Call for papers

And another CAA is approaching! Deadline for paper abstracts: 28th of October

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The next International conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA 2017 – http://caaconference.org/) will be held between March 14th and 16th, 2017 at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, USA.
We would like to draw your attention and invite you to submit your paper abstracts to the following session:
Title: Urbanism at the micro, meso and macro scales: Advances in computational and quantitative methods to study cities and their built environments
Organisers: Eleftheria Paliou, Adrian Chase

Over previous decades many advances in archaeology and contemporary urban geography have been made using computational and quantitative methods to study cities and their built environments at various stages of development. In recent years the proliferation of new approaches allowing for the documentation and analysis of built spaces have enabled the acquisition of large volumes of data on ancient settlements encouraging fresh lines of enquiry. Advances in data acquisition via geophysics and remote sensing methods have offered a more comprehensive picture of cities, towns, and villages in two, three, and sometimes four dimensions. These developments have contributed to better understanding of the form, size, and spatial configuration of past settlements, and have facilitated their interpretation through various forms of computational analysis. Methodologies such as Space Syntax, 2D and 3D GIS based analysis, spatial interaction models, network analysis, and urban scaling have been employed to explore socio-economic aspects of culturally diverse settlements at different spatial scales. These studies demonstrate the potential of computational methods to offer insights into the social organisation of past societies, often from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, as well as the challenges entailed in applying these methods to fragmented archaeological datasets. This session invites papers that discuss the use of computational methods for the acquisition and analysis of settlement data at the micro (building), meso (settlement) and macro (regional) scales. We especially welcome papers on the innovative applications of 2D and 3D spatial analyses to the built environment, works that adopt a comparative and diachronic perspective, and studies that seek to evaluate the theoretical contributions and challenges associated with the use of these computational approaches.

 
The call for papers and posters is now open and will remain open until 11:59 PM EDT the 28th of October (Friday). To submit your paper abstract please go to the OCS website to log-in.

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Computational approaches to ancient urbanism: documentation, analysis and interpretation

Already looking forward to attending CAA 2016!

The next Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative methods in Archaeology will be held in Oslo, between 29th March-2nd of April, 2016. Sessions will address many aspects related to the current use of digital technologies in archaeology. This year I am co-organising a session with Hanna Stoeger and Undine Lieberwirth on computational approaches to ancient urbanism that aims to stimulate discussion between different analytical approaches to the ‘Ancient City’:

Submissions deadline: 25th of October 

Computational approaches to ancient urbanism: documentation, analysis and interpretation

Johanna Stoeger (University of Leiden, Netherlands)
Eleftheria Paliou (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Undine Lieberwirth (Excellence Cluster Topoi, Free University Berlin, Germany)

This session seeks to stimulate the discussion between different analytical approaches to the ‘Ancient City’, ranging from macro-scale analysis (including the exterior peripheral environment) to the micro-scale analysis of individual houses and interior spaces.
Since the 1990s archaeologists have been employing computer-based quantitative analysis tools to reconstruct not only cultural landscapes and rural settlements, but also urban built environments. These analysis tools and software solutions have been improved over the last decades, allowing us to advance our knowledge of the ‘Ancient City’ beyond descriptive digital models and constraining conceptional boundaries.
The aim of this session is to push the boundaries of current applications to open up new ways of studying and understanding Ancient Cities, and to work towards a shared set of analysis techniques and interpretative frameworks that can be applied to most past built environments across most time-scales.
We would like to invite contributions that discuss innovative aspects of computer applications to the research of past urban developments, which may include, among others, computer simulations of urban development in the past, 3D reconstructions of urban environments, large-scale analyses of urban social / cultural phenomena, innovative Building information Modeling applications (BIM), 3D/4D, and GIS. We particularly welcome papers that explore the interpretive potential of new computational approaches to ancient urbanism and encourage debate on the theoretical and methodological issues that come along with the application of digital technologies for the understanding of ancient cities.

