Roman bazaar or market economy? : An agent-based network model of tableware trade and distribution in the roman east

This paper aims to evaluate notions of two crucial studies on the Roman economy by Bang and Temin based on the study of distribution patterns of ceramic tablewares in the Roman East in the period 150BCE-200CE. It presents an agentbased network model simulating the social networks which represent the flow of information and goods between traders. Results of the simulation are subsequently compared to the tableware data collected in the ICRATES database. Preliminary results suggest, contrary to Bang's hypothesis, that limited availability of reliable commercial information from different markets is unlikely to give rise to the large differences in the wideness of product's distributions observed in the archaeological record

Seriation by constrained correspondence analysis: a simulation study

One of the many areas in which Correspondence Analysis (CA) is an effective method, concerns ordination problems. For example, CA is a well-known technique for the seriation of archaeological assemblages. A problem with the CA seriation solution, however, is that only a relative ordering of the assemblages is obtained. To improve the usual CA solution, a constrained CA approach that incorporates additional information in the form of equality and inequality constraints concerning the time points of the assemblages may be considered. Using such constraints, explicit dates can be assigned to the seriation solution. In this paper, we extend the set of constraints that can be used in CA by introducing interval constraints. That is, constraints that put the CA\\ solution within a specific time-frame. Moreover, we study the quality of the constrained CA solution in a simulation study. In particular, by means of the simulation study we are able to assess how well ordinary and constrained CA can recover the true time order. Furthermore, for the constrained approach, we see how well the true dates are retrieved. The simulation study is set up in such a way that it mimics the data of a series of ceramic assemblages consisting of the locally produced tableware from Sagalassos (SW Turkey). We find that the dating of the assemblages on the basis of constraints appears to work quite well

Communicating Uncertainty in Digital Humanities Visualization Research

Due to their historical nature, humanistic data encompass multiple sources of uncertainty. While humanists are accustomed to handling such uncertainty with their established methods, they are cautious of visualizations that appear overly objective and fail to communicate this uncertainty. To design more trustworthy visualizations for humanistic research, therefore, a deeper understanding of its relation to uncertainty is needed. We systematically reviewed 126 publications from digital humanities literature that use visualization as part of their research process, and examined how uncertainty was handled and represented in their visualizations. Crossing these dimensions with the visualization type and use, we identified that uncertainty originated from multiple steps in the research process from the source artifacts to their datafication. We also noted how besides known uncertainty coping strategies, such as excluding data and evaluating its effects, humanists also embraced uncertainty as a separate dimension important to retain. By mapping how the visualizations encoded uncertainty, we identified four approaches that varied in terms of explicitness and customization. This work contributes with two empirical taxonomies of uncertainty and it's corresponding coping strategies, as well as with the foundation of a research agenda for uncertainty visualization in the digital humanities. Our findings further the synergy among humanists and visualization researchers, and ultimately contribute to the development of more trustworthy, uncertainty-aware visualizations

Comparing maternal genetic variation across two millennia reveals the demographic history of an ancient human population in southwest Turkey

More than two decades of archaeological research at the site of Sagalassos, in southwest Turkey, resulted in the study of the former urban settlement in all its features. Originally settled in late Classical/early Hellenistic times, possibly from the later fifth century BCE onwards, the city of Sagalassos and its surrounding territory saw empires come and go. The Plague of Justinian in the sixth century CE, which is considered to have caused the death of up to a third of the population in Anatolia, and an earthquake in the seventh century CE, which is attested to have devastated many monuments in the city, may have severely affected the contemporary Sagalassos community. Human occupation continued, however, and Byzantine Sagalassos was eventually abandoned around 1200 CE. In order to investigate whether these historical events resulted in demographic changes across time, we compared the mitochondrial DNA variation of two population samples from Sagalassos (Roman and Middle Byzantine) and a modern sample from the nearby town of Ağlasun. Our analyses revealed no genetic discontinuity across two millennia in the region and Bayesian coalescence-based simulations indicated that a major population decline in the area coincided with the final abandonment of Sagalassos, rather than with the Plague of Justinian or the mentioned earthquake.Belgian Programme on Interuniversity Poles of Attraction grant: (IAP 07/09, http://iap-cores.be/); University of Leuven grant: (GOA 13/04); KU Leuven BOF Centre of Excellence Financing on ‘Centre for Archaeological Sciences 2–New methods for research in demography and interregional exchange’; Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) grants: (Projects G.0562.11, G.0637.15); Leverhulme Trust (UK) grant:(F/00212/AM); Institute of History of Leiden University

Money makes pottery go round

status: publishe

Mijn dorp, de wereld

nrpages: 48status: publishe

‘Our Daily Bread’ at Ancient Sagalassos

status: publishe

A framework of thought for Pisidian economies

status: accepte

Shifting societal complexity in Byzantine Asia Minor and Dark Age pottery

status: publishe