Articles by Subject

A collection of unpublished drawings by Jean-Baptiste Muret (1795-1866), kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris), brings together in colour plates the drawings of almost 8,000 ancient objects, drawn according to the knowledge of his time. It is a precious and original testimony to the birth of archaeology as a science, and still has great heuristic potential today. The recent digital publication of this work allows us both to contribute to the history of the discipline and to give today’s researchers access to a wealth of documentation that is still useful for current studies. The presentation of the results of this research project will provide an opportunity to outline a proposed model for the digital publication of enriched historical sources, in accordance with the principles of open science and adapted to the specific needs of research in terms of scientific integrity.

The Diphuès database is an open access research, exchange and dialogue tool devoted to the half-human half-vegetal figures in Roman Antiquity. It is the result of two research projects that have been carried out since 2012 under the aegis of the F.R.S.-FNRS (Fonds de la recherche scientifique de Belgique). From 2024, it will be made available in open access to the international scientific community by the ‘Service d’Histoire de l’art et Archéologie de l’Antiquité gréco-romaine’ (SHAArAGR) and the ‘Centre Informatique de Philosophie & Lettres’ (CIPL) of the University of Liège. Diphuès is based on a corpus originally designed as a personal work tool to serve specific research objectives. This tool has undergone several major modifications, in its structure and purpose, so that it can be used to produce new knowledge. Its network application is seen as the final stage in the research communication process and is part of a wider effort to share knowledge and resources.

This paper presents the database and the open access georeferenced online map of the CAMIS project of the University of Padua, which aims to catalogue and analyse late antique and medieval funerary contexts as a response to the scattered documentation and partial publications on this subject. After describing the structure and software used for the database and the online map, some numbers are presented relating to the more than thousand sites already entered in the system and the kind of results that can be advanced, underlining some of the problems encountered. The paper calls for the optimization of data management to foster open archaeological research, highlighting the need for a unified approach to study complex historical phenomena. The CAMIS database, incorporating standardized vocabularies for systematic and statistical analysis, is vital for unlocking new research avenues and addressing gaps in current knowledge. The project exemplifies the power of open science, promoting collaboration and enriching archaeological research with a rapidly growing, vast dataset.

This paper aims to present analytical approaches and digital methods for the analysis of ceramic assemblages resulting from catastrophic alluvial flood flows. The study has been developed based on the principles of ‘alluvial archaeology’, a recently-developed field of archaeology. In this research program, ceramic records have been treated on a par with clasts in the geomorphological analyses of alluvial sediments. To test the different analytical procedures the ‘Ancient Shipyard’ of Pisa-San Rossore has been selected as a case study. This archaeological site represents a river channel, affected by several alluvial flood events. The analysis achieved several objectives, including the definition of the formation processes of the deposition (in synergy with the results of geomorphological data), the chronological framework of alluvial floods, the dynamics of flows, and locating the original deposition of the ceramic assemblage. In this regard, the combination of different approaches has proven particularly useful, ranging from computational analyses for chrono-typological determination of ceramic assemblages to intra-site spatial analyses, which have been useful in defining alluvial flood flows and the subsequent movement of ceramic assemblages.

3D modelling represents a fundamental survey technique to represent archaeological evidence. It is particularly important to draw and analyse engravings because it is more descriptive and, somehow, objective than traditional drawings, which result interpretative and not replicable, becoming a debatable and often controversial matter. A technique able to verify the overlaying of signs is essential to establish the relative sequence, thus the chronology of engravings. However, there are several techniques and they provide different results. The paper tries to empirically compare SfM and PS methods to understand how they work on surface representation and which are their specificities in a difficult context such as the Pianaura engravings. The aim of the paper is to verify the accuracy of the techniques. Three paths are pursued: the first analyses pure quantitative data, such as counting the number of points or faces built and so on; the second aims to verify quantitatively distortions by geometric measurements analysis; the third is a visual quality test, which focuses on users’ perception of 3D models. It can be concluded that the distinct fields of application and the diverse purposes of the research enhance the different specificities of the two techniques.

The Database of Obsidian Sourcing Studies (DObsiSS) {https://zackbatist.info/DObsiSS) is an openly accessible integrated dataset comprising the results of dozens of obsidian sourcing studies published over a 50-year span. While the history of technological and professional progress pertaining to obsidian sourcing methods has yielded immense positive returns, this also produced extremely inconsistent data that were very difficult to integrate. This contributed to a sense of epistemic anxiety deriving from the struggle to reconcile the myriad outlooks that informed each data point -- with each other, and with a new objective of analyzing the dataset as an integrated whole. These challenges were further deepened by the Author’s position as a student and relatively uninitiated novice at the time when DObsiSS was being compiled. This paper reflects on various social, technical and epistemic challenges that the Author faced while assembling DObsiSS and while attempting to use this integrated dataset for a failed network analysis study, and relates this experience to a broader commentary on practices relating to data re-use.

FAIRification and sharing of open data is an important aspect of the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and its archaeology related consortium NFDI4Objects. NFDI4Objects offers domain-specific data-driven hubs to publish and share research data, Linked Open Data (LOD), ontologies, community-driven vocabularies and authority files, such as thesauri. This paper demonstrates the content, challenges and possibilities of the Data Hub ‘archaeology.link’. It consists of five thematic parts: 1) Semantic Modelling using the Linked Archaeological Data Ontology (LADO), 2) publication of domain-specific Linked Open Data, 3) community-driven vocabularies such as thesauri, 4) ontologies and 5) research tools.

This article aims to analyze the complex issue of 3D documentation of archaeological artifacts under different viewpoints: from potential technologies to current methodological limitations, in light of the obtained results. These results will be described based on direct experiences derived from specific archaeological projects, whose primary aim was indeed the creation of digital replicas of selected artifacts. Among the institutions involved in such projects are the MArTA (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto), the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, and the UMST (Unit. di Missione Strategica) of the Soprintendenza per i Beni e le Attività Culturali of the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT).

This study presents the preliminary results of a non-invasive analysis of bronze fragments from the site of Buttrio (Udine). The analysed sample belongs to a bronze situla dating to the second half of the 7 th century BC, currently preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Udine. These fragments are characterised by the presence of mineralised traces of textiles, which are relatively rare finds in this period but provide important information about the perishable materials, which represented one the most important and time-consuming economic activities of the past. The aim is to identify the fibres used in the production of the textiles, understand the manufacturing processes employed, and explore the nature of the archaeological context. The textile traces were analysed using standard analytical procedures to determine the main structural parameters, including weave type, thread

Actual 3D scanners based on the structured-light principle are opening to possibilities for creating detailed models (polygon populations) with micrometric resolutions. Consequently, highly detailed models allow specific investigations. This work focuses on 3D scanning and post-processing analysis/filtering of Ancient Near East finds, especially seals and cuneiform clay tablets, fragile artefacts that can hold a lot of semantic information beyond transliteration: e.g. seal impressions (figurative and textual sealings), fingerprint evidence, retracing and erased text. Behind the ease of use of portable structured-light scanners, hides the enormous potential for feature extraction and processing. Metric analysis (e.g. deviation analysis) coupled with the application of MSII (Multi-Scale Integral Invariant) filter enhance data extraction, changing the overall perception on details of the archaeological artefact.

ArCOA is a project aimed at the study, enhancement and communication of museum collections and historical archives on the ancient Near East in Italy. ArCOA was born from the collaboration between the University of Milan and the Institute of Heritage Science of the National Research Council, with a multidisciplinary working group of archaeologists, assyriologists, museum curators, cultural mediators and experts of technology applied to cultural heritage. The ArCOA team collaborates with several museums, public institutions and universities, including the Archaeological Museum of Como, the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, the Department of Historical Studies of the University of Turin and the Museum of Antiquities of the Royal Museums of Turin, for the diffusion of knowledge of the ancient cultures of the Near East. This paper shows the results obtained on photogrammetric scans of small terracotta head and its reprocessing through different programs, its morphological and geometric rendering. Even if today open source photogrammetric programs seem to be almost absent from academic researchs because non-commercial alternatives are not very competitive, much is moving instead in the freeware direction, with regulated conditions of use for universities and research centres, such as for example the latest version of Reality Capture or Metashape. Furthermore, the acquisition processes vary greatly in relation to the size of the object, which can force the operator to think in terms of micro-surveys.

‘Godscapes’ proposes to combine a material approach with the Semantic Web to investigate cultural transformation and, specifically, how external elements trigger the transformation of religiosity, resulting in new hybrid elements. Focusing on a case-study on the Levant during the second millennium BCE, the project investigates the interplay between indigenous and exogenous elements (Egyptian, Syrian, Mesopotamian, Aegean, Anatolian) in shaping polytheistic beliefs and practices through the analysis of four types of data – funerary, architectural, iconographic and textual. Thus, the project addresses a new scientific perspective emphasizing the use of material culture to understand the connection between humans and the divine. The focus is on the unravelling of past religious hybridization to grasp how the second millennium cultural and religious intermingling persisted in the syncretic experience leading to the construction of the Israelite monolatry in the first millennium BCE.

This paper challenges conventional mapping methods of Bronze Age ceramic variation in western Asian archaeology, which often oversimplify the complexity of cultural phenomena. Drawing on geostatistical techniques, we propose a novel approach that considers both similarities and differences in ceramic traits. By incorporating Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) and kriging interpolation techniques, our methodology aims to provide a nuanced representation of pottery distribution, moving beyond static cultural-historical mapping. We argue that this approach offers a more comprehensive understanding of archaeological landscapes by acknowledging the diversity of pottery variation. Through a case study utilising legacy pottery data – which will be published in the future according to the FAIR principles – we demonstrate the practical application and potential insights of our methodology, which seeks to advance archaeological methods and contribute to a richer interpretation of the past.

In 2020, the Samian Research database began a process of integrating its data within Wikidata through the creation of a set of Samian Research Wikidata items, including Samian Ware Discovery Sites, Samian Ware kiln sites and kiln regions, comprising accurate or approximate geospatial information and a backlink to the Linked Open Data hub ‘archaeology.link’. This approach of creating designated Wikidata items is an efficient way to map the enormous geographic reach of our subject and to call attention to many European archaeological sites and excavations that hitherto lacked a Wikidata identifier. The site of Corinth illustrates an exemplary issue to be solved: ambiguity and different archaeological concepts and ideas. E.g., is it correct to merge Corinth as a Samian Ware Discovery Site with the archaeological site of ancient Corinth? To solve the issue, the broader Wikidata community must be enlisted. This paper describes the challenges in the use case of Corinth and offers solutions within Wikidata.

