A 3D Digital Approach to the Stylistic and Typo-Technological Study of Small Figurines from Ayia Irini, Cyprus

The thesis aims to develop a 3D digital approach to the stylistic and typo-technological study of coroplastic, focusing on small figurines. The case study to test the method is a sample of terracotta statuettes from an assemblage of approximately 2000 statues and figurines found at the beginning of the 20th century in a rural open-air sanctuary at Ayia Irini (Cyprus) by the archaeologists of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition. The excavators identified continuity of worship at the sanctuary from the Late Cypriot III (circa 1200 BC) to the end of the Cypro-Archaic II period (ca. 475 BC). They attributed the small figurines to the Cypro-Archaic I-II. Although the excavation was one of the first performed through the newly established stratigraphic method, the archaeologists studied the site and its material following a traditional, merely qualitative approach. Theanalysis of the published results identified a classification of the material with no-clear-cut criteria, and their overlap between types highlights ambiguities in creating groups and classes. Similarly, stratigraphic arguments and different opinions among archaeologists highlight the need for revising. Moreover, pastlegislation allowed the excavators to export half of the excavated antiquities, creating a dispersion of the assemblage. Today, the assemblage is still partly exhibited at the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia and in four different museums in Sweden. Such a setting prevents to study, analyse and interpret the assemblageholistically. This research proposes a 3D chaîne opératoire methodology to study the collection’s small terracotta figurines, aiming to understand the context’s function and social role as reflected by the classification obtained with the 3D digital approach. The integration proposed in this research of traditional archaeological studies, and computer-assisted investigation based on quantitative criteria, identified and defined with 3D measurements and analytical investigations, is adopted as a solution to the biases of a solely qualitative approach. The 3D geometric analysis of the figurines focuses on the objects’ shape and components, mode of manufacture, level of expertise, specialisation or skills of the craftsman and production techniques. The analysis leads to the creation of classes of artefacts which allow archaeologists to formulate hypotheses on the production process, identify a common production (e.g., same hand, same workshop) and establish a relative chronological sequence. 3D reconstruction of the excavation’s area contributes to the virtual re-unification of the assemblage for its holistic study, the relative chronological dating of the figurines and the interpretation of their social and ritual purposes. The results obtained from the selected sample prove the efficacy of the proposed 3D approach and support the expansion of the analysis to the whole assemblage, and possibly initiate quantitative and systematic studies on Cypriot coroplastic production

A Framework for the Semantics-aware Modelling of Objects

The evolution of 3D visual content calls for innovative methods for modelling shapes based on their intended usage, function and role in a complex scenario. Even if different attempts have been done in this direction, shape modelling still mainly focuses on geometry. However, 3D models have a structure, given by the arrangement of salient parts, and shape and structure are deeply related to semantics and functionality. Changing geometry without semantic clues may invalidate such functionalities or the meaning of objects or their parts. We approach the problem by considering semantics as the formalised knowledge related to a category of objects; the geometry can vary provided that the semantics is preserved. We represent the semantics and the variable geometry of a class of shapes through the parametric template: an annotated 3D model whose geometry can be deformed provided that some semantic constraints remain satisfied. In this work, we design and develop a framework for the semantics-aware modelling of shapes, offering the user a single application environment where the whole workflow of defining the parametric template and applying semantics-aware deformations can take place. In particular, the system provides tools for the selection and annotation of geometry based on a formalised contextual knowledge; shape analysis methods to derive new knowledge implicitly encoded in the geometry, and possibly enrich the given semantics; a set of constraints that the user can apply to salient parts and a deformation operation that takes into account the semantic constraints and provides an optimal solution. The framework is modular so that new tools can be continuously added. While producing some innovative results in specific areas, the goal of this work is the development of a comprehensive framework combining state of the art techniques and new algorithms, thus enabling the user to conceptualise her/his knowledge and model geometric shapes. The original contributions regard the formalisation of the concept of annotation, with attached properties, and of the relations between significant parts of objects; a new technique for guaranteeing the persistence of annotations after significant changes in shape's resolution; the exploitation of shape descriptors for the extraction of quantitative information and the assessment of shape variability within a class; and the extension of the popular cage-based deformation techniques to include constraints on the allowed displacement of vertices. In this thesis, we report the design and development of the framework as well as results in two application scenarios, namely product design and archaeological reconstruction

The Snake Goddess Dethroned: Deconstructing the Work and Legacy of Sir Arthur Evans

While the Minoan Snake Goddess is one of the most reproduced and familiar images in the art historical canon, her function—and indeed, her very essence—continues to be shaped by the man who coined the term Minoan and discovered the site in which she and her sisters lay for generations undisturbed. When Sir Arthur Evans concluded that these statuettes were evidence of Minoan worship of a single great Mother Goddess in 1903, he finally fulfilled his aim discover a prehistoric European civilization to rival that of the ancient Near East. However, Evans did not simply discover these statuettes (and on a broader scale, the ruins themselves)—he meticulously restored and reconstituted them in order to fit his own narrative concerning Minoan religion. Evans’s finds at Knossos have proven to be a watershed moment in the field of Mediterranean archaeology and as such, his interpretations of the Snake Goddess, although unsubstantiated, continue to shape modern perceptions of Minoan art and culture. In an attempt to understand how Evans came to the conclusion that the Snake Goddess was one manifestation of the Great Mother Goddess, this thesis takes on a historiographical lens by critically examining and deconstructing the scholarly traditions and popular anthropological paradigms that Evans worked within in order to determine the degree to which preconceived notions of prehistory influenced Evans’s reconstruction and interpretation of the Snake Goddess figurines

