tested in the laboratory and the archaeological sherds studied in archaeology will be presented, evaluating how this can be approached to obtain representative results.
JIA: LOS TIEMPOS CAMBIAN DE LA PIEDRA AL TECLADO , 2017
Resumen El estudio de las propiedades mecánicas y físicas es crucial para la definición de las ac... more Resumen El estudio de las propiedades mecánicas y físicas es crucial para la definición de las actividades que realizaron los artefactos cerámicos en el pasado. Por este motivo, es esencial calcular todas aquellas propiedades que fueron relevantes en la manufactura y uso del contenedor para obtener más información sobre los artefactos cerámicos. Para caracterizar las propiedades tecnológicas, es fundamental el desarrollo de una metodología que tenga en cuenta todas las propiedades y que permita su comparación. Es con este objetivo, que el presente estudio tiene la voluntad de presentar una propuesta metodológica que engloba el análisis de materia prima, propiedades mecánicas y propiedades físicas de los contenedores cerámicos y, en base de sus resultados, propone una tabla comparativa que permite la
JIA: LOS TIEMPOS CAMBIAN DE LA PIEDRA AL TECLADO, 2017
Resumen La porosidad es una propiedad física fundamental de los artefactos cerámicos puesto que d... more Resumen La porosidad es una propiedad física fundamental de los artefactos cerámicos puesto que define sus aptitudes tecnológicas. Los estudios que la consideran esta propiedad son minoritarios y no hay una metodología homogénea, aspectos que imposibilitan la comparación de conjuntos cerámicos. Por este motivo, esta comunicación tiene como objetivo plantear dos cuestiones: (1) si las variables arqueométricas típicamente analizadas en los estudios de cerámica (grueso, diámetro o desgrasante; por ejemplo) son las adecuadas para definir el grado de porosidad de un contenedor cerámico; (2) si es posible identificar especialización en el proceso de fabricación de los artefactos cerámicos. Para abordar estas cuestiones, el laboratorio ARCHAEOM (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) ha aplicado la técnica de inmersión líquida del conjunto cerámico del yacimiento Neolítico de la Espina C (Cataluña).
EAA Conference 2020, Session 161 Networks, networking, communication: archaeology of interactions, 2020
Difficulties surrounding the identification of social systems in prehistoric communities has prop... more Difficulties surrounding the identification of social systems in prehistoric communities has propitiated the development of multiple social theories and a variety of approaches to interpret the archaeological remains. The Bayesian Belief Network mathematical methodology has proved to be a crucial tool to model uncertainty and probability to predict parameters’ consequences, even when some data entries are missing. This communication has the principal objective to present a research proposal centered on exploring what sort of mechanisms were probably employed by early farmers living in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula (ca. 5500 - 4500 BC approximately) to guarantee their survival, taking into account the actual archaeological record as a priori information. We present a hypothetical probabilistic model of survival in the historical conditions of early farming in the Western Mediterranean. The model integrates environmental variables and social and economic parameters considered essential to produce and reproduce subsistence practices. Recent research carried on environmental studies have previously defined several variables relevant for soil productivity in husbandry practices offering relevant insights into potential long-term consequences of management practices. The proposed model represents an exploratory study integrating previous studies from environmental disciplines and economic anthropology with the archaeological record. Our ultimate goal is to understand better how subsistence practices were conducted in Mediterranean Neolithic and analyse long-term communities’ survival. Bayesian Belief networks are used to simulate probable values for different parameters taking into account both theoretical deductions and available archaeological data. Of paramount importance in our model is not only the estimation of parameter values, but the specific probabilistic causal modelling of parameter relationships, making emphasis on the particular relationship between environmental and social variables. The ultimate outcome will be to evaluate how optimization of productive subsistence practices would have been possible and offering new understanding into socioeconomic and technological systems of early farming societies.
Difficulties surrounding the reconstruction of social systems in past communities have propitiate... more Difficulties surrounding the reconstruction of social systems in past communities have propitiated the development of multiple social theories and a variety of approaches to explain archaeological remains. The Bayesian Network approach has proved to be a crucial tool to model uncertainty and probability to estimate parameters and predict the effects of social decisions, even when some data entries are missing. This paper has the principal objective to present a research study centered on exploring how prehistoric early farmers survived in their environmental context by suggesting a causal complex model of a socioecological system. To achieve this, two different causal models are proposed, both based on probabilistic Bayesian Networks, one built from expert knowledge and the other learned from ethnoarchaeological data. These models are used to define what variables would have been relevant to the socioeconomic organization of early Neolithic communities and to predict their behavior and social decisions in hypothetical case scenarios. The ultimate outcome is exploring the use of the Bayesian Network for investigating socioecological systems and defining its potentialities as a research method.
