Articles by Subject
Computer technology
History of applications and research projects
Funerary archaeology and digital technologies: history and development of a successful cross-disciplinary approach
Abstract
The paper explores the successful merging of expertise in ‘funerary archaeology’ and ‘digital archaeology’ research domains. The Author first conducts a terminological analysis to establish a framework for both subjects based on their unique theoretical and methodological backgrounds and then highlights common methodological issues from the 1960s up to today. The result is a complex scenario in which the main applications include spatial analysis techniques and the GIS-based approach for the study of the relationship between cemeteries, settlements and territory; computer graphics and Virtual Reality techniques for the reconstruction of specific funerary structures and burial typologies; multivariate statistical analyses for the automatic classification of grave goods and their chronological ordering; modelling and simulation techniques to mimic features and behaviours of past ritual practices.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2024, 35.1, 15-30; doi: 10.19282/ac.35.1.2024.02
Challenges and benefits in modelling ancient landscapes complexity through resilience and antifragility. RELOAD: a project on liminality in Northern Tuscany
Abstract
RELOAD intends to re-evaluate the marginal areas of northern Tuscany to demonstrate their central role in the dynamics of management and perception of space between the Roman conquest and late antiquity. Considering that landscape archaeology, complemented by an anthropological perspective, allows a deep understanding of the linked dynamics of social and ecological systems, the project is expected to fill a gap of knowledge about ancient landscapes in northern Tuscany analyzing the case of Volterra to provide innovative interpretative models through a multidisciplinary methodological approach and a diachronic perspective. Integrating all available sources with new data collection, RELOAD approaches landscape complexity in a flexible way. Introducing for the first time in archaeology the concept of ‘antifragility’, RELOAD engages in the wider debate about adopting concepts and techniques from different fields for archaeological and historical reconstruction. The paper presents the project and preliminary data regarding the challenges and the potential benefits of applying agent-based model simulations to test the validity of approaching the past through the lens of ‘resilience’ or ‘antifragility’ leading to alternative reconstructions of the human-environmental interactions.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2024, 35.2, 311-322; doi: 10.19282/ac.35.2.2024.33
Legacy data or just archaeological data?
Abstract
The world of research is currently undergoing a profound transformation, characterized by the extensive use of digital data available online. To optimize the utilization of these resources, artificial intelligence offers researchers several tools capable of aggregating both structured and unstructured information. The need to train algorithms to enhance the use of artificial intelligence techniques in data classification has led to the creation of structured datasets. However, it is not always possible to fully automate the transfer of data to more modern environments without substantial human intervention, aimed at extracting the implicit knowledge present in digital data. The category of CAD data appears to be particularly challenging in terms of automated management of spatial resources. The use of graphical entities for digital drawings, without semantically identified components, makes automatic conversion into GIS extremely complex. The paper is based on a partial test conducted on a cartographic archive that has been formed over 70 years of field research, aiming to demonstrate the importance of prioritizing legacy spatial data, both digital and non-digital, as archaeological data.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2024, 35.2, 381-386; doi: 10.19282/ac.35.2.2024.40
Concluding remarks: looking back and moving forward to the openness and interaction of knowledge
Abstract
Concluding remarks
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2024, 35.2, 455-460; doi: 10.19282/ac.35.2.2024.47
On the road to open access: insights from French antiquity journals and databases
Gaëlle Coqueugniot, Virginie Fromageot-Laniepce
Abstract
This paper proposes an overview of practices ensuring the gradual transition of printed archaeological journals, already internationalised, to new models of online scientific publishing. It also examines the economic and organisational means that guarantee the sustainability of these models. Our two research units, the Pôle éditorial of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Mondes and the team Archéologie du monde grec et systèmes d’information of the ArScAn équipe, are both based in the campus of Nanterre, and collaborative discussions between the numerous professionals based there give us a precious glimpse at the evolutions of practices in terms of data management and publication, in a context of Open Science where scholarly publications and data tend to be open more widely and faster.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2023, 34.1, 115-124; doi: 10.19282/ac.34.1.2023.13
Peer Community In Archaeology: a community-driven free and transparent system for preprints peer-reviewing
Alain Queffelec, Bruno Maureille, Marta Arzarello, Ruth Blasco, Otis Crandell, Luc Doyon, Siân Halcrow, Emma Karoune, Aitor Ruiz-Redondo, Philip Van Peer
Abstract
The number of scientific articles published each year is on the rise, but the current system, which is dominated by a few for-profit publishers, has become prohibitively expensive for many institutions. This model of publishing is increasingly being criticized for its serious flaws. The deposit of preprints in open archives is a solution for the rapid dissemination of research. However, the quality of these preprints must be ensured. This is where Peer Community In (PCI) comes in, by organizing communities of researchers to assess the quality of the work deposited in open archives. In 2020, a PCI dedicated to Archaeology was established, with over 100 archaeologists acting as recommenders. These recommenders handle the submitted preprints as associate editors would in traditional journals, but at the end of the process, they write a recommendation text, and the entire editorial process is published with it. So far, PCI Archaeology has received 45 submissions, mostly pertaining to Prehistoric periods, and from authors located in different regions of the world. This open process has been widely accepted by reviewers, but there is still a need to promote the use of preprints in the community of archaeologists.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2023, 34.1, 125-134; doi: 10.19282/ac.34.1.2023.14
Tra terminologia e lessicologia: un "ponte" informatico" nel percorso scientifico di Giovanni Adamo
Valeria Della Valle, Paola Moscati
Abstract
One year after his untimely passing, the Authors remember Giovanni Adamo and his original and impactful scholarly contribution to the field of terminology and lexicology, in the context of the close relationship with Humanities computing.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2022, 33.2, 7-12; doi: 10.19282/ac.33.2.2022.01
Stronger together: international collaboration in heritage management
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 15-20; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.02
The international cooperation between the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Milan for the excavation and preservation of an endangered site in Aswan
Patrizia Piacentini, Massimiliana Pozzi Battaglia, Said Mahmoud Abd El-Moneim
Abstract
The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Milan collaborate in the protection, preservation and valorisation of the large necropolis surrounding the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan in West Aswan. The first mission has been completed, the second is underway. Director Patrizia Piacentini describes the work and finds from the first mission and the experts from different fields (anthropology, palaeopathology, chemistry, botany, restauration, the computer sciences) that will be deployed during the second phase. Particular emphasis has been given to the historical meaning of the necropolis, in general, and, in particular, of tomb AGH026, which was excavated in 2019. They promise to yield information on the history and international contacts of the population of Aswan during the Late Pharaonic and Ptolemaic-Roman Period. Vicedirector Massimiliana Pozzi Battaglia enumerates some of the particular issues that were encountered from the point of view of conservation and transport. Inside Tomb AGH 026 different conditions were encountered, depending mostly on whether sand had covered a specific spot or not, which conditioned the preservation of the human bodies, cartonnage-making and wooden items and influenced their transportation and storage. Said Mahmoud Abd El-Moneim, General Director of Aswan and Nubia Antiquities Zone and Co-director of the mission at Aga Khan necropolis, widens the scope of the article to address other endangered sites that at present concerns of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. He describes the challenge posed by raising water levels and increased quarrying activity at Kom Ombo, Philae and Bigga, the rock art and palaeolake sites in the Aswan area.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 21-31; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.03
Adulis (Eritrea). Criticità e peculiarità di un sito complesso nel Corno d’Africa
Abstract
Since 2011 an Eritrean-Italian archaeological mission has initiated research and excavation activities in the area of ancient Adulis, an emporium town located along the coast of the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea, in current Eritrea, documented by the sources as early as the 1st century AD and disappeared between the 7th and 8th centuries. The site, due to the historical and geographical context that determined its ancient splendour, invites us to broaden the research field, extending it from the excavation area to the commercial networks that, in ancient times, set in communication the African, Asian and Mediterranean cultures, without neglecting the intermediate scale, necessary to understand the ways in which the settlement was related to the territorial context and its resources. Among the natural resources water, in particular thanks to the presence of the Haddas, a seasonal watercourse that reaches significant flows, was certainly crucial to the development of the town and to the probable agrarian exploitation of its surroundings. Haddas itself was probably the cause of Adulis’ sudden destruction between the 7th and 8th centuries. Today, this watercourse is at same time one of the main resources and one of the major vulnerability factors of this portion of the coast, where the villages of Zula, Afta and Foro live a fragile equilibrium, seasonally endangered by its floods. The same protection of the important cultural heritage constituted by the site of Adulis today, in a way not entirely dissimilar from what happened in ancient times, depends on this balance.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 47-57; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.05
Fragilità mesopotamiche tra passato e presente. Considerazioni a margine della ricerca archeologica nella regione del Kurdistan iracheno
Abstract
During the past years both the political instability and the uncontrolled economic development in the Middle East caused several threats to the cultural heritage, including widespread looting and destruction of hundreds of archaeological sites, looting of museums, flooding of ancient settlements due to the construction of dams, damages to monuments and sites during armed conflicts. Notwithstanding the ongoing difficult condition of fieldwork, a new phase of archaeological research has begun with projects of landscape archaeology, excavations and extensive surveys carried out especially in Iraqi Kurdistan, allowing a detailed reconstruction of the settlement dynamics and historical development in the trans-Tigridian region, from the prehistory to the Islamic period. A new archaeological renaissance contributing to the process of peace-building through the empowerment of strong ties between the local communities and the cultural heritage.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 59-70; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.06
Scavo e scuola a Tarquinia. Internazionalizzazione e formazione a difesa della fragilità di un sito UNESCO
Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni, Matilde Marzullo, Andrea Garzulino
Abstract
Tarquinia is a site of high relevance for the themes of this conference, from fragility to internationalisation, which can be explored on evidence gathered through uninterrupted and systematic presence of researchers from the University of Milan, since 1982. The site has attracted interdisciplinary initiatives and scholars from Universities and research institutes throughout Europe and the world. Today the ancient Etruscan city, buffer zone of the UNESCO site (2004), i.e. the necropolis of painted tombs, is threatened by various geomorphological phenomena and by the risk of abandonment of active research, hindered by current legal-administrative conditions. However, the continuity can counteract this two-faced fragility. This research is based on an established tradition and it is constantly renewed, with obvious advantages for the UNESCO site, which is always under the spotlight. The Tarquinian territory is one of the fields in which the interdisciplinary collaboration immediately yields high returns, especially focusing on a complete and defined survey, through the recent acquirements of topographic research (LiDAR, GIS, geophysical prospections) combined with archaeological investigation. This includes a thorough study of how the ancient city is integrated in the current town plan and in urban planning for the territory: the rules of archaeological, environmental and landscape safeguards the UNESCO Buffer zone vary considerably for specific land plots. However, if on the one hand it is right to think in terms of agricultural development and productivity, this must be done in a way that is respectful of the Etruscan metropolis, whose immense buried archaeological potential is as yet little known.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 71-82; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.07
L’architetto, l’archeologo e Nostradamus
Abstract
When performing restoration work, it is not only the technical elements that come into play, but also social, economic and cultural aspects. This approach sees restoration as one continuous flow of ideas and operational plans, based on a fusion of disciplines and on collaboration between multiple players. These players, in various ways and for different motives, all take part in a restoration project, from diagnostics and planning to construction site management and even until the final result can be enjoyed by users, and they do so by constantly respecting the uniqueness of each individual situation. The collaborative relationships and partnerships formed on a restoration site foster a sense of belonging and mutual responsibility. The process of restoration may present a valuable opportunity for the community to come together, offering chances to raise cultural and civil awareness whilst encouraging people to collectively reflect on rediscovering and safeguarding local history. After all, a region may be embodied in a monument which the community can look to in order to identify and recognise themselves. The training of restoration architects is of particular importance in regions frequently affected by natural disasters or where local construction practices are being gradually left behind and traditional ways of living are undergoing radical transformation. If a restoration policy is to be considered conscientious and respectful of local communities, it must actively involve local people in restoration work. Attention should be paid to how these communities may dynamically evolve over time, as well as to the stresses and strains they are under. As such, projects must take account of a multitude of aspects: local cultures, the teaching of co-existence, the evolution of concepts regarding the conservation and restoration of historical and cultural sites and, finally, the remembrance and appreciation of traditions, as these traditions may be both unique and useful in imparting knowledge and providing first-hand evidence of traditional construction techniques.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 85-93; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.08
Fragile yet powerful. Rural landscape heritage as resource for inclusive and sustainable development in archaeological inhabited sites
Abstract
Sri Ksetra, in Myanmar, is an inhabited archaeological area in which rural landscape, widespread built heritage and archaeological evidences are intertwined with presence of numerous villages. In 2014 the three Pyu cities were named as the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in Myanmar: despite the premises, Sri Ksetra, Beikthano and Halin were not listed as ‘cultural landscapes’ sites but recognized as ‘cultural’ sites. Field research in 2015 highlighted emerging issues in the management and safeguarding of inhabited archaeological sites. The investigation raises critical issues concerning the conservation and management of the rural landscape as heritage, in view of a sustainable development of the site in favour of those who live there.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 95-106; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.09
Il recupero del genius loci del sito archeologico di Ghoufi (Aurès, Wilaya de Batna, Algeria)
Susanna Bortolotto, Redha Attoui
Abstract
Ghoufi is located in the Aurès Valley, near the ‘Oued El Abiod’. Its location, next to the panoramic road RN31, is referred to as ‘Balcon de Ghoufi’ because - from above - you can perceive the depth of the canyon (500/1200 m) and the beauty of the place, scattered with Berber villages (vernacular semitrogloditic architecture), terracing, water collection systems, palm groves, orchards and gardens. The Aurès Valley - a thoroughfare since ancient times, a caravan route between the desert and the Mediterranean Sea - has been the subject of archaeological explorations by Pierre Morizot since 1957-1962, which established the chronology of the settlements. This valuable work has been supplemented by ongoing research. This territory still retains the morphological and hydrographic peculiarities that justify the Berber settlement choice despite the fact that unfortunately the places have been abandoned following a recent flood. From 2016 activities of survey and research, directed by the University Badji Mokhtar of Annaba and the Polytechnic of Milan resumed at Ghoufi. These activities are aimed in particular at surveying archaeological and architectural artefacts, conservation interventions to address deterioration and instability and valorisation projects. Since 2017 the research has been funded by the MAECI. The project begun with the collection of documentation and knowledge of the Ghoufi site in a GIS environment. It prefigured a preliminary scenario for its conservation and reuse, following an approach of archaeological sustainability respectful of the characteristics of the site, the territory and the Country.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 107-116; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.10
Logic and computing: a historical background
Abstract
The history of archaeological computing has long been characterised by the distinction between the application of mathematical and statistical techniques, as part of the so-called movement of quantitative archaeology, and the use of databases and information systems for descriptive and documentary purposes. The intensity of the debate on the relationship between logic and computing, as well as between theory and applications, began to wave in the 1990s. Over time, data integration and new ICT tools have allowed archaeologists to address simultaneously all the issues raised by the archaeological research. This paper focuses on the evolution of methods and techniques in this specific research area, thanks to the analysis of literary sources, the Bibliography of Archaeological Computing, accessible via the Virtual Museum of Archaeological Computing website, and the scientific articles published in the open access international journal Archeologia e Calcolatori.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 121-132; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.12
From databases to archaeological online resources. The logic of object classification
Abstract
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.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 133-144; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.13
Qualitative and quantitative approaches in digital epigraphy
Abstract
An epigraph is a complex historical document, whose significance is fully acknowledged only if its textual features (script, language, content, etc.) are studied in combination with the contextual information (on the textual support and its provenance). This is the reason why digital epigraphy lies at the crossroads of different disciplines applying ITs to textual and material sources, such as digital philology, computational linguistics, and computational archaeology. The specific interests and methods of those disciplines have exerted an influence on digital epigraphy, which is apparent in the documentary vs statistical approaches applied over time to the electronic treatment of the (re)source ‘inscription’. The aim of the paper is to trace those trends in the application of qualitative vs quantitative methods in the history of studies of digital epigraphy, highlighting the main moments of change, until the most recent developments.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 145-156; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.14
The cylinder seal as a challenge for quantitative investigation, electronic cataloguing and digital visualization
Abstract
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.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 157-168; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.15
Modelling the past. Logics, semantics and applications of neural computing in archaeology
Abstract
The study of complex archaeological systems through the new Artificial Intelligence and Natural and Neural Computing is a research project which evaluates the historical meaning of the relationships between records of the past as an essentially human construction. It repeats a strong position of Analytical Archaeology, but updates it on the basis of the progress which neurosciences and physics have made in simulating the principles which regulate memory, orientation, classification and mapping of reality. Modelling and simulating the contexts of the past in integrated, parallel, distributed processing through machine learning methods, must make use of a precise encoding of the documents. It takes on an important role in empirical research only when the results produced become the hyper-surface of a network membrane to continue, update, refine or open the analysis itself. After some 30 years of such theoretical, analytical and experimental research, logics, semantics and applications of neural computing maintain their distinct value as a new theoretical approach for the study of dynamic and systemic cultural complexity. They provide a new analytical paradigm for computational modelling in archaeology and an advanced computational method for pattern recognition in archaeometry.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2020, 31.2, 169-180; doi: 10.19282/ac.31.2.2020.16
Before the Romans: the historical and geographical framework of the Doclea valley
Abstract
After some general considerations on recent approaches in Balkan archaeology, the Author makes a first attempt to describe the Doclea landscape, through the eyes of a proto-historian. Drawing upon the collection of the existing published data on the pre-Roman period, the valley’s history before Romanization is set forth, with some preliminary observations on possible roads and passages, both commercial and cultural, used by the communities that inhabited the region.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, Supplemento 11, 19-33; doi: 10.19282/ACS.11.2019.03
The Roman city of Doclea as a focus for Italian scientists and Italian State authorities
Slavko Burzanovic, Tatjana Koprivica
Abstract
The Authors consider the interest that Italian government institutions have demonstrated since the late 19th century to the present, in the archaeological exploration of Doclea, the most significant Roman city in Montenegro. It points out the link existing between those interests and the Italian foreign policy towards the Balkans, as well as to the discontinuities in Italy’s interest in Doclea and clarification of the reasons for such happenings. The activities of the Italian scientists are set forth, as they individually or as participants of archaeological missions contributed to the research into Doclea and its presentation (Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Guido Cora, Roberto Paribeni, Dante Vaglieri, Piero Sticotti). Attention is also drawn to the negative aspect of the Italian interests in Doclea, specifically the removal of artefacts from the site during the time of the Italian occupation of Montenegro (1941 to 1943).
