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Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative Panel
Computer Applications to Archaeology
Prado, Italy
April 16, 2004

Presentation Descriptions

TimeMap developments: New methods of map animation and interoperability
with the Rumsey Map Library

TimeMap has evolved substantially in the last year and is shortly to become an Open Source project. Particular developments to be covered in this paper include a more historically-accurate method of map animation, using Macromedia Flash as the output format for web delivery; the inclusion of several thousand maps from the Rumsey Map Library in ECAI searches; automatic publishing of web maps from the TimeMap Windows
toolkit program; and support for the Open GIS Consortium mapping standards. These developments open up new ways of using TimeMap and ECAI datasets as a teaching tool and provide an example of large-scale
retrospective data collection.

Presenter: Ian Johnson
Director, Archaeological Computing Laboratory & TimeMap Project
Senior Research Fellow, Archaeology
Archaeological Computing Laboratory
Spatial Science Innovation Unit
Room 431 - 433, F09 Madsen Building
University of Sydney NSW 2006,
Australia

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Time, space and classification

Of all disciplines, archaeology ought to be open to the use of time and space in classification. The materials with which we deal are prediscursively geographic, and their relevance to our discipline is fixed because of its perspectives on time. If time and space are the basic criteria by which we constitute relevance, then it stands to
reason that spatial and temporal classifications should be at the core of our information retrieval technologies. However, spatio-temporal classification tends to be poorly served by conventional library technologies, the very technologies that drive so much of the information revolution. This short discussion paper will therefore investigate some of the opportunities and problems associated with generating and validating spatial and temporal classifications and how they can be applied in support of research, learning and teaching in archaeology.

Presenter: Dr William Kilbride
Assistant Director
Archaeology Data Service
Dept of Archaeology t 0044 (0)1904 433954
University of York f 0044 (0)1904 433939
England YO1 7EP, UK help@ads.ahds.ac.uk
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk

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Beyond GIS: Mindscapes, VR and Cultural Landscapes

The landscape is a dynamic context of different transformations intelligible through the time: cultural, historic, political, social, geomorphologic, geographic, anthropological.
The study and the analysis of the archaeological and cultural landscape involve a multidisciplinary approach in order to reconstruct cultures, paleo-environments, mental maps (mindscapes), geomorphology, settlements in diachronic way. Therefore the diachronic and dynamic reconstruction of the landscape needs to implement different methods and advanced digital technologies: GIS (Geographical Information Systrem), remote sensing, virtual reality, predictive modelling, multimedia applications. The final result concern a virtual representation of all the information useful for a complete and deep cultural European knowledge and communication of the landscape, including distinct aspects and layers of valorisation.

Presenter: Maurizio Forte
Primo Ricercatore, Senior Scientist, PhD
Archaeologist
CNR-ITABC, Istituto per le Tecnologie Applicate ai Beni Culturali- Area della Ricerca Roma 1 Via Salaria km.29,300 - C.P.10 - 00016 Monterotondo St. (Roma) - tel./ph. +39 0690672721 - fax: +39 0690672373
Vice President Virtual Heritage Network
web: http://www.itabc.cnr.it
web: http://www.virtualheritage.org

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Function Representation and Hyperfun: Open Source Tools for Digital Preservation

The use of proprietary software to model archaeological objects and sites is an inherently dangerous practice, since such software and its platforms may rapidly become obsolete. To address this problem, we will present Function Representation (FRep), a robust open-source modeling tool based on mathematical functions. In addition, we will introduce HyperFun, a minimalist programming language designed to implement FRep. Because FRep is able to generate irregular shapes that cannot be accurately represented by polygons, it is particularly useful in modeling complex objects such as figurines and statues. Using an example of a figurine from a fourth or fifth century Japanese archaeological site, we will discuss the construction of three- dimensional images. In addition, we will use the HyperFun language to show how an existing FRep model can be altered. Finally, we will introduce several projects in progress, including the development of an FRep-based CAD system and the modeling of Japanese
lacquerware objects.

Presenters: Carl W. Vilbrandt (University of Aizu) , James M. Goodwin (UCLA) , Janet R. Goodwin (Aizu History Project) , Alexander Pasko, Galina Pasko, Musdi Bin Haji Shanat

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Landscape: acquisition, classification and reconstruction through virtual reality technologies.

Since 1999 the CNR ITABC (Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage) with its Virtual Heritage Lab (VHLab) is involved in the research of an integrated methodology to acquire, elaborate and visualize archaeological landscape, through virtual reality systems.
The different techniques will be explained, together with the case studies in which they were applied: acquisition with GPS, Laser Total Station, Photomodelling and Scanner Laser.
Data acquisition and postprocessing integrate different technologies and methods in a coherent and organized system. In this way it is possible to increment the value of data documentation, representation and interpretation.
This approach allows both the creation of complex archives and the use of these data to reconstruct archaeological context in virtual reality applications. In these VR environments, the user can interact with representations characterized by many levels of detail and can access to various levels of content and possibilities of interpretation, interacting directly with the cognitive model.
The most indicated technology for a monographic representation of a structure or a monument is laser scanning that allows the digital acquisition of tridimensional objects as point clouds. The main advantage of this approach is the possibility to obtain very detailed 3D acquisitions and models characterized by high geometric resolution, that is foundamental for an accurate representation and interpretation of the monument.
Our methodological approach is oriented towards real time desktop OpenGL applications, in which the incremented cognitive value of scientific 3D reconstruction can be fully integrated with the complex informative system , composed by all the metadata associated.
This method allows a multidisciplinary critical interpretation of the monument and the landscape.

Presenters: Sofia Pescarin and Eva Pietroni, CNR ITABC

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GIS Applications to the study of the Daunian settlement patterns in the pre-Roman Iron Age: the case of the Fortore Valley

This paper explores the potential of the application of GIS techniques to the investigation of Daunian settlement patterns in the pre-Roman Iron Age (X - second half of the VII century BC). In this region analyses concerning settlement patterns and their evolution have been, up to now neglected. Researches have been mainly focused on the study of necropolis and of funerary equipments. The case study presented here is part of a research concerning all the settlements totally or partially object of publications. During the first Iron Age (X - IX century BC) settlements seem to be located around the Ofanto and Fortore fluvial valleys, both, in that period, navigable, and along the coast, while the inner plain seems is not interested by the presence of settlements. The sites, which occupy an area ranging from 1 to ten hectares, are small while evidence of social articulation are lacking. It is therefore possible to assume the absence of a settlement hierarchy. The spatial distribution of the settlements along precise systems of a physical landscape has addressed the research towards the application of the Viewsheds and Cost Surface Analysis to the sites involved, in order to detect relations between the natural and the anthropic landscape. In particular, the sites located around the Fortore valley have been analysed in order to understand if the river constituted a connection between the settlements or instead a border distinguishing various systems. The results of the Viewsheds Analysis seem to indicate that in the Early Iron Age the watercourse constituted a natural border between two systems located on the opposite sides of the river. The settlements belonging to each system are located in a higher position; they controlled a common space between the systems without losing the visual contact. The application of the Cost Surface Analysis has, instead, allowed to define the sites territories of supplying, and has given support to the hypothesis that the course of the river used to mark the natural border between the two systems. During the second Iron Age those two system are interested by a different development: while the sub-system of the left side of the Fortore disappears, the one located on the right side of the river shows evidence of continuity. In this area the absence of leading centres must be stressed. They would not work singularly, but as part of small systems composed of more sites.

Presenter: Barbara Pecere, Laboratorio Informatica per l’Archeologia - CNR. Università di Lecce

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