THE COMPARISON OF HOUSE MODELS FOUND IN PREHISTORIC AND ANCIENT TOMBS – THE EVIDENCE OF ARCHITECTURAL AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

Almost all over the world, archaeological museums present collections of prehistoric small houses made of clay, bronze and wood. These artefacts were part of tombs equipment, some of high artistic level. Models discussed in the article represent five different cultures from distant geographic regions: Egypt, Italy, Northern Poland, Western Mexico, and Honshu in Japan. Since these cultures were additionally separated on a timeline this excluded interaction between them. A number of articles published contains information about such artefacts. However, according to the best knowledge of the author none has tried to juxtapose and compare the oldest architectural models.

Between Centre and Periphery: The Small Towns of Pomerelia during the Period of Hanse Domination

This article offers an overview of specific aspects of the material culture of Pomerelian minor towns in the late Middle Ages. Although small urban centres in Pomerelia (also known as Gdańsk Pomerania) were located off the main trade routes and in the hinterland of the Hanseatic world, archaeological excavations have revealed numerous remains related to the Hanseatic way of life. The analysis of buildings, pottery, glassware, and metalware reveal the Baltic towns’ participation in urban culture, providing an insight into the status of the smaller towns in relation to the main trade centres of the Baltic Sea.

An Open System for Collection and Automatic Recognition of Pottery through Neural Network Algorithms

In the last ten years, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been applied in archaeology. The ArchAIDE project realised an AI-based application to recognise archaeological pottery. Pottery is of paramount importance for understanding archaeological contexts. However, recognition of ceramics is still a manual, time-consuming activity, reliant on analogue catalogues. The project developed two complementary machine-learning tools to propose identifications based on images captured on-site, for optimising and economising this process, while retaining key decision points necessary to create trusted results. One method relies on the shape of a potsherd; the other is based on decorative features. For the shape-based recognition, a novel deep-learning architecture was employed, integrating shape information from points along the inner and outer profile of a sherd. The decoration classifier is based on relatively standard architectures used in image recognition. In both cases, training the algorithms meant facing challenges related to real-world archaeological data: the scarcity of labelled data; extreme imbalance between instances of different categories; and the need to take note of minute differentiating features. Finally, the creation of a desktop and mobile application that integrates the AI classifiers provides an easy-to-use interface for pottery classification and storing pottery data.

THE PRESERVATION OF WORLD ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND PROMOTION OF TOURISM: QALA'AT BANI HAMMAD (M'SILA) ALGERIA

Archaeological sites are currently considered as one of the most important tourism industry drivers, becoming an autonomous economy. Among the most outstanding archaeological sites in Algeria is the fort of Bani Hammad. This site is the first archaeological site classified by UNESCO in 1980, located in central Algeria in M'sila province. Given its importance, we conducted a scientific study to highlight its beautiful archaeological tourism components and national and international tourist attractions. Then, we revealed the tourism challenges and the physical and moral deterioration affecting this site. Also, we propose a preservation plan to promote this site’s touristic assets, enabling its transformation into a tourist destination competing with other archaeological sites in Algeria and the Maghreb; through a sustainable development plan of archaeological tourism, while preserving its historical identity and role. To this aim, we used a descriptive and quantitative analytical approach, starting with a theoretical and analytical analysis of various studies, plans, and documents related to this archaeological site's components. Then, we analyzed the geographical and statistical data of the tourist traffic over five years using the SPSS statistical program. Finally, we presented the results, developed a rehabilitation plan for the site, and suggested an essential set of recommendations.

Excavating Repositories: Academic Research Projects Using Archaeological Collections

ABSTRACTAround the world, archaeological collections are curated in museums, universities, foundations, government agencies, and other organizations. Some are carefully documented and readily accessible, while others are languishing in substandard conditions as a direct result of the curation crisis. This article highlights the value of collection-based research. It encourages the mutually beneficial approach of training students in both collection preservation and collection-based research and demonstrates other ways to obtain data for research projects, aside from excavation. Using my collections-based research carried out in Puerto Rico and the continental United States as a case study, I draw attention to the valuable information that can be derived from acquisition and accession documents and offer ways to incorporate new datasets. This allows for more accurate narratives of collections’ historiographies.

Arqueología y ríos de las Tierras Bajas de América del Sur

Los ríos de las Tierras Bajas han sido espacios claves para entender problemas suprarregionales de la antropología de América del Sur, tales como: el poblamiento americano, la cronología y dispersión de innovaciones tecnológico-culturales como la arquitectura en tierra, la alfarería o la agricultura de la mandioca y el maíz, las migraciones y expansiones de poblaciones indígenas y familias lingüísticas, la interacción de grupos cazadores-recolectores entre sí y con horticultores, el surgimiento de la complejidad social y las desigualdades hereditarias, entre otros. Teniendo en cuenta estos problemas generales, en el último World Archaeological Congress (WAC-8, Kyoto) surgió la idea de organizar este dossier entre el Instituto Goiano de Pré-História e Antropologia da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás y la División Arqueología del Museo de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Se sugirió a las autoras y los autores invitados abordar el estado del arte de las investigaciones arqueológicas en cada uno de los ríos o cuencas en las que trabajan, según algunos de los siguientes ejes: a) los procesos de formación de sitio y la transformación humana del paisaje fluvial; b) la existencia o no de adaptaciones fluviales; c) la caza, la pesca y la recolección: tecnologías originarias y estrategias de obtención de los recursos acuáticos. Los ríos en la producción agrícola; d) los ríos como marcadores de fronteras culturales y a la vez generadores de interacción social. Los ríos como vías naturales que guiaron la movilidad pedestre y la navegación y e) significados simbólicos y actividades rituales efectuadas en los ríos como, por ejemplo: áreas preferenciales para entierros humanos, los recursos acuáticos y la identidad de género, iconografía, entre otros temas.El presente dossier de la Revista del Museo de La Plata reúne catorce artículos que muestran el estado actual del conocimiento arqueológico en veinte ríos que han sido protagonistas de la larga historia indígena de las Tierras Bajas sudamericanas (Figura 1). Estos cursos corren por ocho países: Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Brasil, Paraguay, Uruguay y Argentina. En el volumen están representadas las dos mayores cuencas hidrográficas de América del Sur, la del Amazonas y la del Plata, que entre ambas abarcan más de diez millones de kilómetros cuadrados. Se aborda tanto la arqueología del río Amazonas, el más largo y caudaloso del mundo, como también la del Ribeira de Iguape, con dimensiones mucho menores. Se sintetiza la arqueología de ríos que, al atravesar cientos o miles de kilómetros generalmente sin grandes barreras físicas, funcionaron como activos corredores norte-sur-norte –Araguaia, Tocantins, Paraguay, Paraná y Uruguay–, oeste-este-oeste –Caquetá, Napo, Pastaza, Salado (de la provincia de Buenos Aires), Dulce, Salado (de Santiago del Estero), Pilcomayo y Bermejo– o en ambos sentidos como el Upano. Se incluyen cursos que surcan el norte tropical del continente, como el río Magdalena, hasta el sur frío y árido de la Patagonia, con los ríos Chubut, Negro y Colorado. A continuación se comentan los artículos contenidos en el dossier siguiendo un sentido, norte-sur/oeste-este.