This article aims to quantify the rate of accidental ceramic discard on the archaeological site of Siponto (Italy), where in 2022 the University of Bari and the University of Foggia conducted fieldwork and training for students at different education levels (BA to PhD). The goal was to identify and quantify factors leading to the accidental discard of ceramic sherds by excavators on the spoil heap. As a pilot project, a few variables have been considered to count the minimum number of individuals found after sieving soil composition and colour, weather conditions, time variables, sherds size, colour, and vessel part. Other categorical or presence/absence variables have also been considered. This enlightening investigation shows the bias in post-excavation quantification of ceramic finds. Results indicate that 30% of the fragments of pottery retrieved from the spoil heaps, used in this experiment, were diagnostic. The study also helps the educators on-site to identify the types of vessels that might be less clear for the students.

In a recently published study, a textual dataset encoding a group of scenes depicted on Mesopotamian cylinder seals from the third millennium was submitted to Procrustes Analysis, considering Correspondence Analysis variations due to progressive reductions of the forms involved. The results seemed to indicate that a slight reduction in the number of forms used to describe the raw data would improve the Correspondence Analysis results. Indeed, the actual impact of each reduction on the outcome of the analyses could not be adequately identified if the forms were not considered as elements forming segments, i.e., sub-images of the scenes. In this paper, the results of the same methodology are presented, this time applied to repeated segments within the same dataset, i.e., sequences of textual forms that may describe sub-images of the described scenes. The comparison between the progressive reductions of repeated segments showed relevant differences between small (around 10% of the rarest segments) and large reductions. Indeed, the latter may undermine a consistent interpretation of the different finding sites, yet well represented keeping 90% of segments. Moreover, a reduction performed by hand and not on the frequency of occurrences provided better results.

Size reduction algorithms are essential in the study of multivariate datasets. Many variables make it difficult to visualize data. In Archaeology, this problem often concerns the study of some variables, which can be quantitative or qualitative. In this article, several methods for dimension reduction are applied to a pottery dataset from the protohistoric necropolis Osteria dell’Osa, located 20 km East of Rome. These methods offer the possibility of visualising and analysing large amount of data in a very short time. Our results show that non-linear and non-parametric algorithms such as t-SNE and UMAP are the best choice for visualising and exploring this type of data.

The lack of surface water and a high potential for evapotranspiration are the climatic and hydrological characteristics of the arid and semi-arid Middle East regions. In foothills regions the groundwater, often supplied by partially buried alluvial fan systems, has been intercepted and conveyed through the creation of a highly efficient supply system known as ‘qanat’, ‘karez’ or ‘foggara’. This ancient hydraulic technology spread on a large scale since the 6th century BCE, during the rise and development of the Persian Empire. It consists in the excavation of a series of vertical tunnels, like large wells, which are connected by a gently sloping underground channel bringing water by gravity. Through the centuries, the qanats have been not only a sustainable system for exploitation of groundwater resources but also an important factor for the socio-economic and cultural development of local communities. In this paper the Authors illustrate the main aspects of qanats under historical, cultural and socio-economic perspective and the recent decline of the qanat system. An original and still updating database of these type of hydraulic operas, implemented through the collection and analysis of documentary sources, cartographic data, and on-site measurements is then presented. The database, including qanats detected on regional to local scales, might be regarded as a valuable support for the recovery of these structures and a more efficient governance of water resources.

The Forum built in Rome by Trajan is a match of his political and military virtues: the defeated populations materialize with statues and high-reliefs in precious marble and are therefore an integral part of the marble triumph of the emperor and the Roman army. The statues of the Dacians are distributed on the most visible architectural parts of the complex, and they have different size, as well as different back surface treatment, depending on their location. In order to reconstruct the architectural composition together with the sculptural apparatus, a complete metrological analysis of the sculptures has been undertaken, alongside the examination of the material features of Daci statues (clothing, surface treatment) and of data yielded by archives and excavations that took place in the past centuries and recently in the 21st century. The work has been based on a method measuring bi-dimensional photographic shaped-set of all the Daci dispersed in several art collections, starting from the idea of working with a low-cost method without specific expensive software. The workflow combines bi-dimensional images, scaled to 1:1 reference, imported in AutoCAD in order to produce a single .dwg file, with good resolution but easy-to-manage during the data processing. Some interesting, albeit preliminary, goals have been achieved. In the first place, a measured catalogue of all the Dacian statues dispersed in the world has been quickly built. It was therefore possible to start the reconstruction, at least virtual, of the sculptural context of Trajan’s forum. Regarding the size and archaeological aspect of the sculptures, three dimensional series of Dacians have been grouped, which contributed, on the one hand, to confirm the results of previous studies, and on the other to advance the knowledge with new data.

Morphometric characters of Middle Stone Age stone artefacts from SW Fezzan (Libya, Central Sahara) are investigated. The raw data set is composed of illustrations of tanged pieces from surface scatters and from one stratified and dated site. Both metric and shape analyses are used. The first is carried out on the basis of maximum artefact width and tang width from the whole data set; the second adopts Elliptical Fourier descriptors obtained from 2D contours of tanged points. The geospatial analysis of morphometric variability in a regional perspective shows some meaningful variations between artefacts coming from ‘highland’ and ‘lowland’ physiographic contexts. While the latter encompass most of the regional variability, the former seem to show a narrower range of variation, which could depend on a number of reasons including diverse chronology of occupation, different technological traditions or ecological constraints. The general data patterning is here interpreted in the light of the hypothesis that the water resources kept by the mountainous areas also under environmental stress possibly allowed them to act as a refugium during the most arid phases of the late Pleistocene. An intense occupation of the lowlands during similar chronological time frames and environmental conditions is less likely because of an inferable lower carrying capacity. The regional artefacts’ morphometric variability could thus mirror the population dynamics reconstructed so far for the study area: the record from the mountain ranges testifies for a residual occupation of humans skilled in arid survival, while the lowlands possibly hosted more varied population dynamics especially during cyclically earlier wetter conditions.

In the past few years, the application of digital techniques to archaeology has strongly increased, including 3D recording of lithic artefacts for purposes of documentation and analysis. In this paper, the main acquisition techniques are reviewed focusing on their application to lithics, and on the cost-benefit analysis which largely depends on the research objectives. The introduction of the main functions of the virtual approaches to lithics comes from the new possibilities offered in the area of graphic documentation. In fact, 3D models could gradually replace the archaeological drawing thanks to the data objectivity and to the ability to undergo remote analysis. Indeed, in virtual models complex metric data and technological information are easily recorded. Furthermore, 3D models allow the application of quantitative and statistical analysis for different aims, such as reduction intensity estimation and geometric morphometrics, especially thanks to the landmark-based approach. All these potentials have been already explored in recent years, some of them have produced a considerable number of publications. However, this diversification needs the sharing of Open Data protocols in order to evaluate the methods, as well as the application of integrated approaches. Some examples of integration between traditional and 3D analyses derive from traceology and refitting studies, where the virtual tool is not considered as replacing but complementary. Finally, the options in the fields of data storage and cataloguing have been addressed, besides the free circulation of 3D models for academic and museological purposes, including 3D printing.

Digital technologies and 3D models, nowadays largely used to document archaeological remains and to obtain hypothetical reconstructions when these remains are more or less heavily damaged, can also be powerful tools to simulate and render the acoustic response of an environment, such as the interior of a building, or an artifact, such as sounding objects or musical instruments. This work addresses the cases of three musical instruments of the past – namely a Pan flute, a brass instrument, and an electrophone instrument – coming from different periods and in different states of preservation, which voices can now be heard thanks to as many multidisciplinary projects. Possible approaches to the simulation of the sounds that these instruments could generate are discussed in relation to different aims and contexts.

This paper aims to explore how digital imaging and computed tomography (CT) can provide us with significant results and valuable information otherwise unavailable in the study of ancient instruments. Whilst its methods provide great potential in terms of the diagnostics and preservation of ancient musical instruments, radiology has been underused in this field of application. As an improved method for the visualisation and analysis of the material density of instruments and of their surfaces and volumes, CT allows for a useful evaluation of the handcrafting process of instruments as well as the visualisation of invisible fracture lines and lesions in their structures, showing possible modifications, damages and repairs.

Music-archaeology can show exemplarily the potential as well as the dangers of digital approaches. Both are here illustrated using case studies from the field of virtual modelling the intended scales of ancient reed instruments, with a focus on the requirement of the closest possible collaboration between music-archaeologists and programmers from the planning stages of a project and throughout its development. On the one hand, the potential robustness of predictive algorithms is shown, on the other, methodological fallacies are exposed that have led to redundant results and consequently misguided interpretations, which however, due to the ubiquitous partition of expertise, have slipped through reviewing processes. Finally, the author amends a problematic detail in the approach underlying previous publications of his own, showing how reflecting the physiology of aulos playing more accurately may enhance the harmonicity of modelled pitch sets, which in turn lends further credibility to the general method.

While the branch of Classical studies on Greek figured pottery focused for decades on the development of Beazley’s lifework (i.e. attributions of Greek vases to anonymous painters), the study of the potter’s work, the organization of workshops, their networks and relative chronology (although sporadically studied by several scholars, e.g. Haspels, Bloesh, Mackay, Jubier-Galinier) remained broadly neglected and were never systematically analysed. Yet, Beazley was perfectly aware of the need to restore the potter and his/her wheel to the centre of the workshop. In this paper, we first outline the history of the research on the shapes of Greek vases and their attributions to anonymous potters, showing why this work is fundamental to understand the organization of potters’ quarters (in Greece and elsewhere) and describing the most recent methodologies which we developed in this regard. In the second part, we build on case studies to move past stylistic attribution in order to show how the study of vase shapes in general can help archaeologists understand broader questions like the mechanisms of intercultural exchanges in the ancient Mediterranean.

