These are video presentations from the CAAUK conference, held October 26th-27th in Edinburgh, and cover the first day in the Lower Hall.
Visualising and researching complex prehistoric cemetery sites: the Ossi project (Sardinia, Italy)
Guillaume Robin, Florian Soula
Sardinia (Italy) is known for its rich heritage of standing prehistoric monuments, ranging from Neolithic megalithic sites, to Copper Age rock-cut tombs and Bronze Age nuraghi towers. Rock-cut tomb cemeteries present a double challenge for archaeologists. The first one is documentation: each tomb represents a complex underground architecture, and up to 20 of them can be scattered over the irregular landscape of a cemetery. No satisfactory methods have been applied so far to record and present such complex spatial information. The second challenge is contextualisation: very little research has been devoted to the broader landscape context of these Sardinian cemeteries and their relationship with settlements. This paper presents the results of a recent project in Ossi (Northwest Sardinia), where rock-cut tomb cemeteries dating from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age have been surveyed, using close-range and drone photogrammetry combined with dGPS geo-referencing. Systematic fieldwalking around the cemeteries have been carried out in order to produce a detailed dGPS distribution map of surface finds and structures, which suggest settlement areas associated with the cemeteries. All the results were grouped together and processed in a GIS platform. The project shows how an integrated methodological package not only help record and present complex archaeological spatial data, but also tackle specific social questions about the cultural use of the landscape in the past.
Digging into Early Colonial Mexico: old sources, new approaches
Raquel Liceras-Garrido, Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Ian Gregory, Bruno Martins, Diego Jimenez-Badillo, Mariana Favila, Katherine Bellamy
The Digging into Early Colonial Mexico (DigCH) project is a T-AP funded collaboration between the Universities of Lancaster (UK), Lisbon (POR) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (MEX). The main purpose of the project is the analysis of the corpus known as Relaciones Geográficas de la Nueva España (The Geographic Relations of New Spain) compiled during the 16th century by the Spanish Crown, and particularly those documents related to Mexico and Central America.
The Relaciones Geográficas are an essential source of knowledge about history, geography, culture, religion, economy and ethnicity, as well as the relationships between indigenous and colonial officers within the Viceroyalty of New Spain. They present a complex and interesting linguistic structure composed by descriptions in Spanish mixed with places, other proper names, and terms in indigenous languages, particularly Nahuatl. This makes the Relaciones Geográficas a multifaceted and exceptionally rich corpus in terms of both, linguistic and geographic exploration.
The project has three broad aims. Firstly, it will create and assess novel computational methods for the exploration of these historical documents. Secondly, it will create a set of complex digital datasets from this corpus, which is one of the most relevant sources of America written in Spanish and peppered with terms in Nahuatl. This will include the production of the first digital 16th century Spanish-Nahuatl Colonial Gazetteer and the first 16th century Colonial GIS for this region. Finally, this information will enable to revisit and answer research questions of crucial importance for this historical period.
In this paper, we will address how modern language technologies including methods and techniques from Natural Language Processing, Corpus Linguistics and Machine Learning, in combination with geospatial analysis, are facilitating a new way of approaching these kind of historical documents and the challenges they also pose. We will present how this interdisciplinary methodology is enabling us to explore and identify linguistic, semantic, geographic and historical patterns, through the semi-automated analysis of thousands of documents that contain more than 2.8 million words in different European and non-European languages.
The True Cost of Digital Data Session
CIfA – Information Management Special Interest Group Session
Digital Data Capture – Cost or Benefit?
David Andrews
This presentation will examine the costs of recording historic buildings and archaeological sites using modern survey technology such as laser scanning and SfM photogrammetry.
In the last 10-15 years general survey industry has comprehensively adopted laser scanning as the most cost effective route to achieving measured building survey and a number of firms are also increasingly using SfM photogrammetry to supplement or in some cases replace laser scan data. General capital and on-going costs for purchasing laser scanning equipment and software will be presented and compared with the lower start-up costs of photogrammetry. The relative efficiencies of using both techniques compared with hand planning or TST survey will then be discussed. Another alternative is to sub-contract recording work to a dedicated survey company and average costs for this will be examined.
Finally case studies of a recent laser scan surveys of archaeological excavations and standing building survey will be presented.
