Multi-Sensory Virtual Environments for Investigating the Past

[EN] A human depends on all five senses: visuals, audio, smell, taste and touch to perceive an environment. It is not only the individual senses, but also their interaction that plays a key role in enabling us to understand the world around us. Virtual archaeology is being increasingly used to investigate the past. Failure to consider all senses in these reconstructions runs the very real danger of misrepresenting ancient environments and how they may have been perceived by our ancestors. This paper describes Real Virtuality: true high-fidelity multi-sensory virtual environments, and shows how such an approach may give historians a more valid means of considering the past.[ES] Los seres humanos dependemos de los cinco sentidos: vista, oído, olfato, gusto y tacto para percibir el medio ambiente. Estos sentidos y la interacción que se produce entre ellos es lo que desempeña un papel clave en la comprensión del mundo que nos rodea. La Arqueología virtual cada vez se utiliza más para investigar el pasado. Por ello si no tomamos en consideración todos los sentidos a la hora de realizar reconstrucciones virtuales corremos el peligro real de tergiversar los entornos antiguos y la forma en la que estos entornos pudieron haber sido percibidos por nuestros antepasados. Este artículo describe la Virtualidad Real: entornos virtuales multi-sensoriales de gran fidelidad, y muestra cómo este enfoque puede proporcionar a los historiadores un medio más válido para estudiar el pasado.Chalmers, A.; Zányi, E. (2010). Multi-Sensory Virtual Environments for Investigating the Past. Virtual Archaeology Review. 1(1):13-16. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2010.4750OJS131611AGGLETON, J., AND WASKETT, L. (1999): "The ability of odours to serve as state-dependent cues for real-world memories: Can Viking smells aid the recall of Viking experiences? British Journal of Psychology 90, 1-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000712699161170BRIDAULT F., ROUSSELLE F., RENAUD C., LEBLOND M. (2006): "Real-time Animation of Various Flame Shapes." In Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage, VAST 2006.CHALMERS, A., DEBATTISTA, K., MASTOROPOULOU, G., AND DOS SANTOS, L. (2007): "There-Reality: Selective Rendering in High Fidelity Virtual Environments "The International Journal of Virtual Reality 6, 1, 1-10.CHALMERS A., GREEN C. and HALL M. (2000): "Firelight: Graphics and Archaeology", SIGGRAPH 2000 Electronic Theatre.CHALMERS A., ROUSSOS I., LEDDA P. (2006): "Authentic Illumination of Archaeological Site Reconstructions." In CGIV'2006: IS&T 3rd European conference on color in graphics, imaging and vision, Leeds.FOULIAS AM. (2004): The Church of our Lady Angeloktisti at Kiti, Larnaka, Nicosia.A. GONÇALVES A., MAGALHÃES L., MOURA J. AND CHALMERS A. (2008): "Accurate Modelling of Roman Lamps in Conimbriga using High Dynamic Range." In Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage, VAST 2008.KAHNERT F. (2003): "Reproducing the optical properties of fine desert dust aerosols using ensembles of simple model particles", In Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer , vol. 85, 231-249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4073(03)00227-9HOWARD, D., AND ANGUS, J. (2006): Acoustics and psychoacoustics. 3rd Ed., Oxford: Focal Press.IWATA, H., YANO, H., UEMURA, T., AND MORIYA, T (2003). "Food simulator." In ICAT'03: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence, IEEE Press.MACK, A., AND ROCK, I. (1998): Inattentional Blindness. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.MARTINEZ P. (2001): "Digital realities and archaeology: a difficult relationship or a fruitful marriage?" In Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage VAST 2001, 9-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/584993.584995MILLER P., AND RICHARDS J. (1994): "The good, the bad and the downright misleading: archaeological adoption of computer visualization." Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, 19-22.PEERS G. (2004): Sacred shock: Framing visual experience in Byzantium, Pennsylvania State University Press.ROBSON BROWN K., CHALMERS A., SAIGOL T., GREEN C. AND D'ERRICO F. (2001): "An automated laser scan survey of the Upper Palaeolithic rock shelter of Cap Blanc." Journal of Archaeological Science, 28, 283-289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jasc.2000.0574SADDIK, A. (2007): "The potential of haptic technologies." In IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 10, 31, 10-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MIM.2007.339540SUNDSTEDT V., CHALMERS A. AND MARTINEZ P. (2004): "High Fidelity Reconstruction of the Ancient Egyptian Temple of Kalabsha." In AFRIGRAPH 2004, ACM SIGGRAPH, November.WRIGHT G. (1972): Kalabsha: The preserving of the temple. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin, 1972.ZÁNYI E., CHRYSANTHOU Y., BASHFORD-ROGERS T., AND CHALMERS A. (2007a): "High dynamic Range Display of Authentically Illuminated Byzantine Art from Cyprus". In Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage, VAST2007.ZÁNYI E., SCHROER C., MUDGE M. AND CHALMERS A. (2007b): "Light and Byzantine Glass Tesserae", EVA London: Electronic Information, the Visual Arts and Beyond, Londo

