Detecting Associations between Archaeological Site Distributions and Landscape Features: A Monte Carlo Simulation Approach for the R Environment

Detecting association between archaeological sites and physical landscape elements like geological deposits, vegetation, drainage networks, or areas of modern disturbance like mines or quarries is a key goal of archaeological projects. This goal is complicated by the incomplete nature of the archaeological record, the high degree of uncertainty of typical point distribution patterns, and, in the case of deeply buried archaeological sites, the absence of reliable information about the ancient landscape itself. Standard statistical approaches may not be applicable (e.g., X2 test) or are difficult to apply correctly (regression analysis). Monte Carlo simulation, devised in the late 1940s by mathematical physicists, offers a way to approach this problem. In this paper, we apply a Monte Carlo approach to test for association between Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites in Hampshire and Sussex, UK, and quarries recorded on historical maps. We code our approach in the popular ‘R’ software environment, describing our methods step-by-step and providing complete scripts so others can apply our method to their own cases. Association between sites and quarries is clearly shown. We suggest ways to develop the approach further, e.g., for detecting associations between sites or artefacts and remotely-sensed deposits or features, e.g., from aerial photographs or geophysical survey.

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A Low-Cost, Easy-Way Workflow for Multi-Scale Archaeological Features Detection Combining LiDAR and Aerial Orthophotography

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13214270 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (21) ◽

pp. 4270

Author(s):

Antonio J. Ortiz-Villarejo ◽

Luís-M. Gutiérrez Soler

Keyword(s):

Low Cost ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Basic Knowledge ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Multi Scale ◽

Internal Structures ◽

Insurmountable Obstacle ◽

A Site ◽

High Degree ◽

The Town

The difficulty of obtaining funding often places the continuity of research projects at risk, forcing researchers to resort to low-cost methodologies. Such methodologies sometimes require a high degree of technical knowledge which, in many cases, poses an insurmountable obstacle to the development of a project. This article shows a low-cost, easy-way methodology for diachronically analysing terrain in search of archaeological evidence on different scales (micro and semi-micro) in both already known and new archaeological sites through the analysis of orthophotographs taken with UAVs, the DEMs generated from them, and public LiDAR data. It allows researchers with small budgets but with a basic knowledge of GIS and photogrammetry to undertake some aspects of their project without necessarily having to call on the assistance or support of specialists. Thanks to this methodology, the researcher will be able to continue until they are able to obtain the funding that will enable them to take their research further, with specialists. This article presents the first conclusions obtained after applying the proposed methodology at the Giribaile (Vilches, Spain) archaeological site—a site of interest in its territory which possibly functioned as an advance defensive post for the town, a hypothesis based on the towers and numerous internal structures that have been identified.

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Simultaneous usage of the LHCb HLT farm for Online and Offline processing workflows

EPJ Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/epjconf/201921401001 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 214 ◽

pp. 01001

Author(s):

Joel Closier ◽

Clara Gaspar ◽

Luis Granado Cardoso ◽

Christophe Haen ◽

Beat Jost ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Monte Carlo Simulation ◽

Monte Carlo ◽

Software Environment ◽

Online Data ◽

Analysis Techniques ◽

Level Trigger ◽

Offline Analysis ◽

Offline Processing ◽

Triggering Process ◽

Computing Capacity

LHCb is one of the 4 LHC experiments and continues to revolutionise data acquisition and analysis techniques. Already two years ago the concepts of “online” and “offline” analysis were unified: the calibration and alignment processes take place automatically in real time and are used in the triggering process such that Online data are immediately available offline for physics analysis (Turbo analysis), the computing capacity of the HLT farm has been used simultaneously for different workflows : synchronous first level trigger, asynchronous second level trigger, and Monte-Carlo simulation. Thanks to the same software environment, LHCb can switch seamlessly and fast from Online to Offline workflows, run them simultaneously and thus maximize the usage of the HLT farm computing resources.

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Electron Scattering in Solids

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100133618 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 4-5

Author(s):

Ryuichi Shimizu ◽

Ze-Jun Ding

Keyword(s):

Monte Carlo Simulation ◽

Monte Carlo ◽

Angular Distribution ◽

Elastic Scattering ◽

Electron Scattering ◽

Cross Sections ◽

Expansion Method ◽

Electron Excitation ◽

Partial Wave Expansion ◽

Backscattered Electrons

Monte Carlo simulation has been becoming most powerful tool to describe the electron scattering in solids, leading to more comprehensive understanding of the complicated mechanism of generation of various types of signals for microbeam analysis.The present paper proposes a practical model for the Monte Carlo simulation of scattering processes of a penetrating electron and the generation of the slow secondaries in solids. The model is based on the combined use of Gryzinski’s inner-shell electron excitation function and the dielectric function for taking into account the valence electron contribution in inelastic scattering processes, while the cross-sections derived by partial wave expansion method are used for describing elastic scattering processes. An improvement of the use of this elastic scattering cross-section can be seen in the success to describe the anisotropy of angular distribution of elastically backscattered electrons from Au in low energy region, shown in Fig.l. Fig.l(a) shows the elastic cross-sections of 600 eV electron for single Au-atom, clearly indicating that the angular distribution is no more smooth as expected from Rutherford scattering formula, but has the socalled lobes appearing at the large scattering angle.

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Determination of Stoichiometry of GaAs Component in (Gaas)Ge Epitaxially Grown Thin Films by Electron Microprobe X-Ray Analysis

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100134922 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 264-265

Author(s):

D. R. Liu ◽

S. S. Shinozaki ◽

R. J. Baird

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Thin Films ◽

Monte Carlo Simulation ◽

Monte Carlo ◽

Compound Semiconductors ◽

Energy Dispersive Analysis ◽

X Ray ◽

Metastable Alloys ◽

Lower Voltage

The epitaxially grown (GaAs)Ge thin film has been arousing much interest because it is one of metastable alloys of III-V compound semiconductors with germanium and a possible candidate in optoelectronic applications. It is important to be able to accurately determine the composition of the film, particularly whether or not the GaAs component is in stoichiometry, but x-ray energy dispersive analysis (EDS) cannot meet this need. The thickness of the film is usually about 0.5-1.5 μm. If Kα peaks are used for quantification, the accelerating voltage must be more than 10 kV in order for these peaks to be excited. Under this voltage, the generation depth of x-ray photons approaches 1 μm, as evidenced by a Monte Carlo simulation and actual x-ray intensity measurement as discussed below. If a lower voltage is used to reduce the generation depth, their L peaks have to be used. But these L peaks actually are merged as one big hump simply because the atomic numbers of these three elements are relatively small and close together, and the EDS energy resolution is limited.

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