The e-proceedings of the CAA GR 2014 conference are out!

The e-proceedings of the first CAA GR conference  have now been published! 🙂 Many thanks to the authors and the reviewers for their contribution. You can download the whole volume here: (For faster access right click on the link on the website and choose “Save link as” to save on your computer.)

Papadopoulos, C., Paliou, E., Chrysanthi, A., Kotoula, E., and Sarris, A. (Eds) 2015. Archaeological Research in the Digital Age. Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Greek Chapter (CAA-GR) Rethymno, Crete, 6-8 March 2014. Rethymno: IMS-Forth. 

“The whole is more than the sum of its parts”- Geospatial data integration, visualisation and analysis at the Roman site of Ammaia (Marvão, Portugal)

The second volume of the CAA 2012 proceedings was published a few days ago and is freely available from this link. The volume, that covers the full breadth of computer applications in archaeology, also includes a paper I co-authored with Cristina Corsi, while I was working at the “Radiography of the Past” project. The paper offers a brief account of how computational methodologies have been used to enrich the interpretation of archaeological datasets collected mainly via non-destructive multy-survey methods at the Roman site of Ammaia. GIS-based data integration, data fusion, 3D reconstruction and visualisation are briefly discussed,   while emphasis is given to the yet largely unexplored potential of urban network analysis to enhance the interpretation of ancient street networks revealed with non-destructive survey methods. A high resolution pdf of the paper is available from this link. More results on this work will be published in a forthcoming publication.

Additional informaton on the archaeological work undertaken at Ammaia can be found on the website of the project, including a full publication list. Furthermore, a booklet and dvd on  Ammaia have been made available via the website of the project and can be downloaded for free.

Video created by 7Reasons

Call for papers: CAA 2015 session “Formal approaches to visibility analysis in ancient architectural spaces and cultural landscapes”

The next CAA International conference will take place in Siena, between March 30th and April 3rd 2015. As always, the CAA conference is expected to be an informative, stimulating, and entertaining not-to-be- missed event for all those interested in computer applications in archaeology.  The program features many great sessions focusing on a variety of different technologies. Among others a session on formal approaches to visibility analysis will be organised by Giacomo Landeschi and me. Anyone interested in this topic is very welcome to submit a paper by 20th of November:

Formal approaches to visibility analysis in ancient architectural spaces and cultural landscapes

Giacomo Landeschi, Eleftheria Paliou

Formal visibility methods have now a longstanding tradition in archaeological research, both at landscape and site scale. Such research approaches have been used so far to reproduce, simulate and analyze the visual experience of ancient spaces, providing an interpretative framework which allows archaeologists to detect symbolic meanings embodied in the material evidence of the past. Especially in recent years, advances in 3D visualization and GIS technology have permitted new strategies for investigating human perception and the spatial configuration of human visual space. These include methodologies of fully 3D GIS visual analysis, integrative approaches that combine the use of GIS and 3D modelling software, and 3D digital simulations of ancient environments. In parallel with the development of new 3D formal analytical methods, 2D techniques used mainly in modern architectural and urban studies, such as Space Syntax methods, have become increasingly more popular among archaeologists.

The proposed session aims at exploring these new developments by inviting papers on the application of 2D and 3D visibility analysis in architectural spaces and cultural landscapes. We especially encourage works concerned with the application of fully 3D GIS analysis that go beyond traditional viewshed applications, Space Syntax methods, and formal analyses of visibility in 3D and virtual environments. Emphasis should be given in the particular merits of 2D and 3D methods for specific case studies, the theoretical and methodological problems associated with the archaeological application of these techniques, as well as the challenges and potential future research directions in the field of formal visual analysis.