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, Supplemento 11, 35-42; doi: 10.19282/ACS.11.2019.04
Archaeology and computers: a long story in the making of modern archaeology
Abstract
The growing success, for more than fifty years, of the scientific contribution of computer applications and quantitative methods in archaeology may be now reviewed and analyzed from different technological and sociological points of view. This examination allows us to appreciate the material importance of such contributions and how the community of specialists in computational archaeology should play a major role in the future of 21st-century archaeology.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 13-20; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.02
Informatica archeologica e archeologia digitale. Le risposte dalla rete
Abstract
The article illustrates the most recent achievements of archaeological computing, through a systematic survey that starts with the very name of the discipline, as used at national and international levels. The aim is to examine if the distinction made between 'archaeological computing' and 'digital archaeology' can really be helpful in framing the discipline in its theoretical and methodological evolution. From the synthesis made, the dominance of technological aspects on the theoretical and methodological approach clearly emerges. For some time now, technology has governed the three main areas of archaeological practice: field work, laboratory analysis and cultural heritage management and promotion. Two other important aspects are today rapidly gaining ground: 'Communicating archaeological research' and 'European digital infrastructures for archaeology'. Finally, particularly significant is the sector of Digital Heritage or Heritage Science, which today seems to be the focus of all digital archaeology involvements.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 21-38; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.03
Archeologia e Calcolatori: un'esperienza pionieristica nel mondo dell'Open Access e dell'Open Science
Abstract
Online open access circulation of the journal «Archeologia e Calcolatori» started in 2005. International standards developed within the Open Archives Initiative paradigm immediately offered fascinating solutions to disseminate metadata describing the journal's content. The most relevant protocol for Open Archives implementation is OAI-PMH. Several software applications to support OAI-PMH have been proposed by different institutions and some enjoyed brilliant success. However, in certain situations the deployment of an OAI-PMH conformant repository remained problematic. For small research institutions and university departments, most of the existing OAI applications seemed difficult to implement. In this paper, the author recalls the main steps that guided the journal towards a simplified approach to the OAI implementation, one suited to small and medium-sized archives, creating a system operating now for 15 years.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 39-54; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.04
Lo stato dell'arte dell'innovazione tecnologica per le architetture web: presente e futuro per Archeologia e Calcolatori
Abstract
The paper illustrates the recent evolution of web architectures and the choices made for the web portal of 'Archeologia e Calcolatori'. The website needed an urgent restyling to update its ASP platform, even though for 15 years it had performed its interactive work very well. Today, the ASP language is no longer supported by Microsoft and the infrastructural choices of the CNR are and will be increasingly oriented towards the world of open source and LAMP architectures (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Phyton). For this reason, a transformation was not only suggested, but vital. It was therefore decided to completely renew the website, a task consisting of about 70 physical pages to be rewritten in PHP. This work transformation has helped to pave the way for new technologies that today are modifying the web architecture of the entire WWW and that will soon allow us to implement new services and functions. Particular attention was paid to the most significant phenomena in the innovative technological panorama of Web Information Systems, with particular emphasis on the Semantic Databases and the new RIA (Rich Internet Application) technologies, the latter a splendid evolution of client-side web architectures.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 55-74; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.05
Archeologia e Calcolatori. Accessibilità e diffusione della cultura scientifica
Alessandra Piergrossi, Irene Rossi
Abstract
Based on the case study of the journal 'Archeologia e Calcolatori', the authors investigate specific issues related to the promotion of Open Science in archaeology. The first part analyses the initiatives undertaken in order to foster the dissemination of the journal's digital resources on the web, such as the use of descriptive metadata (Dublin Core), the attribution of unique identifiers (DOI), the uploading of the full texts on institutional repositories for long term preservation (CNR-SOLAR), the collaboration with initiatives aiming at the aggregation of cultural and scientific digital contents (MiBACT-CulturaItalia). The second part illustrates many initiatives and projects promoted by the editorial committee to spread the principles of the 'open access' philosophy, nationally and internationally. The journal has thus become a record and memory of the progress in the theoretical, as well as applied, aspects of the Open Access movement. This study shows the relevance of the continuous experimentation of the practices for publishing scientific initiatives, adhering to and promoting the Open Access and facilitating the accessibility to its own resources.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 75-92; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.06
Archeologia e Calcolatori. Classificazione geografica e tematica per la condivisione della conoscenza
Francesca Cantone, Alessandra Caravale
Abstract
The 30th anniversary of Archeologia e Calcolatori has offered the chance to focus on its rich repository of scientific contents and to envisage further strategies to better classify the journals papers. Mapping web resources is crucial in organizing and managing cultural information in the Semantic Web and Internet of Things (IoT) perspective. In this context, the editorial board has decided to adopt geographical and chronological annotation strategies and to implement established gazetteers of geographical and historical entities. The first step in this annotation project was to experiment with the Recogito Pelagios tool, an international initiative aimed at facilitating better associations between online resources documenting the past. Furthermore, an analysis has been undertaken by means of Social Network Analysis techniques, which in the last years has been developed to cover a wide interdisciplinary field of study, including social and behavioral sciences, economics, psychology, anthropology. The paper illustrates the main results, to highlight connections between themes and technologies in the papers published over the last ten years.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 93-107; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.07
La banca dati bibliografica degli anni Novanta. Dati quantitativi e analisi statistiche
Alessandra Caravale, Letizia Ceccarelli
Abstract
Recent research work, carried out as part of the international project on 'The History of Archaeological Computing', jointly promoted by the Italian National Research Council and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, has created the premises by which to publish online the database of the Bibliography of Archaeological Computing. The database was regularly implemented during the first ten years of publication of the international scholarly journal 'Archeologia e Calcolatori' (1990-1999), and covers a period ranging from 1989 to 2000. The dataset was revised and made available online in the 'Virtual Museum of Archaeological Computing', featuring more than 2,700 titles. Data structuring and updating led us to re-appreciate the analysis of the results, published for the first time in the tenth issue of the journal, by also linking the period under investigation with the achievements of the previous decades and anticipating the challenges of the years to come. This article sets out both the research work now being carried out to classify bibliographical information and the results obtained from the statistical analysis of the dataset.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 109-122; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.08
Legge 4 agosto 2017, n. 124. Le modifiche al Codice dei Beni Culturali e del Paesaggio e le novità in materia di riproduzione
Marco Ciurcina, Piergiovanna Grossi
Abstract
Articles 106 and following of the Italian Legislative Decree 42/2004 raise some critical issues for those who want to reproduce cultural heritage and disseminate these reproductions. In 2014 and 2016, changes were introduced to article 108 of that same Legislative Decree: these, under certain conditions, make it easier to carry out such activities when they are not done for profit. This paper explains in particular the changes recently introduced by the Italian Law 124/2017.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 447-450; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.26
Open Data e patrimonio culturale: lo scenario italiano
Abstract
The paper provides a brief overview on the cultural open data status in Italy, taking into consideration also the economic factor arising from data reuse. From a quick survey of Italian portals, and from European and national reports on this topic, a rather diversified and fragmented situation is discerned: this explains why there are significant limits to the further development of open culture, the actual availability of usable data and the triggering of economic activities.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 451-454; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.27
Sull’utilizzo dei metadati e dei Linked Open Data come strumento di valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale
Abstract
In the last few years, public administrations and university archives have been promoting the dissemination of cultural heritage via the web, so making it accessible and shared. The aim of those promoting the Open Access movement was to encourage the democratic and fast distribution of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the benefits of using and sharing linked data do not accrue only to the public administration, though this may indeed become more efficient and effective, but also profits the citizenry, as online tools can stimulate public participation and social inclusion.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2019, 30, 455-458; doi: 10.19282/ac.30.2019.28
Il meglio è nemico del bene
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to accurately and realistically describe the condition of the archives in which the documentation of excavations and, more in general, of the intervention related to archaeology in Italy should be kept. It is clear that, because of the backwardness of the regulations and the lack of personnel in the Archaeology Superintendencies, every project of data sharing and data advertising needs to start from an absolutely matter-of-fact evaluation of the state of affairs. Additionally, the author notes that the Bray-Franceschini reform, which separates Museums from the Archaeology Superintendencies, has worsened the situation adding cumbersome and almost insurmountable bureaucracy.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 13-18; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.02
I dati archeologici tra prerogative di tutela e istanze di accesso
Alberto Maria Gambino, Maria Letizia Bixio
Abstract
Which elements of the scientific documentation produced by archaeologists - especially those who are freelancers - in the field of excavation, scientific filing and research, are to be considered ‘processed data’? How can archaeologists see their ‘copyright’ protected, if there is any, when the documentation produced flows into the archives? Can the ‘raw data’, since it is beyond authorial prerogatives, be made public as a common heritage of mankind? This paper will try to outline the legitimacy of certain attributions and the ownership of choices regarding the diffusion of the archaeological documentation produced in controversial events in which overlapping public and private interests do not always coincide.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 19-30; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.03
Accessibilità e diffusione del dato archeologico: l’esperienza del SITAR
Abstract
The original aim of SITAR was to create an instrument available to the community: the idea of ‘mapping’ a complex city like Rome was conceived with the intention of offering a participatory, open and shared data environment. For this reason, the system created in 2007 quickly converted into a webGIS platform capable of showing the topographic positioning of archaeological finds together with descriptive data sheets. Instead, the original documentation of the excavations, pending a decision by MiBAC, is only visible on request, also considering the instances submitted by data producers who have claimed copyright. However, a more in-depth examination of the legislation and in particular of the latest laws leads to the conclusion that the State is the only competent body in this area. Moreover, these rules clearly define the maximum accessibility, usability and reuse of data, guaranteeing full access to documents and administrative procedures, providing the legal basis for a knowledge democracy.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 31-40; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.04
Archeologia professionale fra diritto d’autore e accesso ai dati
Abstract
Professionals play an important role in archaeological research in Italy as producers of new data, working under the scientific direction of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage in the so called ‘commercial archaeology’. The Scientific documentation produced during these excavations, often unpublished, is archived by the Superintendencies. The management of these documents directly involves archaeologists both as producers and users: the recognition of their authorship - at least moral rights - would encourage higher quality documentation, and easy access to already known data would improve the quality of new research.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 41-49; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.05
La maternità e la paternità del dato archeologico. L’esempio del MOD (Mappa Open Data)
Abstract
Intellectual property is generally regarded in human sciences as the right by whoever has produced data to become the owner of them and use them exclusively for years, sometimes for decades (at times dispersing them without permitting anyone else to view them). This practice is based on an incorrect interpretation of the principle of intellectual property, which must not be confused with intellectual ‘maternity’ (a term coined to indicate intellectual authorship), which instead must be protected and exploited more effectively and to a greater extent than today, using a system of accurate references as scientific research is well aware of. The term maternity was chosen because just as ‘…the mother is always certain’, the same may be said for the individual generating and producing the archaeological raw data. In order to determine the ‘mother’ of archaeological data, the research group of MAPPA Lab (University of Pisa) evaluated archaeological documentation in the light of Law 633/41 (Law on copyright and other related rights), articles 106 et seq. of the D.Lgs. 42/2004 (Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape), D.Lgs. 196/2003 (Privacy Code) and D.Lgs. 30/2005 (Industrial Property Code), and of their more recent modifications.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 51-58; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.06
Riflessioni sul diritto d’accesso ai beni culturali
Abstract
Different conflicting ideas and values cross the debate about freedom of access to cultural heritage. This is nothing new: a similar debate arose in the past decades with confrontation among free software and proprietary software. The future will depend on the evolution of this cultural conflict and the political choices that will follow.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 59-62; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.07
Tra riproduzione e condivisione dei beni culturali: il ruolo dell’Istituto Centrale per l’Archeologia
Abstract
The paper addresses two of the main issues discussed during the workshop: the photographic reproduction of Cultural Heritage and the sharing of archaeological data. As far as photographic reproductions are concerned, an overview of the Italian laws on this topic is proposed, in particular about the evolution of art. 108 of the Cultural Heritage Code, recently modified. The new regulations reflect a more open attitude of the Ministry of Culture towards private photographic reproductions, which have been liberalised for personal use (study, research, education, non-profit use in general), while they still are subject to payment of fees in case of profit uses. The second part of the paper gives an overview of the activities of the Istituto Centrale per l’Archeologia (Central Institute for Archaeology) - ICA, aimed at the promotion of open access to archaeological data. ICA, which has among its tasks precisely the definition of standards and guidelines for publishing open archaeological data, is developing the National Geoportal of Archaeology, to foster the online consultation of topographic archaeological data; a first experimentation of its content started in 2018 with the digital cataloguing of information produced by preventive archaeology.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 63-72; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.08
Promozione del pubblico dominio e riuso dell’immagine del bene culturale
Abstract
Open access and free reuse of cultural data is one of the more topical challenges for Digital Humanities. Great opportunities may instead be presented by the adoption of free licenses by museums, archives, and libraries, allowing free commercial reuse of digitization, as well as that ‘freedom of panorama’ still denied today in Italy.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 73-86; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.09
Riproducibilità a vario titolo del patrimonio: situazione e prospettive
Abstract
The paper approaches the rights of reproducing Cultural Heritage items, in every possible aspects and for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. The legal situation is currently vague and not defined, as it is in other parts of Europe and the world. Two valid arguments are confronting each other: on the one hand, the public demand for data openness, on the other, the public institutions’ desire to earn money, at least enough to justify conservation expenses. After a discussion on the current situation, where digital revolution and 3D technology changed even the common understanding of ‘reproduction’ processes, a possible solution is presented, in order to satisfy both needs.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 87-92; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.10
La diffusione della cultura scientifica: documentazione e disseminazione nei progetti di ricerca dell’ISMA
Abstract
The article illustrates the main research lines promoted at a national level by Law n. 113/1991, as amended by Law 6/2000, for the dissemination of the scientific culture and the active support and participation of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. As part of this initiative, the main CNR-ISMA projects approved and funded by Ministry of Education, University and Research are then described, including, in particular, the two projects ‘20 years of Archeologia e Calcolatori’ and ‘The Virtual Museum of Archaeological Computing’. They both are intended to offer open access resources for documenting and disseminating archaeological research data.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 93-100; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.11
Accessibilità e disseminazione dei dati nell’esperienza dell’ISMA
Marco Arizza, Alessandra Caravale, Alessandra Piergrossi
Abstract
The article describes research carried out by the Istituto di Studi sul MediterraneoAntico (ISMA). The CNR-ISMA is involved in many excavations for which permits are granted by the Archaeological Superintendency and in several open access publishing projects. In relation to these research projects, the article discusses the position of the researcher of a public institution regarding access and dissemination of data.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 101-109; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.12
Aspetti etici nel campo dell’open access
Abstract
The article summarizes the ethical implications in the following areas: a) open access of data and results related to cultural heritage; b) recognition/loss of intellectual property and paternity of moral rights; c) dissemination of the results of knowledge according to the article 30 of the Second Additional Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 and the Faro Convention.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2018, 29, 111-116; doi: 10.19282/ac.29.2018.13
From ruins to reconstruction: past and present
Abstract
Keynote speech introducing the Session ‘Ancient Cities: Past and Current Perspectives’.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, 28.2, 27-45; doi: 10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.02
Archaeological computing and ancient cities: insights from the repository of «Archeologia e Calcolatori»
Abstract
Opening speech in the Session ‘Ancient Cities: Past and Current Perspectives’.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, 28.2, 47-66; doi: 10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.03
Sulla genesi della città nell’Italia preromana. Economia, sociologia, urbanistica: il caso dell’insediamento dell’Accesa
Abstract