Egypt in material and mind : the use and perception of Aegyptiaca in Roman domestic contexts of Pompeii

This dissertation was written within the NWO VIDI project __Cultural innovation in a globalising society, Egypt in the Roman world__, (Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University) directed by dr. Miguel John Versluys. The general aim of this project is devoted to the understanding of the different contexts in which Egypt as style, imagery, object, and text, was integrated in the Roman world. It thereby wishes to give Egypt its proper place within the process of Roman cultural innovation through carefully studying its material and textual remains in the context in which they were created and appropriated. Studies on the Roman perception of Egypt, concerning both textual and archaeological sources, generally approach Egypt from fixated and normative concepts. For example, Aegyptiaca have traditionally been interpreted within a framework of oriental cults or Egyptomania. The research project, in contrast, demonstrates that the dichotomy Rome versus Egypt should be approached with care. Besides the present thesis, three other PhD-dissertations are written within the scope of the project: Marike van Aerde, examining the role of Egyptian material culture in Augustan Rome, Sander M_skens, focusing on the material analysis of stone Aegyptiaca in Rome, and Maaike Leemreize, studying the Roman literary perceptions of Egypt. The purpose of this particular dissertation is to obtain a better image of the use, perception, and integration of Egyptian artefacts in domestic contexts, using Pompeii (1st century BC __ 1st century AD) as a case study. The houses of Pompeii yielded many objects that scholars nowadays would call Egyptian or Egyptianised artefacts and are subsumed under the denominator of Aegyptiaca. For the case of Pompeii, Aegyptiaca form a heterogeneous group of both imported and locally produced objects spread throughout the town, consisting of statuettes, imported sculptures, furniture, jewellery, or wall paintings. The most predominant interpretations drawn about the use of these objects have mainly been done on the basis of two accounts: they were interpreted as religious artefacts and explained in the context of the cults of Isis, or they were interpreted as exoticum. The interpretations have been drawn mostly without any contextual analysis or any theoretical underpinnings, and more problematic: the collecting and interpretation of artefacts have been based on modern scholarly perceptions of what Egypt entails, while we as scholars recognise something __Egyptian__ on different grounds than the people of Pompeii once did. The category Aegyptiaca in itself should be seriously questioned and the way Romans categorised should be scrutinised. The aim of this thesis therefore is to analyse the perception of these objects from a bottom up perspective, avoiding the a priori cultural labelling of Egyptian artefacts, but starting instead from the object itself with its main goal to contextualise and to give the finds meaning from within their original use-contexts. For this, methods derived from recent developments in object agency and relationality are used.NWO VIDI project ‘Cultural innovation in a globalising society, Egypt in the Roman world’UBL - phd migration 201

Understanding Relations Between Scripts II

Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) is a project funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 677758), and based in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. Understanding Relations Between Scripts II: Early Alphabets is the first volume in this series, bringing together ten experts on ancient writing, languages and archaeology to present a set of diverse studies on the early development of alphabetic writing systems and their spread across the Levant and Mediterranean during the second and first millennia BC. By taking an interdisciplinary perspective, it sheds new light on alphabetic writing not just as a tool for recording language but also as an element of culture

Oceanus.

v. 28, no. 1 (1985

Understanding Relations Between Scripts II

The conference Understanding Relations Between Scripts II: Early Alphabets took place in March 2017 at the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge. This was the first of a programme of collaborative events organised as part of the project Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS), which pursues interdisciplinary research into the development and context of writing around the Mediterranean and Levant in the second and first millennia BC. CREWS has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 677758)

Investigating London’s Post Medieval Pipe Clay Figurines From 1500-1800: Critiquing 3D Approaches to Mould Generation Analysis Via English and Transatlantic Case Studies

