3D Pedestrian Tracking and Virtual Reconstruction of Ceramic Vessels Using Geometric and Color Cues

Object tracking using cameras has many applications ranging from monitoring children and the elderly, to behavior analysis, entertainment, and homeland security. This thesis concentrates on the problem of tracking person(s) of interest in crowded scenes (e.g., airports, train stations, malls, etc.), rendering their locations in time and space along with high quality close-up images of the person for recognition. The tracking is achieved using a combination of overhead cameras for 3D tracking and a network of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras to obtain close-up frontal face images. Based on projective geometry, the overhead cameras track people using salient and easily computable feature points such as head points. When the obtained head point is not accurate enough, the color information of the head tops across subsequent frames is integrated to detect and track people. To capture the best frontal face images of a target across time, a PTZ camera scheduling is proposed, where the 'best' PTZ camera is selected based on the capture quality (as close as possible to frontal view) and handoff success (response time needed by the newly selected camera to move from current to desired state) probabilities. The experiments show the 3D tracking errors are very small (less than 5 cm with 14 people crowding an area of around 4 m2) and the frontal face images are captured effectively with most of them centering in the frames. Computational archaeology is becoming a success story of applying computational tools in the reconstruction of vessels obtained from digs, freeing the expert from hours of intensive labor in manually stitching shards into meaningful vessels. In this thesis, we concentrate on the use of geometric and color information of the fragments for 3D virtual reconstruction of broken ceramic vessels. Generic models generated by the experts as a rendition of what the original vessel may have looked like are also utilized. The generic models need not to be identical to the original vessel, but are within a geometric transformation of it in most of its parts. The markings on the 3D surfaces of fragments and generic models are extracted based on their color cues. Ceramic fragments are then aligned against the corresponding generic models based on the geometric relation between the extracted markings. The alignments yield sub-scanner resolution fitting errors.Ph.D., Electrical Engineering -- Drexel University, 201

The Bioarchaeology of Social Order: Cooperation and Conflict Among the Mimbres (AD 550-1300)

Interpersonal conflict, social control, and culturally sanctioned violence are all potential modes of effecting change amongst most human groups. This research investigates the complex relationship between interpersonal violence, human skeletal biology, and social identity among prehistoric agricultural communities in the American Southwest. Using bioarchaeology as a research framework, the data presented in this study reveal patterns that can be used to better understand how violence is utilized or avoided in any time period. Bioarchaeology is well suited to investigate violence because it integrates the most direct evidence of conflict (traumatic skeletal injury) with detailed archaeological reconstructions of past human experiences. A comprehensive assessment of Mimbres health, activity, and interpersonal violence was completed using data from a sample of 247 adult human burials from 17 Late Pithouse (AD 550-1000) and Pueblo (AD 1000-1300) sites in the Mimbres region. The findings presented demonstrate broader patterns for interpretation of community experiences that have not been as well described in previous case studies from individual site samples. This larger sample of all available adult burials reveals relatively good health, low rates of interpersonal conflict (10.5%), and sufficient diets. Results do not indicate difficulty for any subgroups to maintain equal access to resources, especially during the peak occupation of the Pueblo period when population growth and exploitation of large game may have impacted survival. Although some individuals from all time periods showed indicators of interpersonal violence, Mimbres communities do not appear to have had endemic warfare seen in other regions of the Southwest. Stress was perhaps mitigated then by social mechanisms or forms of social control that promoted cooperation and resolved conflict. The limited use of strategic interpersonal violence may have been one of the ways that social order was maintained. Mortuary data support archaeological indicators of a fairly simple political structure but atypical burials from multiple sites suggest differential status or social significance in the community. These individuals may have served special roles and both skeletal and mortuary findings better inform interpretation of Mimbres societal structure

Archaeological investigations at the last Spanish Colonial mission establised on the Texas frontier: Nuestra Senora del Rufugio (41RF1), Refugio County, Texas

Between 1998 and 1999, the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, conducted archaeological investigations at the Spanish Colonial-period Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio, located in Refugio County, in southern Texas. This project was conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 2025. The initial phase of the excavations concentrated along US 77, in the TxDOT right-of-way, and the subsequent work conducted led to the exhumation of 165 burials, the discovery of the location of the 1796 church and the associated mission compound features. The excavations and subsequent analyses were guided by several research questions focused on shedding light, through skeletal and biological analyses, on the characteristics of the Karankawa Indians, identifying the influence of the Spanish material culture upon Native American technology (ceramic and lithic), and studying the effect of proselytization and mission life upon the diet, subsistence, health, and physiology of mission neophytes. This report presents the results of a variety of specialized studies including a concise history of the 35-year occupation of the mission based on the archival study of more than 600 documents. It summarizes the excavation and contents of two Colonial trash pit features, and a possible third trash feature, a small midden accumulation, various architectural features, and reports on the results of the excavation of 37 burial features containing the remains of at least 165 individuals. The analysis of the Spanish Colonial ceramics and artifacts indicates that Mexican-made wares and artifacts continued to be provisioned to the mission well into the nineteenth-century, and probably up to the date of its closing, but in decreasing numbers. At the same time, a variety of Native American ceramic wares continued to be made and used at this mission. However, the Native American ceramics from Refugio tend to have distinctive characteristics that may result from cultural contact with other nearby Native American populations, and the desire and/or need to produce wares for the Spanish colonists and missionaries in their midst. The results of the lithic analysis support the view that Native American technology was in transition during the occupation of the mission and at least in part the factors that may be responsible are changes in the subsistence practices of the Native populations and the impact of non-traditional raw materials, tools and weapons on native tool kits. The faunal analysis of the extensive collection suggests that there was very little change in the dominant component of the subsistence strategy, large bovids, during the use of the mission. However, the use of domesticated species declines slightly over time while the consumption of freshwater fish, as a percentage of all fish consumed, increases during the late part of the occupation. The exceptionally comprehensive analysis of the skeletal population indicates that about three quarters of the burial population from the mission were Native American and the remainder was of European and/or a mix of European and Native American ancestry