The paper opens with a series of passages from ancient historiographic sources on the concept of cities in pre-Roman Italy, on the rite of foundation and on internal urban organization, apart from the vast bibliography. We then focus on the case of the settlement of Accesa (Municipality of Massa Marittima, GR). This is one of several settlements located E and N of Vetulonia, controlled by this same city and connected through by river valleys to areas of mining interest in the district of the Colline Metallifere and the Tyrrhenian coast. Unlike other settlements, where only tombs mostly dating to the Archaic period have been discovered, Accesa has tombs and houses included in a period that ranges from the recent Villanovan to the Archaic. Its main characteristic is the division into distinct neighborhoods, functionalized in the operations that were conducted there: exploitation of mines and metallurgical activity. Their genesis is linked to a number of economic and sociological factors that, integrated together, find an eloquent expression in the urban structure.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, 28.2, 69-85; doi: 10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.04
Kainua-Marzabotto: the archaeological framework
Abstract
The paper aims to analyse the Etruscan city of Marzabotto, the ancient Kainua, with an integrated approach which considers all the aspects, from the urban layout to sacred and domestic architecture, to handcraft production, as a reflection of community, identity values and social structure. With the aid of theoretical and methodological perspectives on production of ancient urban places, the most recent achievements are included in an archaeological framework which has now been completely revised.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, 28.2, 87-97; doi: 10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.05
Kainua Project Special Session: conclusioni
Abstract
General conclusions of the ‘Kainua Project’ Special Session.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, 28.2, 177-185; doi: 10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.12
Lavorare insieme in un mondo digitale
Abstract
Thanks to the world wide web, we now have at our disposal a huge mass of information and a large number of research tools on line. But what we do need is to put all these resources together in order to transform accessible data into real knowledge.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 21-23; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.03
Rete a banda ultralarga e nuovi servizi per la condivisione e l’innovazione
Federico Ruggieri, Sabrina Tomassini, Carlo Volpe
Abstract
The Italian Research and Education Network, known as GARR, has a long tradition of supporting institutions for the protection and promotion of cultural heritage. GARR provides the community of its users with an advanced network infrastructure and innovative tools for international collaboration with universities and research institutes, for transmitting and sharing large amounts of data, and for the use of web applications such as virtual museums, virtual archaeology, and geographic information systems. In recent years, the use of the network in the cultural heritage sector has grown significantly. Besides connectivity, GARR has created a cloud infrastructure for computing and storage of great amounts of data. This infrastructure has been designed with a federated approach in order to encourage the sharing of resources within the academic and research sectors. The availability of optic fiber connections in several cultural heritage sites has given GARR the opportunity to extend the benefits of network technology also to performing arts professionals. An example of this collaboration is the theatre play Innovating Colosseum, a geographically distributed performance to celebrate the inauguration of the new GARR connection of several sites of the Superintendence for the Colosseum and the archeological area of central Rome.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 25-33; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.04
Il ruolo dell’ICCD nella diffusione dei modelli descrittivi del patrimonio archeologico
Laura Moro, Maria Letizia Mancinelli, Antonella Negri
Abstract
For networking, i.e. for the circulation and exchange of data on the cultural heritage, it is necessary to share rules and descriptive systems, placing them within a common perspective; it is necessary, in fact, to find a meeting point between the needs of those who produce the data and those who use them. Within the framework of standards for cataloguing defined by the Italian Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation (ICCD), the tools for the description and documentation of the archaeological heritage constitute a very structured corpus, a coherent system which helps computerized management that allows the integration of different cognitive components. As far as networking is concerned, the Institute has actively participated in the realization of both the project VIR - Vincoli in rete, to implement a platform for interoperability between the major databases of MiBACT (SIGECweb, Carta del Rischio and Beni Tutelati), and the European project ARIADNE, an infrastructure for sharing resources concerning archaeology, for scientific and study purposes. In addition, the ICCD set up a web site for the public use of the Catalogo generale dei beni culturali and a dedicated web area, namely Open ICCD, for the dissemination in open format of different types of cataloguing data.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 35-46; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.05
Digital Humanities, Digital Cultural Heritage e l’istanza open
Abstract
The paper is about recent national and European legislation on data re-use. It argues that the time has come to realize that Open Access and copyright ought not to oppose each other. They should instead find ways to balance each other. Open Access is necessary for government-sponsored data. The industrial and creative industry cannot simply give up copyright; it must keep it in order to survive on the market. On the other hand, the industrial and creative industry ought to be allowed to make use of government-sponsored data. Legislation is on the way.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 47-52; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.06
Il contributo dell’ICCU per lo sviluppo di una infrastruttura digitale per il patrimonio culturale
Abstract
The co-operative model is a key concept of ICCU’s cultural policy. The Institute is responsible for some of the most important national infrastructures for accessing heritage and documentation of the Italian libraries, and over the years it has adopted an increasingly open data policy to facilitate the use and reuse of digital cultural heritage on an international scale. ICCU has a profound expertise in digitisation standards and guidelines; it manages the National Library Service, the union catalogue of over 6,000 Italian libraries and it coordinates, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage Activities and Tourism, major digital cultural heritage projects at a national level such as Internet Culturale, the portal of the digital resources of Italy’s libraries, and CulturaItalia, the national aggregator for Europeana. ICCU also manages MuseiD-Italia, the digital library of the Italian museums, integrated in CulturaItalia portal. ICCU participates in many international initiatives for strengthening the cohesion of research and technical and semantic interoperability in the sector of cultural heritage, humanities, history and linguistic studies in order to create a digital ecosystem and effective e-infrastructures that can offer innovative tools and services able to exploit synergies and cooperative workflows in these related domains. The paper presents the main projects and activities carried out by ICCU at national and international levels that are investigating political and technical issues of the relation between the DCH sector and research infrastructures.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 53-59; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.07
La diffusione del patrimonio culturale digitale: aspetti giuridici e culturali
Abstract
By introducing the second session of the SITAR Conference, the Author focuses on the importance of the issue relevant to the virtuous balance between content dissemination and compliance with the existing technical and legal rules or administrative guidelines on data opening process.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 63-65; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.08
L’apertura dei dati per la conoscenza partecipata dell’archeologia di Roma: il data licensing del progetto SITAR
Mirella Serlorenzi, Ilaria Jovine, Andrea De Tommasi
Abstract
Recently, some fundamental updates of the Italian legislative framework clarified the topics of public access to and dissemination of data held by public administrations. Specifically, three legislative decrees broadened the scope of the existing laws and regulations to 1) allow public and private users to access more easily public data, 2) stimulate public administrations to better improve their data delivery systems, and 3) activate both new freely and pay-per-download data provisioning procedures, for the benefit of both public and private users. In this evolving scenario, during the last ten years the SITAR Project demonstrated that for the Public Archaeology of Rome and its broad territory it is necessary to 1) achieve a total accessibility of scientific data, also through participative processes and tools allowing ubiquitous access to and real integration, and consequently, validation of information; 2) engage in this participation all users involved in data and knowledge (re-)production and sharing, from scientists and scholars, to public administrators and officers, up to professionals as well as members of the public and all other stakeholders. In this paper, the authors deal with the newly designed SITAR Project data licensing policy illustrating the legal bases on what the SITAR administrative procedures are being implemented and experimented about data openness and their public access and use. The authors also try to offer a contribution to the long cultural debate of these last decades about interrelationships between scientific research and administrative actions of public bodies, public access to data and legal reservations, creativity in archaeology and copyright-copyleft of scientific data produced by public administrations and/or professionals on behalf of the former.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 67-92; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.09
Vincoli alla riproduzione dei beni culturali, oltre la proprietà intellettuale
Abstract
In most cases, cultural heritage refers to creative works whose copyright has expired a long time ago or even never existed. This situation can give the impression that those cultural assets are undoubtedly in the public domain and there are no restrictions for their reproduction. This paper, based solely on Italian law, tries to show, on the one hand, that their public domain status is still partial due to a distorted and manipulative use of so-called intellectual property; on the other hand, it demonstrates that there are far more incisive constraints arising from administrative law and an entrenched bureaucratic and contractual practice which is contrary to a free and unconditional reproducibility of the cultural heritage. The paper explores the most common tricks used to ward off the danger of the public domain and presents the legal instruments required to make these cultural assets and resources really open. Furthermore, this paper offers a comment, based on a critical approach, about the most relevant rules provided by the Italian legal system for this legal and cultural subject.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 93-110; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.10
Verso una democrazia della cultura: libero accesso e libera condivisione dei dati
Abstract
The subject of the access and free reuse of cultural data is one of the more topical challenges in the modern democracy of the knowledge. The full affirmation of this principle, still finding today however several cultural obstacles both on a cultural and a regulatory point of view, would allow to rethink toward more including forms the public administration’s approach to cultural heritage. This paper focuses on the request, advanced by the movement Fotografie libere per i Beni Culturali to extend the free photography for research purposes to public archives and libraries, lately fulfilled by the law n. 124/2017 which entered into force on the 29th of August. Great opportunities may instead be presented by the adoption of licenses by museums, archives, and libraries, allowing free commercial reuse of digitization, as well as that panorama freedom today still denied in Italy. The paper concludes by examining another category of cultural data, namely documentation related to the archaeological excavations preserved in the MiBACT archives: free access to this type of data could encourage not only archaeological research, but also more efficient conservation and promotional activities.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 111-134; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.11
Open Data, Open Knowledge, Open Science: quali prospettive?
Abstract
In this report, the Author focuses on the SITAR Conference session devoted to good practices for developing open data, open knowledge, and open science in archaeology. A concise account of the most accredited national and international policies and actions to promote the open science movement introduces some comments on future research and publishing perspectives.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 137-140; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.12
ARIADNE e gli Open Data: come trasformare i dati archeologici da open a “FAIR”
Abstract
In its four years of activity the ARIADNE project has created a catalogue of European digital archives which offers a portal that makes it possible to search the repository, where about two million datasets are recorded. The project has implemented an Open Data system applying the FAIR principles (Findable-Accessible-Interoperable-Reusable), and making available a concrete re-use of these important information sources, which otherwise would be difficult to access as most of the contents are unpublished.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 141-150; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.13
Un’illogica retrospettiva
Abstract
In this short essay, the Author reflects on what the prospects were for the Technical Tables for the coordination and integration of the National Archaeological Territorial Information System at different spatial scales, and the subsequent outcomes. This leads the Author to critically analyze the role of technology and induces him to think about a change in the point of view and to focus on a new perspective.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 151-155; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.14
Da Roma, a Verona, alle zone dell’Agro: andata e ritorno. Una sperimentazione di interoperabilità tra SITAR, SITAVR e SITAIS
Patrizia Basso, Piergiovanna Grossi, Brunella Bruno, Alberto Belussi, Sara Migliorini
Abstract
The collaboration between the SITAR and SITAVR projects, started in 2013, has continued thanks to a shared process of consolidation including: the conceptual model (GeoUML), the metadata, the documentation of the physical database and the publishing of data in XML format. The work also continued with a study on modelling and managing the time dimension in the context of archaeological databases and an experiment aiming to use the developed methodology and tools on a small town, Isola della Scala, in the province of Verona as part of the SITAIS project. Given the availability of three autonomous systems for three different territories linked by a single conceptual model, it was possible to test interoperability between the three implemented systems. The first experiment was developed by navigating an XML complex schema, where all the catalogued objects and associations between them were represented. A Web Feature Service was implemented for accessing data and a web application is currently being developed to allow users to query, navigate data and interrogate the three systems at once. A second experiment involved the generation of an XML simplified schema, where data are accessible on a single and flat form. Again, a Web Feature Service was implemented and a common GIS software was used to visualize the data provided by this service. The sharing of a conceptual model and vocabularies proved to be a winning approach for archaeological research and for the future interoperability between systems.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 157-170; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.15
Il patrimonio archivistico del Museo Nazionale dell’Alto Medioevo: inventariazione e valorizzazione in termini digitali
Abstract
ARCHIVE MAME is a digitization and cataloging project of the archivistic collection at the National Museum of the Middle Ages (MAME) in Rome. This project was possible thanks to an agreement signed in 2015 between the Museum and the National Research Council (CNR). Established in 1967, the National Museum of the Middle Ages preserves and exhibits materials dating from the fourth and the fourteenth century coming mainly from the city of Rome and from the central areas of Italy. Among its finds there is an excellent group of finds from the two most important Longobard necropolises in central Italy, Nocera Umbra and Castel Trosino. It is composed of weapons kits, jewelry, ivory, glass and bronze vessels and ceramics. The archive consists of repertory records and models following the history and the evolution of archaeological objects and pieces in the collection.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 171-186; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.16
Spunti di discussione dalla lettura degli Atti del III Convegno di Studi SITAR
Abstract
This paper presents the proceedings of the SITAR III edition, held in 2013. Two previous conferences have been held, the first in 2010 and the second in 2011 and proceedings of both have been published, thus offering an example of continuity and assiduity in their cultural and scientific involvement. This third volume shows how the experience has evolved, how it has spread, and its main features, in comparison with other similar initiatives. The volume is composed of seven parts and contains 33 articles, but only a few of the papers are mentioned here. Essentially, the second section on the spread of the SITAR model, the seventh section, and the last section are considered, choosing some of the cases developed within the SITAR itself. Summing up, some general considerations concerning three indispensable goals to be achieved in the future are cited: the rooting of the territorial laboratory in the structure of the Superintendence, the construction of the digital heritage; the contextual vision of cultural heritage.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 189-198; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.17
Il SITAR: verso la conoscenza condivisa
Abstract
Sharing and communicating archaeological knowledge and heritage as a whole has been, and still is, one of the main points of strength of SITAR. It is possible to argue that this goal has been achieved not just thanks to technological tools but by moving from a cultural premise based on a prevalent contextual concept of archaeology and cultural communication.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, Supplemento 9, 199-208; doi: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.18
Oltre EAGLE: l’International Digital Epigraphy Association (IDEA). Una presentazione in anteprima
Abstract
On 9 May 2016 a group of core partners of the EAGLE project founded IDEA - The International Digital Epigraphy Association in order to maintain, perpetuate and improve this ground breaking project. IDEA represents the most fluid, lean, and efficient way to preserve EAGLE’s legacy and it will carry forward the work established by the EAGLE former partners. The goal of the association is to promote the use of advanced methodologies in research, study, enhancement, and publication of “written monuments”, beginning with those of antiquity, in order to enhance their knowledge at multiple levels of expertise, from that of specialists to that of the occasional tourist. Furthermore, scope of the association is to expand and enlarge the results of EAGLE providing a sustainability model to ensure the long-term maintenance of the project results and to pursue its original aims. IDEA first General Assembly was held in Pisa on 28 September 2016.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2016, 27, 353-355; doi: 10.19282/AC.27.2016.18
Verso gli Open Data: l’ICCD e gli standard nazionali. Alcune riflessioni per un quadro metodologico condiviso
Maria Letizia Mancinelli, Antonella Negri
Abstract
As established by the Italian cultural heritage laws, as part of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism (MiBACT), the Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation (ICCD) coordinates procedures and tools for cataloguing and documenting cultural heritage. The ICCD has consistently focused its operational policies on dialogue with other institutions involved in the management of cultural heritage (other offices of MiBACT, Italian Regions, the Italian Episcopal Conference, Universities and Research institutions and, more recently, foundations and private associations). The need to identify rules and methods governing the sharing of knowledge in the world of cataloguing has become a priority in the era of the computer revolution. In the 1990s the first definitions of standard models for the acquisition of data and protocols for the exchange of information were established. Those tools have gradually evolved into the current system of regulations. The attention to open data/linked open data is, for the ICCD, the natural outcome of an institutional process always aimed at comparing and sharing knowledge. With the development of SIGEC (General Catalogue Information System), which allows the management of the entire production process of cataloguing, the ICCD facilitates interoperability with external systems and the information process for the public use of data. The paper focuses on the strategies and tools developed by the ICCD on the basis of its experience, to allow the widest sharing of knowledge.