The study of the Attic-figured pottery is closely connected with the ‘Beazley method’, which consists in the possibility of recognizing a painting ‘hand’ exclusively based on the style of the work; the Beazley method, despite having suffered some criticism, is still considered substantially valid. The need to have images which can be analyzed from a stylistic point of view, has suggested to combine the use of some open-source programs of 3D photogrammetry (such as VisualSFM and Meshlab) and 3D modeling (such as Blender), in order to shift the figured frieze from the pot to paper, avoiding the limitations associated with traditional direct drawing.

The city of Kainua (Marzabotto), inhabited between the end of the 6 th century BC and the beginning of the 4th century BC, is one of the most important and best-preserved Etruscan centers. During the excavations performed by the University of Bologna in the area of the temple of Uni, masses of rare red ochre and Egyptian blue pigments have been found. After this discovery, a series of analyses has been carried out in order to study the polychromy of the architectural terracottas of the site. Thanks to spectroscopic analysis, it has been possible to examine the composition of the pigments that were employed. Moreover, the Visible- Induced Luminescence (VIL) technique not only confirmed the use of Egyptian blue, but also allowed to rediscover the decoration pattern of some painted tiles which belonged to one of the temples of the acropolis. This discovery is very important because the use of Egyptian blue had never been attested before in the Etruscan Po Valley. Lastly, the study has allowed to create a 3D reconstruction of some painted architectural elements, which are preserved nowadays in fragments.

The paper aims to illustrate an intervention of digital restoration carried out on different groups of antefixes coming from excavations started in 1845 in a private fund today located in Curti, near Caserta and pertaining to sacred building roofs of a sanctuary whose oldest phase is dated to the 6th century BC. Nowadays, finds are preserved in the Museo Provinciale Campano, located in Capua. Particularly, two hundred and fifty antefixes belonging to the group named ‘female heads within the nimbus’, have been studied, articulated into thirty different series, filed in a database created ad hoc, and the digital restoration of their prototypes has been completed. Issues relating to seriality and traceability of these finds to individual archetypes will be explored, features that make a faithful 3D reconstruction of a prototype possible, based on the combination of physical data of fragmented antefixes pertaining to each series. Furthermore, phases and techniques of detection and scanning of an archaeological find using a laser scanner for small objects will be particularly analyzed. It will show how to achieve a mesh from a scanning file and how to elaborate it. Lastly, processing steps necessary to the realization of a 3D restoration will be illustrated through modeling techniques and collation of different 3D scannings. These kinds of technological experimentations contribute to diversify our memory transmission modes. They offer the chance to create digital and implementable catalogs, useful for a dynamic documentation of the Archaeological Heritage, but also and above all, fundamental tools for the monitoring, conservation and fruition of analyzed corpora.

Heir to a centuries-old tradition, the phenomenon of collecting ancient pottery, especially Greek and Southern-Italian, is still particularly active, and denoting a still lively adherence to classical taste. The materials of these collections, however, often appear decontextualized, that is to say deprived of their fundamental informative component. Since 2018, through a multidisciplinary approach, the MemO Project, directed by the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padova, has dealt with the study of these materials in order to reconstruct their history and origin, i.e. to systematically recount their memory. This contribution intends to analyze the complexity of the narration of the archaeological data for the decontextualized material and, above all, to detect its informative potential in order to recreate the original context. Through a multidisciplinary teamwork, we intend to present the results obtained in the context of the reconstruction of the history of inevitably inaccessible materials.

The aim of this study is to obtain an estimate of the volumetric capacity of a selection of ceramic vessels from the Neolithic site of Lugo di Grezzana (Verona, Italy). The method applied involved the use of Blender, a free and open source 3D computer graphics software. This program can calculate the volume from the graphic elaboration of the archaeological drawing of the artifacts. Through the calculation of volume it has been possible to obtain an estimate of the total capacity of the vessels, proposing two types of content. Volumetric estimates were then compared between the diameter and height of each ceramic vessels, to define size classes. The research shows that the internal variability of some ceramic shapes could be the consequence of different functional and/or cultural choices. The methodology tested in this paper could be applied in future research projects.

The article emphasizes the importance of anatomical-morphological analysis of a volume 3D model reconstructed from microcomputer tomographic 2D images for archaeological documentation and treatment, non-invasive archaeological analysis, and a more optimal selection of conservation methods and techniques. The object of μCT reconstruction is a 40,000-year-old Palaeolithic hunting weapon found in 2008 in the Ljubljanica River near Sinja Gorica (Vrhnika, lat.: Nauportus, Slovenia). This wooden point (yew; lat.: Taxus baccata) is so far just one of only eight known Palaeolithic wooden artifacts found in Europe. Between 2013 and 2017, the point was conserved using a traditional waterlogged wood processing technique with melamine resin. Using computer volumetric analysis of five surface 3D models, taken before, during and after the conservation, it was found out that volumetric changes and deviations of the point have occurred (bending, weight, volume, surface cracks and changes). Surface changes of the 3D models did not answer the question: what are the causes for the resulting changes after the conservation process? Only anatomical-morphological analysis of the internal structure of the point could answer this question. To this end, we developed an iterative segmentation algorithm adapted to archaeological analysis for the reconstruction of a volume 3D model from microtomographic 2D images. In this way, we successfully supplemented the data of the surface 3D model and confirmed volumetrically and graphically the current and critical state of the internal anatomical structure of the artifact (cracks, fractures, etc.). The case study confirmed the exceptional importance of the use of microcomputed tomography as a non-invasive technique in archaeological analysis and in the planning and selection of procedures for conservation, restoration and storage of sensitive archaeological heritage remains in situ or ex situ.

Since the 1970s, the development of archaeological databases has characterised the history of archaeological computing. The paper presents a summary of the pivotal early projects, with a particular focus on Italy and France, up to the current projects shared online. They are constantly monitored by the international journal Archeologia e Calcolatori, that since 1990 is an observatory of theoretical and methodological aspects of computing and information technology applied to archaeology.

In ancient Western Asiatic studies glyptic has been historically the preferred subject for quantitative experiments and investigations. In most cases this led to stimulating and complex challenges which deserve to be critically discussed and analysed in order to find a proper use in the field of recently developed technologies and models. Cylinder seals in particular compel the scholars to face the close connection between the development of an optimal representation of the artefacts in primary publications and the building of strategies for their quantitative investigation. A synthesis of past experiences and present issues is presented here.

The use of Textual Correspondence Analysis to investigate a corpus of iconographic compositions carved on Mesopotamian cylinder seals proved to be very useful to understand the peculiarities of the specimens from the points of view of geographic origin, typology and inner chronology. The presence of a relatively high number of rare forms in the data set – besides the hapax – led to think, however, that the extraction of the factors – so the outcomes of the analyses – could have been influenced heavily by them. For this reason, looking for an optimal composition and for the most effective encoding of the data set, a reduction of its rarest forms was performed to find the threshold which could allow to reconcile the need for keeping the useful encoded information with the best possible reduction of elements producing high inertia. Adopting the methodology known as Procrustes, the data table was thus progressively reduced, and each time investigated: the results so obtained were then used to reach a global assessment about how much each reduced data set could correspond to the optimized one.

The volume of ceramic vessels provides several information about their use. However, due to the fragmentation of pottery coming from settlement sites, data concerning the volume are rarely published. The first goal of this paper is presenting a new method to calculate the volume starting from the archaeological drawings. The dataset could be extended with a predictive regression analysis. The sample analyzed involves cups and bowls found on the top of Monte Cimino (Viterbo-Italy), a settlement and cult site dated to the Final Bronze Age (ca. 1150-950/925 BC).

Analysis of ceramic standardization and variation provides a powerful tool for evaluating the scale, organization, and technological practices behind pre-modern production and for gauging the coordination and complexity of past economic systems. The selection of formal attributes to allow effective measurement and comparison of complex shapes, though, presents a crucial challenge to systematic study. Alongside fabric composition and surface treatment, consistent linear dimensions offer helpful metrics for assessing standardized production. More difficult to measure, though, are the many finely graduated variations in shape that can reflect how these processes were implemented and the limits to large-scale serial productions like those of the ancient Mediterranean world. We offer here a new method and computational pipeline, developed using open-source libraries, to quantify morphological similarities and differences among ceramics. Grounded in point cloud comparison, our method enables comprehensive 3D characterization of geometries down to the pixel level and leverages state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and high-speed data structures for efficiency and scalability across large assemblages. Case studies of transport amphoras from two late antique shipwrecks off the coast of southwest Turkey demonstrate the robustness of the methodology and pipeline. Together, they provide an analytically rigorous and flexible approach to quantifying formal variation within a dataset. The first results suggest strategies for controlling the capacities of these transport jars within late ancient systems of production, but the method should also prove useful in formal analysis of artifacts of other forms and contexts.

A specific relational database has been created for the management of small finds found on the Cretan sites of Phaistos and Ayia Triada in Crete. Such artifacts have been often underestimated in past archaeological studies, because of the perception that they are less relevant objects in comparison to other categories such as pottery. The database GEAR has been created to improve the recognition of their potential. This article presents the possible solutions used in the database to overcome some methodological problems: specifically two of the methodological aspects that have been dealt with are standardization and management of the reference sources and typological attributions. In the first case, a standard typological terminology (recommended by the ICCD) is used to assure data normalization; in the second case, the preservation of the subjectivity and uncertainty of archaeological attributions is obtained with the application of fuzzy logic and its concept of ‘probability of belonging’.

The aim of this paper is to determine the degree of standardization within certain Late Roman pottery productions. This research tried to outline a methodology to determine the standardisation degree of these samples and to unravel the measurement systems used in the production process. The morphometric characterization of each fragment allowed us to create different groups with a cluster analysis. The principal component analysis providedinformation that led us to a deeper understanding of the obtained groups. The coefficient of variation allowed us to determine the standardisation degree of the productions. Once all these data are known, we can approach to the possible measurement units that ruled the analysed production systems. We selected a form well represented in the ceramic contexts identified in the excavations of the Late Antique port-canal of Classe, the Hayes 85 small bowl. This vessel was considered a rare form in Hayes’ monumental book. New discoveries of the last ten years revealed how much we still have to understand about the characteristics of Late Roman productions, trade and distribution. With this in mind, we used a statistical method to analyse the main changes in the profile of this type and its variants.