Neolithic land-use in the Dutch wetlands: estimating the land-use implications of resource exploitation strategies in the Middle Swifterbant Culture (4600-3900 BCE)

The Dutch wetlands witness the gradual adoption of Neolithic novelties by foraging societies during the Swifterbant period. Recent analyses provide new insights into the subsistence palette of Middle Swifterbant societies. Small-scale livestock herding and cultivation are in evidence at this time, but their importance if unclear. Within the framework of PAGES Land-use at 6000BP project, we aim to translate the information on resource exploitation into information on land-use that can be incorporated into global climate modelling efforts, with attention for the importance of agriculture. A reconstruction of patterns of resource exploitation and their land-use dimensions is complicated by methodological issues in comparing the results of varied recent investigations. Analyses of organic residues in ceramics have attested to the cooking of aquatic foods, ruminant meat, porcine meat, as well as rare cases of dairy. In terms of vegetative matter, some ceramics exclusively yielded evidence of wild plants, while others preserve cereal remains. Elevated δ15N values of human were interpreted as demonstrating an important aquatic component of the diet well into the 4th millennium BC. Yet recent assays on livestock remains suggest grazing on salt marshes partly accounts for the human values. Finally, renewed archaeozoological investigations have shown the early presence of domestic animals to be more limited than previously thought. We discuss the relative importance of exploited resources to produce a best-fit interpretation of changing patterns of land-use during the Middle Swifterbant phase. Our review combines recent archaeological data with wider data on anthropogenic influence on the landscape. Combining the results of plant macroremains, information from pollen cores about vegetation development, the structure of faunal assemblages, and finds of arable fields and dairy residue, we suggest the most parsimonious interpretation is one of a limited land-use footprint of cultivation and livestock keeping in Dutch wetlands between 4600 and 3900 BCE.NWOVidi 276-60-004Human Origin

Taphonomy, environment or human plant exploitation strategies?: Deciphering changes in Pleistocene-Holocene plant representation at Umhlatuzana rockshelter, South Africa

The period between ~40 and 20 ka BP encompassing the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) transition has long been of interest because of the associated technological change. Understanding this transition in southern Africa is complicated by the paucity of archaeological sites that span this period. With its occupation sequence spanning the last ~70,000 years, Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter is one of the few sites that record this transition. Umhlatuzana thus offers a great opportunity to study past environmental dynamics from the Late Pleistocene (MIS 4) to the Late Holocene, and past human subsistence strategies, their social organisation, technological and symbolic innovations. Although organic preservation is poor (bones, seeds, and charcoal) at the site, silica phytoliths preserve generally well throughout the sequence. These microscopic silica particles can identify different plant types that are no longer visible at the site because of decomposition or burning to a reliable taxonomical level. Thus, to trace site occupation, plant resource use, and in turn reconstruct past vegetation, we applied phytolith analyses to sediment samples of the newly excavated Umhlatuzana sequence. We present results of the phytolith assemblage variability to determine change in plant use from the Pleistocene to the Holocene and discuss them in relation to taphonomical processes and human plant gathering strategies and activities. This study ultimately seeks to provide a palaeoenvironmental context for modes of occupation and will shed light on past human-environmental interactions in eastern South Africa.NWOVidi 276-60-004Human Origin

Ways and Capacity in Archaeological Data Management in Serbia

Over the past year and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world has witnessed inequalities across borders and societies. They also include access to archaeological resources, both physical and digital. Both archaeological data creators and users spent a lot of time working from their homes, away from artefact collections and research data. However, this was the perfect moment to understand the importance of making data freely and openly available, both nationally and internationally. This is why the authors of this paper chose to make a selection of data bases from various institutions responsible for preservation and protection of cultural heritage, in order to understand their policies regarding accessibility and usage of the data they keep. This will be done by simple visits to various web-sites or data bases. They intend to check on the volume and content, but also importance of the offered archaeological heritage. In addition, the authors will estimate whether the heritage has adequately been classified and described and also check whether data is available in foreign languages. It needs to be seen whether it is possible to access digital objects (documents and the accompanying metadata), whether access is opened for all users or it requires a certain hierarchy access, what is the policy of usage, reusage and distribution etc. It remains to be seen whether there are public API or whether it is possible to collect data through API. In case that there is a public API, one needs to check whether datasets are interoperable or messy, requiring data cleaning. After having visited a certain number of web-sites, the authors expect to collect enough data to make a satisfactory conclusion about accessibility and usage of Serbian archaeological data web bases

Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction, January 1, 2015

https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/govpubs-tn-dept-transportation-standard-specifications/1006/thumbnail.jp

Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction, January 1, 2021

https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/govpubs-tn-dept-transportation-standard-specifications/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Mixtec Pictorial Manuscripts

This handbook surveys and describes the illustrated Mixtec manuscripts that survive in Europe, the United States and Mexico