Cyber-Archaeology

In this paper we claim that during the First Temple period, no organized or fixed system of liquid volume measurements existed in Judah. The biblical bath, which has been understood to be the basic measurement of the system, was not a measurement at all but a well-known vessel – the Judahite storage jar–also known as the  lmlk jar. The nēḇel and the kaḏ were two other vessels that had other uses. The lōḡ, hîn, and iśśārôn, which are usually termed “measurements” and considered part of the system of liquid volume measurements, were actually vessels that were part of the official Temple cult during the Second Temple period and were never part of the First Temple economy and administration.

The current digital technologies development makes it possible to apply new forms of studying historical events considering the geographical point of view. They rely on the location and the relationships among the different elements that took part in them over a recreated space (e.g. relief, roads, rivers); once these elements have been laid out on the virtual space, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to analyse several factors, such as distances, visibility, connectivity and so on. Nevertheless, the development of the actions was also driven by the aims, needs and beliefs (either wise or misguided) of the people/actors involved in those situations; therefore, some ways of including reasoning would significantly improve the actual recreation and understanding of the episodes. In this sense, “linear programming” is a very versatile tool for system modelling and optimization that is broadly used in many fields (e.g. industry, transports, agriculture, etc.). Likewise, this technique can also be applied to past scenarios to simulate dynamics and cross-check sources. In this text, two models regarding the distribution and the allocation of supplies during the siege of Bilbao, in the framework of the Third Carlist War (1872-1876), from both parties —beleaguerer and besieged— were established based on the war front textual reports. In these models, the scenario is recreated through the system variables (which define the alternatives that can be or could have been taken) and the constraints (which limit the range of action); moreover, the actors’ goals that guided the course of events are defined by the objective. Despite the simplification in the modelling, the results show very interesting hints about the dynamics involved during the processes and are able to highlight some critical issues that significantly conditioned the final results. Besides, the modelling process itself proved to be an opportunity for collaboration between historians and computer scientists.

This paper investigates the use of 3D immersive virtual environments and 3D prints for interaction with past material culture over traditional observation without manipulation. Our work is motivated by studies in heritage, museum, and cognitive sciences indicating the importance of object manipulation for understanding present and ancient artifacts. While virtual immersive environments and 3D prints have started to be incorporated in heritage research and museum displays as a way to provide improved manipulation experiences, little is known about how these new technologies affect the perception of our past. This paper provides first results obtained with three experiments designed to investigate the benefits and tradeoffs in using these technologies. Our results indicate that traditional museum displays limit the experience with past material culture, and reveal how our sample of participants favor tactile and immersive 3D virtual experiences with artifacts over visual non-manipulative experiences with authentic objects.

In our European Research Council (ERC) funded project entitled Ancient (Biblical) Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective, we use a novel approach to integrate the macro and microscopic archaeological records from the Iron Age. The project is organized into ten tracks that were formulated in order to shed light on five main themes related to ancient (biblical) Israel:
1. The time of Ancient Israel:
a. Radiocarbon: correlating the chronology of Ancient Israel with neighboring lands, especially the Mediterranean basin, as well as enhancing the dating of the different phases in the Iron Age and deepening understanding of relative chronology based on ceramic typology.
2. The genesis of Ancient Israel:
a. Ancient DNA: collected from humans and animals to track origin and movement of ancient populations.
b. Geo-archaeology: understanding formation processes, use of space, and tracking subsistence economy practices in Ancient Israel by examining sediments in sites that represent Iron Age towns and villages.
c. Palynology: studying cores of sediments from the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee in order to obtain information on paleoclimate, subsistence practices and settlement oscillations.
3. The life of Ancient Israel:
a. Ceramic petrography: reconstructing production and trade patterns in ceramic vessels – the most common type of macro-artifact in the field.
b. Metallurgy: tracking technological advances, specifically the shift from bronze to iron, during the Iron I–IIA period.
4. The mind of Ancient Israel:
a. Daily mathematics of dimensions: examining pottery vessels to discern, for example, the relationship between units of length and volume for the sake of determining the “mathematical” knowledge of the people of the Iron Age.
b. Epigraphy: using advanced computational methodologies in order to study the development of writing in Israel and Judah.
5. The identity of Ancient Israel:
a. Residue analysis: of pottery vessels in order to determine the usage of vessels, culinary practices and long-distance trade.
b. Archaeo-zoology: studying a large number of assemblages from different sub-phases of the Iron Age in different regions and varied
contexts in order to better understand subsistence strategies in the past
In most of the ten tracks the investigations are being conducted with special reference to both the diachronic and synchronic dimensions. This is done by comparing finds in one site/region along the chronology scale and comparing a given assemblage to finds from the same period in other regions.