RTI is a photographic method that allows to enhance any unevenness on the surface ofan object. In archaeology, the RTI method is used for various purposes, for instance, to study superficial markings on ceramic artefacts and to understand their possible causes (natural unevenness of the materials, manufacturing techniques, intended use). This article describes a research that has been conducted thanks to the RTI method on some ceramic artefacts dating back to the Bronze Age, from the village located in Via Ordiere, in Solarolo (RA). The research aims to test the limits of use of this instrument and its actual potential to give information on certain aspects of the production process of a ceramic artefact, such as the tools used to refine the surface (smoothing or polishing). Moreover, the RTI images have been tested as auxiliary tool for archaeological design of lithic artefacts from the same sites (arrowheads). The first part of the article is dedicated to the methodological aspects of the research: the processing chain, the tools and the time needed to complete each phase of the work. In the second part, the results of the research and the possible developments are discussed. The points of strength and the limits of this method are both summarised in the last section of the article.

This paper addresses the different methods of recording prehistoric rock art, with specific focus on the northern Italian area (Valle Camonica, UNESCO Site n. 94), and presents a new integrated way of recording and tracing engravings. This method combines different sources of data, both traditional, as an ‘enhanced’ way of rubbing, and technological. The active use of Structure from Motion photogrammetry and the subsequent mesh manipulation, as well as the implementation of digital macrophotography with artificial oblique lighting, are among the methods used for the recognition of the correct features of the carvings, while the tracing of the engraved figures, executed in vector graphics, is structured on layers. Combining the benefits of the digitally enhanced visibility of the figures with the precision and versatility of digital vector drawing, this method produces state of the art tracings of rock art, for a better comprehension of the symbols carved on the stone. All steps of this method are demonstratedusing, as a selected case study, the unpublished monolith n. 23 from the Copper Age Sanctuary of Ossimo, Pat (BS) in Valle Camonica, Northern Italy.

The study of a massive waste dump of the Arretine potter Ateius, by means of the database FileMaker Pro 11, provided some evidence concerning the deposit’s formation. For part of the fragments there were at least two depositions at different times, as some potsherds were re-used as building material within the kiln itself, then discarded again, with a layer of lime and sand that still covered them. Some fragments were first used as slats for shaping vases, then thrown into the dump, and eventually re-used as building material. All these operations inevitably caused the alteration of the stratigraphy, making it quite difficult to piece together all the fragments pertaining to a single vase. Moreover, in a period that cannot be identified, part of the dump was moved from the original place to the location where it was found in the excavation carried out in the 1950s . All these events are reflected by the archaeological records. The Conspectus 9 cup is a good example: the fragments of rims largely outnumber those of foots. Assessing the minimum number of vessels present in the dump is not easy under these circumstances.

Common ceramics constitute a very abundant material in the archaeological record. This study focuses on analyzing and statistically interpreting, from the perspective of archaeological material culture, the features of Roman coarse-ware ceramics from the Isturgi deposits (Andújar, Andalusia). The main goal of this research was to study ceramics from an archaeological perspective with reference to quantitative and qualitative aspects. The fragments of pottery belong to three essential types - kitchenware, tableware, and pottery for storage and transportation - and have different characteristics. The data set consists of 3,626 fragments of ceramics of Roman origin, divided in three clearly differentiated groups: 1) common calcareous ceramics, b) oxidized kitchen ceramics, and 3) reduced kitchen ceramics, having a very different quantity of fragments (1,635; 1,714; and 277, respectively) distributed in 16 excavation zones. The analysis of the information has been carried out on the basis of univariate methods, analysis of correlation and regression, analysis of the variance (ANOVA) and multivariate factorial analysis (Factorial Analysis with Varimax Rotation mainly). In this form it is possible to characterize ceramics on the basis of whether they were fired in an oxidizing or a reducing atmosphere.

The study of the Attic-figured pottery is closely connected to the “Beazley method”, which consists in the possibility of recognizing a painter’s hand exclusively on a stylistic basis. Although it has suffered some criticism, the Beazley method is still considered substantially valid. The need to collect images which can be analyzed from a stylistic point of view convinced us to combine 3D photogrammetry (Agisoft Photoscan) with 3D modelling (Luxology Modo) software in order to transfer the figured frieze from a vase to paper, thus avoiding the limitations of traditional direct drawing. These tools allowed us to contribute to the debate on the Beazley method; in fact, new research showed that Beazley over-divided Attic pottery, identifying many more painters than actually existed. This paper deals with the potential of 3D modeling applied to the Attic-figured pottery and focuses on the case of the Painter of Syracuse 19861, to whom Beazley attributed only two lekythoi (both belonging to the Lauricella collection from Gela and today displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Syracuse). The use of the 3D modelling process allowed us to obtain images proving that the two objects belong to the Ethiop Painter’s final production instead of to a different painter.

This paper addresses the issue of standardization in the cross-comparability of different vessel assemblages. It presents a computational method for building vessel categories from the bottom up, by comparing the specified attributes of a collection of vessel-types, and grouping like with like. Thus, it provides a platform for translating vessel data which may have been classified or divided by type using one taxonomy, bringing them into communication with those categorized by another. Two different methods of measuring the similarity among vessel-types (cosine similarity and the Jaccard index) are explored, toward providing a control on the resulting ‘synthetic’ categories. An exploratory dataset, collected from published data of archaeological projects in Italy focusing on ceramic vessels of the last two centuries BCE, was used to test the performance of this approach. Project data and results are open source and are available online at https://github.com/scollinselliott/synthkat/.

A recent project related to the research line dedicated to Archaeology and Information Society of ISMA-CNR is the website Sethlans. Bronzi del Museo Faina (http://bronzifaina.isma.cnr.it/). This website, planned using the CMS open source Museo and Web (OTEBAC), is dedicated to the bronzes in the Claudio Faina Museum in Orvieto. The numerous bronze objects are catalogued in a database, complete with colour and black and white images and virtual links to other databases available in Internet. The paper also briefly describes other ISMA projects, like the one dedicated to the Virtual museum of archaeological computing.

This paper compares the method of Correspondence Analysis (CA) for finding patterns in archaeological sites by artifacts abundance data, with a robust variant, named Taxicab Correspondence Analysis (TCA). We show that this comparison is useful, especially for sparse tables with outliers. We identify three kinds of outliers. Three well-known datasets are reanalyzed.

The paper focuses on the digital strategies developed in the study of the corpus of flower woman terracotta figurines found in the excavations carried out by Paola Zancani Montuoro and Umberto Zanotti Bianco at the Foce Sele Hera Sanctuary and stored in the National Archaeological Museum of Paestum. The flower woman definition identifies the best known structure of the statuettes composed of a female bust supporting a flower orthogonal to the base. Actually, the scientific literature about these peculiar artifacts reveals a diffused vagueness and ambiguity in the definition, formalization, and functional exegesis, encouraging a new comprehensive study. The main results come from: digital management of the information; seriation analysis supported by a quantitative approach; visualization of occurrences in the Mediterranean Basin based on Fusion Tables; testing of multidisciplinary approaches to cooperative content building in archaeology. The study developed a whole technology-enhanced workflow, including multimedia data digital management and sharing; statistical techniques for the analysis of terracotta shrinkage in moulded coroplastic figurines seriation; webGIS visualization of occurrences in the ancient Mediterranean Basin and their relations.

The huge amount of available records belonging to the Italian Bronze Age and the necessity to find a methodological support in data treatment prompted the research group of the University of Bologna to build and test IT solutions. In particular, material culture data were processed within a database system, in order to develop a typological classification, linked to the table containing provenance data (site and context) and to a GIS. Therefore, through the geostatistical analysis it is possible to visualize and easily evaluate the distribution of each type or of any other result. The system includes a visualization module of cumulative graphic documentation resulting from queries to the database for a better reconnaissance and validation of the typological classification. Final aim of the project is the possibility to share with other scholars and institutions any record or any result of distributional analysis through a webGIS, now available in a preliminary testing form.

The article describes the construction of a territorial database that collects information about the 14th century portals of the city of Genoa, in the historic downtown of the area inside the defensive walls. The project focuses on dating some significant elements and demonstrating their importance compared to other elements of the building and the portal itself. Decorative aspects, especially the aesthetic ones, are less significant compared to the thicknesses and shapes of the fixed frame stone of the portals. So the essential characteristics for defining the portal chronotype are the proportions and the thickness of the jamb portal in relation to the width of the net size. The territorial database was created with the aim of collecting information on all portals within the established boundaries. An important contribution to the research planning consists in the CIVIS project: a system in which information collected converged, leading to the production of digital cartography and computer data, available from all over the web. Moreover, the authors illustrate another territorial database produced thanks to a research conducted by ISCUM, which led to cataloguing the chronotypology of the portals in rural areas. In ISCUM databases there are already 2560 rural portals, for the most part located in north-western Italy.

The Inventory and Catalogue Service promotes inventorying and cataloguing of the archaeological objects owned by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR). Since 2007, the Niobe database has allowed us to elaborate the data of the archaeological items. In 2012, the Niobe program was updated to meet the changing needs (online data entry, information control and supervision) and to make the system consistent with the current state of development of the web-based applications. Today Niobe 2012 provides a web application, which is accessible to local or remote users via a browser. The database fulfills the requirements of institutional cataloguing, not only aimed at the identification and quantification of the objects but also at their protection and preservation. Users can browse, see, add, and edit files, with different conditions and restrictions according to the access profiles (guest, cataloguer, auditor). Niobe 2012 allows entering RA records (Reperto Archeologico, i.e. archaeological find), following ICCD guidelines. The user can choose among three research methods: free text search, advanced search and specific catalog/ inventory number search. Mapping all the available data on location, recovery, conservation measures, officer in charge of cataloguing or excavations will make it possible an interchange of information between Niobe and SITAR. This interaction can bring a considerable and mutual enrichment of the two databases, helping the Superintendency to manage global information and data.

The statistical technique known as Textual Correspondence Analysis has been used here to study the late third millennium Mesopotamian figurative languages which were used to produce the so-called presentation scenes in Ur III glyptic. For this investigation the authors prepared a data set that collected the codings of a corpus of Ur III presentation scenes known from cylinder seals or ancient seal impressions on administrative documents. In this paper we first offer a summary and the discussion of the aims, strategies and first results of this investigation, then the iconography of presentation scenes is interpreted through the classification of the scenes on the basis of the analysis of the forms and of their external features. The paper concludes with a general summing-up of the results and their meaning.

