scholarly journals Additive Archaeology: An Alternative Framework for Recontextualising Archaeological Entities

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
Digital Archaeology

AbstractAdditive manufacturing poses a number of challenges to conventional understandings of materiality, including the so-called archaeological record. In particular, concepts such as real, virtual, and authentic are becoming increasingly unstable, as archaeological artefacts and assemblages can be digitalised, reiterated, extended and distributed through time and space as 3D printable entities. This paper argues that additive manufacturing represents a ‘grand disciplinary challenge’ to archaeological practice by offering a radical new generative framework within which to recontextualise and reconsider the nature of archaeological entities specifically within the domain of digital archaeology.

scholarly journals Data Beyond the Archive in Digital Archaeology

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Whitcher Kansa ◽  
Eric C. Kansa
Keyword(s):  
Data Management ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Status ◽  
Digital Archaeology ◽  
Virtuous Cycle

ABSTRACTThis special section stems from discussions that took place in a forum at the Society for American Archaeology's annual conference in 2017. The forum, Beyond Data Management: A Conversation about “Digital Data Realities”, addressed challenges in fostering greater reuse of the digital archaeological data now curated in repositories. Forum discussants considered digital archaeology beyond the status quo of “data management” to better situate the sharing and reuse of data in archaeological practice. The five papers for this special section address key themes that emerged from these discussions, including: challenges in broadening data literacy by making instructional uses of data; strategies to make data more visible, better cited, and more integral to peer-review processes; and pathways to create higher-quality data better suited for reuse. These papers highlight how research data management needs to move beyond mere “check-box” compliance for granting requirements. The problems and proposed solutions articulated by these papers help communicate good practices that can jumpstart a virtuous cycle of better data creation leading to higher impact reuses of data.

Yahwistic Religion in the Persian Period

2020 ◽  
pp. 253-265
Author(s):  
Melody D. Knowles
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Persian Period ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Time And Space

As Yahwists negotiated their religion in the Persian period, they brought their inherited understandings of worship, theology, and religious personhood into a socio-political context very different from that of their forebears. Further, in a context where Yahwism now existed beyond the borders of Yehud, different Yahwistic communities constructed aspects of their religious life in ways different from each other as well. Exploring practices that perceptibly reflect and reinforce particular understandings of divine-human relations with respect to time and space (namely pilgrimage, sacrifice, and prayer), this chapter highlights the diversity, innovation, and re-use of tradition evident in both the textual and archaeological record of Yahwistic worship.

From Narratives to Algorithms

2016 ◽  
pp. 278-301
Author(s):  
C. Michael Barton
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Quantitative Modelling ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Human Dynamics ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
Algorithmic Form ◽  
Human Systems

The static, fragmentary nature of the archaeological record requires us to construct models of past human dynamics. Traditionally, these have been in the form of narratives that can make compelling stories but are difficult to evaluate. Recent advances in numerical and computational modelling offer the potential to create quantitative representations of human systems and carry out experiments in social dynamics that would otherwise be impossible. These new approaches challenge us to learn to conceive of human societies in ways that can be expressed in algorithmic form. Besides making our own explanations more rigorous, integrating quantitative modelling into archaeological practice helps us produce more robust accounts of human systems and their long-term changes that can be more useful to other disciplines and policy-makers than compelling narratives.

The Identification of pastoralist sites Within the context of estate-based agriculture in ancient Greece: beyond the ‘Transhumance versus agro-pastoralism’ debate

1995 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 325-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamish Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Major Element ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Surface Survey ◽  
Anthropological Approach ◽  
Rural Sites ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

The present ‘transhumance versus agro-pastoralism’ debate is here set within the context of a broadly based anthropological approach to pastoralism. Certain constant features of the relationship of pastoralists to their landscape are identifiable, although many aspects of pastoral strategies are variable over time and space and across socio-economic groups. The control of much of the pastoral exploitation of the landscape in antiquity by wealthy estate owners is one important difference from the present day. The resulting observations are applied to the archaeological record of isolated rural sites now widely known from surface survey projects. It is argued that the tendency to assume that pastoralists are archaeologically invisible has meant that these very visible sites have been ignored as possible pastoral bases. The location of a number of these sites suggests that pastoralism was a major element in the activities focused on them in antiquity.

Costly Signaling and the Ascendance of No-Can-Do Archaeology: A Reply to Codding and Jones

2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly R. McGuire ◽  
William R. Hildebrandt ◽  
Kimberly L. Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Signaling Theory ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Costly Signaling ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Costly Signaling Theory

While providing a review of some of the ethnographic literature surrounding hunting and Costly Signaling Theory, Codding and Jones offer no alternative framework for how this emerging theoretical approach might be applied to the archaeological record. In their view, Costly Signaling Theory lies beyond the pale of current archaeological inquiry, or at least our conception of it. We respond to this characterization by providing a specific methodological approach, combined with several additional applications, that answer Codding and Jones's call for greater linkage between the theory and the archaeological record. Ultimately, we believe that the archaeological record, with its temporal dimension, may illuminate some of the underlying aspects of Costly Signaling Theory that are otherwise obscured by more synchronic ethnographic studies.

scholarly journals Systematic comparative approaches to the archaeological record

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Fortunato
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
State Of Affairs