Considerazioni sugli Open Data e i beni culturali e paesaggistici in Italia. Il decreto Artbonus: cosa cambia per la riproduzione dei beni culturali
Marco Ciurcina, Piergiovanna Grossi
Abstract
Recent changes introduced by the Italian Artbonus Decree indicate that it is now possible to reproduce and communicate to the public photographs of cultural heritage objects under certain conditions (those indicated in section 108, paragraph 3-bis of the Code of cultural heritage and landscape). Systematic interpretation suggests that the rules in the Code of cultural heritage and landscape do not prevent the so called ‘freedom of panorama’, i.e. the possibility to take and publish external and panoramic views of monuments and sites considered as part of the cultural heritage.
Banche dati e comunicazione tra crisi dell’archeologia e riforme del MiBACT
Abstract
The most radical change in human history, which occurred rapidly within a few decades, is leading to a loss not only of historical memory, but also areas of expertise and thus socio-economic alternatives to the new globalized society. At the same time, the holistic approach to the study of historical evidence has finally dealt a blow to the system of protection that uses inadequate tools. As practiced by the specialized Superintendencies, it is no longer able to deal with the unending proliferation of material data which is now considered useful for the understanding of our past. This dual crisis challenges the redesign of the system of protection implemented by Dario Franceschini, current Minister of the MiBACT (Ministry for Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism), launched with the Prime Minister’s Decree of August 2014 and continued with the new proposal of January 2016. Redesign, however, will not improve the current situation, without a real polycentricy able to involve a plurality of actors and to propose new meanings of the past for the man of the twenty-first century.
INSCRIPTA. A research network for Latin epigraphy
Abstract
Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2015, 26, 35-36; doi: 10.19282/ac.26.2015.12
Swedish National Data Services (SND), a national infrastructure for research data
Abstract
Paper presented at the Italic inscriptions and databases workshop.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2015, 26, 39-40; doi: 10.19282/ac.26.2015.14
Sistemi digitali di documentazione e analisi archeologica. Verso quale direzione?
Stefano Bertoldi, Vittorio Fronza, Marco Valenti
Abstract
This paper explores some issues related to recording and analyzing archaeological datasets. After making our (neo-)processualist approach clear, some key digital technologies (relational databases) and methodologies (conceptual modelling) are discussed as examples to assess the actual state of archaeological information systems and reflect upon possible future directions. This brings us also to define the limits of quantitative (and especially predictive) analyses. Variability of parameters and, above all, the extensive lack of reality tests are heavy hindering factors. Precisely defining the variables and attractors based on specific questions can help us to relativize complex systems, bending the analyses to our needs.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2015, 26, 233-243; doi: 10.19282/ac.26.2015.28
Paesaggi trascorsi e globalità dell’archeologia
Abstract
Landscape Archaeology arises from the spread of a stratigraphic mentality understood as culture, as well as a simple way to investigate. Since its birth, Landscape Archaeology has had a close relationship with Medieval Archaeology. More difficult was the relationship with Classical Archaeology. Only the most careful and curious classical archaeologists had seen the gap and lack of an organic relationship with the natural sciences and geography. In the last decades archaeology has become a place of participation and communication. The past has been told to a wide public through exhibitions and museums, following a path to grow again, until the current systemic crisis of the world’s cultural heritage. Archaeology is a discipline with its own constitution and, within it, global landscape archaeology has its own identity. It is, however, essential that archaeology benefits from closer relationships with other sciences and knowledge networks. A clear change of perspective seems, at this point, necessary. The territorialist approach can be very useful and help to draw new roads.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2015, 26, 245-253; doi: 10.19282/ac.26.2015.29
Nuove linee di ricerca fra archeologia pre-dittiva e post-dittiva
Abstract
This paper focuses on a survey of the Predictive Archaeology domain, including a review of its key developments since the 1960s. A working and minimalist definition of Predictive Archaeology (P) - which becomes Preventive Archaeology in its application, that is, when it is expressed through the quantification of the risk of archaeological impact - may be that of a prediction technique for locating archaeological sites in terra incognita, based on a sample of known sites (terra cognita) or on assumptions about human location/allocation behavior in the past. A prospective view of possible short-term evolutionary scenarios is also illustrated.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2015, 26, 301-313; doi: 10.19282/ac.26.2015.34
Grande Progetto Pompei: la Direzione Generale per le Antichità e il piano della conoscenza
Maria Grazia Fichera, Luigi Malnati, Maria Letizia Mancinelli
Abstract
In relation to the project approved by the European Commission, the Direzione Generale per le Antichità has been charged with the responsibility of implementing the Knowledge Plan in accordance with the Cabina di Regia of the Consiglio Superiore per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici guidelines. A working group, composed of archaeologists from MiBACT in cooperation with informatics experts, was therefore established with the objective of creating a logic system capable of gathering and managing all information pertaining to the Pompeii area. The research and analysis have culminated in the project currently presented, and is the realization of an informatics system that integrates technical-descriptive with geographical and cartographical data, permitting the analysis of all the archaeological and architectural components of the ancient City. The project has enabled an evaluation of the state of preservation and deterioration factors, with the object of implementing a programmed conservation with periodic inspections and interventions that are not solely based on emergency factors.
Progetti nazionali ed europei sul Digital Cultural Heritage
Abstract
The Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle biblioteche italiane (ICCU) is an Institute of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e il Turismo; it manages the National Library Service, the union catalogue of over 5,000 Italian libraries, and is responsible for providing the standard rules and regulations for cataloguing all types of materials ranging from manuscripts to multimedia documents and for digitization of CH. ICCU has extensive experience in digitization standards and guidelines and coordinates on behalf of the Ministry major digital cultural heritage projects at the national level such as Internet Culturale, the portal of the digital resources of the Italian libraries, and CulturaItalia, the national aggregator for Europeana. At the European level the expertise of ICCU’s staff is dedicated to the coordination of top level European initiatives in DCH, such as MINERVA, the series of 3 projects that ran from 2002 to 2008 for the harmonization of the policies in DCH, and more recently the projects for contributing content to Europeana like: ATHENA, Linked Heritage, ATHENA Plus. ICCU coordinated also projects to bring the CH on the wave of the e-Infrastructures: DC-NET project, INDICATE and DCH-RP that investigated other political and technical domains of the relation between the DCH sector and e-Infrastructures. ICCU is also partner in many European projects, such as PARTAGE and ARIADNE, a research infrastructure in Archaeology.
Un’infrastruttura di ricerca per l’archeologia: il progetto ARIADNE
Abstract
ARIADNE brings together and integrates existing archaeological research data infrastructures, so that researchers can use the various distributed datasets and new and powerful technologies as an integral component of the archaeological research methodology. ARIADNE is funded by the European Commission under the Community’s Seventh Framework Programme, contract no. FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1-313193. The project started on 1st February 2013 and runs for 48 months.
La cultura al CNR, nel sistema Paese e in Horizon 2020
Abstract
Social sciences and humanities, and cultural heritage have been investigated at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) since the agency’s reform in March 4, 1963. From that date on, CNR has made it possible for the Italian SSH and CH communities to undergo a rapid and far-reaching development, which has brought about vital technological innovations - such as the setting up of Italy’s first digital library in 1964 - as well as substantial services to the country - one thinks of the industrial applications provoked by the rapid improvement of cultural heritage restoration techniques in the aftermath of the Florence flood of November 4, 1966. Today SSH and CH researchers are part of the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Cultural Heritage (DSU-CNR). At the center of DSU-CNR investigations are all social objects, be they material or immaterial (artifacts, books, social findings), but always set by a person, which now makes a repositioning of technological development increasingly urgent. Persons are not out there only to make sure machines work, they are expected to ask the questions that human beings find it necessary to pose while proceeding along the via humanitatis. Culture is about people that take part in the project of constructing Europe as a society that ought to be less unequal, less unjust, less segregating, and less passive with regard to differing starting environments. CNR researchers work in synergy and express the potentials of diverse sectors. They have integrated findings and methods of history, philology, linguistics, archaeology, physics, chemistry, and ICT. Among the new cross-disciplinary fields that have emerged are: heritage science, the ageing society and migration studies. The result is a multidisciplinary context, which is dynamic and productive, and in which natural sciences dialogue with humanities for the sake of cultural heritage cognition, conservation and valorization.
Condivisione nella cultura e cooperazione nella ricerca: iniziative scientifiche nel campo dell’Open Access e degli Open Archives
Abstract
In line with the policy promoted by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) since the 1960s for the convergence of the two cultures, we provide an illustration of the long and fruitful path followed by today’s Institute for Ancient Mediterranean Studies. In the early 1980s, the launch of an innovative research programme gave rise to the first experiments in computer applications in archaeology. This approach, in which data formalisation was already a core issue, subsequently led to the establishment of the scholarly journal Archeologia e Calcolatori and, more recently, to the commitment to open access philosophy. The main goal was to open up new research directions, resulting from the convergence and integration of tools and objectives shared by different disciplines. Today, the whole process substantially benefits from the choice of making data openly available to the research community.
A review of case studies in archaeological least-cost analysis
Abstract
The application of least-cost analysis (LCA) in archaeology has considerably increased in recent years. Modern Geographical Information Systems provide the tools for generating least-cost site catchments, least-cost paths and route networks as well as accessibility maps. Recently, published case studies present LCA results for very different time periods and parts of the world. Consequently, it seems that the technology for generating these results is readily available and reliable. However, the quality of the LCA outcome depends on the accuracy and the resolution of the geographical data used, and on the cost model itself. Varying the parameters of the cost model allows assessing the stability of the modelled catchments, routes or accessibility maps. Without validation, the LCA results remain exploratory and should not be used as a basis for building an even more complex model. The technical aspects of the case studies considered will be discussed with respect to these issues.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2014, 25, 223-239; doi: 10.19282/ac.25.2014.12
Parcours culturels pour une histoire de l’informatique appliquée à l’archéologie
Abstract
The Author illustrates an international research project on the history of archaeological computing which was promoted by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and the Italian CNR. As part of this project, a website dedicated to the virtual museum of archaeological computing is currently under construction, with the purpose of retracing the roots and reconstructing the development of this recent and evolving discipline. Along with a more traditional navigation method into the subject matter, which is presented in chronological order, some cultural itineraries have been planned: scholars will be invited to share stories, illustrate the establishment of institutions or laboratories dedicated to computer applications in archaeology and propose innovative research paths.
Jean-Claude Gardin (Parigi 1925-2013). Dalla meccanografica all'informatica archeologica
Abstract
The article attempts to retrace some of the early years of the scientific activity of Jean-Claude Gardin, throughout a particularly fertile period of about five years that certainly affected all of his subsequent scientific endeavours. Starting in the mid 1950s, Gardin carefully followed the international evolution of documentation systems and tirelessly promoted the innovative methods of investigation that will eventually make him one of the undisputed pioneers of archaeological computing. At the same time, he founded and led highly specialised laboratories that have acted as a breeding ground for the formalisation of archaeological research associated with the process of data representation and classification, as well as the construction of scientific knowledge.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2013, 24, 7-24; doi: 10.19282/ac.24.2013.01
MOD (MAPPA Open Data). Conservare, disseminare, collaborare: un archivio open data per l’archeologia italiana
Francesca Anichini, Gabriele Gattiglia, Maria Letizia Gualandi, Valerio Noti
Abstract
An archaeological excavation is an unrepeatable practice. The only action that can be reproduced and re-analysed is the continuous use of raw data. Data sharing, therefore, is the only way to understand and re-examine the archaeological interpretative process and to answer questions regarding new surveys. Data do not circulate freely in Italian archaeology today. In order to make open data searchable (and, therefore, usable), they must be entered in open archives. Only the free access to raw data, based upon an Open Data approach, will allow a further step to be taken towards 2.0 archaeology. The idea of creating an Italian open digital archaeological archive, using data from the urban area of Pisa as case-study, originated from the MAPPA project (Methodologies Applied to Archaeological Potential Predictivity). The main objectives of the MAPPA Open Data (MOD) archive will be to allow simple and free access to all archaeological data (of any type or size) and to guarantee a digital lifecycle for as long as possible.
Corso base di free software e open source in archeologia: bilancio di un’esperienza di divulgazione pratica
Luca Bezzi, Kathrin Feistmantl, Simone Deola, Valeria Grazioli, Simone Pedron, Maura Stefani
Abstract
In February of 2012 a basic course was given at the Livelet Archaeological Park, in Revine Lago (Treviso, Italy), about free and open source software for archaeology. It was organized by members of the Studio Associato Sestante and Arc team and supported by the Archaeological Park itself. The express purpose of the course was that of providing an overview of the many possibilities offered by these types of software in the archaeological field, in order to introduce participants to an unknown world, both in the universities and at work. The analysis of the responses to a questionnaire given to the participants has produced very encouraging results.
Introduzione
Abstract
Introduction to the Proceedings.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2012, 23, 211-212; doi: 10.19282/ac.23.2012.12
L’échange numérique de données d’inventaire entre acteurs de l’archéologie: une réflexion en cours
Abstract
The purpose of the project led at the present time by the sub-direction of archaeology (Ministère de la Culture) is to organize the data transmission under IT format from one actor to another in the archaeological process of artifact management and documentation. This would mean that the diverse actors involved - regional services of the archaeology, department of the underwater and submarine archaeological researches, operators, administrators of preservation and studies centers, excavation warehouses, or museums agents responsible for archaeological collections - would not be obliged to collect this information again on their own computer systems, during the relay passage between actors.