Ancient objects, be they materials collected on archaeological sites or displayed in museums, simultaneously carry information (type and material, decoration, location, etc.) and are subject to study (analysis, reproduction, publication, etc.). The CIDOC CRM is an ontology intended to facilitate the integration, mediation and interchange of cultural heritage information. This standard gives us the possibility to structure detailed descriptions of individual items (a vase or a statue, etc.), of parts of a whole (a fragment or an element of architectural decoration), or of conceptual objects (models known through its replicas, typology, and taxonomy), and covers contextual information such as the historical, geographical and theoretical background. Associated with technical standards and thesauri, the CIDOC CRM is helpful for data interchange, interoperability, Semantic Web and Linked Data approach.

This article describes the construction of a Geographical Information System for the study of the medieval pottery in Sicily between the 9th and the first half of the 13th century. The creation of a dedicated GIS enables us to organize and manage the large amount of data from archaeological excavations and surveys conducted on the island, while preserving their spatial relationships and accelerating the process of data analysis. This approach allows us to draw a historical synthesis based on the ceramic evidence and to propose a socio-economic model for Sicily. The system is based on two components, a relational database and a GIS platform linked together and able to integrate two kinds of information, the descriptive one and the geographical one. The aim of this system is to produce, on a regional scale, thematic maps of the distribution of medieval pottery in Sicily. Features are represented through points instead of polygons, so that the objects are visible at a small geographical scale. The system allows queries at different levels of detail, to show the distribution of the different wares, shapes, or types, etc. This system has been developed for the study of medieval pottery, but its structure can be implemented at any time by adding new modules. Future development will include the complete filing of archaeological sites dated to between the 9th and the 13th century (so far limited to those that yielded ceramic evidence).

The tools developed by the LIMC (databases and web site LIMC-France) give access to Graeco-Roman objects decorated with mythological or religious representations. Created in 1981, this system has constantly evolved in order to fit the needs of new fields of research, standards and practices of the Internet. Thanks to the use of standards (Dublin Core, TEI, CIDOC-CRM, WGS 84, XMP/IPTC) the databases of the LIMC are combined with other archaeological databases on the international web portal CLAROS whose Semantic Web approach and the innovative tools optimize the use of the data by the 'internaut'.

Archaeologists are interested in the construction of information systems and in their treatment and increasingly, in the electronic communication of tools. The examples of collective projects which have web sites exist (databases, GIS, computer generated images, etc.). In this paper we shall present the experience of the EMA program which, under the aegis of the National Agency of Research, was responsible for the creation of a database of children’s graves in Antiquity (Center Camille Jullian of Aix-en-Provence, UMR Archaeology and Science of Antiquity of Nanterre, Center of Alexandrine Studies). In association with their partners, the UMR ArScAn designed the tool in continuation of the work on the conception and the ergonomics of the bases of data and images. The EMA base now is shared; at the end of the program it will be opened for consultation, after the consent of each of the researchers involved. At the same time, we shall examine some sites of consultation of databases and the ways in which they respond.

Analysis of prehistoric art is inseparable from the study of its supports, movable or on walls. Increasingly, this topic is included among the research aims of modern studies. The contribution of several techniques of restoration in 3D (scanner/laser, photogrammetry, microtopography, etc.) makes it possible to approach different graphic productions and their areas. Beyond the virtual modeling of wall, or decorated artifacts, it is interesting to make use of an adapted numeric support to incorporate and analyze natural, graphic and archaeological information (nature of area, engravings, paintings, flagged items, etc.). We propose here to make a comparison of each technique, to describe in detail its contribution and complementarity in the research of paleolithic art, using two examples. First, the Blanchard cave (Indre), now being studied as part of the MADAPCA research program subsidized by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, second, the site of la Marche (Vienne).

From 2008 to 2009 the Department of Archaeology and the Department of Ancient History of the University of Bologna conducted the JiC - Jewellery in Context project. From the beginning, the JiC project pursued among its principal aims the creation and development of a database centred on the systematic census of ancient jewels, ornaments and other precious objects from the Mediterranean area, with specific attention to the context in which each artefact was found. Considering the typological variety and the different chronological, geographical and cultural ambits of provenance of the objects, the creation of an interactive web database - based on an open source server-side system - makes it possible for specialists in several distinct areas of study (Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Medieval Archaeology, Numismatics, History of Art, etc.) to cooperate with each other. In this regard and in order to preserve the specificity of the numismatic evidence in works produced by ancient goldsmiths, each form for the insertion of new records, as defined in the table Objects of the database itself, enables us to enter the description of coins mounted in jewellery. A specific set of fields contains detailed and particular connotations of each coin specimen: physical and technical data (such as metal, denomination, weight, diameter, die axis), information about the issuing authority, chronology, place of mintage, state of preservation, obverse and reverse types, references and further observations.

The integration of different approaches based on Artificial Neural Networks models has here been adopted to draw the guidelines of a map of a Mesopotamian administrative system. Two data sets concerning two different classes of findings have been contemporarily investigated using different models and procedures: a corpus of glyptic presentation scenes and group of administrative tablets from the archives of Umma. Both corpora are witnesses to the inner logics of late third millennium Mesopotamian state administration, and the investigations into them gave interesting contributions to the development of sound hypotheses for a general outline of the Ur III state bureaucratic culture. In fact, the results, obtained through different methodologies, show a large number of points of convergence, and the same features were recognized as "basic" both by Auto-CM and PST. In summary, through research on heterogeneous documents related to Ur III administrative communication, such as the relics of visual languages and traces of writing and sealing procedures, this work demonstrates how proper data mining techniques can partly reveal the very cultural background of some ancient centralized organizations and stimulate the development of new ways of considering the use and perception of those products.

In 2008 the authors undertook a detailed statistical analysis of the dimensions of a large sample of loomweights from Insula VI.1, Pompeii. A major finding was that the weights of the loomweights appeared to have a bimodal distribution. Further analysis using loomweights that have come to light since the original work strengthens this observation. An analysis of loomweight volume has been undertaken with a view to predicting weight from volume for incomplete loomweights where sufficient information is retained to allow a volume calculation. Recently published experimental work allows an interpretation of the bimodality of the weights in terms of the loom set-up and the cloth being woven, and this is explored in some detail, along with further, tentative, observations on the chronology of the weights.

In this paper the authors have analyzed a fragmentary amphora found in the Venetian lagoon at Chiese Bruciate, which has analogies with another amphora from the lagoon which was found in the Rigà Canal. By comparing the amphorae on a typological basis it was found that they represent one of the least common shapes among the amphorae produced in the eastern Mediterranean which are known as the Late Roman type. Both of the amphorae discovered in the lagoon seem to have been imported from Asia Minor or the Aegean area of the Mediterranean during the Late Antique or Byzantine era. The amphora from Chiese Bruciate was attributed to the Late Roman 2 group and in particular to the Dyczek 25 type. As has been done in other study cases, along with the typological analysis a geometric shape study - i.e., a morphometric analysis of the amphorae made by comparing the different forms using geometric indexes calculated on the coordinates of the points measured on the outline of the vase - have also been conducted. Two known statistical indices were used: the coefficient r of Bravais Pearson and the similarity ratio k. For the analysis of the analogies between the shape of the amphora from Chiese Bruciate (SB) and the other amphorae open source R software was used.

Neolithic pottery from the Balkans and Anatolia is well known for its remarkable and unique decoration. Very often the visual features of these objects are used for determining the relative chronology of excavated sites, without considering its potential for mathematical observation. The repertoire of patterns used for developing the compositional structures painted on the vessels provide abundant data for such analysis. Almost all of the fragments discovered so far as well as the completely preserved painted pots from these regions were decorated following several visual principles which made it possible to achieve a precise disposition of the patterns on the spherical surface of the vessel. This decorative approach was established on the basis of the standards of Neolithic geometry which employ both symmetry and the principles of visual entropy. For this reason, the painted vessels from Early and Middle Neolithic settlements discovered in the Republic of Macedonia provide a variety of information about the organization and structures incorporated on the decorated pottery. In the earlier phases these painted compositions were mostly based on The Four Rigid Motions of pattern disposition on a one dimensional format, while later, besides using this concept, the principle of asymmetry was implemented in order to compose a two-dimensional image . The aim of this paper is to identify all possible forms of plane symmetry, patterns and compositions applied in the decoration of Neolithic vessels from the Republic of Macedonia, as well to promote the use of geometric symmetry as a possibility for the reconstruction of decorated fragments.

A spatial analysis of pottery dumps is proposed on a layer of the Neolithic site of Chalain “station 3” (Jura, France). The proposed method analyzes, through diagonalization, a table of presence/absence of square meters per vase, then, through data analysis techniques, a co-occurrence matrix of the number of re-assemblages of pottery sherds within the square meters. The results show that dump areas are well correlated to the ancient buildings.

Recent work, in the field, on the dimensions and weights of loomweights from excavations in Insula VI.I, Pompeii suggested that there was structure in the form of evidence of bi-modality in the weights. The paper has two purposes. One is to illustrate a variety of statistical methods that were used to confirm the validity of our observations. The other is to discuss what the archaeological implications of this might be. A more general point is that if more attention is given to what are often regarded as “uninteresting” artefacts some interesting results may emerge - specifically, it can be asked whether loomweights have chronological significance for interpreting archaeological sites (at Pompeii at least).

The present work is a first attempt to apply some statistical methods to the study of the so-called Iberian thymiateria, coming from the archaeological site of El Cabecico del Tesoro (Verdolay, Murcia). These terracotta objects have been analyzed using four different methods of calculation, for the purpose of verifying the possible similarities and differences among them, considering the results of both statistical and traditional (iconographical) methods.