Multivariate Money: A statistical analysis of Roman Republican coin hoards with special reference to material from Romania

The aim of this thesis is assess the usefulness of the statistical analysis of coin hoards for the examination of aspects of ancient societies including coin use and exchange. Special attention was paid to various aspects of ‘formation processes.’ The thesis was divided into three parts. Part I — Background. This Part initially reviews the history of the project and then goes on to examine the concept of money in the light of anthropological and economic work. A brief discussion of types of exchange (gift, barter, commodity exchange) in societies is offered. The Part is concluded with a review of previous statistical analyses of coin assemblages. Part II—Analysing Hoards A large database of Roman Republican coin hoards was collected for this project. The problems with this type of data, its storage and retrieval are discussed. The database is then analysed in great detail in order to answer a series of numismatic, archaeological and statistical questions. Correspondence analysis was used on twenty-two subsets of the data to reveal patterning in the data-set which is discussed. A new variant of cluster analysis was developed to subdivide the data set whilst minimising the time series element. The results are compared to principal coordinates and detrended correspondence analyses. The analyses reveal aspects of the use and supply of Roman coinage over Europe and show clearly the unique nature of the Romanian data. An attempt is made to estimate the speed of circulation of coin in Italy. It is shown that the nature of coin supply leads to variation between periods which is the result of simple probability and sampling theory, not changes in the speed of circulation of coin as has been suggested by other authors. Simulation studies are used to examine the validity of estimates of coin production and annual coin loss. The results are summarised. The usefulness of the techniques used is discussed. In the light of the formation processes examined, the patterns in coin hoard data are tentatively interpreted. Part III — Romania. It is argued that to attempt a detailed interpretation of the patterns revealed above the material must be seen in its archaeological context. This case study is offered as one such attempt. Romania was chosen for two reasons: 1) the exceptional quantity of hoards found in an area outside Roman control; 2) the unique evidence for the copying of coins. After reviewing various aspects of Romanian archaeology, a detailed analysis of the problem of copies is offered including the results of a large scale archaeometallurgical study conducted under the direction of the author. Estimates of the quantities of coins copied are given. A brief review of the settlement evidence in the counties of Sibiu, Alba and Hunedoara, of special settlement and structure types, and of hoards of silverware is presented. The thesis concludes by discussing the nature of Dacian society and its use of coin in the light of the theoretical discussions in Part I, the evidence for coin supply discussed in Part II and the results of the analyses in Part III in the context of the wider archaeological evidence

TECHNART 2017. Non-destructive and microanalytical techniques in art and cultural heritage. Book of abstracts

440 p.TECHNART2017 is the international biannual congress on the application of Analytical Techniques in Art and Cultural Heritage. The aim of this European conference is to provide a scientific forum to present and promote the use of analytical spectroscopic techniques in cultural heritage on a worldwide scale to stimulate contacts and exchange experiences, making a bridge between science and art. This conference builds on the momentum of the previous TECHNART editions of Lisbon, Athens, Berlin, Amsterdam and Catania, offering an outstanding and unique opportunity for exchanging knowledge on leading edge developments. Cultural heritage studies are interpreted in a broad sense, including pigments, stones, metal, glass, ceramics, chemometrics on artwork studies, resins, fibers, forensic applications in art, history, archaeology and conservation science. The meeting is focused in different aspects: - X-ray analysis (XRF, PIXE, XRD, SEM-EDX). - Confocal X-ray microscopy (3D Micro-XRF, 3D Micro-PIXE). - Synchrotron, ion beam and neutron based techniques/instrumentation. - FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. - UV-Vis and NIR absorption/reflectance and fluorescence. - Laser-based analytical techniques (LIBS, etc.). - Magnetic resonance techniques. - Chromatography (GC, HPLC) and mass spectrometry. - Optical imaging and coherence techniques. - Mobile spectrometry and remote sensing

Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of many disciplines. The contributions are written by specialists from a variety of disciplinary contexts (Jewish Studies, Theology, Classics, Early Christian Studies) dealing with the history of religion of the Mediterranean, West-Asian, and European area from the (late) Hellenistic period to the (early) Middle Ages and shaped by their intensive exchange. From the point of view of their respective fields of research, the contributors engage with discourses on agency, embodiment, appropriation and experience. They present innovative research in four fields also of theoretical debate, which are “Experiencing the Religious”, “Switching the Code”, „A Thing Called Body“ and “Commemorating the Moment”

Approaches to the Analysis of Production Activity at Archaeological Sites

Approaches to the Analysis of Production Activity at Archaeological Sites presents the proceedings of an international and interdisciplinary workshop held in Berlin in 2018, which brought together scholars whose work focusses on manufacturing activities identified at archaeological sites. The various approaches presented here include new excavation techniques, ethnographic research, archaeometric approaches, GIS and experimental archaeology as well as theoretical issues associated with how researchers understand production in the past. These approaches are applied to research questions related to various technological and socio-economic aspects of production, including the organisation and setting of manufacturing activities, the access to and use of raw materials, firing structures and other production-related installations. The chapters discuss production activities in various domestic and institutional contexts throughout the ancient world, together with the production and use of tools and other items made of stone, bone, ceramics, glass and faience. Since manufacturing activities are encountered at archaeological sites on a regular basis, the wide range of materials and approaches presented in this volume provides a useful reference for scholars and students studying technologies and production activities in the past

The circulation of money in Roman Britain from the first to third century.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D172233 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

X-ray fluorescence applied to yellow pigments based on lead, tin and antimony: comparison of laboratory and portable instrumentation

X-ray fluorescence is a diagnostic approach particularly suited to be utilized in cultural heritage sector since it falls in the non-destructive and non-invasive analytical tools. However there are big differences between portable and laboratory instrumentation that make difficult to perform a comparison in terms of quality and reliability of the results. The present study is specifically addressed to investigate these differences in respect of the same analytical sample-set. To reach this goal a comparison was thus carried out between portable and bench top devices X-ray fluorescence devices and techniques were used on different type of yellow pigments based on lead, tin and antimony obtained in laboratory, reproducing the instructions described in “old” recipes, that is: i) mortar of lead and tin produced on the basis of the recipe 13 /c V of the “Manuscript of Danzica” and “ Li tre libri dell’arte del Vasaio” by Cipriano Piccolpasso; ii) two types of lead and tin yellow (Pb2SnO4 and PbSnO3) produced starting from the indications of the 272 and 273 recipes of the “Bolognese Manuscript”; iii) lead antimonate (Pb2Sb2O7) obtained by following the instructions of the Piccolpasso’s treatise and those contained on the “Istoria delle pitture in maiolica fatte in Pesaro e ne’ luoghi circonvicini di Giambattista Passeri” and finally iv) lead, tin and antimony yellow (Pb2SnSbO6,5) obtained starting from the information contained in the paper 30 R of “Manuscript of Danzica” [1]. The XRF analysis were performed using a laboratory instrumentation (Bruker M4 Tornado) and a handset analytical device (Assing Surface Monitor). In order to perform a significant statistical comparison among acquired and processed data, all the analyses have been carried out utilizing the same sample, the same acquisition set up and operative conditions. A chemometric approach, based on the utilization of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and multivariate analytical based tools [2], was utilized in order to verify the spectral differences, and related informative content, among the different produced yellow pigments. The multivariate approach on the results revealed instrumental differences between the two systems and allowed to compare the common characteristics of the set of pigments analyzed

Information technologies for epigraphy and cultural heritage. Proceedings of the first EAGLE international conference

This peer-reviewed volume contains selected papers from the First EAGLE International Conference on Information Technologies for Epigraphy and Cultural Heritage, held in Paris between September 29 and October 1, 2014. Here are assembled for the first time in a unique volume contributions regarding all aspects of Digital Epigraphy: Models, Vocabularies, Translations, User Engagements, Image Analysis, 3D methodologies, and ongoing projects at the cutting edge of digital humanities. The scope of this book is not limited to Greek and Latin epigraphy; it provides an overview of projects related to all epigraphic inquiry and its related communities. This approach intends to furnish the reader with the broadest possible perspective of the discipline, while at the same time giving due attention to the specifics of unique issues