Digital Archaeology, but at What Cost? Supporting Curators in Managing the Heritage Resource
Damien Campbell-Bell
With the increasingly frequent use of digital technologies to record archaeological sites and historic structures there are a broad range of concerns which need to be addressed. One of the key factors is cost, but this may be interpreted in multiple ways. There are evidently considerations in terms of labour and financial cost in the use of digital technologies, but if the techniques are not properly understood, there are also potential costs for the archaeological record. The UK has a well-established system for overseeing archaeological works and industry standards which should be followed, however whilst standards exist for digital recording they are generally less well understood. A key aim of archaeology is preservation by record, and if quality standards for recording archaeology are to be maintained as we move increasingly to digital methods, curators must be able to confidently assess the suitability of methodologies and results. This paper will discuss what we may set as a baseline for the information curators should be aware of, and what methods practitioners can use to ensure that their work can be easily assessed. By helping curators in this way we can ensure that the industry continues to generate a high quality archaeological record and avoid negative impacts to our understanding of the heritage resource.
Use It Or Lose It
Chris Casswell
Digital techniques and workflows have swiftly evolved to now underpin every major industry in the world; yet archaeology has fallen severely behind in our approach to collecting and managing digital archaeological data.
For too long the heritage sector has debated the best course of action to tackling the digital data management issue. At DigVentures, we forged ahead with a solution by fundamentally changing our approach and workflow to embrace digital from project design though to publication.
DV firmly advocates a born-digital approach to the archaeological process, making data available from collection to archiving. As soon as information is collected on site it is published online for the world to see, comment and collaborate on through Digital Dig Team (https://digventures.com/digital-dig-team/). This archaeological recording system is more than just a tool for fieldworkers; it is amplified through social media channels, so that our projects are just a click away from anyone who wishes to view or participate.
Upon completion, reports are submitted to the ADS and entire project archives are maintained online through Digital Dig Team and project microsites with a strong emphasis on preservation by use. We believe that it is only through embracing a born-digital approach to every part of the archaeological process, from all parts of the sector, that we can achieve a cost-effective way of archiving and using digital data.
Digital archives in archaeology; the Scottish context
Emily Nimmo
Within Historic Environment Scotland, the role as place of deposit for archaeological archives is stronger than ever with functions of collecting and protecting archives enshrined in law. The Digital Archive in HES has been busy, making huge strides in renewing the technical infrastructure that underpins the work to ensure the long term preservation of our digital archives. HES has been working with a commercial partner, Preservica, to integrate their system with our own repository service and enabling automation to free up existing resource. HES are looking at possible ways to extend this service to partners, such as RCAHMW, through shared tenancy options provided by Preservica. The paper discusses the background to the Scottish sector, drawing on the survey of commercial archaeological companies (2012) and highlighting preliminary findings from a repeated survey (2016). Outlining the existing situation for digital archives in Scotland, the similarities and differences between England, Scotland and Wales are discussed in the context of the Bedern Group which seeks to work together to make it easier for the organisations working across these boundaries. The future for the Digital Archive services at HES is considered with emphasis on developing strong partnership links. Initiatives like Scottish Historic Environment Data Strategy (SHED) and projects such as Scotland’s Urban Past help co-ordinate all aspects of the heritage community to capture and bring together valuable data sets and make these available through the Canmore website.
From ‘dirty’ data to accessible resource
Eva Fairnell
The output or end-product of a digital project can take many forms, from 3D images to searchable online databases. While the latter may seem more straightforward, there are in fact many issues to address in order to generate a user-friendly, stable resource that draws on data from many disparate sources. Even if guidelines for data submission are provided, when managing a project, what you ask for is not necessarily what you get. The spectre of ‘dirty data’ has to be addressed at some stage, so that the data submitted are in the required format for the proposed host platform to use. In order to maximise both the input and output, it may be necessary for an intermediary stage to invest in cleaning the data, liaising with both the data suppliers and the product developer, to ensure an efficient transfer and successful result. It is easy to underestimate the time required for this vital part of product research and development, which nevertheless has to be budgeted for. Using the National Zooarchaeological Reference Resource (NZRR; http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/nzrr_he_2017/) as a case study, this presentation will discuss examples of issues that need to be resolved.