A project undertaken by the University of Padua has developed the new database system TESS for mosaics. This database system meets the national standards required by the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione – ICCD. The database is available on-line thanks to the project «Cultural heritage in the Adriatic area: knowledge, preservation and enhancement», co-financed by the Community Initiative INTERREG III A – Adriatic Cross Border Programme. In detail, the database TESS includes informative files regarding Building and Rooms, Location, relevant Bibliography and Mosaic Pavement. Each file contains plans, designs and photographs. Furthermore, all the fields have a list of univocal and exhaustive terms in the Italian language. The mosaics database aims to provide a key working tool for the identification of the origins of iconographic themes, their geographic distribution and the development of local fashions which vary according to the context. The software was developed on a FileMaker client/server environment to achieve these key goals: multiplatform availability (Windows/Macintosh), multiuser capability and remote connectivity. Making wide use of the latest tools included in FileMaker 8, the development group created a smart and complete GUI to access the complex data structure, and at the same time implemented a stringent control of user privileges by setting data-related group policies. The result is a powerful middleware application that allows data entry, analysis and publication to geographically distributed operators and will provide data consultation to other users through normal web browsers.

The Vasa Rubra project started a couple of years ago with the aim of cataloguing and studying all the terra sigillata wares found in the ancient Roman town of Iulia Concordia, now called Concordia Sagittaria (VE). The first step in this project was the creation of a database able to respond to requirements, which were both scientific and aimed at protecting the archaeological objects. The process of creating the database, entirely dedicated to archaeologists, represented an opportunity to reflect on the use of databases in archaeology and for analysing the interaction between computers and users. Even if it continues to maintain its original meaning of tool, without becoming the final aim of the research, this database has demonstrated its usefulness for collecting data about the terra sigillata of Concordia, and has improved and facilitated the scientific study which followed.

The Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Ostia is the Italian government office charged with the preservation of the ancient Roman city of Ostia and its surroundings. Ostia has been the object of excavations since the Middle Ages and has yielded an enormous quantity of finds of all kinds. The Soprintendenza today undertakes mostly preventive excavations, especially in connection with public works. These result in vast quantities of finds that need to be housed in the office’s stores. Since 2004 the management of the stores has availed itself of the use of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFId), an automatic identification method relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFId tags or transponders. An advanced automatic identification technology based on the RFId technology has two values for inventory systems. First, the visibility provided by this technology allows an accurate knowledge on the inventory level by eliminating the discrepancy between inventory record and physical inventory. Second, the RFId technology can prevent or reduce the sources of errors. Benefits of using RFId include the reduction of labour costs, the simplification of business processes and the reduction of inventory inaccuracies.

As part of the FIRB 2001 Project, a computer research project on Roman merchants who worked in the Mediterranean area from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD was commenced. Data about the single businessmen were gathered from inscriptions (first of all instrumentum domesticum) and literary sources (both Greek and Latin); data were processed in a relational database, which is briefly described here. This paper, by way of an example, considers merchants who lived during the Republic (over 250 people) and focuses on the economic and social aspects of their activity. Painted inscriptions (tituli picti) or graffiti on Roman amphorae, stamps on amphorae stoppers and marks on anchor stocks inform us of the names of many traders (most of all ingenui or freedmen) involved in the transport and sale of goods such as wine and olive oil. Other inscriptions (mainly epitaphs or religious dedications) refer to a lot of tabernarii who worked in Rome, in other towns of Roman Italy or the Provinces during the late 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Some data from literary sources are also available, mainly concerning important businessmen who operated in the whole Mediterranean basin.

This work focuses on the images representing the myth of Ajax, son of Telamon, as represented in a corpus of finds from Greece and pre-Roman Italy. The iconography of the classical myth is studied together with other characters, such as kind of object, production, painting technique, place of finding, age. The age was fixed in intervals of 50 years, because of the wide chronological range and the uncertainty of the age of some finds. The data table crossing the finds with the characters was first submitted to Multiple Correspondence Analysis, where a strong relation was revealed. This suggested that an attempt should be made to estimate the age on the basis of the other characters. Qualitative Discriminant Analysis, applied to the objects with certain age, gave good classification functions that were used to estimate the age of the finds with uncertain age. In conclusion, the examination of the graphs shows how different meanings and functions of a Greek myth are illustrated throughout Classical Antiquity.

A methodology for the statistical estimation of the tumular dimension of simple megalithic monuments is developed through Simple Regression Analysis. Such a perspective may contribute to the global comprehension of badly preserved megalithic monuments and to establishing their role in the landscape; at the same time, and under certain circumstances, the statistical estimation can help in the planning of archaeological activities involving the monuments.

The systematic study of imports from the Orient uncovered in funerary contexts, as part of a research project the purpose of which is the reconstruction of the trade and cultural relations between the Aegean and the oriental basin of the Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age, has been supported by the relational database Ploes carried out in a MsAccess 2000 environment. Ploes represents an example of the possible meeting point between computer science and historical-archaeological research and testifies to the contribution that the computer science technologies can also offer to studies of the traditional school. The digital archives, that have replaced the conventional catalogue, have allowed the management of great amounts of data (1000 imported objects distributed in 300 tomb contexts) in a way that is functional for the purposes of research thanks to the possibility of creating a multiplicity of paths for reading the material. The Ploes database has allowed the storage of data related to individual objects and their discovery contexts in a single archive, thus making it possible to adopt a contextual approach to the analysis of the archaeological documentation. The structure of the digital archives reflects the defined methodological plan at the level of theoretical formulation of the study project: Ploes represents therefore not simply a container of information but an indispensable research instrument.

The project of incorporation and preliminary evaluation of a processing system for the description of pottery forms by means of the use of OMR and ICR devices is illustrated. This project, which has been implemented by the Laboratorio de Arqueoloxía of the Universidade de Vigo (Grupo de Investigación “Arqueoloxía Aplicada”), simplifies and speeds the recording of archaeological finds. The implementation of this type of system, applied in the analysis of finds coming from the Roman villa of Toralla, implies significant reduction in processing time of archaeological materials with the consequent advantages on the general process of investigation.

The Etruscan demon that guided and protected the deceased in the underworld has given his name to a database related to funerary urns produced in northern Etruria (Chiusi, Volterra, Perugia) during the Hellenistic period and often characterised by figurative decorations. The database, called Charun, is at this time dedicated entirely to monuments from Chiusi and is published on the Internet (http://charun.sns.it/). In this database data on the urns, the tombs in which they were found and the related grave goods, have been inserted. Bibliographic information has been collected and the relationships between the various typologies have been considered for each of the artefacts. From a particular urn it is possible to locate the data related to the tomb in which it was found, or from a particular set of grave goods one can find information concerning the specific objects which it included. The most detailed entries are those based on inscriptions, which are particularly common on objects from Chiusi. The web site includes interactive maps which are useful for locating the sites where the urns were found and for analysing their distribution.

Central to the arguments developed in the paper is an examination of the contextual approach to the interpretation of archaeological data. The management systems for excavation data are seen as strategic instruments for realising the potential of the means of analysis and interpretation of contexts. In this regard, the problem of which standards to adopt in the definition of finds, in particular portable items, becomes crucial. The paper discusses the most suitable criteria for the creation of dictionaries (structures for cataloguing) aimed at evidencing the functional aspects of portable finds, as an instrument for the best interpretation of contexts. The experience of the Archaeological Computer Laboratory of Lecce University is presented.

The problem of coding archaeological finds is discussed. The different items susceptible to coding are described according to the kind of information that must be collected. Some new coding techniques are described in particular: the landmarks technique, to be used for the shape analysis of corpora of finds all having a similar shape; the textual coding, useful for the study of images, once both the elements and attitudes and the sub-images composing the image are taken into account; a symbolic coding, to be used in the study of the syntactical structure of the images, describing the relations among items, regardless of the iconographical content. An overview of the exploratory analysis issues is given as conclusion.

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.

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.

In order to test the ability of textual coding to depict the features of structured images, a corpus of images of Near-Eastern seals of the late IVth millennium BC was studied through different exploratory analysis techniques. Two different coding systems were considered: the classical presence/absence coding of iconographical elements present in the images and a new textual coding, based on a formalised text describing the image. These were submitted to Multiple and Textual Correspondence Analyses. The textual analyses were performed according to two different coding systems, and several choices of the items involved. The results of the different analyses are discussed and compared here. In particular, textual analysis proved effective in substituting the classical coding in the description of the iconographic elements appearing in the images. In addition, it allowed us to broaden the investigation to include aspects of the images (occurrence of fixed sub-patterns and composition) which are beyond the capacities of classical coding. The ability of textual coding to select particular elements, and/or element sequences, to be taken into account in the analyses, was also considered an interesting feature for fine-tuning the analyses to the particular characters of specific corpora. Thus, the use of a formalised text as an intermediate between images and analysis tools proved to be a method worth using, in spite of the special care needed, and some still unsolved difficulties.

Since 1995, F. Giudice, professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Catania, has donated a corpus of published and unpublished Attic figured vases (about thirty thousand files). The progressive updating of the archive and the stylistic analysis of the new vases (Post-Paralipomena Project) has allowed prof. Giudice’s team to study the new data of trade of Attic figured pottery across the Mediterranean. According to the method presented in 1993 («Archeologia e Calcolatori» n. 4), the Mediterranean area is divided in 13 areas and 47 sub-areas; for each of them a system of histograms shows the presence of Attic pottery in the whole area and in the single cities with particular attention paid to the chronology. As an example, this paper analyses the distribution in the Iberian peninsula.

The present paper draws attention to the problem of describing contextual information using an object-oriented approach to relational database techniques. Initially, it outlines the basic theoretical concepts for a structured description of complex information in a relational database. The insight gained from this exercise is used to demonstrate how a generalised object-oriented solution may be implemented using a standard relational DBMS. The implementation called GARD is an all-purpose recording system, where the user can create a particular database structure through its interface without making changes to the underlying table structure, and modify the database as needed parallel to the recording of data. Finally, an example using decorated bowls from the Danish Neolithic shows how complex relational information may be handled. This information has been entered into GARD and extracted again for analysis.

The archaeological aim of this paper is to demarcate the groups of graves within the particularly random distribution of a Greek archaic cemetery: the west necropolis of Megara Hyblaea, excavated by Paolo Orsi in 1889. The methodological aim is to observe the behaviour of four different statistical analyses applied to the same data. The selected methods take the variable of space into account, meaning: the exact location where each data has been measured (a grave is a unit). Finally, concerning graves and their location, the following question is posed: is it possible to build one typology of archaeological characteristics through the description of the procedures with which the space has been occupied?

