Estimating subjectivity of typologists and typological classification with fuzzy logic

It is well known that interpretation always conveys a certain degree of subjectivity, which disappears as soon as interpreted data are stored in a computer database. This may lead to dangerous approximation and possibly to fallacious conclusions. To avoid this oversimplification, it has been suggested to use fuzzy databases, in which attributes may have a fuzzy nature and be indexed by a numerical coefficient, the fuzzy coefficient, which can be interpreted as the degree of confidence the researcher has in each possible assigned value. This technique has been successfully applied to gender and age assignment for the deceased in a cemetery investigation: in this case anthropological data offered statistical parameters that could be used to compute the fuzzy coefficient. Lithics classification is another field in which fuzzy databases have a potential usefulness, but in this case, no previous statistics may help in determining the fuzzy coefficient. We decided to perform an experiment during a standard typological classification of a flint tool assemblage from Israel. It concerned the classification of 50 tools, by different researchers. Each one was asked to note, besides the typology of each item, an evaluation of the “degree of sureness”, or the “possibility” of an item to belong to a particular type, in other words his or her guessed estimate of the fuzzy coefficient. This paper reports the results of this experiment, in order to evaluate the difference between researchers when performing a classification of tools, to recognize problematic types or items (which mostly differed between the typological lists presented) and eventually to compute a fuzzy coefficient for each type assignment, balancing the different evaluations of experts

Formally defining the time-space-archaeological culture relation: problems and prospects

Locating archaeological cultures in time and space is a major challenge of archaeolog- ical research. Despite more than a century of scientific research in archaeology, a satisfactory solution has yet to be proposed. Past attempts to look into the problem focused on sharpening the definition of types of material culture artefacts, a more accurate chronological dating of such objects, various probabilistic methods or GIS solution for defining the time-space borders of archaeological cultures. However, the proposed approaches did not fully consider how the nature of archaeological cultures and their consequent dating and geographic positioning play a crucial role in assigning spatio-temporal borders. We propose to shift the operating logical paradigm in archaeology, from a crisp, Aristotelian-based logic, to fuzzy logic, in our opinion more suitable for reasoning in archaeology. We also introduce the rough sets theory to deal with chronological and geographic positioning of archaeological cultures. Both concepts have, in our opinion, substantial advantages over the traditional algebra and logic rules (implicitly) applied so far

Life Cycle Assessment and Cost–Benefit Analysis as Combined Economic–Environmental Assessment Tools: Application to an Anaerobic Digestion Plant

In the present study, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA), we assess the economic–environmental performance of an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, fed by cultured crops (i.e., maize and wheat), in Italy. The biogas generated by the AD plant is used for the production of electricity, imputed into the Italian energy grid. The LCA evaluated potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, measured via Carbon Footprint (CF), while the CBA analysed the financial and economic profiles via the Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) indicators. The strength of combining these methodologies is the joint examination of the financial and social–environmental performance of the plant. The results of the CBA are complemented with the GHG emissions avoided by producing electricity from biogas. The CF of 0.28 kg CO2eq·kWh−1 of electricity produced is mainly due to the nitrogen fertilizers involved in the production of the additional feedstock matrix (i.e., maize flour). In the CBA, the negative financial NPV and the financial IRR, which is lower than the discount rate applied, highlight the inability of the net revenue to repay the initial investment. Regarding the social desirability, the economic analysis, enriched by the LCA outcomes, shows a positive economic performance, demonstrating that the combination of information from different methodologies enables wider consideration for the anaerobic digestion plant. In line with the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan’s aim to strongly increase the exploitation of renewable resources, an AD plant fed by dedicated crops could valorise the marginal uncultivated land, obtaining energy without consuming land for food production. Moreover, this AD plant could contribute to the creation of repeatable small-scale energy production systems able to sustain the demand of local communities

Implications of land-grabbing on the ecological balance of Brazil

In the global free-market, natural resource scarcity and opportunities for preserving the local environment are fostering international purchasing of large extensions of land, mainly for agricultural use. These land transactions often involve land cover change (i.e., through deforestation) or a shift from extensive or traditional to intensive agricultural practices. In Brazil, the land appropriation by foreign investors (i.e., the so-called "land-grabbing") is affecting natural capital availability for local communities to a different extent in the very different territorial entities. At the same time, Brazilian investors are purchasing land in other countries. Ecological footprint accounting is one appropriate lens that can be employed to visualize the aggregated effect of natural capital appropriation and use. The aim of this paper is to provide a first estimate on the effect of land-grabbing on the ecological balance of Brazil through calculating the biocapacity embodied in purchased lands in the different states of Brazil. The results show that Brazil is losing between 9 to 9.3 million global hectares (on a gross basis, or a net total of 7.7 to 8.6 million of global hectares) of its biocapacity due to land-grabbing, when considering respectively a "cropland to cropland" (i.e., no land-cover change) and a "total deforestation" scenario. This represents a minimum estimate, highlighting the need for further land-grabbing data collection at the subnational scale. This analysis can be replicated for other countries of the world, adjusting their ecological balance by considering the biocapacity embodied in international transactions of land

ARIADNE: A Research Infrastructure for Archaeology

Research e-infrastructures, digital archives, and data services have become important pillars of scientific enterprise that in recent decades have become ever more collaborative, distributed, and data intensive. The archaeological research community has been an early adopter of digital tools for data acquisition, organization, analysis, and presentation of research results of individual projects. However, the provision of e-infrastructure and services for data sharing, discovery, access, and (re)use have lagged behind. This situation is being addressed by ARIADNE, the Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Dataset Networking in Europe. This EU-funded network has developed an e-infrastructure that enables data providers to register and provide access to their resources (datasets, collections) through the ARIADNE data portal, facilitating discovery, access, and other services across the integrated resources. This article describes the current landscape of data repositories and services for archaeologists in Europe, and the issues that make interoperability between them difficult to realize. The results of the ARIADNE surveys on users’ expectations and requirements are also presented. The main section of the article describes the architecture of the e-infrastructure, core services (data registration, discovery, and access), and various other extant or experimental services. The ongoing evaluation of the data integration and services is also discussed. Finally, the article summarizes lessons learned and outlines the prospects for the wider engagement of the archaeological research community in the sharing of data through ARIADNE

La logica fuzzy e le sue applicazioni alla ricerca archeologica

This paper deals with the application of fuzzy logic to archaeological research. Fuzzy logic is based on a continuum of truth values ranging from 0 (False) to 1 (True) and thus may help whenever there exists some uncertainty on data assignment to predetermined categories. After examining the features and drawbacks of typological classification and the problem of gender and age assignment in cemetery excavations, the fundamentals of fuzzy logic are summarized. Four examples of archaeological applications are then presented. The first example deals with a necropolis in which tombs present a high degree of uncertainty as far as sex and age of the deceased are concerned. Therefore it is suggested to use a fuzzy database management system, i.e. a DBMS implementing fuzzy logic and function, for data storage and processing. Such a database software was previously developed for this application. In the following three examples, classification problems are considered and it is shown how the use of fuzzy logic may change their archaeological interpretation. The authors claim that a generalized use of fuzzy logic, as is widely applied in other sciences, may improve the quality of data processing and above all produce reliable and transparent results, or at least illustrate the degree of reliability the researcher grants to those data