Despite first applications of machine learning in archaeology date back to the late 90s, it was n... more Despite first applications of machine learning in archaeology date back to the late 90s, it was not until 2019 that its use began to spread. What advantages does this methodology have that the previous methods do not have? Can it be applied in all fields of study? This contribution aims to answer these questions through an exhaustive review of the archaeological studies carried out with this methodology and by developing a model with a specific algorithm, Bayesian networks, to explore its benefits and limitations.
The present contribution focuses on investigating the interaction of people and environment in sm... more The present contribution focuses on investigating the interaction of people and environment in small-scale farming societies. Our study is centred on the particular way settlement location constraints economic strategy when technology is limited, and social division of work is not fully developed. Our intention is to investigate prehistoric socioeconomic organisation when farming began in the Old World along the Levant shores of Iberian Peninsula, the Neolithic phenomenon. We approach this subject extracting relevant information from a big set of ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological cases using Machine Learning methods. This paper explores the use of Bayesian networks as explanatory models of the independent variables-the environment-and dependent variables-social decisions-, and also as predictive models. The study highlights how subsistence strategies are modified by ecological and topographical variables of the settlement location and their relationship with social organisation. It also establishes the role of Bayesian networks as a suitable supervised Machine Learning methodology for investigating socio-ecological systems, introducing their use to build useful data-driven models to address relevant archaeological and anthropological questions.
Thesis dissertation, University College Dublin, 2018
This study investigates the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearbandkeramik cu... more This study investigates the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) in southern Poland (5500-4500 cal. BC). According to the literature, a social change occurred at the beginning of the middle LBK, when organic inclusions (e.g. bone, chaff) were substituted by ceramic additives and quartz inclusions. This change in raw material selection has been traditionally related to symbolism and tradition, an interpretation difficult to see in the archaeological register and which cannot be considered valid without examining other possible hypotheses. This study revolves around a central question: Why were organic inclusions substituted by mineral and ceramic additives in the Middle and Late LBK periods in Southern Poland? The methodology employed combines experimental archaeology and laboratory tests designed for engineering materials (Vickers hardness test, three-point bending test and water absorption technique) with the objective of evaluating all the possible interpretations to explain this change. It also presents the dichotomy between modern specimens tested in the laboratory and the archaeological sherds studied in archaeology, and also evaluates how this can be approached to obtain representative results. In summary, this unique study attempts to go one step further in understanding the LBK community through the examination of temper selection and their impact on production and performance on ceramic vessels.
Treball Final de Grau Arqueologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2016
Els contenidors ceràmics van ser fabricats per tal de cobrir diferents necessitats de les persone... more Els contenidors ceràmics van ser fabricats per tal de cobrir diferents necessitats de les persones del passat. Tanmateix, per què l'artefacte ceràmic sigui eficient, ha de tenir unes aptituds específiques i diferenciades específicament relacionades amb les feines en que ha d'usar-se. Aquestes aptituds venen definides per a les seves propietats físiques i mecàniques, les quals poden ser manipulades durant el procés de manufactura per part de l'artesà. Així doncs, la caracterització d'aquestes ens donen per una banda, les aptituds i, per l'altra, ens permet identificar processos d'especialització en la fabricació d'aquests artefactes. Si bé és cert que s'han realitzat fins el moment alguns (molt escassos) estudis referents a una o altra propietat dels vasos ceràmics, no hi ha cap protocol específic que defineixi com articular de manera extensa aquesta vida de recerca. Davant d'aquest buit, aquest treball presenta quines són les diverses propietats mecàniques i físiques més rellevants i es realitza una proposta d'anàlisi global, interrelacionada i a
EAA Conference 2020. Session Ceramic is Fantastic: The Life-Cycle of Pottery through Cross-Disciplinary Studies, 2020
The study presented will investigate the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearb... more The study presented will investigate the role of organic temper in ceramic vessels in the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) in southern Poland (5500-4500 cal. BC). According to the literature, a social change occurred at the beginning of the middle LBK, when organic inclusions (e.g. bone, chaff) were substituted with ceramic additives and quartz inclusions. This change in raw material selection has been traditionally related to symbolism and tradition, an interpretation difficult to see in the archaeological register and which cannot be considered valid without examining other possible hypotheses. This study revolves around a central question: Why were organic inclusions substituted by mineral and ceramic additives in the Middle and Late LBK periods in Southern Poland? The methodology employed combines experimental archaeology and laboratory tests typically designed for engineering materials (e.g. three-point bending test) with the objective of evaluating all the possible interpretations to explain this change. As a result, relevant insights were obtained about the production process of prehistoric pottery and the technological properties of different ceramic ‘recipes’ determining the vessel’s function. Importantly, the dichotomy between modern specimens tested in the laboratory and the archaeological sherds studied in archaeology will be presented, evaluating how this can be approached to obtain representative results.