The authors identify different kinds of variability in the production of artefacts: a series of socially accepted types within a certain class of products; individual variations due to a low degree of control in the manufacture; sporadic variations for the desire for variation; variations linked to phenomena of auto-identification of single or a few producers and users versus other ones; chronological variations. The authors attempt to make connections between the different kinds of associations of features highlighted by chi square analysis in the ceramic assemblage of Conelle and those kinds of variability.

Non-parametrical tests have been used to check the validity of some hypothesis made of archaeological material (sealings on papyri kept in a Delian archive destroyed by a fire in 69 BC). Although these tests deal only with a part of the corpus, the validity of the results should not be questioned.

In the fifties and sixties it was assumed that a generalised and detailed descriptive system for archaeological materials could be constructed, and that this system could be transferred to a computerised symbolic representation. In the early seventies this position was abandoned as it was realized that data are theory-dependent and problem-specific. As a consequence it has been widely accepted that databases containing archaeological data are bound to be highly individual and short-lived. With the increasing number of IT based archaeological recording systems, the inherent heterogeneity becomes a hindrance for archival purposes and effective management of archaeological projects. It is also, however, an obstacle for a formalized methodology, because researchers end up with pragmatic ad hoc solutions, which often shoehorn the recordings into rigid data-structures. The IDEA (the Integrated Database for Excavation Analysis) is to solve this problem. Through a database meta-structure and a user-friendly interface IDEA offers the researcher the possibility to implement a problem-specific description of archaeological objects, but at the same time stores data and data-definitions in one underlying structure, regardless of chosen solution. In this paper we describe how we have solved the problem of creating a database structure capable of holding widely diffused classifications and descriptions.

This work studies a sample of 58 notched pieces formed by all the examples found in surface sites from a small area of the Cantabrian coast (Northern Spain). These sites are the result of three kinds of activity: a) the exploitation of coastal resources; b) the manufacture of artifacts used in this exploitation; c) the working of flint nodules from local limestone. The results of data gathered were organised in a database and a classic statistical analysis was carried out using the package SPSS. After the application of different tests - correspondence, factor and cluster analysis - a classification in four groups based on morphological variables was chosen as the most significant. In the functional analysis a basic traceologic study has been combined with experimental practice in order to establish whether the four morphological classes show differences in the way they were used and in the patterns of the marks of use. The functional analysis has also enabled four groups to be distinguished and the contrast between both classifications displays a difference between the morphological classification based on the morphometric variables, and the functional classification. The factors involved in this contrast are examined in this study.

The ceramic assemblage described in this paper, coming from the Conelle di Arcevia Copper Age ditch, can be divided into four phases. This substantial assemblage (almost 10,000 diagnostic items) allowed us to undertake quantitative analysis. A first step in creating a database is to define the underlying criteria: it is a truism to say that the selected parameters condition the results of the analysis. It seemed to us impracticable to elaborate an automatic classification being able to take into consideration the recognition of the patterns socially accepted by a specific human group. At risk of a higher degree of subjectivity, we choose to create an intuitive typology concerning shapes, decorative techniques and motifs, handles and raw materials/surface treatments. We tried examining the behaviour of each feature and their association, aiming to understand the synchronic and diachronic levels of variability in the ceramic production; moreover our purpose was to discern the international/ stochastic value of each association of features by simple statistical techniques.

A long-standing project concerning the study of the Bronze Age interrelations between the Aegean and Italy, in progress at the Istituto per gli Studi Micenei ed Egeo Anatolici, has stimulated the creation of an appropriate database. The relational database DEDALO is composed of six different files (1. sites, 2. excavation, 3. areas, 4. contexts, 5. finds and 6. bibliography), where information on the archaeological evidence related to Aegean-type material found in Italy is stored. The basic units of the structure are the sites where one or more Aegean items have been found. Although the entries of the fifth file, concerning items, are very detailed, DEDALO is not particularly object-oriented, but rather aims to integrate geographic, environmental, archaeological, chronological and archaeometric data, focussing on the relationship between the Aegean-type object (seen as the exception in its context) and the local Italian communities of the Bronze Age.

This article presents the first results of a statistical analysis applied to the ceramic artifacts from the Late Bronze Age settlement of Sorgenti della Nova (Farnese, Viterbo). After organising the data in a logical structure of relationships, with the setting up of a classification code and automatic processing, various methods of descriptive and multivaried analysis were applied (Frequency Analysis, Crosstabulation, Cluster Analysis). The main objective was the reconstruction of as great a number of shapes from fragments as possible, consequently observing the distribution dynamics of these within the site. The analysis enabled us to increase the possibility of recognising the ceramic forms by roughly 25%. It allowed us also to observe how, even within a situation of substantial uniformity in the site, a distinct separation emerges in certain structures, including, among other factors, the material culture, such as for example, the oval huts with foundations on channels, the grotto-sanctuary 7 and the monumental structure in sector Vb.

In order to analyse a corpus of 963 Near-Eastern Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period sealings, three levels of image structure were identified, as being a) the presence of iconographic elements, b) the presence of subpattern, i.e. small images contributing as a whole to the total image, and c) the general image pattern, considered only under the syntactical point of view. This paper is based on second level analyses, performed through textual exploratory analysis of a formalized text describing the sealings images. Two different textual correspondence analyses were performed: the first on textual forms and the second on repeated segments, i.e. repeated sequences of forms considered as a whole. In the paper, the quality of results is discussed, in particular comparing them to classical techniques based on manual coding and to a previous coding. In this case, a better distinction of different sealings groups resulted from forms analysis, whereas the one on repeated segments, although repeating the forms analysis general pattern, seems less satisfactory. Both results suggest to modify the automatic procedures used so far, in order to limit attention to presence/absence of forms on one side and to select manually the repeated segments actually corresponding to a subpattern, rather than considering all of them.

The aim of this work is to illustrate a database in which we have recorded a great number of archaeological objects. The example is made with 303 figures from Portugal which the archaeologists name “cylindrical idols”. The first step was to choose the vocabulary and organize it in a hierarchical form. Our tree form has three chapters, some sections and subsections that form the base of the system; in the second step, the programme Access was used to describe the cylinders. When the recording was finished, the following questions were posed: a) What is the provenance of the Portuguese cylinders?; b) What is the main raw material?; c) What is their typology?; d) What is their geographical distribution? The answers were reproduced in the form of a graphical picture in which the results can be observed. These results are confronted with M. Gimbutas’ interpretation about these cylinders over Western Europe. Our conclusion disagrees with Gimbutas as in Portugal the figures appear in Copper Age contexts, whereas Gimbutas states that the cylinders were used during the Neolithic. This thesis was linked to the concept of the “Eve Goddess”, although the Kurgans that seem to have introduced the metal in Portugal held the sun as a principal religious symbol.

This work describes the technological study of Iberian sculpture, which is little developed in Spanish archaeology. To start the investigation, it was necessary to review the traditional archaeological documentation. In the same way, it exposes in detail the method of work that has been used in an ambitious project of investigation carried out in the Autonoma University of Madrid. For this project, we have built a specific database for the management of the vast and different documentation. The program was conceived to manage three kinds of information: item description, bibliography and pictures, all of them related by Escultur Program (Clipper language). In the creation of this program, maximum flexibility was also needed in the management of information, including the permanent integration of the three databases. Therefore, each sculptural piece is associated to its individual study, to the corresponding bibliographic references and to the graphical images made or remade, that are recorded in their respective databases. The result obtained through the use of the program offers the possibility of relying on three files of fundamental data to be able to plan and resolve archaeological problems in relation to the technological interpretation of the Iberian sculpture. In synthesis, they concern: the cataloguing and description of materials; bibliographic database; storage and management of images.

In this paper it is suggested that least squares approximation can be used to analyse and to produce computer images of the entasis of Greek Doric columns. The curve fitting method is then applied in a case study on the peristyle column of the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. By analysing the shaft profile of the different drum combinations it is possible to give the most likely range for the column height.

“TreeTexT” is a formal language developed for describing the real objects (or monuments) of classical archaeology and history of art. It works with the “partitive” relation (i.e. between the whole, its parts and subparts) in order to permit the handling of complex objects such as Greek or Roman temples. A “thesaurus” allows to establish terminologies based upon the “generic” relation (i.e. between more or less explicit descriptors). A software package manages not only a specific textual retrieval at every described detail level of complex objects but also possibly related pictorial information.

A corpus of 963 images belonging to Near-Eastern seals of the Uruk/Jamdet Nasr period (late fourth Millennium BC) was analysed and classified through multivariate analysis techniques, applied on both presence/absence of iconographical elements and a text describing each image. Methods and results are discussed and compared. The presence/absence analysis is the most effective in dividing the corpus into different groups of images (scenes with common animals, “special” animals such as hybrids, war, religious, complex handicraft and schematic handicraft scenes). The results of textual analysis are similar in many respects, though here common features between different groups of seals are underscored. Textual analysis also seems a promising approach for the study of syntactical patterning of the seal images. The study of repeated segments (i.e. fixed sequences of lexical forms occurring in different texts) proved the existence of fixed sun-patterns, consisting of two or more elements and attitudes, which occur in images belonging both to the same group of seals and to different ones. Fixed sun-patterns tend, however, to occur more frequently on images characterized by a simple and repetitive structure, whereas they are only rarely used in the most complex seals. Finally, results of both analyses effectively proved that the iconography of the seals is related to their origin and function. Religious scenes and representations of hybrids, snakes, birds and lions generally occur on seals or sealings found in temple contexts, often on sealings fastening movable containers or storeroom doors; war scenes are apparently found only in urban centres. Complex handicraft scenes tend to be found in storeroom or in domestic contexts, often on “clay balls” (sort of primitive administrative documents). Finally, schematic images generally occur in domestic, non-official context. Schematic seals were apparently rarely used for sealing; most of their images derive from original seals and not from impressions. On the other hand, religious scenes seem especially typical of southern Mesopotamia, complex handicraft scenes of Iran and Syria, whereas identical schematic seals are found in all geographical areas. Further developments of the methods tested on the seal corpus (firstly through a deeper interaction with repeated segments analysis; secondly through development of methods for the analysis of the general image composition and finally through an integrated approach considering all aspects together) may lead to interesting results for the study not only of the seals themselves, but in general of structured images of different kinds.