Free Access: Spatial analysis and social spaces: Interdisciplinary approaches to the interpretation of prehistoric and historic built environments

I am very happy to announce that the open access version of the volume “Spatial analysis and social spaces: Interdisciplinary approaches to the interpretation of prehistoric and historic built environments” has now been published! You can access the full contents  from this link:

http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/177443

Within archaeology, computer-based spatial analysis (for example, GIS-based analysis) has been widely applied to the investigation of historic and prehistoric space, both domestic and ritual. Typically, however, the focus has been on larger spatial scales (‘landscapes’) rather than urban spaces and buildings. This book brings together contributions from specialists in archaeology, social theory and urban planning who explore the theoretical and methodological frameworks associated with the application of new and established computer-based spatial analysis methods in past built environments. The focus is mainly on approaches that place particular emphasis on the concepts of visibility, movement and accessibility in built space.

With many important contributions from experts in the field:

Eleftheria Paliou “Introduction”

Chapter 1
Bill Hillier “Spatial analysis and cultural information: the need for theory as well as method in space syntax analysis ”

Chapter 2
Quentin Letesson “From building to architecture: the rise of configurational thinking
in Bronze Age Crete”

Chapter 3
Eleftheria Paliou “Visibility analysis in 3D built spaces: a new dimension to the understanding of social space”

Chapter 4
David Wheatley “Connecting landscapes with built environments: visibility analysis,
scale and the senses”

Chapter 5
Constantinos Papadopoulos and Graeme Earl “Formal three-dimensional computational analyses of archaeological spaces”

Chapter 6
Kevin D Fisher “Investigating monumental social space in Late Bronze Age Cyprus: an integrative approach”

Chapter 7
Piraye Hacıgüzeller and Ulrich Thaler “Three tales of two cities? A comparative analysis of topological, visual and metric properties of archaeological space in Malia and Pylos”

Chapter 8
John Bintliff  “Spatial analysis of past built environment: houses and society in the
Aegean from the Early Iron Age till the impact of Rome”

Chapter 9
Akkelies van Nes “Indicating street vitality in excavated towns. Spatial configurative analyses applied to Pompeii”

Chapter 10
Hanna Stöger “The spatial signature of an insula neighbourhood of Roman Ostia”

Enjoy!

A new free online course on Roman Archaeology and Digital Technologies

Registration for the free online course on the “Archaeology of Portus: exploring the lost harbour of Ancient Rome” is now open!

The online course is the new exciting project of the University of Southampton and promises to be a fascinating experience for those interested in Roman Archaeology and the application of digital technologies to the study of Roman sites.

More details you can find at the project’s  website.

Arcland-CAAGR workshop grants

There are still grants available to attend a CAA GR workshop on 3D recording technologies for fieldwork and artefacts. The grants are offered by CAA GR in collaboration with Archaeolandscapes network. A limited number of grants will be offered to eligible students and scholars that cover registration fees, accommodation (2 nights), travel expenses to Crete (Rethymno) and daily reimbursement (up to a maximum of 500 Euros per grant). Grant applications have to be written in English and submitted until 18th December 2013. Application forms and the rules for grants can be downloaded from here. For more information on the CAA GR workshop follow this link.

The call for papers for the CAA GR 2014 conference is now open!

I am very happy to announce that the call for papers for the first CAA GR conference is now open!

The CAA GR 2014 conference (Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology – Greek chapter) will be held at the Institute of Mediterranean Studies at Rethymno, Crete from Friday 7th to  Saturday 8th March 2014.

You can find instructions on abstract submission on the official website of the conference.

Abstract submission deadline: 1st November 2013.

“Computational approaches to archaeological spaces”

The use of computational social science methods in archaeology has steadily increased within the last ten years. An excellent  overview of this area of research is presented in a volume edited by Andy Bevan and Mark Lake (Institute of Archaeology, UCL, UK),  titled “Computational approaches to archaeological spaces“, which is expected to be published this month. 3D visibility analysis methods in archaeology are also discussed in chapters 10 (you can find the submitted version here) and 11.

Click here for the list of contents.