Computation applications in archaeology

This thesis is a critical analysis of the use which has been made of the computer in archaeology up to the year 1972. The main chapters cover the applications in archaeology of Statistics, Information Retrieval, Graphics, Pottery Classification and Survey Reduction. A large body of Miscellaneous Applications, including Pollen Analysis, are also examined. The majority of computer applications have been in Statistics. These applications include Numerical Taxonomy, Matrix Manipulation and Seriation, the generation of hypotheses and models, MUltidimensional Scaling, Cumulative Percentage Graphs and Trend Surface Analysis. It is worthwhile to note that for small sets of data several manual methods give comparable results to complex computer analyses and at far less cost. Computer Information Retrieval is examined in the light of its use for large bodies of specialist archaeological information, for museum cataloguing, and for the compilation of a site excavation record using a remote terminal. The use of Computer Graphics in the production of archaeological maps, plans and diagrams is examined. Facilities include the production of dot-density plots, distribution maps, histograms, piecharts, pottery diagrams, site block diagrams with 3D rotation and perspective, sections, pit outlines and projectile point classification by Fourier analysis. The use of the d-Mac Pencil Follower in the objective classification of pottery is described, followed by computer analysis of the resultant multivariate data. The use of the computer in the routine reduction of geophysical observations taken on archaeological sites is described. Complex filtering procedures for the removal of background effects and the enhancement of the archaeological anomalies are examined. Since other workers have concentrated on the applications of statistics in archaeology~ this thesis explores the relatively neglected fields of Graphics and Pottery Classification. Evidence is presented that significant advances have been made in the classification of pottery vessels and projectile points~ and in the graphical output of results. A number of new programs have been developed; these include software which may be operated from a remote terminal at an archaeological site. The P L U T A R C H System (Program Library Useful To ARCHaeologists) is described. This is a control program which uses interactive graphics and overlays to combine all the computer facilities available to the archaeologist. The individual graphics, statistics, instrument survey plotting and information retrieval techniques when combined in this way can communicate via global storage, and become even more powerful

Cross-Modal Search and Exploration of Greek Painted Pottery

This paper focuses on digitally-supported research methods for an important group of cultural heritage objects, the Greek pottery, especially with figured decoration. The design, development and application of new digital methods for searching, comparing, and visually exploring these vases needs an interdisciplinary approach to effectively analyse the various features of the vases, like shape, decoration, and manufacturing techniques, and relationships between the vases. We motivate the need and opportunities by a multimodal representation of the objects, including 3D shape, material, and painting. We then illustrate a range of innovative methods for these representations, including quantified surface and capacity comparison, material analysis, image flattening from 3D objects, retrieval and comparison of shapes and paintings, and multidimensional data visualization. We also discuss challenges and future work in this area.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, preprint for a book chapter, supplementary video available at https://youtu.be/x_Xg0vy3nJ

ArchAIDE-Archaeological Automatic Interpretation and Documentation of cEramics

The goals of H2020 project "ArchAIDE: are to support the classification and interpretation work of archaeologists with innovative computer-based tools, able to provide the user with features for the semi-automatic description and matching of potsherds over the huge existing ceramic catalogues. Pottery classification is of fundamental importance for the comprehension and dating of the archaeological contexts, and for understanding production, trade flows and social interactions, but it requires complex skills and it is a very time consuming activity, both for researchers and professionals. The aim of ArchAIDE is to support the work of archaeologists, in order to meet real user needs and generate economic benefits, reducing time and costs. This would create societal benefits from cultural heritage, improving access, re-use and exploitation of the digital cultural heritage in a sustainable way. These objectives will be achieved through the development of: - an as-automatic-as-possible procedure to transform the paper catalogues in a digital description, to be used as a data pool for search and retrieval process; - a tool (mainly designed for mobile devices) that will support archaeologists in recognizing and classifying potsherds during excavation and post-excavation analysis, through an easy-to-use interface and efficient algorithms for characterisation, search and retrieval of the visual/geometrical correspondences; - an automatic procedure to derive a complete potsherds identity card by transforming the data collected into a formatted electronic document, printable or visual; - a web-based real-time data visualisation to improve access to archaeological heritage and generate new understanding; - an open archive to allow the archival and re-use of archaeological data, transforming them into common heritage and permitting economic sustainability. Those tools will be tested and assessed on real-cases scenarios, paving the way to future exploitation

Developing the ArchAIDE Application: A digital workflow for identifying, organising and sharing archaeological pottery using automated image recognition