JIA: LOS TIEMPOS CAMBIAN DE LA PIEDRA AL TECLADO , 2017
Resumen El estudio de las propiedades mecánicas y físicas es crucial para la definición de las ac... more Resumen El estudio de las propiedades mecánicas y físicas es crucial para la definición de las actividades que realizaron los artefactos cerámicos en el pasado. Por este motivo, es esencial calcular todas aquellas propiedades que fueron relevantes en la manufactura y uso del contenedor para obtener más información sobre los artefactos cerámicos. Para caracterizar las propiedades tecnológicas, es fundamental el desarrollo de una metodología que tenga en cuenta todas las propiedades y que permita su comparación. Es con este objetivo, que el presente estudio tiene la voluntad de presentar una propuesta metodológica que engloba el análisis de materia prima, propiedades mecánicas y propiedades físicas de los contenedores cerámicos y, en base de sus resultados, propone una tabla comparativa que permite la
JIA: LOS TIEMPOS CAMBIAN DE LA PIEDRA AL TECLADO, 2017
Resumen La porosidad es una propiedad física fundamental de los artefactos cerámicos puesto que d... more Resumen La porosidad es una propiedad física fundamental de los artefactos cerámicos puesto que define sus aptitudes tecnológicas. Los estudios que la consideran esta propiedad son minoritarios y no hay una metodología homogénea, aspectos que imposibilitan la comparación de conjuntos cerámicos. Por este motivo, esta comunicación tiene como objetivo plantear dos cuestiones: (1) si las variables arqueométricas típicamente analizadas en los estudios de cerámica (grueso, diámetro o desgrasante; por ejemplo) son las adecuadas para definir el grado de porosidad de un contenedor cerámico; (2) si es posible identificar especialización en el proceso de fabricación de los artefactos cerámicos. Para abordar estas cuestiones, el laboratorio ARCHAEOM (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) ha aplicado la técnica de inmersión líquida del conjunto cerámico del yacimiento Neolítico de la Espina C (Cataluña).
EAA Conference 2020, Session 161 Networks, networking, communication: archaeology of interactions, 2020
Difficulties surrounding the identification of social systems in prehistoric communities has prop... more Difficulties surrounding the identification of social systems in prehistoric communities has propitiated the development of multiple social theories and a variety of approaches to interpret the archaeological remains. The Bayesian Belief Network mathematical methodology has proved to be a crucial tool to model uncertainty and probability to predict parameters’ consequences, even when some data entries are missing. This communication has the principal objective to present a research proposal centered on exploring what sort of mechanisms were probably employed by early farmers living in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula (ca. 5500 - 4500 BC approximately) to guarantee their survival, taking into account the actual archaeological record as a priori information. We present a hypothetical probabilistic model of survival in the historical conditions of early farming in the Western Mediterranean. The model integrates environmental variables and social and economic parameters considered essential to produce and reproduce subsistence practices. Recent research carried on environmental studies have previously defined several variables relevant for soil productivity in husbandry practices offering relevant insights into potential long-term consequences of management practices. The proposed model represents an exploratory study integrating previous studies from environmental disciplines and economic anthropology with the archaeological record. Our ultimate goal is to understand better how subsistence practices were conducted in Mediterranean Neolithic and analyse long-term communities’ survival. Bayesian Belief networks are used to simulate probable values for different parameters taking into account both theoretical deductions and available archaeological data. Of paramount importance in our model is not only the estimation of parameter values, but the specific probabilistic causal modelling of parameter relationships, making emphasis on the particular relationship between environmental and social variables. The ultimate outcome will be to evaluate how optimization of productive subsistence practices would have been possible and offering new understanding into socioeconomic and technological systems of early farming societies.
Difficulties surrounding the reconstruction of social systems in past communities have propitiate... more Difficulties surrounding the reconstruction of social systems in past communities have propitiated the development of multiple social theories and a variety of approaches to explain archaeological remains. The Bayesian Network approach has proved to be a crucial tool to model uncertainty and probability to estimate parameters and predict the effects of social decisions, even when some data entries are missing. This paper has the principal objective to present a research study centered on exploring how prehistoric early farmers survived in their environmental context by suggesting a causal complex model of a socioecological system. To achieve this, two different causal models are proposed, both based on probabilistic Bayesian Networks, one built from expert knowledge and the other learned from ethnoarchaeological data. These models are used to define what variables would have been relevant to the socioeconomic organization of early Neolithic communities and to predict their behavior and social decisions in hypothetical case scenarios. The ultimate outcome is exploring the use of the Bayesian Network for investigating socioecological systems and defining its potentialities as a research method.