L'approche par les processus en archéologie
Abstract
The introduction of the concept of the Archaeological Information System (AIS) made it possible to propose the existence of an integrated generic applicative architecture, computerizing the functions of archaeological practice (Djindjian 1993). It also allowed us to rationalize the software architecture of the AIS, by limiting the amount of useful software for the archaeologists and by simplifying the interfaces between products. The following step, proposed here, is urbanizing the AIS, by defining precisely all the business processes of archaeological research and management, defining an organization of an archaeological professionalization and a more rational and interchanging realization of the AIS applicative and software architecture. Business processes are not the only processes encountered in archaeology. There are also: the processes of the archaeological method, which allow us to control the links between the recorded archaeological data and the target data of the society to be reconstituted; the systemic processes which are running the operations of the societies which the archaeologist is trying to reconstitute: technical systems, economical systems, culture change, etc. The progressive development of the process approach, will constitute a significant evolution in archaeology, not only for the archaeologist business and archaeological methods, but also for the systemic reconstitution capabilities of past societies.
Quantifier les processus archéologiques
Abstract
Since 1950, in the history of Quantitative Archaeology, the data approach has been the essence of the mathematical and statistical applications in Archaeology. In the present paper, it is proposed to focus on the process approach and to point out new fields of mathematical applications in Archaeology. Several archaeological processes are shown, for example, archaeological business process, stratigraphy process, post-depositional process, taphonomic process, technological (manufacturing) process, building process, intersite spatial process (landscape archaeology), exchange process, cultural change process. The list is not exhaustive and has only the purpose of illustrating the interest of such an approach. Several examples of applications are given, which show the differences between the data approach and the process approach. The mathematical techniques, which are used, are mainly the description and the quantification of the processes, elementary statistics, data analysis, stochastic models and the simulation by multi-agent systems.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2010, 21, 233-247; doi: 10.19282/ac.21.2010.13
Gli anni ’70 e la Scuola Normale
Abstract
The author focuses on the role played by the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa during the 1970s and 1980s in the development of computer applications in archaeology and art history. The roots of this activity can be traced to the post-war period in the 1950s; these were years full of constructive optimism which, during the 1960s led to the design and construction of the CEP (Calcolatrice Elettronica Pisana), to the first academic Degree in Computer Science at the University of Pisa, and to the creation of CNUCE (Centro Nazionale Universitario di Calcolo Elettronico). This latter was founded in order to coordinate the various scientific and educational activities and support computer-based research also in marginal and newly established fields. Several important initiatives resulted from the cooperation with the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione, directed by Oreste Ferrari. Computer Science was introduced at the Scuola Normale Superiore as an approach to the problems related to the automatic processing of archaeological and art history data and documents, thanks to Paola Barocchi and the creation of the Centro di Elaborazione Automatica di Dati e Documenti Storico Artistici, which established important international relationships with the Paul Getty Foundation, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti, the Warburg Institute, etc.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 11-15; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.02
Informatica archeologica e non archeologica
Abstract
What is the use of reflecting on the history of Digital Archaeology? Dividing the history of Digital Humanities in general into four stages, Digital Archaeology was born in the stage of “pioneers’ applications” (1960-70), and for some time it developed both in practice and in theory. The theory seemed especially interesting also for non digital Archaeology, but around 1990 technology suffocated the more complicated and difficult theoretical approach. The opportunity to go back to this approach is demonstrated in three special cases: the creation of databases, the encoding procedures, and the relations between archaeology and information science.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 17-26; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.03
From anarchy to good practice: the evolution of standards in archaeological computing
Abstract
This paper reviews the importance of standards in archaeological computing and traces their development, and the tensions surrounding their deployment. Three categories of standards are defined: technical, content and metadata standards. Standards are shown to be particularly important to current initiatives which seek to achieve interoperability between distributed electronic resources. If we are to achieve the potential advantages of a Semantic Web for heritage data over traditional search engine technologies, standards are essential. The paper introduces the Archaeotools project, which is seeking to create a faceted browse interface to archaeological resources. It concludes that data standards and ontologies are essential to the success of such projects.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 27-35; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.04
www.beazley.ox.ac.uk. From apparatus of scholarship to web resource. The Beazley Archive 1970-2008
Abstract
Over nearly four decades the Beazley Archive has developed from a personal archive, whose origins were rooted in 19th century classical scholarship, to a state-of-the-art electronic resource that can be used anywhere, at any time by anyone. The challenges along the way are noted and the ways they were met, in the hope of inspiring others to persevere. The first decade was "organisational", the second saw the adoption of ICT, the third was dominated by participation in EU R and D projects in telecommunications, and the fourth by the Vision of CLAROS - Classical Art Research Online Services. Since this lecture was given in autumn 2008 the CLAROS Vision has become a reality: by August 2009 more than two million records and images were integrated virtually using CIDOC-CRM. By adopting an ISO programme developed under the aegis of UNESCO for ICOM, the International Council of Museums, and by enhancing it with Open Source software, CLAROS offers a platform that any museum or research institute with digital assets can use free of charge for the public benefit. As the Beazley Archive approaches its fifth decade, it looks forward to collaborating for the advancement of scholarship and dissemination of results to the global community.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 37-46; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.05
Esperienze documentali sul territorio dagli anni ’80 ad oggi. Alcune considerazioni
Abstract
In the early 1990s the author brought attention to the fact that the Carta Archeologica d’Italia - due to the entity of the project which involved all of the national territory and the time required for the relative research - was in urgent need of a structural updating, through an effective system of access to the results. These demands were of a nature that only a correct use of computer technologies could guarantee in real operational time. In that period, only a few advanced experimental peaks of topographic research actually included the automatic transition of information from the phase of terrain reading to that of operational planning feasibility. Since then, many scientific projects have been devoted to locating and documenting tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Italy. However, we still have to deal with the problem of adopting common platforms to share information and make use of cartographic systems in a GIS environment, regardless of the symbols being used in the documentation phase as well as in the interpretive phase. The same information can be turned from geographical points into plan details, through an automatic scale conversion and with a scientific perspective available for the requirements of different user environments. The author concludes by remarking on the urgent need of a convergence of competences from specialised sectors. Nevertheless, modern research, while taking advantage of the co-operation of a wide range of experts, should always consider that results coming from different points of observation pertain to the observers’ specific field and should not be "invasive" but respectful of their methods.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 47-59; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.06
The golden years for mathematics and computers in archaeology (1965-1985)
Abstract
A major quantitative movement in all of the Social and Human Sciences known as Operational Research, started after the last world war with the application of mathematics developed for the optimization of war logistics. Since the 1960s, the fascinating progress of computer technology in the field of scientific research has amplified the movement which saw the first applications to Archaeology around 1966. At the time, the success of a Quantitative Archaeology was associated with the revolution in multidimensional data analysis, which occurred with computerisation and improvements in the algorithms, mainly Multidimensional scaling, Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Correspondence Analysis and various Cluster Analyses. The Conference of Mamaia (Romania) in 1970, which may be considered as the first and most spectacular scientific event of this period of foundation, found expression in the book Mathematics and Computers in Archaeology by Doran and Hodson (1975). From 1975 to 1985, the quantitative movement experienced its finest period with the transition from the research field to the application field, both for algorithms and software, and the diffusion of Correspondence Analysis, Principal Component Analysis associated with Cluster Analysis and their use by archaeologists. Numerous papers and books were published during that period. After 1985, the quantitative movement fell into disfavour, probably due to the "deconstruction" paradigm and the passing fashion of expert systems. Nevertheless, it is also possible to state that Quantitative Archaeology had now definitively entered into the standard methods of Archaeology.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 61-73; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.07
Archaeological computing then and now: theory and practice, intentions and tensions
Abstract
This paper is a brief and personal historical overview of the development of archaeological computing and its relationship with changing archaeological theory. I outline the changes in theoretical approaches through the 1960s to 1980s and how these relate to archaeological data, methodologies, the use of models and interpretation. Two sub-themes within the paper are the importance of scale and the representation of qualitative, as well as quantitative, data and interpretations. Through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications in archaeology, I discuss various aspects of recent theoretical approaches and how they have been represented through archaeological computing. Because this is not an easy relationship, I suggest that the intentions of an analysis will inevitably produce tensions between practice and theory. It is by confronting these tensions that the discipline of archaeological computing will move forward beyond technologically determined push-button solutions.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 75-84; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.08
Strumenti "tradizionali" e nuove tecnologie per la comunicazione in archeologia
Abstract
This paper illustrates the main research projects implemented by the LIA (Laboratory of Archaeological Computing) at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy) in the field of computer application to archaeology. This activity started in 1983 with the first excavation data management system. Further developments are linked with the use of GIS in the field of settlement studies and, more recently, with the implementation of two web-based applications, which represent the on-line versions of the older systems. The paper also presents the results of a research project, LandLab Project, in the field of multimedia communication.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 85-94; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.09
The birth and historical development of computational intelligence applications in archaeology
Abstract
Twenty years after the consolidation of a true professional archaeology in search of a "scientific" dream, mathematics and computers made their appearance in the discipline. In the same way, the first essays dealing with "automatic archaeology" appeared in the 1950s, looking for standardization of archaeological description and statistical reasoning, but we had to wait for another 30 years until the appropriate technology was available. At the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, Expert Systems were considered as a true promise towards the independence of archaeological reasoning from subjectivity. Nevertheless, the rise of postmodernism and the radical critique, with its emphasis on subjectivity and situational context of the research effort generated considerable turmoil that, in appearance, buried the dream of an automatic archaeology. Research efforts in these domains of computational intelligence continued, however, especially in the domains of remote sensing and archaeometry. Modern technological developments like 3D scanning are responsible for a revival of interest in computational intelligence methods. Today, we are still far from the early dream of an automatic archaeology, but it is no longer a "nightmare". It is a technological reality that will contribute to a more professional and scientific-based archaeology.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 95-109; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.10
Representing knowledge in archaeology: from cataloguing cards to Semantic Web
Abstract
Knowledge has been the driving force behind the Italian National Catalogue of Cultural Heritage. In the first stage, when the catalogue was mainly based on hand written paper cards describing objects regardless of their complexity, and intended for manual access by humans, the expert’s tacit knowledge remained unexpressed, and the card had a simple structure. Computer based applications initially relied on the features of Information Retrieval Systems, and simply converted typewritten cards into electronic documents. As results were quite disappointing, it became evident that a more formal representation of information was needed. The Italian experience led to the definition of a model for objects (simple, complex, aggregation of objects) with quite a large number of fields. Even if the schema was often perceived as too rigid, it proved to be effective for data exchange, and long lasting (the present XML model is almost the same, just with a different syntax). However, its main drawback was the "object centred" approach, and the impossibility of representing significant semantic associations with other disciplines. In this sense, a major objective, the contextualization of objects, remained unattained. The web has been a "cultural revolution", because information is available everywhere, and users feel the need to combine different sources of knowledge. This semantic interoperability issue is often dealt with by adopting a metadata based approach (Dublin Core is the most popular). However, the metadata approach has the intrinsic limit that metadata are properties we "predicate" about items they refer to, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to derive new knowledge from the old. The Semantic Web perspective is much more ambitious, as the aim is to represent, export and share knowledge in a "machine understandable" way, and to allow intelligent agents to reason about it. In this light, scholars’ knowledge must be formalized and made explicit as ontology, and very probably we will have to agree on a different model to represent objects, in a distributed and multicultural environment. This is not the end of the traditional scholars’ knowledge, but a more effective environment for making this knowledge available to all users.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 111-128; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.11
Museo Virtuale dell’Informatica: un esempio emblematico
Abstract
The Virtual Museum of the History of Italian Computer Science is a project which was started in 1996 and, due to lack of funding, was never completed (and therefore is not available to the general public). The project, which presented a complete and, for that time, innovative "design", was carried out by the Politecnico di Milano and two CNR Institutes (now unified in the ISTI - Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione "A. Faedo"). It includes an archive, where all basic information is stored, and two different interfaces: a direct search access to the archive, for specialised and expert users, and a navigation access via web, for extended public users. Information available includes documents and photographs, biographies, descriptions of achievements and innovations, etc. One special characteristic is the use of interviews to key persons, that recreates the heroic, pioneering atmosphere, typical of Computer Science in the 1950s. This use of first person narration as reported by the protagonists can be considered a precursor of solutions that became very common many years later (e.g. Web 2.0) and could be a model for archaeology in general.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 129-144; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.12
"Archeologia e Calcolatori": le ragioni di una scelta
Abstract
As Editor of the international Journal "Archeologia e Calcolatori", the author retraces the history of this editorial enterprise, which was established in 1989 by Mauro Cristofani and Riccardo Francovich. The Journal, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is devoted to archaeological computing, a research sector characterised by the combining of information technologies with traditional archaeological methods. The path followed in the formulation of the editorial plan and its scientific coordination is reconstructed through various main stages: the reasons for the choice of the Journal’s title, its field of application and chronological range; the description of the contemporary international panorama, still characterised by isolated initiatives; the members of the international Scientific Committee, all representatives of the major Italian and foreign institutions; the scientific contents, with particular emphasis on the publication of special thematic issues and international conference proceedings; the archaeological computing bibliography, an information tool as well as a practical approach to systematising this young discipline. The present-day editorial policy of "Archeologia e Calcolatori" is dedicated to increasing the visibility and on-line diffusion of the Journal, and in this way furthering its original purpose: acquiring sources of information, as well as providing them.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 145-154; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.13
Provando e riprovando: un quarto di secolo di applicazioni
Abstract
In the first part, the paper introduces the section that collects historical syntheses of some of the most relevant issues related to technological applications in archaeology. Databases, GIS, multimedia applications, cataloguing activities of archaeological heritage, museums, and the Internet are the fields chosen to illustrate more than 25 years of research, projects, realizations. The paper stresses common criticisms and recurrent difficulties in these sectors of research, but also important results and achievements for archaeology on the whole. In the second part, the paper briefly discusses the relationship between the Internet and archaeology. Web applications in archaeology started in the early 1990s. Initially, archaeologists were very suspicious of web reliability: the Internet was a useful tool for popularization purposes, not for scientific research. The paper discusses reasons for the failure of some archaeological applications - for example electronic publishing and limited area search engine - and success of others: museum web sites above all, with their effective use of visual and interactive web technologies. Nowadays the Internet is an almost unavoidable tool for every type of archaeological research and it seems to have become the comprehensive frame in which all other technological applications are expressed. Internet technologies could introduce a new communication structure in archaeological research with the use of interactivity and hypermedia. The last challenges in ICT are the so called Web 2.0, social computing and a radically innovative vision of hypertext structure: these research fields could change the way of archaeological culture communication and knowledge transmission.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 155-168; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.14
Punto di non-ritorno (Cartografia numerica, Sistemi Informativi Territoriali, Analisi spaziali)
Abstract
Around the mid 1980s, the Italian sector - at the time very limited - of the archaeological sciences interested in geo-topographical problems responded eagerly to the practical and theoretical solutions offered by computer science and by advanced technologies, and became one of the most developed sectors in the European panorama in this particular subject. Twenty years later, we can observe, on one hand, the notable success of this type of applications that has, among other things, contributed to drive towards territorial studies many sectors of Italian research that had not previously been interested in it; and, on the other hand, the extreme fragmentation of the initiatives, that remains an unsolved problem for future developments. Within a single decade in fact we lost those guidelines that would have been able to transform some high but still distant peaks of quality, into a systematically coordinated approach, and, especially, in a common cognitive base, which was perhaps primitive but for this reason, "basic", not only for the development of research, but also for a diffused and shared means of safeguarding our archaeological heritage.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 169-177; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.15
La catalogazione informatica del patrimonio archeologico
Abstract
The article presents a brief description of the principal institutions which, during the 1970s and 1980s, were in charge of the computer cataloguing of their respective national cultural heritages, with specific emphasis on archaeological heritage. Particular attention is dedicated to the Italian experience, with some reference to the situation in England and in France during the same period. The 1970s and 1980s are, in fact, two particularly remarkable decades, in which centralised national projects followed the first isolated experimentations, and developed tools, such as lexicons and thesauri, as well as techniques for indexing and information retrieval. The article focuses in particular on the activity conducted in Italy by the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione (ICCD), as well as that of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. As far as England is concerned, the author describes the pioneer research work of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), founded in 1908, and, more recently, that of the Archaeology Data Service (ADS); for France, the author focuses on the work conducted since 1964 by the Inventaire général des monuments et richesses artistiques de la France.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 179-187; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.16
1984-2009. Da Te.m.p.l.a. al Centro di Ricerca per le Tecnologie Multimediali Applicate all’Archeologia. Un caso di studio nella storia delle applicazioni multimediali in archeologia
Abstract
By means of the NADIR network, designed by the Research Centre for Multimedia Technologies Applied to Archaeology (Te.m.p.l.a.), the Department of Archaeology of the University of Bologna organises, controls and develops the use of multimedia technologies in archaeological activities. The reach of NADIR covers a broad spectrum of activities that ranges from the management of the net and the working seats, to the organisation of the equipment logistics, to the realisation of special operational workspace and services (e.g., Unibook.it) and the experimental projects for the remote-control of workspaces and multimedia exhibition halls (e.g., the Multimedia and Multifunctional Museum of Onferno).