Classification represents a central topic in archaeological research. In fact, archaeologists seem to spend a great deal of their time in describing and sorting materials, from surveys and excavations, in groups which should serve various ends. In the history of archaeological classification, briefly outlined in the first part of the paper, there has been an endless debate between the researchers following the traditional /qualitative/subjective approach and the proponente of a “new” (now forty years old) paradigm, founded on the formal/quantitative/objective idiom. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that none of them is at all satisfactory. In fact the traditional approach, despite the empirical validity, has proven very difficult to be formalized; the quantitative approach on the other hand, though being based on sound scientific principles, has presented serious difficulties in its practical applications. The article describes an attempt to implement an informatic tool able to produce formal analyses based on both qualitative and quantitative variables: an intelligent ObjectOriented system with classificatory purposes. The system, called Mosaico, is thoroughly illustrated in the second part of the article. The description concerns all the components of Mosaico, a language for conceptual modelling called TQL++ (Type and Query Language), and a brief explanation of some terms useful for a better understanding of the matter. A working example on the Fibulae from the Quattro Fontanili cemetery concludes the paper.

In recent years, archaeologists have become increasingly aware of the added interpretability that can be gained if they adopt a model-based approach to their statistical analyses. In this paper we encourage the use of just such an approach for the investigation of dimensional data from the Sardinian corbelled structures known as Nuraghi. We highlight the fact that the experts who surveyed these domes have gained extra information (other than the basic structural measurements) which is not usually included in statistical investigations in any formal manner. Here we advocate the adoption of the Bayesian statistical framework within which the model, the data and the expert knowledge can be combined in a consistent manner and thus all permitted to influence our final inferences. By using examples we are able to demonstrate that, for at least some of the domes surveyed, the inclusion of the expert knowledge has a marked effect on the result obtained.

The aim of the study is to observe space and time variations in the occupation of Sicilian funerary settlements from the 9th to the 1st century BC The data have been extracted from a complete examination of archaeological reports. They define geographical and archaeological characteristics of 240 settlements. From archaeological to statistical data there is an alteration of variable status which represents a new field for archaeologists. The matrix summarises the settlements’ occupation in 50 year periods by presence-absence; this gave rise to a Correspondence Analysis. The time of occupation has been preferred to a relative chronology based on cultural facies. One additional variable distinguishes the cemeteries where the graves with several burials dominate over those having individual burials. The results of the analysis prove that the space and time variations in the two types of funerary settlements described oddly follow the outline of historical events in relation to autochthonous and colonial spheres. In particular it shows the alterations of autochthonous funerary customs owing to more archaic cemeteries which were to be reused later on. In the historical sphere, the analysis leads us to question the acculturation phenomena. What was happening in Sicily towards the beginnings of 5th BC? Did autochthonous funerary customs disappear because of the adoption of Greek culture, or is it getting more difficult to establish a difference from the ancient colonial culture?

The article presents problems connected to the management of iconographic data using computer science tools. In particular, the authors discuss especially the computerised management of Athenian figure-decorated pottery which represents perhaps the most relevant set of iconographic patterns in classical antiquity. Up to now this pottery has been investigated by means of quantitative analyses to study in particular the mechanics of ancient trade in the Mediterranean basin because Athenian vases, from 6th to 4th century BC were widely exported all around this area. The computerisation of iconographic information, however, presents many difficulties: in fact archaeologists tend to express iconic information by means of linguistic sentences which are often inadequate; moreover there are still many problems about the correct interpretation of representations on attic pottery. On this subject, the authors illustrate a project on Athenian decorated pottery found at Spina, the Etruscan “emporion” of the Upper Adriatic, where the most impressive collection of Athenian decorated vases of the 5th century BC was discovered. A database has been created which collects data on 2132 clay decorated vases made in Athens: iconographic information is represented both with a description in natural language and by means of terms of a thesaurus conceived for this purpose. The database has also been explored through statistical analyses, such as Correspondence Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling, to find significative interrelationships between shapes and subjects, to identify associations between the different subjects represented on the same vase and to stress changes, as time passed, with regard to shapes and subjects.

This paper provides a short summary of some recent results in intrasite spatial analysis in Prehistoric archaeology and, in particular, in Paleolithic archaeology where, as it is well known, intrasite spatial analyses have been applied for at least twenty years. Starting with some “classic” examples of 80’s (the Magdalenian site of Pincevent, the ethnoarchaeological analysis of the Mask site in Alaska), and a short illustration of the techniques applied (correspondence analysis, k-means cluster analysis, unconstrained clustering, factor analysis, etc.), some of the most recent applications are described: the Mesolithic Barmose I site in Denmark, studied by H. Blankholm, and the Middle Pleistocene site of Grotte Vaufrey in South West France (Dordogne), where the intrasite spatial analysis has been performed by J. Simek. We then discuss the relationship between the “quality” of the quantitative procedures used in the data analysis, which is in general of an outstanding level, and the “reliability” of the archaeological interpretation. A major conclusion is that the problems arising in the archaeological interpretation (a good example of which is Grotte Vaufrey) are much more connected with the choice of variables in the quantitative analysis, than with the different algorithms employed: we thus recommend to the archaeologists (and not to the computer scientists involved in the research) the basic selection and choice of the essential variables derived from the data.

The article describes the transformation of a number of procedures for archaeological data processing into Excel (Macintosh and MS Dos versions) macro-programming language. Automatic seriation is dealt with first. The general principles of the two best known algorithms - the reciprocal averaging method and P. Ihm’s correspondence analysis - are discussed. The Excel programme text is then presented and commented. After detailed analysis of the comparative merits of the two algorithms, a number of general remarks of a methodological nature are made about problems posed by seriation and particularly by automatic seriation techniques. The article then turns to the construction of incidence (presence/absence) tables and co-occurrence matrices. Here again, general principles are discussed before presentation of the programme text and comments on the macro. The last macro presented carries out replacements of cell contents. The conclusion contains some general methodological remarks about Excel and the writing of macro-programmes in Excel’s macro-programming language.

Quantitative studies of Attic figured pottery have interested many scholars as the existing vases represent only a modest percentage of the whole Athenian production, and their number is liable to change after any new excavation. Traditional systems of analysis confuse the pattern of ancient trade: near to the peaks of single cities, we have a total absence of data from areas that we would believe to be centres of a lively trade. The research conducted by the Institute of Archaeology of Catania University attempts to highlight the “commercial context” of the distribution of Attic pottery; data processing is based on a file divided in 13 areas and 47 sub-areas. The file follows the possible routes from East to West. The appendix describes the file of the Painter of Paris Gigantomachy, based on the vases assigned to him by J.D. Beazley. The painter’s production is analysed through three points of view: number and provenience of vases; provenience of shapes; provenience of subjects.

As an example of pattern recognition problems in prehistory, the authors present two different kinds of classification (unsupervised and supervised) applied to a sample of common Upper Paleolithic tools: the end-scrapers of Grotta Polesini, coming from layer 1 and layer C12. The results, obtained through the use of statistical techniques, led to a general conclusion: in building a typology more attention should be given to functional considerations and to a deep understanding of behavioural patterns on a more local scale. The traditional prehistoric typological lists are therefore criticised, as they are often too general and too much oriented towards large scale comparisons in space and time.

The determination of cultural groups is revealed as one of the basic principles in undertaking the study of social formations in the Bronze Age complex panorama in the Iberian Peninsula. In this paper an analysis model is proposed for its identification in a southern area of the Iberian mountain range by means of statistical multivariate analysis (Cluster Analysis and Principal Components Analysis) and study on the pottery, particularly the decoration. In this way, we have succeeded in identifying two groups with distinct personalities, coincidental with many other microregions whose diversification emerges in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600-1300 BC), showing a process of territorial fragmentation after the apparent uniformity dominant during the Early Bronze Age.

In this paper a comparison between data on African Red Slip from several Italian and African sites is attempted. The aim of this preliminary survey is the detection of variations in the distribution and use of this ceramic production in the 5th century AD. At the same time the patterns of trade, and the differences between the diffusion in African sites, the overseas distribution and the local markets, are examined. Those differences can be detected by means of comparative analysis between contexts coming from different kinds of settlements: major centres, ports or more or less isolated sites. The presence of the various productions and forms of ARS have been compared with multivariate statistical analyses.

The application of quantitative analysis techniques, widespread in prehistory, still appears little used in the study of historical archaeology. For the most part their application concerns the field of morphometry and typometry of archaeological objects, and especially of ceramic artefacts. A survey of the projects carried out, with emphasis on the analysis of Etruscan artefacts (e.g. stone urns and bronze mirrors), outlines the methodological tendencies and the most used methods and verifies the results obtained through the application of mathematical and statistical analyses.

As well as solving two long-standing theoretical problems, this work shows great potential for the interpretation of ceramic assemblages, and has implications for the way in which pottery is catalogued. Different sorts of interpretation (functional, chronological, distributional) are possible at different levels of grouping (context, phase and site assemblages).

Methodological and statistical aspects of the distribution of Greek imported ware in the archaic period (600-480 a.C.) in Salento are presented here. They form part of a wider research on trade. In order to value the fieldwork intensity and assess the survival conditions of archaeological data, the contexts to which the finds can be provenienced have been analysed. Frequencies of type concerning recovery of artefacts (occasional recovery, systematic excavation, survey, underwater and unclassified), frequencies of contextual types (settlements, cultual places, isolated graves, necropolis, unclassified and anchorage) and frequencies of the exploration degree in the archaeological sites have been studied. Crosstabulations between these classification factors and the quantities of material found in each context have been conducted. These analyses permit us to identify similar contexts from the point of view of archaeological research and to value more fully the phenomenon of interaction and exchange in the Salentine peninsula in the archaic period. Regression analyses were also conducted to study the distribution of Greek colonial ware.

A particular type of multivariate analysis called “fuzzy c-means clustering” was applied to ancient bricks of 44 archaeological sites in the Lagoon of Venice, the remains of historical settlements of the last two thousand years. Each brick is characterized by its three geometrical dimensions, probably related to the local units of measure of the various epochs. The analysis was made with binary data (presence/absence) for the 20 principal types of bricks. The aim was to establish temporal relations among the various sites, some of which have definite temporal reference, allowing both to extend the references to the unknown sites and to evaluate, measuring the depth of the archaeological sites, the trend of the geological subsidence in the Venetian area. The results, compared also with those of a Correspondence Analysis, are, within some limitations, in agreement with the available dating from archivistic sources.