This thesis has two main strands to its research, one being the first comprehensive synthesis of London’s post-medieval pipe clay figurines dating to the period 1500-1800, combined with examining the potential for inexpensive 3D imaging technology to carry out a new digitised methodology for mould matching and figurine generational analysis. By applying this new digital methodology new insights have been gained on the wider context of these artefacts. The thesis also contextualises the London material with a broad array of academic publications on pipe clay figurines from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Jamaica, and America. This has included an extensive comparison between the previously unappreciated pipe clay figurines from London and figurines from Germany and the Low Countries and a specific comparison with data collected from the United States of America. This compendium of data provides more information to examine a range of questions, such as production, distribution, iconography, intended audience, and the general economic, social, and religious setting in which they operated. By drawing upon these resources and new avenues of research this investigation offers an insight into pipe clay figurines within Germany and the Low Countries by examining a series of archaeological and contemporary literary sources. Following chapters go on to explore both the London and New World assemblages, presenting details on the distribution of these collections, a contextualised discussion on consumer markets, and iconographical relations of specific case studies. It is from this assemblage that figurines presenting similar stylistic qualities were selected for further analysis via 3D imaging methodologies to comprehend how closely, if at all, the morphometrics of the figurines compare and whether these figurines were produced from related mould groups. The parameters for this analysis are developed in Chapters 4 and 6, which discuss controlled datasets and a series of tests investigating the accuracy of inexpensive 3D imaging technology and their suitability for pipe clay figurine 3D imaging. These tests also analysed other potential influences on the morphometrics of the figurines and designed error parameters to be taken into account so that potential mould relationships could still be observed between figurines that had experienced damage, erosion, or manipulated on removal from their mould. These two strands are then brought together in Chapter 8, where new theories are discussed concerning the causes behind the changing iconography of these figurines, particularly those from London and the New World. This thesis also highlights the wider potential of 3D modelling for artefact studies and the limitations of Structure from Motion in the field of mould analysis. Overall, the research covered within this thesis has provided new details on a previously unstudied dataset alongside a much-needed critique of a new technological approach to 3D modelling and a brand new and revitalising means of carrying out mould-matching analysis of artefacts and other archaeological material

The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia

"The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project aimed to trace the invention and innovation of metallurgy in the Balkans. It combined targeted excavations and surveys with extensive scientific analyses at two Neolithic-Chalcolithic copper production and consumption sites, Belovode and Pločnik, in Serbia. At Belovode, the project revealed chronologically and contextually secure evidence for copper smelting in the 49th century BC. This confirms the earlier interpretation of c. 7000-year-old metallurgy at the site, making it the earliest record of fully developed metallurgical activity in the world. However, far from being a rare and elite practice, metallurgy at both Belovode and Pločnik is demonstrated to have been a common and communal craft activity. This monograph reviews the pre-existing scholarship on early metallurgy in the Balkans. It subsequently presents detailed results from the excavations, surveys and scientific analyses conducted at Belovode and Pločnik. These are followed by new and up-to-date regional syntheses by leading specialists on the Neolithic-Chalcolithic material culture, technologies, settlement and subsistence practices in the Central Balkans. Finally, the monograph places the project results in the context of major debates surrounding early metallurgy in Eurasia before proposing a new agenda for global early metallurgy studies.

The Illustration of Experience

Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/351) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This thesis documents and describes a research project driven by the creative practice of an illustrator. It examines the proposition that the visual mark can act as a register of experience. The research comprises three bodies of work each of which address a specific issue within the broader context of the research proposition. Knowledge gained through practical exploration is discussed in the context of illustration as well as contemporary systems and models of aesthetic representation. Overview Chapter one discusses the origins of this research project and charts the establishment of a methodology. Working under the preliminary title The Illustration of Conversational Time and Space, the practice explores how human conversation and physical interaction can be recorded and illustrated. This research results in the title being changed to The Illustration of Experience in order to reflect a significant transition in thinking and approach. Chapter two addresses the question how can experience be illustrated? Experiences are first identified and then recorded using an established vocabulary of reflexive gestural marks. These marks are in turn subject to further investigation through a more considered system of reproduction and replication. This pursuit of a mimetic representation, I argue, creates a direct access to the actualities of the experience, as interpreted by the unconscious, and reveals a fundamental connection between phenomenological sensation and learnt aesthetic reasoning. The research proposes that the appearance of an illustration of experience is not directed by the phenomenological interpretation of an event but by the representation process itself. Chapter three challenges the conclusions of chapter two by asking how the unconscious transformation of source into experience can be illustrated? This is achieved by symbolically aligning this metaphysical transformation with the physical movement of an object through space. In doing so, the research attempts to move beyond the conventional codes of aesthetic understanding and questions illustration's traditional associations with referentiality and elucidation. The research concludes that an illustration of experience's epistemological value is heavily dependent upon the interpretation of the viewer. Chapter four expands upon the hypotheses formulated in chapter three by constructing an illustration of experience that is devoid of all mimetic reference. The research confirms the earlier understanding that mimesis is not an inherent quality in all representational art forms, but is in fact determined by the viewer's independent knowledge and understanding of the subject matter presented. It is concluded that while an illustration of experience's epistemological value is dependent upon the viewer's interpretation, interpretation is not itself contingent upon the presence of an explicit mimetic (visual) vocabulary. It has been the intention of the research to challenge existing models of illustrative communication by devising original creative structures that support the illustration of experience. Although this research identifies with a range of contemporary and historical models of enquiry, thorough searches have revealed no previous research in this area. It is therefore hoped that this research will provide a solid base from which future investigations can develop. This research project would serve as an introduction to other researchers trained as illustrators to deeply investigate the meaning and functions of their creative processes in order to reflect back on the discipline of illustration and how it might register experience