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 189-204; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.17
From artefact typologies to cultural heritage ontologies: or, an account of the lasting impact of archaeological computing
Abstract
Research in theoretical and computer-based archaeology, from the 1950s onwards, established important perspectives for the formal representation and analysis of tangible cultural entities such as complex artefacts, iconographic compositions and archaeological assemblages, and became a precursor for the emergence of knowledge-based tools, methodologies and standards for artefact-centred information systems in contemporary museums. One particular case in point is CLIO, a semantic information system intended for research use, developed by ICS/FORTH and the Benaki Museum in Greece in the early 1990s, which became a foundation for the definition of the Conceptual Reference Model of the International Documentation Committee of ICOM (CIDOC CRM), recently adopted as the ISO standard for cultural information representation. It is argued here that, as the capabilities of computer applications to provide access to complex, multimedia cultural information increase, so does also the validity and importance of earlier research advances in artefact-centred archaeological computing; and, conversely, that the advent of digital infrastructures for material culture disciplines such as archaeology highlights the pertinence, and potential benefits, of further work on archaeological formal analysis and knowledge representation.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 205-222; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.18
Man and sky: problems and methods of Archaeoastronomy
Andrea Polcaro, Vito Francesco Polcaro
Abstract
Archaeoastronomy is a discipline devoted to the study of the astronomical observations preceding the invention of the telescope. It is an interdisciplinary science, requiring the knowledge of astronomers, archaeologists, linguists, anthropologists and architects. It has highlighted the great importance that ancient civilizations attributed to celestial phenomena and demonstrated how the analysis of the testimonies of this interest can greatly help us in the understanding the past history of mankind. However, we must avoid the mistake of believing that it is possible to study the impact of celestial phenomena on ancient cultures without taking into account their context: unfortunately, this error is still common to date. This paper illustrates the evolution of Archaeoastronomy since the beginning of the 20th century, its basic principles and the modern methodologies for Archaeoastronomy measurements and data analysis. Moreover, the proofs needed to claim the actual intentionality of an astronomical alignment are discussed, showing the potential of Archaeoastronomy, as long as it is strongly linked to, and continuously compared with, excavation data, and combined with Archaeology in various cultural contexts, thus providing valuable assistance in the interpretation of material data.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2009, 20, 223-245; doi: 10.19282/ac.20.2009.19
Pubblico ma non pubblico: prospettive normative sulla proprietà intellettuale dei dati archeologici
Abstract
This paper is a reappraisal of the general principles of the laws on cultural heritage, with the possibilities offered by the laws on transparency and copyright, and it debates the idea of a State-exclusive on the publication of archaeological data and the granting new opportunities for freedom of research and scientific information in the interest of everyone.
Riccardo Francovich (1946-2007)
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2007, 18, 7-12; doi: 10.19282/ac.18.2007.01
Metodologia per la valutazione dell’impatto archeologico
Giovanni Campeol, Claudia Pizzinato
Abstract
This paper discusses the application of environment evaluation models, with regards to the Archaeological Component, in consideration of the rules in force for the protection and conservation of the archaeological heritage. The protection both of Cultural Heritage and of planning of infrastructures must follow the principles of «sustainable development». In the first part of the paper, the authors acknowledge the value of environmental and archaeological impact studies on the territory. These studies, which must be conducted in a preliminary phase, make it possible to acquire a more profound knowledge not only of places subject to archaeological risk, but also of the historical and environmental reconstruction that may be useful for carrying out a project. The second part of the essay tackles the methodological problem for the archaeological impact evaluation of a site; this can be developed with the following aims: a) to single out the historical periods of a territory, relevant from the archaeological point of view; b) to define the sensibility of a historical period; c) to define the level of risk. For the evaluation it is necessary to define a qualitative hierarchy of the different sensibility levels that the archaeological object can have. This hierarchy is based on the identification of the right pointers and relevant principles of interpretation. The last part of the paper is a synthesis of an applied study case, described after the explanation of the methodology of the archaeological impact evaluation. In this study case the “quali-quantitative” evaluation techniques are adopted.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2007, 18, 273-292; doi: 10.19282/ac.18.2007.14
Il Mediterraneo antico e medievale come luogo di incontro tra Oriente e Occidente, Nord e Sud
Abstract
Introduction to the Giornata di studio sul tema “GIS e applicazioni informatiche alle ricerche archeologiche e storiche” (Roma, CNR, 5 luglio 2007).
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2007, 18, 307-311; doi: 10.19282/ac.18.2007.16
Dinamiche di scambio nel Mediterraneo antico: il caso di Cerveteri
Francesco Roncalli, Paola Moscati, Nicoletta Scala
Abstract
The ISCIMA-CNR has participated in the FIRB 2001 Project with research on “Trade dynamics in the ancient Mediterranean: the role of Etruria”. This title raises a number of diverse issues: continuity and discontinuity in trading circuits in the Mediterranean Basin; structure of production and movement of goods; study of the relationship between urban and rural areas involved in their production and consumption; role of the Etruscan ports in the dynamic of trade. In order to conduct a diachronic analysis on this subject, the Etruscan metropolis of Cerveteri has been proposed as a sample area. Since the 1980s, in fact, Cerveteri has been investigated by the CNR Institute through systematic surveys and excavations, resulting in a better understanding of the urban area and the surrounding territory. In particular, within the FIRB Project, the results of the research activity come from the analysis of settlement models, the production of ceramic typological lists, the application of innovative ICT methods to field archaeology, together with archaeoastronomical and spatial analysis techniques, the use of archaeometric research tools to analyse ceramic and metallic objects. The article also describes in detail an integrated approach to define the typology and study the spatial distribution of specific classes of ceramics (in particular the archaic pottery), which have been found during excavations in the central part of the urban plateau, in an area occupied by an open-air elliptical building.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2007, 18, 355-371; doi: 10.19282/ac.18.2007.19
Editoriale
Abstract
Editorial to the Supplement 1, 2007.
The virtual museum: an introduction
Abstract
For several years now the concept of virtual museum has had an important role among the approaches being used for the diffusion of cultural information, as it offers an important extension to the traditional museum. In this paper, the author briefly discusses the concepts of the applications of virtual museums, by studying the transformation of a real museum into a virtual museum. The two new concepts of “the museum of museums” and that of “the imaginary museum” are also introduced. We define the portal functions and the virtual functions of a real museum, and then the functions of the “museum of museums” and of the “imaginary museum”. We also briefly summarize the technical Internet context implied in the realization of a virtual museum and its main operating principles.
Virtual museums and archaeology: an international perspective
Abstract
Current official definitions of “museum” in different countries are examined, together with their implications: the role of museums, their characteristics, the activities museums are expected to conduct. The presence of virtual museums on the Internet is also evaluated. As far as archaeology is concerned, the term “musealization” is analyzed, which denotes the operations necessary to transform a monument or a site into a tourist destination; therefore it brings in itself two opposite meanings of preservation, by means of organized actions and favoring the access and the economic exploitation of the heritage resources. The aspects of technology and virtuality available to museum and archaeological site curators are given in detail, describing dedicated international projects. The author concludes by analyzing the issue of the user’s perspective in the virtual museum as well as the requirements of specialized scholars.
Archaeological knowledge, virtual exhibitions and the social construction of meaning
Abstract
The author makes some general observations on the scope of various approaches to archaeological virtualisation, with particular reference to virtual exhibitions. He examines some interesting fully dynamic, evolving case-studies and, linking the historical development of archaeology to that of different kinds of archaeological knowledge, he highlights the possibilities offered by hypermedia applications on the World Wide Web not only for public communication, but also for archaeological meaning construction and mode of representation. The overall discussion points include virtual exhibition in the context of virtual museums, the notion of virtualisation and some ideas on content, formal representations and affordances. At the same time, the author laments the fact that virtual exhibitions are still fledgling, unstable practices, ignored by the majority of the archaeological public and, at the same time, by most mainstream archaeologists and most archaeological museums. Further work requires unification with relevant research and practice in Information and Communication Technologies, but also further reflection and research on the production of archaeological meaning through virtualisation.
Virtuality and museums. Some suggestions from the Italian National Research Council
Abstract
The “virtual experience”, with all its implications of knowledge enhancement and sharing, has involved numerous CNR researchers, through an interdisciplinary approach, which has characterised and given consistency to the applications, also from a theoretical and methodological point of view. In this special issue, in addition to the projects which are specifically dedicated to archaeology (virtual museums and 3D visualisation of ancient landscapes, towns, grave goods and objects), the contributions describe sophisticated computer tools designed and implemented in CNR laboratories and show how ICT can support the realisation of virtual museums, solving problems related to usability, accessibility and enjoyment aspects.
Digitization of cultural heritage: model of an integral, three-dimensional spatio-temporal thesaurus
Abstract
Digital technologies developed during the last decades substantially change the processes of accumulation, custody, record and investigation of cultural heritage as well as the processes of spread of information on cultural heritage. Basic features of current situation of digitalization of Lithuanian cultural heritage are: a) willingness of most institutions to digitalize the data they have; b) financial problems of digitalization; c) absence of national strategy; d) low level of inter-institutional collaboration; e) low level of standardization. Taking into account the last three features we can forecast that sooner or later (if the situation does not change) Lithuanian digital information systems of cultural heritage will be confronted with the problem of usage efficiency. Perhaps the most important parameters characterizing cultural heritage are historical space and historical time. But we do not have any wider systems of presentation and classification of historical space and time designed for digitalization of cultural heritage in Lithuania. Object of this article is the models of historical geography and historical chronology applied in the digitalization of cultural heritage. Aim of the article is the presentation and substantiation of the model of a space and time thesaurus (standard) of Lithuanian systems of digitalization of cultural heritage. The basic aims of such a thesaurus are the following: 1) creation of a universal method of presentation of historical space and time in digital environment; 2) consolidation of a general scheme (standard) of periodization and historical geography (to put on end to disputes among the specialists on this subject); 3) standardization of space and time presentation in digital environment; 4) organization of management of digital information of cultural heritage; 5) geographical and chronological classification of the objects of cultural heritage; 6) integration of all historical geographical data in a single system that becomes a form of digital cultural heritage; 7) digitalization of the data of different objects of cultural heritage in single and integral form; 8) analysis and dating of information of the objects of cultural heritage; 9) creation of schemes of cultural development.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2005, 16, 93-112; doi: 10.19282/ac.16.2005.05
Languages, Communication, Information Technology: an introduction
Abstract
Introduction to the Special Issue.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 11-22; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.01
The Arkeotek project: a European network of knowledge bases in the archaeology of techniques
Jean-Claude Gardin, Valentine Roux
Abstract
Two major features have emerged lately in the communication patterns of archaeological research: (a) an increasing use of the Web as a channel of information transfer, to complement or occasionally replace printed publications; (b) an exploration of new forms of archaeological discourse related to that trend. The Arkeotek project combines the two approaches in a specific domain of archaeological research described as 'the archaeology of techniques' (hence its acronym). The present paper exposes the objectives and status of the European association recently set up under that name (2002), as well as its initial works and plans for the coming years. A comprehensive introduction deals with the origins and guiding principles of the project. The paper ends with a square review of the problems that lie ahead.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 25-40; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.02
Archeologia teorica e informatica archeologica. Un rapporto difficile
Abstract
Theoretical archaeology has known many important contributions in the last 20 years, both inside and outside the general archaeological handbooks. On the contrary, the methodology of computer applications has received less attention, because the formal linguistic character of computer procedures has been scarcely understood. A relevant exception is the fundamental logicist theory of J.-C. Gardin, which was conceived outside computer applications, but soon found its place in their methodology. Two recent books (with CD), publishing the results of such experiments, are discussed
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 41-50; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.03
La publication scientifique en langue naturelle est-elle en archéologie un discours logique? Essai de conception dun langage cognitif daide à la pubblication
Abstract
The project of building a cognitive framework to formalise an archaeological language, proposed here, is oriented, not to computerise any archaeological language, but to offer a tool giving a framework mainly for the formalisation and the validation of an archaeological reasoning, as well as to deliver a readable procedure, which completes the conventional natural language of the archaeological publishing. The cognitive framework is based on a decomposition of the methodological iterative procedure into three levels: 1. Acquisition, 2. Structuring, 3. Modelling, in which a cognitive grammar is defined. A cognitive grammar normally defines statements and predicates. The statements have been classified, among the more frequent archaeological statement types, which are generally, for both real and virtual objects, the results of a correlation of intrinsic and extrinsic archaeological information. The predicates are also classified following the nature of decisions they imply, either general to Human sciences, or specific to Archaeology: identification/differentiations (generalisation of a statement at a n+1 rank), stabilisation/destabilisations (delimiting the validity value of a statement), exploration/renunciation (reduction of the potential ways), paradigmatisation (hypothetical introduction of a rule at an upper level), appropriations/disappropriations (explicit projection of the archaeologist point of view in the reasoning). The cognitive grammar is used at each of the three levels of the previously defined methodological framework. The formalisation of such a cognitive framework is materialised by a set of statement objects and predicate objects, at each three different levels. Each object may be defined as trivial (needing no more formalisation) or may be linked to another similar cognitive structure, at the origins of the decomposition of the construct into a general system of nested cognitive objects. The archaeological construct, for the scientific publishing, may be materialised by a conventional natural language, to which nested formal constructs are annexed, enabling the reader to more easily validate the logic of the reasoning. The paper is illustrated by examples of applications.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 51-61; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.04
Archaeology and the new technological fetishism
Abstract
Almost everything that is written or said about the use of information technology within archaeology relates to hardware and applications and there is a general poverty of (published) material which considers the implications of the application and use of these tools on the way that the discipline of archaeology is practised. Although we are generally comfortable with the idea that technology has changed the way we live our everyday lives, and the ever-increasing pace of that change, for some reason there appears to be a general reluctance to consider that such changes and the pace of these changes may also impact on archaeology. This paper proposes that computer-using archaeologists have for too long ignored a critical area of research: the consequences of the new information and communication technologies we use. Archaeologists point with justifiable pride to the tradition of self-critical analysis of new ideas and methodological changes within the subject. Archaeologists question their data, their methodologies, their theories, their conclusions, the very basis of their subject, yet it appears that archaeology operates within a 'bubble', somehow immune to the consequences of the new technologies that are more and more a part of both the world around us and of archaeology itself. Furthermore, archaeologists are accustomed to theorising about technological changes in the past (ranging from new flint technologies, bronze and iron working, the evolution of the plough, developments in literacy, and so on), and may bring new perspectives to contemporary analysis of the technological world around us.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 81-92; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.06
Sistema Informativo Generale del Catalogo: nuovi strumenti per la gestione integrata delle conoscenze sui beni archeologici
Abstract
The Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation (ICCD), a body of the Ministry of Cultural Resources and Activities that handles the cataloguing and documentation of Italy's cultural heritage, recently concluded the project undertaken for the creation of the General Cataloguing Information System (SIGEC), an effort focused on making possible the integrated management of the different types of information - alpha-numeric, multimedia, geographic - available on the resources. An especially interesting aspect of the SIGEC, and one of its strengths, is the possibility of cross-referencing the informative data on the resources to their home territory, revealing the logical, historical and spatial relations between the environmental and anthropogenic elements, as well as the other entities of cultural interest, found in a given geographic setting. The result is an improved and better informed knowledge of the resources in question, which are placed in their proper context of time and space. While these considerations are valid for all types of cultural resources, they are especially pertinent to the archaeological heritage, which, as tangible evidence of past civilisations, takes on particular value and meaning at the precise moment in which it is placed in the historical and territorial context in which it originated and existed. The complexity and variety of the cultural resources have made it necessary to formulate specific technological and cataloguing tools with which, under the SIGEC, the geographic data generated by the customary GIS instruments is correlated with the descriptive information obtained on the resources, as well as with the sum total of the relevant documentation (graphic materials, images, multimedia pieces). In the specific case of archaeological resources, both the measures currently in force and those being updated or drawn up for the first time have been supplemented with the core information necessary for the application of the functions of the system. In addition, the cataloguing standards have been reformulated, creating a multifaceted structure in which the chart for the Archaeological Site (SI) serves as the historical-territorial reference framework for the other types of charts (SAS, Stratigraphic Survey; MA-CA, Archaeological Monument - Archaeological Complex; RA, Archaeological Artefact; NU, Numismatics; TMA, Table of Materials), making it possible to determine the space-time context of the resources described therein.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 115-128; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.08
The Danube in Prehistory in the digital age: towards a common information environment for European archaeology
Abstract
Europe is a very old and very small continent. The accession of ten new states to the EU in spring 2004 reminds us that the political boundaries we police and survey would have made little sense to the ancient populations who moved freely across our frontiers. Our disparate national and local heritage services represent different traditions and experiences of researching, recording, presenting and managing what should be among our principal assets. This diversity risks undermines research and conservation, it inhibits international strategies for heritage management and institutionalises anachronism. Can information technologies support the EU's stated aim of creating a single European research area for archaeology? This paper investigates the long-standing question of how different archaeological data sets in different parts of Europe may be aligned more closely to support research learning and teaching. It identifies emerging technologies to for resource discovery, integration and delivery, placing these in the context of organisational evolution. It asks how these organisations and technologies might work together to support archaeological information at a continental scale.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 129-144; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.09
Archaeology within the Andalusian Thesaurus of the Historical Heritage (TAPH). Design, implementation and computerisation
Leonardo Garcia Sanjuán, Valle Muñoz Cruz
Abstract
This article discusses the criteria and methodology applied for the insertion and later development of the archaeological terminology into the Andalusian Thesaurus of the Historical Heritage (TAPH), published in 1998. Firstly, the background and precedents that gave way to the creation of such documentation language are dealt with. Secondly, we comment upon the problems encountered in the integration of the archaeological vocabulary within a thesaurus that comprises several other heritage-related disciplines such as Architecture, Ethnology or Art History. Thirdly, the significance of the TAPH five years after its publication is evaluated, with a special emphasis in the process of its implementation and computerisation within the Information System of the Andalusian Historical Heritage.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 145-160; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.10
Forma e funzione: osservazioni sul rapporto fra nuovi sviluppi dell'archeologia e il linguaggio descrittivo, con Appendice di F. Notarstefano
Abstract
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.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 161-183; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.11
Tancas serradas a muros. Tracce di incomunicabilità nel 'linguaggio' dell'archeologia, tra tutela, archeologia del paesaggio e pianificazione territoriale
Abstract
There are marked 'incommunicability symptoms' in language with which archaeology should communicate, in particular, with urban and landscape planning, and also possible relationships with new methods of landscape interpretation and management. In a vanishing context no longer based only on historical instance, 'interdisciplinarity' is a possible solution.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2004, 15, 185-197; doi: 10.19282/ac.15.2004.12
Lo status accademico dell'Informatica umanistica, con Appendice di M. Catacchio
Abstract
The first section of this article concerns the theme of Humanities Computing teaching. Most experts agree with the opinion that Humanities Computing is an independent discipline - which studies the problems of formalisation and models, crossing all humanities disciplines (linguistic, literature, history, archaeology, history of art, history of music) - and as such it should be introduced into the Faculties of Humanities. The academic organisations are beginning to acknowledge the importance of teaching computer applications to the students, but their approach is far from consistent. The integral proposal of a new independent scientific-disciplinary sector, submitted by a group of experts to be approved by the Italian CUN (Consiglio Universitario Nazionale), is therefore presented. The second part of the article deals with the results of an enquiry, carried out in 21 Italian Universities, on how Humanities Computing is being introduced into the curricula of the Faculties of Humanities. Many relevant quantitative data are illustrated, which clearly clarify both the necessity to distinguish between the simple alphabetisation and the teaching of applications for research, as well as the urgency to solve in this sector of studies the problem of teachers on temporary contracts.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2003, 14, 7-32; doi: 10.19282/ac.14.2003.01
Cerveteri: topografia della Vigna Parrocchiale I. Ricerche e dati archeologici, con Appendice di S. Piro
Abstract
The article describes the topography and the main archaeological features of the 'Vigna Parrocchiale' area, located on the urban plateau of the ancient Etruscan town of Cerveteri, where a geophysical survey has also been carried out (cfr. Colosi et al., this volume). The accurate description of data coming from field surveys, excavations and archival research makes it possible to recognize in this area a long archaeological stratification from the Villanovan through to the Roman period. These results, achieved over many years of archaeological research, can be profitably linked to those coming from the application of geophysical surveying techniques. The article closes with a technical Appendix, relevant to a magnetometric survey carried out in 1987 during the excavations conducted by CNR in the 'Vigna Parrocchiale' area.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2003, 14, 153-176; doi: 10.19282/ac.14.2003.07
Les modèles logico-discursifs en archéologie
Abstract
One of the tasks of cognitive archaeology according to C. RENFREW (1994) is «to use the well-established techniques of rational scientific inquiry, and to aim to develop these [...] by explicit theoretical formulations». Such is the purport of the ongoing research program initiated in France in the '70s on the logicist analysis and computational modelling of archaeological constructs (GARDIN 1979). A first assessment was presented to UISPP Commission 4 in 1990; the present paper describes advances of the program after that date in two directions, theoretical and pratical. 1. On the theoretical side, (a) new light has been shed on the position of the logicist analysis of archaeological papers (irrespective of their subject or denomination) in relation to recent work on natural logic or natural reasoning in the sciences of man; (b) further, the modelling function of the proposed 'schematisations' of argument has been brought out in the course of an ongoing debate on the respective part of Models and Narratives in the constitution of knowledge in the social sciences. The constraints to which mathematical models are currently subject are applicable to logico-discursive models as well: the same tests (formal coherence and empirical correspondence) are used to establish the validity of both; (c) lastly, as a logical follow-up of a and b, the case for a 'séparation des genres' has been strengthened, i.e. scientific models on the one hand, whether quantitative (mathematical) or qualitative (logicist), and/or imaginative amplifications of their findings on the other, both genres being however regarded as contributions to knowledge in a broad sense (BRUNER 1986). A large part of our discursive constructs belong to an intermediate or hybrid kind which tends to claim a distinct epistemological status, between or above the two genres. Doubt are raised about the future of this perspective in the long run; they found some unexpected support in Paul Ricoeurs recent plea for a return to a stricter distinction between the cognitive and the rhetorical components in our «writing of history and representations of the past» (RICOEUR 2000). 2. On the pratical side, a new form of archaeological publication has been proposed (ROUX 2000), combining the principles of logicist analysis and new information technology. It consists in reformulating linear discursive constructs as tree-like structures of inference, expressed in computational terms (data base + rewrite formulas), and recording them on an electronic support, CD-ROM or web site, in order to take advantage of the navigational facilities of hypertext. No loss of cognitive substance is incurred in the process; and a partial answer is thereby offered to the 'reading vs. consultation issue' now widely acknowledged in scientific research, in the humanities as elsewhere.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 19-30; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.01
Un essai de formalisation des études sur l'art paléolithique pour la connaissance des sociétés préhistoriques
Abstract
Paleolithic art is a fundamental tool for the understanding of prehistoric societies. The relationships between paleolithic art and archaeological sites have been investigated and show the existence of nearly all the types of artistic expressions (sculptures, paintings, engravings, drawings, clay modelling, mammoth bone assemblages, etc.) in various sites like rock shelters, open-air sites, burials, deep caves, open caves and rock open-air sites. Unfortunately, old discoveries and tourism have destroyed in most cases the relationship between mobiliar and cave art with archaeological structures, limiting to recent discoveries the capability of a global approach. The different interpretative theories of prehistoric art since XIX century have been remembered both for symbolic explanations (Reinach, Breuil, Bégouen, Raphaêl, Laming-Emperaire, Leroi-Gourhan, Sauvet, Vialou, Clottes) and for social explanations (Efimenko, Abramova, Semenov, Iakovleva, Sieveking, Conkey, Bahn), and their revision due to the recent 14C AMS dates directly obtained on paintings made by charcoal. The critical question of the building of a reliable chronological framework is discussed. A method to study prehistoric art is then proposed, in five main steps: Step 1: Acquisition (recording); Step 2: Acquisition (signs, species and scenes determination); Step 3: Structuring (craftsmen workflow: space selection, physical-chemical studies, stylistic analysis, panel organization); Step 4: Structuring (chronological and spatial organization of the decorated space, relationships between the decorated space and the territory of hunters-gatherers); Step 5: Modelling (the craft system, the social system and the symbolic system of the hunter-gatherer society).
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 31-40; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.02
The origins of the city. From social theory to archaeological description
Joan A. Barceló, Giuliano Pelfer, Alessandro Mandolesi
Abstract
This paper will focus on the origins of the city. This subject has been studied in sociology, anthropology, history and geography, but there is not a unified approach. Our paper deals with the specific way social theory can be used in archaeology. We consider that a 'city' is a specific form of social space 'produced' by a series of social actions. However, this 'production process' cannot be described easily in archaeological terms. As a result, there is a deep gap between social theory concepts and archaeologically observable evidence. Today it is fashionable to speak about the unscientific nature of Archaeology and Social Science. This paper deals with this discussion, trying to create an observational theory to understand the process of city formation. We reject traditional positivist approaches of concept and reference, because of its simplicity. However, this fact does not mean that the analysis is impossible in scientific terms. We show how to use spatial statistics, probabilistic modelling and visualization technology in order to obtain a simulation of the spatial process, and then use the resulting model to build a representation of social theory in archaeological terms. In the paper we use the Italian city of Tarquinia as a case study. It is suggested that the origin of the city can be represented as a spatial process beginning with preliminary scattered villages, which join together forming bigger spatial units, which become attractive for the better geographical and geomorphologic conditions. The gradual consolidation of the main settlement in the best location is determined by the population growth, and the development of a new productive system and new social relationships.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 41-63; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.03
Modelling the social evolution: the state of art
Abstract
In the last fifty years, many types of models on ancient social evolution have been created, both in the Old and New Worlds. This paper reviews the most influential ones, trying to summarize the recent, radical changes in the theoretical perspective on the emergence, development and collapse of complexity in human societies. The most serious problem, today, seems to be an enormous gap between the inadequacy of the archaeological record and the growing refinement of theories.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 65-78; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.04
Maitriser l'analogie ethnographique: espoirs et limites
Abstract
The use of ethnographic analogy to interpret archaeological remains has produced many misunderstandings, which must now be corrected. 1. Ethnology is traditionally oriented towards the analysis of the thought systems of the populations under study, and believes all too often that this type of discourse in natural language is an acceptable explanation for the observed empirical phenomena. The scientific discourse built by the ethnoarchaeologist must not imitate the distinctions made by the people under study, given that their constructs seek to satisfy different objectives. 2. The construction of inference rules must be subjected to the requirements of all scientific research. In consequence, one must not merely collect 'cas d'espèce', but also assemble numeric data which are sufficiently representative for statistical treatment to be carried out. 3. It is necessary to define, in each case, the actualisation context of the rules, that is, the spatial and temporal universe wherein the proposed rule is applicable. 4. The only way to validate a rule resides in the precautions taken during collection, mobilisation and treatment of empirical data. 5. Successful application of an actualist rule to archaeological data does not mean that the latter has been validated. The only way to confirm an interpretation is by applying the principle of result convergence by independent methods.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 79-99; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.05
Pour une théorie générale de la connaissance en archéologie
Abstract
An attempt to build a global cognitive theory in Archaeology is proposed. The archaeological method is based on a three level concept : knowledge acquiring, structuring and modelling, inspired by the XIX century work of Peirce, renewed by recent developments of cognitive Sciences and used today in many fields of Social and Human Sciences, System Engineering, and recently proposed in Archaeology (DJINDJIAN 1993). The knowledge acquiring level A is the result of simultaneous and retroactive use of two mechanisms: several specific analogical processes in archaeology (contemporary analogy, ethnographical analogy, experimental analogy) and a cognitive process, general to Human Sciences. Logical objects used by archaeological reasoning are artefacts, set of artefacts (archaeological layer, dwelling structure, burial, etc.) and methodological objects (unit, sample, core, etc.). Such objects may deliver three categories of data: intrinsic data, extrinsic data and administrative data. Intrinsic data (named I) are a view of an object, resulting in the interaction between the archaeological artefact and the archaeologist who is perceiving and describing it. Intrinsic data is a knowledge of the artefact. Extrinsic data (named E) are data recording the various artefact contexts: spatial and stratigraphic localisation, links with neighbouring artefacts, environment, etc. Extrinsic data depends on the quality of archaeological excavation and recording. In all the cognitive processes, knowledge A must be associated with the archaeologist, ARCH, who is at the origin of the interaction artefact/archaeologist, the process of producing the knowledge, Pc, and the validation process Pv, controlling the reasoning: (A, ARCH, Pc, Pv). The structuring level, S, is discussed in relation with the question of enrichment of structures towards the emergence of a system, through a dedicated method called the systemic triple method (DJINDJIAN 1980): 1. Definition of the system S; 2. Perception and description of intrinsic data I; 3. Recording of extrinsic data E; 4. Formalisation of the structuring process: intrinsic structuring (matrix artefact x intrinsic data, O x I), extrinsic structuring (occurrence or Burt matrix intrinsic data x extrinsic data, I x E); 5. Exploratory data analysis on O x I or I x E; 6. Retroactions on I and E; 7. Iterative enrichment by integration of new I and new E; 8. Validation (using another artefact system, a new E, etc.). The modelling level is then examined with a discussion of the limits of the formal logic in Archaeology: empirical-inductive, where 'every structure is Culture', or hypothetical-deductive methods, where 'all the models are fitting well' falling in the weakness of so-called paradigmatic models. A new more restricting method is proposed, called the cognitive model method, CMM. The main features of CMM are: explicit, formalised, repetitive, stable, systemic, refutable, predictive, discursive and auditable. A general method to build a cognitive model is then given, in ten steps; some of them are already known and referenced, others are new and detailed: 1. Improving the knowledge A; 2. Discovering the structures S inside data; 3. Enrichment of structures S; 4. Systemic organisation in hierarchical subsystems; 5. Building models R; 6. Validating models R; 7. Retroactions for enrichment and stabilisation of the models R; 8. Model simulation for predictions; 9. Writing the archaeological discourse; 10. Auditing the discourse. The systemic organisation in hierarchical sub-systems is based on a five level system: 1. Technological know-how; 2. Economic activities: craft production, raw material supplying, subsistence resources, energy resources, buildings (dwellings, infrastructure), territory management, manufacturing, exchange and trading, etc.; 3. Social organisation: workflow, specialisation of professions, social groups, social hierarchies, family structures, community administration, defence, taxes, authority systems, etc.; 4. Symbolic sub-system: ideas and beliefs; 5. Global system. In conclusion, such approaches of methodological development are the most reliable but also the most difficult way to reach a real scientific status for Archaeology.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 101-117; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.06
