Managing the future: new frontiers in Italian Open Archaeology

Managing the future: new frontiers in Italian Open

Archaeology

Francesca Anichini, Nevio Dubbini, Gabriele Gattiglia, Fabio Fabiani,

Maria Letizia Gualandi (University of Pisa, Italy)

19th EAA Annual Meeting

4-8 September 2013, Pilzen, Czech Republic

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Predictive Map of Archaeological

Potential

Archaeological Map

Paleogeographical Map

Mathematical model

Open digital archaeological archive

Open Data

Cooperation

Transparency

Geology

Archaeology

Mathematics

Pisa, Italy

Managing the future: new frontiers in Italian Open Archaeology

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DATA MODEL

•Urban data

•Historical

cartography data

•Geographical/

geomorphological

data

•Archaeological

data

PRIMARY DATA

•obtained data

SECONDARY DATA


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MAPPAGIS

www.mappaproject.org/webgis


http://131.114.164.76:8081/mappa/mappa.phtml

OPEN DATA

www.mappaproject.org/mod Managing the future: new frontiers in Italian Open Archaeology

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http://www.mappaproject.org/mod

One can hardly think of complex mathematical models applied to archaeological data, but consider that other fields of study “far from” mathematics have welcomed worthwhile applications of mathematics Moreover new applications took advantage of mathematics, but also posed new problem to mathematics itself! mathematical shape theory Provides answers to questions like “when some points in the space are placed at random?” “What is a random shape?” Graph theory is the study of mathematical structures used to

model relations between objects (networks)

Link analysis studies the relationships among objects of different types that are not apparent from isolated pieces of information

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

APPLICATIONS

OF MATHS


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7. Report, explain, predict

1. Real-world problem

3. Formulate the abstract problem

4. Solve the abstract problem

5. Interpret the solution

6. Verify the model

TESTING

2. Make assumptions BASIC RULES governing the system PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

MATHEMATICAL MODELS

STATISTICAL MODELS


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• represents the possibilities that a more or less significant

archaeological stratification is preserved

• is calculated by analyzing and studying a series of historical,

archaeological and paleo-environmental data retrieved from

various sources, with a degree of approximation that may

vary according to the quantity and quality of the data

provided and their spatial and contextual relationships

• is a factor independent on any other following intervention

that is carried out, which must be regarded as a contingent

risk factor

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

POTENTIAL

• type of settlement

• density of settlement

• multi-layering of deposits

• removable or non-removable

nature of archaeological

deposit

• degree of preservation of the

deposit

PARAMETERS


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A key issue in detecting archaeological

potential is the identification of relations, both

in spatial and in functional terms, influencing

the probability of higher level structures

presence influence the potential of an area

A 3-d grid models the subsurface. A cell can

- attribute potential to surrounding cells, and

- receive importance by surrounding cells

Analogy with criteria for assigning importance to

web pages by search engines cell = web pages

In PageRank web pages

- attribute importance to pages they link to

- receive importance from pages linking to


PAGERANK

ALGORITHM

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WORKFLOW

DIAGRAM Archaeological findings :

Categorisation of

archaeological data

Shaping the urban elements

i.e. roman domus, medieval tower-

house etc

They operate on the expansion of archaeological potential

Creation of functional areas:

• Urban area

• Suburban area

• Rural area

Relations between

archaeological categories in

the same historical period

Creation of

paleogeographical maps

Assigning the potential value of

archaeological information

Relations between

archaeological categories

through different periods

Synchronic level

Diachronic level

[*]

[**]

[***]


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• production

• building techniques

• trade

• food

• agricolture/breeding

• worship

• waste management

• political/institutional aspects

• social and gender aspects

• physical anthropology

• fauna/flora

• geomorphology

• viability/transport

• health and hygiene

• warfare

• land management

• leisure

• tradition

• water system

Every category of archaeological

findings can give information

about:

For each of them we

assign a binary value.

The sum of values

gives the

archaeological potential

of each category

[*]


Assigning the potential value of archaeological information

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Relations between archaeological category in the same historical period

Medieval tower-house

shop

alley

road

courtyard

[**]


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[***] Creation of functional areas

Using the archaeological findings we

computed automatically on the basis

of the rules given by the

archaeologists the functional areas,

i.e. levels of

spatial and functional organization

(e.g. urban, suburban, rural areas) in

which the urban space is organized.

Archaeological

findings

Functional area


Geomorphological, stratigraphic geophisical and archaeological data have been processed using geostatistical techniques in order to get temporal DEMs for 7 periods from Protohistory to Contemporary Age and to create paleogeographical maps


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Creation of paleogeographical maps

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PAGERANK FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL

The relative values of links are obtained weighting by the paleogeographical datum

The area of influence is proportional to the value of the functional area the cell belongs to


The total “weight” of links distributed by a cell with finds will vary on the basis of the estimated probability of the presence of certain finds near particular finds

Contemporary Age

Modern Age

Late Medieval period

Early Medieval period

Roman period

Etruscan period

Protohistory


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CORE-

DRILLINGS

VALIDATION

The final result has obtained after a validation of

the results provided by a preliminary version,

through 14 new core-drillings, with which the

algorithm was tested, in order to obtain a better

fitting model.


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THE MAP OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF THE URBAN AREA OF PISA


The map of archaeological potential is given by

the composition of the 7 layers.

It’s weighted sum in which archaeological

periods with few information available are taken

more into account.

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Pisa in the Middle

Ages: archaeology,

spatial analysis and

predictive models

RESEARCH

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Is it enough

DILEMMA

?


Trends in data storage - digitalization analysis through computers - usability availability of data in different places and through different devices Though the process is more evident in other fields, also in archaeology these trends encouraged the production of a huge quantity of data, and the development of open data archives or repositories

The only way of analyzing huge quantity of digital (and heterogeneous!) data is by means of automatic methods

Here mathematics come into play: the way of improving analyses is moving from having the best data, to having the best way to analyze data

BIG ARCHAEOLOGICAL

DATA


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BIG DATA are the solution for sustainable archeology !



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Managing the future: new frontiers in Italian Open Archaeology

Education

new frontiers

archaeological category

archaeological categories

data secondary data

new problem

new applications

attribute potential

paleoenvironmental data