Mobilizing the Past is a collection of 20 articles that explore the use and impact of mobile digital technology in archaeological field practice. The detailed case studies present in this volume range from drones in the Andes to iPads at Pompeii, digital workflows in the American Southwest, and examples of how bespoke, DIY, and commercial software provide solutions and craft novel challenges for field archaeologists. The range of projects and contexts ensures that Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future is far more than a state-of-the-field manual or technical handbook. Instead, the contributors embrace the growing spirit of critique present in digital archaeology. This critical edge, backed by real projects, systems, and experiences, gives the book lasting value as both a glimpse into present practices as well as the anxieties and enthusiasm associated with the most recent generation of mobile digital tools. This book emerged from a workshop funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities held in 2015 at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. The workshop brought together over 20 leading practitioners of digital archaeology in the U.S. for a weekend of conversation. The papers in this volume reflect the discussions at this workshop with significant additional content. Starting with an expansive introduction and concluding with a series of reflective papers, this volume illustrates how tablets, connectivity, sophisticated software, and powerful computers have transformed field practices and offer potential for a radically transformed discipline.

Individual chapters are available for free download, here:
http://dc.uwm.edu/arthist_mobilizingthepast/

Paper about data management in archaeological projects.
Together with Martina Trognitz, Jörg Räther & Sabine Jahn. 

IT-Empfehlungen
Für den nachhaltigen Umgang mit digitalen Daten in den Altertumswissenschaften

Deutsches Archäologisches Insitut
IANUS Forschungsdatenzentrum

Advanced data capture techniques, cost-effective data processing, and visualization technologies provide viable solutions for the documentation and curation of archaeological heritage and material culture. Work at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Çatalhöyük has demonstrated that new digital approaches for capturing, processing, analyzing, and curating stratigraphic data in 3D are now feasible. Real-time visualization engines allow us to simulate the stratigraphy of a site, the three-dimensional surfaces of ancient buildings, as well as the ever-changing morphology of cultural landscapes. Nonetheless, more work needs to be done to address methodological questions such as: can three-dimensional models and stratigraphic relationships, based on 3D surfaces and volumes, be used to perform archaeological interpretation? How can a 3D virtual scenario become the interface to cultural data and metadata stored in external online databases? How can we foster a sense of presence and user embodiment in the simulation of ancient cities and archaeological sites? This article aims to provide viable solutions to the methodological challenge of designing a comprehensive digital archaeological workflow from the data acquisition and interpretation in the field to a three-dimensional digital data curation based on interactive visualization, searchable 3D data, and virtual environments. This work describes the results we achieved developing the application Dig@IT, a multi-platform, scalable virtual reality tool able to foster archaeological data analysis, interpretation, and curation in a realistic and highly-interactive virtual environment.

The paper represents the first Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology (SCMA) land and sea study carried out in collaboration with Greek colleagues that took place in 2016 at the Mycenaean site of Kastrouli and the nearby Antikyra Bay on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth in Greece.  It is an interim study of what happened to a Late Mycenaean land and sea system at the end of the Late Bronze Age.  It has new data on the social economic nature of a LH IIIC settlement and the anchorages that probably serviced it some 5 km from the site.  The paper explores what Thomas Tartaron (2013) defines as a Mycenaean coastal world.  The work has implications for the larger issue of the collapse of Late Bronze Age civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean and the possible influences of climate and environmental change.

In the paper we will discuss about virtual reality environments and Multiuser Domain for data sharing and interpretation in the field of virtual heritage. In the last ten years the diffusion of Internet and the use of personal computers have radically changed the communication systems of post-modern societies. This accelerated digital metabolism creates a scenario of “dense” information, passing from older linear systems (like the books for example) to newer reticular systems, like VR or the cyberspace of the virtual communities. Internet 2.0 represents the gateway of the cyber-anthropology, the challenge to make new forms of learning and communication. In this context, it is possible to find virtual communities developed entirely within three-dimensional environments, where the users (represented by avatars) can directly contribute to modify and update the cyberspace. Despite the development and these new metaphors of “virtual aggregation”, the state of the art in the field of virtual heritage is still quite pioneering, because there are no Multi-user domains (MuD) specifically for sharing and exchanging cultural and scientific contents. In this field we are developing new research projects oriented to virtual archaeology and to the study and communication of cultural heritage through Multiuser virtual reality applications (off and on line). In this contribution two case studies will be mainly presented: The Virtual Museum of Ancient Via Flaminia, available in the National Roman Museum of Rome since January 2008, and the FIRB project Integrated Technologies of robotics and virtual environment in archaeology (supported by the Italian Ministry of Research), still in progress, but available on the web from next fall 2008.

