Experiments with Diachronic Data Distribution Methods Applied to Eastern Sigillata a in the Eastern Mediterranean

Willet, Rinse

doi:10.11116/herom.3.3

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Ceramic finewares, typically employed in food consumption, have instead been used to answer questions related to their production and, again, to trade and the Roman economy (e.g. Mees 2007;Polak 2017;Willet 2014), or merely for dating sites. The fact that ceramic tablewares are found in their millions across the Roman world makes them particularly valuable artefacts in this regard, notably the ubiquitous wheel-made and mass-produced, redpolished terra sigillata (see Mees and Polak 2013).…”

Section: Investigating Food-consumption Practices Through Ceramicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Arch-I-Scan Project: Artificial Intelligence and 3D Simulation for Developing New Approaches to Roman Foodways

Helden

Mirkes

Tyukin

et al. 2022

Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology

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This article presents the aims, technical processes, and initial results of the Arch-I-Scan Project, which is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the collection of Roman ceramic data so that these data can contribute more effectively to improved understandings of Roman foodways. The project is developing a system for the automated identification of ceramic types (fabrics, forms and sizes), and potentially the automated collation of the resulting datasets, to facilitate more holistic recording of these big archaeological data, and avoiding the current time-consuming and costly specialist process for classifying these artefacts. The particular focus of the project is to develop datasets that are suitable for inter-and intra-site analyses of eating and drinking behaviours in the Roman world which require more comprehensive recording of these remains than the current sampling practices used to date sites or to investigate production and trade practices. The article includes a brief overview of approaches to material culture, particularly ceramics, for improving understandings of cultural patterns in past food-consumption practices. We then outline the project's rationale and planned approaches to harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning for artefact recording, specifically of Roman terra sigillata tablewares, and the processes used to develop a sufficiently large dataset to develop and test the AI system. The important aspect of this article is the changes made to these processes to mitigate the impact of the Covid pandemic on our ability to record large datasets of real ceramics. These changes involved the development of simulated datasets that substantially enhance our original real dataset and the accuracy of identification. Here we present our results to date, contextualised within the overall aims of the project and briefly discuss the steps we are taking to improve these.

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Section: Investigating Food-consumption Practices Through Ceramicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Arch-I-Scan Project: Artificial Intelligence and 3D Simulation for Developing New Approaches to Roman Foodways

Helden

Mirkes

Tyukin

et al. 2022

Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology

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“…In doing so, we assume that the contents of these amphorae were consumed at the sites from which the sherds were recovered (e.g. they were not consumed on urban sites and the amphorae recycled as building materials on rural sites); we also make use of a 'triangular' weighted model that assumes that use and deposition were more probable around the midpoint of the chronological production span of any particular amphora type (Willet, 2014). Figure 5, based on a total of 3391 amphora sherds, shows the changing consumption of imported wine, and to a much lesser extent of oil and fish sauce, in the Roman suburbium.…”

Section: Amphorae As a Proxy For Pan-mediterranean Market Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roman Hinterland Project: Integrating Archaeological Field Surveys around Rome and Beyond

et al. 2021

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This article presents the background to and prospects for a new initiative in archaeological field survey and database integration. The Roman Hinterland Project combines data from the Tiber Valley Project, Roman Suburbium Project, and the Pontine Region Project into a single database, which the authors believe to be one of the most complete repositories of data for the hinterland of a major ancient metropolis, covering nearly 2000 years of history. The logic of combining these databases in the context of studying the Roman landscape is explained and illustrated with analyses that show their capacity to contribute to major debates in Roman economy, demography, and the longue durée of the human condition in a globalizing world.

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“…One approach, in the case where site dating has already been assigned and cannot be easily reinvestigated, is to divide periods into equivalent time-blocks and assign likelihoods of site presence based on the number of time-blocks assigned to each period (e.g. Brughmans and Poblome 2016;Crema 2012;Crema et al 2010;Fentress and Perkins 1988;Willet 2014). Here we go slightly further and use random sampling methods and simulations of spatial statistical models within periods; this works partially to counteract any incomplete patterning from temporal uncertainties and also acts as a barometer of confidence in interpretations of the changing nature of prehistoric settlement systems.…”

Section: Setting and Survey In The Mirabellomentioning

confidence: 99%

Settlement location models, archaeological survey data and social change in Bronze Age Crete

Spencer

Bevan

2018

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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This paper builds spatial models of Bronze Age settlement using published survey datasets from the Mirabello region in east Crete. Methodologically, we examine how point process modelling can account for uncertainties in legacy survey datasets, and thereafter can highlight patterns of both cultural change and continuity in Mirabello settlement. Comparison of fitted models over different chronological periods gives an insight, we argue, into the kinds of settlement and subsistence choices that lay behind settlement patterns, holding constant the broadly similar environmental constraints faced by inhabitants throughout the Bronze Age. Overall, the results suggest prehistoric preference for, and exploitation of, agriculturally favourable parts of the landscape, although contrasting emphases in different periods do emerge despite this unsurprising overall preference. Many of the analytical results prove robust to a sensitivity analysis which addresses commonplace uncertainties associated with settlement survey data. The results also dovetail well with previous archaeological interpretations of changing settlement and Bronze Age life in the Mirabello region. Survey datasets are also relatively common in other archaeological settings worldwide and we advocate for more widespread application of similarly formalised methods to them.

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Experiments with Diachronic Data Distribution Methods Applied to Eastern Sigillata a in the Eastern Mediterranean

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

The Arch-I-Scan Project: Artificial Intelligence and 3D Simulation for Developing New Approaches to Roman Foodways

The Arch-I-Scan Project: Artificial Intelligence and 3D Simulation for Developing New Approaches to Roman Foodways

The Roman Hinterland Project: Integrating Archaeological Field Surveys around Rome and Beyond

Settlement location models, archaeological survey data and social change in Bronze Age Crete

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