Increasingly, interdisciplinary research teams are coming together totry to establish regularities, over space and time, in the complexsystem that is the human phenomenon. Although vocabulary and toolshave changed, the questions that animate this research program bearstriking similarity to those pursued by nineteenth-centuryintellectuals in a quest to establish universal laws shaping humanaffairs. In fact, that very quest provided the impetus for theemergence of what would later become distinct disciplines in thesocial and historical sciences, including anthropology and sociology.Why, then, is this interdisciplinary research program often met withskepticism, or even outright resistance, within anthropology?In this chapter I provide a brief outline of developments in thehistory of anthropology leading to this state of affairs, in the hopeof alleviating misunderstanding between those who support theinterdisciplinary research program and those who oppose it. As apractical contribution toward this end, I then provide an overview ofkey established resources for systematic comparative approaches to thearchaeological record. I conclude by discussing challenges andopportunities in this area at the interface with recent developmentsin related archaeological practice.

scholarly journals Filling the Void in Archaeological Excavations: 2D Point Clouds to 3D Volumes

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 589-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary R. Nobles ◽  
Christopher H. Roosevelt
Keyword(s):  
Point Cloud ◽  
Point Clouds ◽  
3D Models ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Western Turkey ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
3D Data ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

Abstract 3D data captured from archaeological excavations are frequently left to speak for themselves. 3D models of objects are uploaded to online viewing platforms, the tops or bottoms of surfaces are visualised in 2.5D, or both are reduced to 2D representations. Representations of excavation units, in particular, often remain incompletely processed as raw surface outputs, unable to be considered individual entities that represent the individual, volumetric units of excavation. Visualisations of such surfaces, whether as point clouds or meshes, are commonly viewed as an end result in and of themselves, when they could be considered the beginning of a fully volumetric way of recording and understanding the 3D archaeological record. In describing the creation of an archaeologically focused recording routine and a 3D-focused data processing workflow, this article provides the means to fill the void between excavation-unit surfaces, thereby producing an individual volumetric entity that corresponds to each excavation unit. Drawing on datasets from the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) in western Turkey, the article shows the potential for programmatic creation of volumetric contextual units from 2D point cloud datasets, opening a world of possibilities and challenges for the development of a truly 3D archaeological practice.

Ethics of Archaeology

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 345-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo González-Ruibal
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
Sociopolitical Context ◽  
Applied Archaeology ◽  
Scientific Standards

Ethics has abandoned its niche status to become a shared concern across archaeology. The appraisal of the sociopolitical context of archaeological practice since the 1980s has forced the discipline to take issue with the expanding array of ethical questions raised by work with living people. Thus, the original foci on the archaeological record, conservation, and scientific standards, which are behind most deontological codes, have been largely transcended and even challenged. In this line, this review emphasizes philosophical and political aspects over practical ones and examines some pressing ethical concerns that are related to archaeology's greater involvement with contemporary communities, political controversies, and social demands; discussion includes ethical responses to the indigenous critique, the benefits and risks of applied archaeology, the responsibilities of archaeologists in conflict and postconflict situations, vernacular digging and collecting practices, development-led archaeology, heritage, and the ethics of things.

A Tomb with a View

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Silva
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Recognition ◽  
Landscape Archaeology ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
Central Portugal ◽  
Cross Fertilization

AbstractThe orientations of European prehistoric structures have been studied independently by landscape archaeologists and archaeoastronomers. Despite their similar interests, the two fields have failed to converge primarily because of their differing epistemologies. This paper argues that archaeology has much to gain by integrating the two fields to provide a fuller and more balanced exploration and understanding of the location and orientation of the European megaliths. It is suggested that prehistoric archaeoastronomy needs to become more grounded on the archaeological record and context of the prehistoric structures it studies. If it is to generate knowledge of value to archaeology it needs to become a “skyscape archaeology.” This paper looks at current archaeoastronomical approaches through the lens of archaeological practice. It identifies some limitations and discusses how landscape archaeology can inform archaeoastronomy on overcoming them. A methodology that attempts this necessary cross-fertilization, by shedding unfounded assumptions and developing a more phenomenological approach to pattern-recognition, is proposed. This methodology is applied to a case study in central Portugal. The emergent narrative, linking a cluster of dolmens to a local mountain range and the star Aldebaran, not only fits the archaeological record, but is mirrored by local folklore, lending further support to the validity of this methodology.

On Putting Time in its Place: Archaeological Practice and the Politics of Time in Southern India

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen D. Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Landscape History ◽  
Southern India ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Archaeological Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Action ◽  
Art Historians

The work of time-making is always a work of the present, and even in its driest form, the archaeological chronology, is a political process. Archaeological practices which make time from space necessarily dissect unified material landscapes into temporal slices, ‘cuts’ of time and space that can either mute or give voice to past interactions with material landscapes, engagements sometimes called ‘the past in the past.’ Despite the fact that historical and archaeological remains in India are often central to political contestation, the structures and objects studied by archaeologists and art historians are typically viewed as straightforward exemplars of past periods, dynasties, or cultures, disappearing from gaze as they leave the period to which they ‘belong’. This article considers some forms of interaction between people and places in southern India—from ashmounds to megaliths to temples—interactions ‘out of time’ according to traditional archaeological practice, but which reveal past contestations and concerns. Such forms of landscape history require both analytical techniques such as chronologies which divide time, as well as landscape-based approaches which can heal those divisions by allowing past action ‘out of place’ to be made visible.

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