Keywords: virtual communities, virtual reality, multiuser domain, embodiment, virtual museums, learning, cyber space.

The relationship between the expansion of literacy in Judah and composition of biblical texts has attracted scholarly attention for over a century. Information on this issue can be deduced from Hebrew inscriptions from the final phase of the first Temple period. We report our investigation of 16 inscriptions from the Judahite desert fortress of Arad, dated ca. 600 BCE—the eve of Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem. The inquiry is based on new methods for image processing and document analysis, as well as machine learning algorithms. These techniques enable identification of the minimal number of authors in a given group of inscriptions. Our algorithmic analysis, complemented by the textual information, reveals a minimum of six authors within the examined inscriptions. The results indicate that in this remote fort literacy had spread throughout the military hierarchy, down to the quartermaster and probably even below that rank. This implies that an educational infrastructure that could support the composition of literary texts in Judah already existed before the destruction of the first Temple. A similar level of literacy in this area is attested again only 400 y later, ca. 200 BCE.

O artigo tem por objetivo apresentar o processo de desenvolvimento do primeiro jogo eletrônico produzido pelo Laboratório de Arqueologia Romana Provincial (LARP-MAE-USP) denominado “O Último Banquete em Herculano”. Em um primeiro momento, serão discutidos os aspectos técnicos da produção, elencando os processos de coleta de material, escrita de roteiro, modelagem 3D e programação. Após, será pormenorizado o aspecto do jogo aplicado à Educação, calcado na elaboração de um Guia Didático para Professores com roteiros de aulas e usos do jogo em salas de aula.

This paper is focused on the development and implementation of the project elaborated by the Laboratory for Roman Provincial Archaeology (University of Sao Paulo) named DOMUS: the first online Brazilian cyber-archaeological application that enables users to navigate in a three-dimensional virtual environment that simulates an ancient house during the Roman Empire. DOMUS was applied for the very first time at Colégio Unidade Jardim (a high school in Sao Paulo). The activity consisted of asking the students to navigate through the idealised three-dimensional Roman house in order to explore its rooms and objects, and also to perceive inherent subjects belonging to Pompeian domestic art and architecture. In this manner, the stages involved in the implementation of the activity with students will be presented, and how our cyber-archaeological application allowed them to establish the link between archaeological remains and their own daily lives through computer emulation.

Arad Ostracon 16 is part of the Elyashiv Archive, dated to ca. 600 b.c. It was published as bearing an inscription on the recto only. New multispectral images of the ostracon have enabled us to reveal a hitherto invisible inscription on the verso, as well as additional letters, words, and complete lines on the recto. We present here the new images and offer our new reading and reinterpretation of the ostracon.

Este artículo es producto del trabajo de un grupo interdisciplinario
de arqueólogos e investigadores de la Scuola Normale Superiore y de
la Universidad de Pisa, Italia. Presenta una nueva aplicación que combina
técnicas gráficas por computadora y métodos de fotogrametría terrestre
y aérea (Structure from Motion) para monitorear, documentar y registrar
las diversas fases de una excavación arqueológica, así como para crear
un modelo digital en 3d del ágora (plaza pública) de Segesta, un
importante sitio arqueológico localizado en Sicilia, Italia. La novedosa
aplicación permite interactuar a manos libres con la simulación del ágora
de Segesta y con los modelos de las diferentes fases de excavación del sitio.
Específicamente, el operador usa una interface natural con gestos manuales
para deslizar y visualizar los modelos de las capas arqueológicas, que
pueden alinearse perfectamente. Usando la misma interface, se pueden
desplegar modelos de artefactos significativos descubiertos durante la
excavación y obtener los metadatos respectivos (almacenados en
un servidor especial), los cuales pueden también ser visualizados
en dispositivos externos (tabletas o monitores) sin tener que portar ningún
tipo de dispositivo externo. Todas estas funciones se contextualizan
en la simulación completa del ágora, por lo que es posible verificar
interpretaciones antiguas y mejorar las nuevas en tiempo real.

This paper presents the development of two applications elaborated by the Laboratory for Roman Provincial Archaeology (LARP-USP) named DOMUS R.A. and DOMUS REDUX: two mobile applications that allow the public to experience an ancient Roman house (domus, in latin) in both Augmented and Virtual Realities environments. Starting from the discussion of our previous application (DOMUS, released in 2013), we describe why we decided to reformulate the original application and how we did it. Finally, we present the educational activities based on DOMUS, DOMUS R.A. and DOMUS REDUX that are now being developed with students and teachers.