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Papers by Olga Palacios
This study revolves around a central question: Why were organic inclusions substituted by mineral and ceramic additives in the Middle and Late LBK periods in Southern Poland? The methodology employed combines experimental archaeology and laboratory tests designed for engineering materials (Vickers hardness test, three-point bending test and water absorption technique) with the objective of evaluating all the possible interpretations to explain this change. It also presents the dichotomy between modern specimens tested in the laboratory and the archaeological sherds studied in archaeology, and also evaluates how this can be approached to obtain representative results.
In summary, this unique study attempts to go one step further in understanding the LBK community through the examination of temper selection and their impact on production and performance on ceramic vessels.
Si bé és cert que s'han realitzat fins el moment alguns (molt escassos) estudis referents a una o altra propietat dels vasos ceràmics, no hi ha cap protocol específic que defineixi com articular de manera extensa aquesta vida de recerca. Davant d'aquest buit, aquest treball presenta quines són les diverses propietats mecàniques i físiques més rellevants i es realitza una proposta d'anàlisi global, interrelacionada i a
Conference Presentations by Olga Palacios
We present a hypothetical probabilistic model of survival in the historical conditions of early farming in the Western Mediterranean. The model integrates environmental variables and social and economic parameters considered essential to produce and reproduce subsistence practices. Recent research carried on environmental studies have previously defined several variables relevant for soil productivity in husbandry practices offering relevant insights into potential long-term consequences of management practices. The proposed model represents an exploratory study integrating previous studies from environmental disciplines and economic anthropology with the archaeological record. Our ultimate goal is to understand better how subsistence practices were conducted in Mediterranean Neolithic and analyse long-term communities’ survival. Bayesian Belief networks are used to simulate probable values for different parameters taking into account both theoretical deductions and available archaeological data. Of paramount importance in our model is not only the estimation of parameter values, but the specific probabilistic causal modelling of parameter relationships, making emphasis on the particular relationship between environmental and social variables. The ultimate outcome will be to evaluate how optimization of productive subsistence practices would have been possible and offering new understanding into socioeconomic and technological systems of early farming societies.
Drafts by Olga Palacios
This study revolves around a central question: Why were organic inclusions substituted by mineral and ceramic additives in the Middle and Late LBK periods in Southern Poland? The methodology employed combines experimental archaeology and laboratory tests designed for engineering materials (Vickers hardness test, three-point bending test and water absorption technique) with the objective of evaluating all the possible interpretations to explain this change. It also presents the dichotomy between modern specimens tested in the laboratory and the archaeological sherds studied in archaeology, and also evaluates how this can be approached to obtain representative results.
In summary, this unique study attempts to go one step further in understanding the LBK community through the examination of temper selection and their impact on production and performance on ceramic vessels.
Si bé és cert que s'han realitzat fins el moment alguns (molt escassos) estudis referents a una o altra propietat dels vasos ceràmics, no hi ha cap protocol específic que defineixi com articular de manera extensa aquesta vida de recerca. Davant d'aquest buit, aquest treball presenta quines són les diverses propietats mecàniques i físiques més rellevants i es realitza una proposta d'anàlisi global, interrelacionada i a
We present a hypothetical probabilistic model of survival in the historical conditions of early farming in the Western Mediterranean. The model integrates environmental variables and social and economic parameters considered essential to produce and reproduce subsistence practices. Recent research carried on environmental studies have previously defined several variables relevant for soil productivity in husbandry practices offering relevant insights into potential long-term consequences of management practices. The proposed model represents an exploratory study integrating previous studies from environmental disciplines and economic anthropology with the archaeological record. Our ultimate goal is to understand better how subsistence practices were conducted in Mediterranean Neolithic and analyse long-term communities’ survival. Bayesian Belief networks are used to simulate probable values for different parameters taking into account both theoretical deductions and available archaeological data. Of paramount importance in our model is not only the estimation of parameter values, but the specific probabilistic causal modelling of parameter relationships, making emphasis on the particular relationship between environmental and social variables. The ultimate outcome will be to evaluate how optimization of productive subsistence practices would have been possible and offering new understanding into socioeconomic and technological systems of early farming societies.