Pottery is of fundamental importance for understanding archaeological contexts, facilitating the understanding of production, trade flows, and social interactions. Pottery characterisation and the classification of ceramics is still a manual process, reliant on analogue catalogues created by specialists, held in archives and libraries. The ArchAIDE project worked to streamline, optimise and economise the mundane aspects of these processes, using the latest automatic image recognition technology, while retaining key decision points necessary to create trusted results. Specifically, ArchAIDE worked to support classification and interpretation work (during both fieldwork and post-excavation analysis) with an innovative app for tablets and smartphones. This article summarises the work of this three-year project, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N.693548, with a consortium of partners representing both the academic and industry-led ICT (Information and Communications Technology) domains, and the academic and development-led archaeology domains. The collaborative work of the archaeological and technical partners created a pipeline where potsherds are photographed, their characteristics compared against a trained neural network, and the results returned with suggested matches from a comparative collection with typical pottery types and characteristics. Once the correct type is identified, all relevant information for that type is linked to the new sherd and stored within a database that can be shared online. ArchAIDE integrated a variety of novel and best-practice approaches, both in the creation of the app, and the communication of the project to a range of stakeholders

Study, revalorization and virtual musealization of a ceramic kiln based on information gathered from old excavations

[ES] Las posibilidades actuales de visualización y difusión a través de las tecnologías digitales tienen un efecto favorable en la conservación y la puesta en valor de los restos arqueológicos depositados en los museos. Por lo tanto, deben ser consideradas como herramientas esenciales en la gestión de las colecciones y una manera de comunicarse con todo tipo de usuarios, desde los que cuentan con un elevado perfil tecnológico hasta los visitantes ocasionales. El artículo presenta un caso de estudio en el cual se ha revisado la información recogida durante una serie de excavaciones arqueológicas relativas a los restos de un horno, las cuales se realizaron en la localidad de Orduña (España) en los años 2000 y 2001. Esta información, conjuntamente con una nueva inspección de las piezas almacenadas en el Museo Arqueológico de Bizkaia, ha permitido la generación de nuevos productos -como el modelo virtual tridimensional- que ofrecen posibilidades mejoradas de estudio, comprensión y difusión de las piezas, su origen y la importancia que el oficio de la cerámica y su comercio tuvieron en el pasado.[EN] The current possibilities of virtualization and dissemination by means of digital technologies have a favourable effect on the conservation and valorization of archaeological findings held in museums. Therefore, they should be considered as essential tools in the management of the collections and a way to communicate with all kind of users, from the ones with a highly technical profile to the occasional visitors. This article presents a case in point, in which the reviewing of the information generated during a series of archaeological excavations into the remains of a kiln, conducted in the town of Orduña (Spain) in 2000 and 2001, together with a new inspection of the pieces stored in the Bizkaia Museum of Archaeology, allowed for the generation of new products such as three-dimensional virtual models that improve the possibilities of studying, understanding and disseminating the pieces, their provenance and the importance that the craft and the trade of the pottery had in the past

A Survey of Geometric Analysis in Cultural Heritage

We present a review of recent techniques for performing geometric analysis in cultural heritage (CH) applications. The survey is aimed at researchers in the areas of computer graphics, computer vision and CH computing, as well as to scholars and practitioners in the CH field. The problems considered include shape perception enhancement, restoration and preservation support, monitoring over time, object interpretation and collection analysis. All of these problems typically rely on an understanding of the structure of the shapes in question at both a local and global level. In this survey, we discuss the different problem forms and review the main solution methods, aided by classification criteria based on the geometric scale at which the analysis is performed and the cardinality of the relationships among object parts exploited during the analysis. We finalize the report by discussing open problems and future perspectives

An Open System for Collection and Automatic Recognition of Pottery through Neural Network Algorithms

In the last ten years, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been applied in archaeology. The ArchAIDE project realised an AI-based application to recognise archaeological pottery. Pottery is of paramount importance for understanding archaeological contexts. However, recognition of ceramics is still a manual, time-consuming activity, reliant on analogue catalogues. The project developed two complementary machine-learning tools to propose identifications based on images captured on-site, for optimising and economising this process, while retaining key decision points necessary to create trusted results. One method relies on the shape of a potsherd; the other is based on decorative features. For the shape-based recognition, a novel deep-learning architecture was employed, integrating shape information from points along the inner and outer profile of a sherd. The decoration classifier is based on relatively standard architectures used in image recognition. In both cases, training the algorithms meant facing challenges related to real-world archaeological data: the scarcity of labelled data; extreme imbalance between instances of different categories; and the need to take note of minute differentiating features. Finally, the creation of a desktop and mobile application that integrates the AI classifiers provides an easy-to-use interface for pottery classification and storing pottery data