Describes preliminary soundings at Khirbat Faynan, adjacent agricultural field systems (Iron Age), Survey in the Buwayridah springs, sounds at Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir middle Islamic copper production site, small sounding at Khirbat Hamra Idan (Early Bronze Age) copper manufactory, Portable XRF field studies, Terrestrial Laser Scanning,

The problem of finding a prototype for typewritten or handwritten characters belongs to a family of "shape prior" estimation problems. In epigraphic research, such priors are derived manually, and constitute the building blocks of "paleographic tables". Suggestions for automatic solutions to the estimation problem are rare in both the Computer Vision and the OCR/Handwriting Text Recognition communities. We review some of the existing approaches, and propose a new robust scheme, suitable for the challenges of degraded historical documents. This fast and easy to implement method is employed for ancient Hebrew inscriptions dated to the First Temple period.

With the firm conviction that current archaeology needs to use all the tools that computer science provides, we have developed a project for digitising and structuring all the information gathered from the different excavation campaigns carried out in San Chuis hillfort (Allande, Asturias, Spain). In order to do it, we have developed the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) of the hillfort, in order to proceed subsequently to its virtualization. To implement the SDI, we have reinstated the archaeological record in its original coordinates based on the information that we had. This restitution has allowed us to perform the spatial analysis of the elements of the record, to elaborate different plans of its distribution, not only campaigns but also types, and perform at the same time, a study of the densities. Likewise, we have developed a general database of the hillfort, in which, aside of including the detailed table of the elements of the record and their coordinates, also contains the descriptive table of the stratigraphic units (SU) and the descriptive table of the wall stratigraphic units (WSU). Finally, we have built an extensive planimetry and a web page in order to spread the information. With regard to the hillfort virtualization, we have developed two consistent models with two historical stages: the Iron Age and the Roman occupation. We have used Blender for its development. Resumen: Con el firme convencimiento de que la arqueología actual necesita servirse de todas las herramientas que le proporciona la informática hemos desarrollado un proyecto de digitalización y estructuración de todos los datos recogidos en las diferentes campañas de excavación llevadas a cabo en el castro de San Chuis (Allande, Asturias, España). Para ello hemos desarrollado la Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales (IDE) del castro, para posteriormente, proceder a la virtualización del mismo. Para implementar la IDE, hemos reintegrado el registro arqueológico en sus coordenadas originales de acuerdo con los datos que poseíamos. Esta restitución nos ha permitido realizar el análisis espacial de los elementos del registro, elaborar distintos planos de su distribución, tanto por campañas como por tipos, y efectuar, al mismo tiempo, un estudio de las densidades. Asimismo, hemos desarrollado una base de datos general del castro, en la que además de incluirse la tabla pormenorizada de los elementos del registro y sus coordenadas, se incluye la tabla descriptiva de las unidades estratigráficas (UE) y la tabla descriptiva de las unidades estratigráficas murarias (UEM). Finalmente, hemos construido una extensa planimetría y una página web con el fin de divulgar la información. En cuanto a la virtualización del castro, hemos desarrollado dos modelos congruentes con dos etapas históricas: la Edad del Hierro y la ocupación romana. Hemos utilizado Blender para su desarrollo.

During the 2010 excavation season, two inscriptions showing Hieratic signs written with black ink were found at Qubur el-Walaydah in the coastal plain of southern Israel. Although unearthed recently, new color photographs show that their legibility has deteriorated compared to those taken shortly after excavation. We imaged these inscriptions using multispectral (MS) techniques described by (Faigenbaum and Sober et al. 2012). Notwithstanding the fading of the ink, these MS images significantly improved the inscriptions legibility. In several cases, faded and unrecognizable letters are clearly seen. The new MS photographs, which were essential in deciphering the inscriptions, are presented.

Recent current events have dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of the world's material cultural heritage. The 3-D Digital Preservation of At-Risk Global Cultural Heritage project, led by Thomas Levy at UC San Diego, catalyzes a collabora-tive research effort by four University of California campuses (San Diego, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Merced) to use cyber-archaeology and computer graphics for cultural heritage to document and safeguard virtually some of the most at-risk heritage objects and places. Faculty and students involved in this project are conducting path-breaking archaeological research-covering more than 10,000 years of culture and architecture-in Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and the United States. This project uses the 3-D archaeological data collected in numerous at-risk heritage places to study, forecast, and model the effects of human conflict, climate change, natural disasters and technological and cultural changes on these sites and landscapes. The greater challenge undertaken by this project is to integrate archaeological heritage data and digital heritage data using the recently-announced Pacific Research Platform (PRP) and its 10-100Gb/s network as well as virtual reality kiosks installed in each participating UC campus. Our aim is to link UC San Diego and the San Diego Supercom-puter Center to other labs, libraries and museums at the other UC campuses to form a highly-networked collaborative platform for curation, analysis, and visualization of 3D archaeological heritage data.