From an Etruscan town to modern technologies: new advancements in the "Caere Project"
Abstract
In 1997, within the framework of the research activity carried out by the Istituto per l'Archeologia Etrusco-Italica, a census of GIS applications in archaeology was promoted and then published in the ninth issue of the journal 'Archeologia e Calcolatori'. This international survey allowed us to collect significant methodological and technical information useful to outline the main guidelines of the 'Caere Project', aimed at the establishment of an Archaeological Information System for the analysis of the Etruscan town and its surrounding territory. A recent update of this survey confirmed the previsions published four years ago by the members of an international Scientific Committee coordinated by François Djindjian. Some methodological aspects of the 'Caere Project' are also discussed, with particular emphasis on the need of integrating many different computer techniques in order to gain a comprehensive, organic knowledge of the ancient landscape and town organisation. The results of the innovative use of markup languages and multimedia systems in the processing of archaeological excavation data are also presented. In fact, the methodological approach of the 'Caere Project' is based on the principle that information is not sufficient if not linked by new forms of knowledge representation, which can promote an interactive consultation more than just a passive reading.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 135-149; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.08
Archaeological thinking: between space and time
Abstract
The archaeological record can be described using a relevant observable feature: location. Shape, size and other properties vary from one location to another, and sometimes this variation has some appearance of continuity, which should be understood as variation between social actions due to neighbourhood relationships. Time and space are not different ways of considering the nature of archaeological locations. Consequently, 'locations' can only be understood in functional terms, that is, according to what is performed at each place at each moment. In this paper, the objective is to analyse where, when and why a social action varies from one location (temporal-spatial) to another. Some mathematical techniques are presented to calculate the probability of social actions at specific locations, based on the spatial properties of archaeological data. These techniques are used as a representation language for studying the concepts of accumulation and attraction, which allow the study of social space in dynamic terms.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 237-257; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.17
Spatio-temporal modeling of North American prehistory
Abstract
A new dynamic spatio-temporal model of North American prehistory and protohistory from 14,000 BP to 200 BP allows researchers to visualize the ebb and flow of culture change and demographic processes at any of many possible scales. The authors of past syntheses of such changes over time and space on a large scale in North America have depended upon aggregating lower-level syntheses and summaries prepared by various regional specialists. One advantage of the model is that it eliminates much of the bias and filtering that is typically entailed by this dependence. It does so by directly referencing site-specific data recorded and maintained in a GIS format. These are called up and displayed as animations of spatial change over time. The animations in turn can be mapped against environmental changes over time and space. The model raises theoretical and methodological questions about how we record and disseminate our data. These are briefly discussed.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 267-273; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.19
Un essai de reconstitution du climat entre 40.000 BP et 10.000 BP à partir de séquences polliniques de tourbières et decarottes océaniques et glaciaires à haute résolution
Bruno Bosselin, François Djindjian
Abstract
The results of several sea- and ice-cores and pollen sequences of peat bogs, for the last 40,000 years, permits today to give evidence of palaeoclimatic oscillations of this period. A method of palaeoenvironment reconstitution, based on transfert functions computation, issued from pollen diagrams, is proposed. The method is building a palaeotemperature curve and a palaeohumidity curve, allowing to separate and correlate the two climatic components. A complete example of the method is developed with the data of the peat bog of Tenaghi-Philippon (Macedonia, Greece). All the analysed sequences (Tenaghi-Philippon, la Grande Pile, Banyoles, etc.), compared to sea-cores (KET 8004) and ice-cores (GRIPSummit, Greenland) confirm the evidence of mild and humid oscillations, and cold and humid oscillations, in a three parts structured sequence: the interpleniglacial (up to 28,000 BP), the late pleniglacial (between 28,000 BP and 13,500 BP), and the tardiglacial (between 13,500 BP and 10,000 BP). A numbering system, avoiding usage of ancient interstadials still to valid in their eponym sites, is proposed.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 275-300; doi: 10.19282/ac.13.2002.20
Progetto Caere: questioni di metodo e sperimentazioni
Abstract
The development of the “Caere Project”, conducted by the Istituto per l’Archeologia Etrusco-Italica of the Italian National Research Council as part of the “Cultural Heritage” Special Project, has made it possible to establish a unique and comprehensive model for the digitalization of excavation data within a GIS platform. This model has been developed to record, process and publish data coming from the excavations conducted by the Institute in the central area of the urban plateau of the ancient Etruscan town of Cerveteri. From the outset of the project, much attention has been placed upon the discussion of methodological and technical issues, in order to form a framework for data acquisition and processing. The methodologies adopted and processes adhered to are described, with particular reference to the problems of: data representation and encoding, standardisation of the descriptive language, application of Spatial Analysis techniques, creation of a multimedia software for data diffusion and publication.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2001, 12, 47-53; doi: 10.19282/ac.12.2001.02
L'informatica dell'archeologo: alcune istruzioni per l'uso
Andrea D'Andrea, Franco Niccolucci
Abstract
The paper examines the applications of some software technologies in archaeological research and discusses a number of errors that may derive from a naïve approach. In considering databases, relational databases have strict requirements that are fulfilled in most cases when dealing with archaeological records, but cannot be given for granted without further investigation. It is suggested that XML technology may solve many of these issues. Digital Elevation Models generated automatically by GIS software may create undesired or unrealistic terrain features and introduce errors, as well as GPS data acquisition. The frequent absence in archaeological GIS papers of an error analysis confirms the lack of a critical approach to these mathematical tools. Finally, computer visualisation is examined in the paper, with a similar criticism to an exclusively visual interpretation of Virtual Reality reconstructions. Since all the tools examined in the paper were created within other applicative contexts, it is hoped that a more conscious approach may better integrate them into archaeological method and theory.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2001, 12, 199-220; doi: 10.19282/ac.12.2001.11
L'archeologia computazionale in Italia: orientamenti, metodi e prospettive
Andrea D'Andrea, Franco Niccolucci
Abstract
Introduction to the Proceedings.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2000, 11, 13-31; doi: 10.19282/ac.11.2000.01
La presenza delle Tecnologie dell'Informazione nella ricerca sui Beni Culturali: risultati di una indagine
Laura Moltedo, Romualdo Picco, Paolo Salonia
Abstract
The study of a wide variety of artefacts of cultural interest requires a vast and heterogeneous documentation that ranges from information concerning the physical sites, to the typologies, state of conservation, methodologies of documentation and intervention, until the whole cognitive process is brought to fruition. The techniques employed for analysis, intervention and documentation are therefore fundamental both for the planning and the implementing of innovative solutions for the recovery and the conservation of the artefacts themselves, as well as for the protection and preservation of the archaeological heritage involved. This paper consists of an analysis of research projects in the field of cultural heritage which includes aspects of information and communication technologies, based on the ACM Classification Scheme. The topics dealt with are intended as a contribution to the understanding of the interdisciplinary approach which should be taken into consideration in proposing future research programs.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2000, 11, 301-310; doi: 10.19282/ac.11.2000.16
Informatica per l'archeologia o archeologia per l'informatica?
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2000, 11, 311-315; doi: 10.19282/ac.11.2000.17
Rischio archeologico: se lo conosci lo eviti. Convegno di studi su cartografia archeologica e tutela del territorio (Ferrara, 24-25 marzo 2000)
Abstract
Review article.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2000, 11, 375-381; doi: 10.19282/ac.11.2000.22
Archeologia medievale e informatica: dieci anni dopo
Abstract
Ten years after the publication of his article in «Archeologia e Calcolatori», the author returns to the subject of the relationship between computers and Medieval archaeology and describes the different phases of development which have characterised this field of study. In particular, he describes the research activity carried out by the Laboratory for Computer Applications of the Department of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Siena, which was created and implemented over the past ten years. The information system which has been developed is based on a programmed user interface (OpenArcheo) which operates as a supervisor and has been used for several different projects aimed at organising in an integrated environment large quantities of data, such as the “Progetto Siti d’Altura della Toscana”, concerning the editing of archaeological maps of Tuscan cities and provinces, and for the organisation of data from the excavations carried out by the Department.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1999, 10, 45-61; doi: 10.19282/ac.10.1999.04
Calcul et narrativé dans les publications archéologiques
Abstract
Archaeological publications raise problems of many sorts, currently discussed in connection with computer networks and other technologies. One of them, however, seems somewhat neglected, namely the fact that we are mostly unable to read more than a fraction of the articles and books published in our respective fields of research. The substitution of electronic to printed publications does not fully meet that challenge. Complementary measures are needed, taking into account an acknowledged reality: our works are for the most part consulted, not read. The schematisation of archaeological constructs developed in the logicist perspective is meant to facilitate consultations; it is related to the computational paradigm of the information age. As such, however, it fails to fulfil one of the functions of historical works, associated with the narrative mode of thought and discourse. This paper advocates a parallel development of the two genres in archaeology, one through electronic publications of a radically new form, the other through printed works explicitly conceived as literary versions or expansions of the former.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1999, 10, 63-78; doi: 10.19282/ac.10.1999.05
Cultural Heritage and the CNR Special Project
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1998, 9, 9-11; doi: 10.19282/ac.9.1998.01
Mauro Cristofani, computerised archaeology and the "Caere Project"
Abstract
Introduction to the Special Issue.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1998, 9, 13-18; doi: 10.19282/ac.9.1998.02
L'informatica e la decifrazione dei testi egei
Abstract
Three different scripts, Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B are attestated in the Aegean between 2200 and 1200 BC The first two of these scripts, Hieroglyphic and Linear A are still undeciphered. The best possibilities of decipherment seem to be linked with Linear A, a script which is very near to the Linear B deciphered by M. Ventris in 1952. In fact more than 80% of the syllabic signs of Linear A are common to Linear B.A systematic comparison between the position of each sign common to Linear A and Linear B will probably give us the possibility to improve the phonetic value of the Linear A signs and so permit to read Linear A. Such a work can only be done with the assistance of the computer.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1996, 7, 715-720; doi: 10.19282/ac.7.1996.56
Le traitement de l'information en archéologie: archivage, publication et diffusion
Abstract
This paper deals with a particular aspect of computer-based data management in archaeology: the recording, publication and diffusion of archaeological information. The author stresses the particular character of archaeology: it is not an experimental science, but rather a learning discipline in which data should be cumulative, as each excavation involves the destruction of some previous information and, in general, each intervention, both of excavation or of conservation, gives new information that must be added to the existing ones. Therefore, the author investigates three fundamental topics with their relevant examples: the recording of excavation data, sites and objects or structures analysed and restored; the publication and diffusion of scientific results aimed at specialists; the diffusion of results towards a widespread public. In all these aspects, computer-based tools constitute a basic element. The author, in fact, maintains that their introduction and improvement will not only modify the archaeological professional experience and the way of operating, but will also affect the methodological and epistemological point of view.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1996, 7, 985-995; doi: 10.19282/ac.7.1996.84
Hommage à René Ginouvès (1926-1994)
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1996, 7, 1209-1213; doi: 10.19282/ac.7.1996.104
Archéologie et informatique aujourd'hui: quelques idées pour un débat
René Ginouvès, Anne-Marie Guimier-Sorbets
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1996, 7, 1215-1219; doi: 10.19282/ac.7.1996.105
Méthode archéologique assistée par ordinateur
Abstract
It is discussed if the technological evolution of computer science in the nineties has resolved the methodological problems of the Archaeology, known since the sixties. It is concluded that the two first levels of cognitive methodology (recording and structuring) are resolved but the third and last level (reconstitution) is always the subject of sophisticated but rare experience.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1996, 7, 1259-1266; doi: 10.19282/ac.7.1996.109
Les systèmes d'informations en archéologie
Abstract
The development of computer applications in archaeology involves a complex trend in order to define, before undertaking any implementation, a conceptual framework of computable functions, archaeological objects and data models. This conceptual framework allows the definition of a global information system, well adapted to the various archaeological problems. After that definition, it is easier to develop a long-term and evolving software architecture, integrating the best packages of the market.
Archeologia, discipline umanistiche, modelli aziendali
Angelo Cerizza, Maria Luigia Pagliani
Abstract
The first part of the article deals with the problem of the relationship between the business world and the world of learning. In particular the author confirms the fundamental role of humanistic disciplines in the contemporary world and the necessity of the business world to recover their formative power. The second part of the article underlines archaeological trends as a “discipline” that can question the business world. The examination of computerised research undertaken up till now in the archaeological field of study shows a double purpose: the progress of scientific knowledge and the safeguard of cultural heritage. Among recent developments, the increase in the sectors devoted to didactics and the diffusion of knowledge are underlined.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1993, 4, 197-202
Data and Image Processing in Classical Archaeology. An Introduction
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1993, 4, 217-218
LIMC
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1993, 4, 251-252
CITED. Copyright in Transmitted Electronic Documents
Dominique Delouis, David Puterflam
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1993, 4, 303-305
"Archeologia e Calcolatori". A new italian journal in the field of archaeology and computer science
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1993, 4, 329-335
"Archeologia e Calcolatori". Incontro di studio sui metodi e le prospettive della ricerca
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1993, 4, 341-345
Giornata di Studi "Archeometria della ceramica. Problemi metodologici", Rimini, 12 novembre 1992
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1993, 4, 347-351
Un centre de recherches sur les systèmes d'information en archéologie
René Ginouvès, Anne-Marie Guimier-Sorbets
Abstract
The authors present the research activity carried out at the “Centre de recherche sur les Traitements Automatisés en Archéologie Classique”. This activity can be divided into two main themes. The purpose of the first is to publish works intended to standardise descriptive archaeological language. The second aims at creating data banks, with particular reference to classical archaeology, and videodisks permitting the association of images to the relative documents.
L'informatica nell'epigrafia: primi risultati di un censimento
Anne Bielman, Pierre Ducrey, Regula Frei-Stolba
Abstract
Un Colloque 'Epigraphie et Informatique' s'est tenu à l'Université de Lausanne les 26 et 27 mai 1989 sous le haut patronage de l'AIEGL (cf. compte rendu in Epigraphica LI, 1989, p. 275-279). A l'issue du colloque, le bureau de l'AIEGL et les partecipants ont désigné une commission chargée de recueillir des reinsegnements sur l'utilisation de l'informatique dans les recherches conduites acutellement en épigraphie grecque et latine.
«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1991, 2, 283-326
Nouvelles tendances méthodologiques dans le traitement de l'information en archéologie
Abstract
The author analyses new methodological trends in the nineties, concerning the evolution of quantitative techniques, and the development of computerised tools. The main role in archaeology of institutional changes and the influence of theorical approaches in Human Sciences are analysed, in order to discover a third way in archaeology.
Dalla teoria alla ricerca sul campo: il contributo dell'informatica all'archeologia medievale
Abstract
The standardisation of records in archaeological work has permitted, notwithstanding some initial “resistence”, the massive introduction of computer science. In the field of post-classical archaeology the contribution of computers appears essential in comparison with data arising from written documentation. The latter appears to be of such dimension and quality that it has led to the formation of a historiographical tradition that is not used to dealing with archaeological research. Cartographic computerisation and image processing represent another sector which is developing in the post-classical field in order to study city-planning and building. This leads to an interdisciplinarity which is becoming extremely stimulating.
Dall'archivio IBM: 1958-1970
Abstract
The examination of archaeological documents preserved in the IBM archive outlines the development and the methodological tendencies which characterised, from the end of 1950's until the 1970's, the application of computer science in this field of study. The phases regarding technological development are described, as are the procedures relative to research projects of various subjects, both linguistic and strictly archaeological. These experiences show that, right from the beginning of the application of computers in archaeology, the tendency was to exploit their logical and mathematical potential.
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