E-Science and Archaeology

E-Science and Archaeology

Stuart Dunn

Centre for e-Research, King’s College London

Dept. of Archaeology Research Seminar

7th February 2008

1. What is e-Science?

• "e-Science is about global collaboration in key areas of science and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it."

- Sir John Taylor, Former Director General of Research Councils, 2000

• “the development and deployment of a networked infrastructure and culture through which resources – (…) – can be shared in a secure environment, and in which new forms of collaboration can emerge, and new and advanced methodologies explored.”

- Sheila Anderson Director, Centre for e-Research, King’s College London,

2007


Using networks to connect resources

• Grids to allow virtual computing across “admin domains”– Virtual digital libraries,

virtual museums, virtual observatories

• Technology that was first adopted in sciences…

People

Data

Computation

Building bridges

People

Data

Computation

The data grand challenge• No large data set from automated simulations• Intense human effort to better understand

heterogeneous resources such as artworks, texts, artefacts

• Semantics• Ongoing growth of corpora due to major

digitisation projects (OCR, OMR, etc.)• 180 terabyte Shoa foundation archives will be

no exception in the future


…BUT

2. A leading example of e-Science in action…

Keynote speaker: AHM 2006



LEAP project (Linking E-Archives and Publications)http://www.intarch.ac.uk/


Arts and Humanities e-Science in the UK - 2006

Workshop projects (AHRC)

• User Requirements Gathering for the Humanities (Professor Alan Bowman, University of Oxford) • Geographical Information System e-Science: developing a roadmap (Dr Paul Ell, Queen’s University Belfast) • Performativity/Place/Space: Locating Grid Technologies (Dr Angela Piccini, University of Bristol )• The Access Grid in Collaborative Arts and Humanities Research (Professor David Shepherd, University of Sheffield) • Building the Wireframe: E-Science for the Arts Infrastructure (Dr Gregory Sporton, University of Central England)• ReACH: Researching e-Science Analysis of Census Holdings (Dr Melissa Terras, University College London)

Demonstrator Projects (EPSRC)

• Virtual Vellum: Online Viewing Environment for the Grid and Live Audiences (Professor PF Ainsworth, University of Sheffield)• A Virtual Workspace for the Study of Ancient Documents (Dr CV Crowther, University of Oxford) • Motion Capture Data Services for Multiple User Categories (Dr SJ Norman, University of Newcastle)

http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/projects

3. More e-science and the past…

Arts and Humanities e-Science in the UK - 2007

•Helen Bailey: Relocating Choreographic Process: The impact of Grid technologies and collaborative memory on the documentation of practice-led research in dance

•Alan Bowman: Image, Text, Interpretation: e-Science, Technology and Documents

•Tim Crawford: Purcell Plus: Exploring an eScience Methodology for Musicologists

•Vincent Gaffney: Medieval Warfare on the Grid: The Case of Manzikert

•Sally MacDonald, E-Curator: 3D colour scans for remote object identification and assessment

•Julian Richards, Archaeotools: Data mining, facetted classification and E-archaeology

•monica schraefel, musicSpace: Using and Evaluating e-Science Design Methods and Technologies to Improve Access to Heterogeneous Music Resources for Musicology

http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/research-projects


Medieval Warfare on the Grid: The Case of Manzikert

Geospatial methods and agent-based approach




CHIMERA: Collaborative Harvesting of Information from Museums, E-Records and Archives

CHIMERA Host

Solid line show data flowDotted lines show conceptual relationships

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Translation Services

Constructing a geodatabase of Theran tephraPlace name: Santorini archipelago (northern caldera basin)

Deposit type: sea-floor sediment ( 400m)

Grid reference: not given

Area: -

Thickness: 40m

Deposition method: composite

Archaeological context: -

Comments: -

Literature: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Research Vessel Chain Cruise # 61, ref. no. 67 – 34.

(26)

Place name: Hagia Varvara

Grid reference: 25.46 E; 35.29 N

Deposit type: pumice layer

Area: unknown

Thickness: 5 – 10 cm

Deposition method: waterborne or human agency

Archaeological context: LM IA or possibly IB cup included in pumice layer and

filled with p umice, immediately below a s urface layer

containing LM III pottery.

Comments: Very badly eroded by modern tourist pathways. Illegal

development in the area has further damaged the

stratigraphy. As far as the author is a ware, however, this is

the only inst ance where a vesse l is included in situ with the

volcanic material.

Literature: Blackman 2001: 138; Müller Celka 1996: 928 – 8; also Müller

Celka personal communication, 6/8/2001.


Constructing a geodatabase of Theran tephra3. More e-science and the past…

Constructing a geodatabase of Theran tephra3. More e-science and the past…

Constructing a geodatabase of Theran tephra: problems

• Accuracy and (versus) precision

• Georeferencing from heterogeneous formats


Constructing a geodatabase of Theran tephra: problems

• Accuracy and (versus) precision

• Georeferencing from heterogeneous formats and sources

• Assessing deposition process

• Harmonizing points, sections and stratigraphies

• Georeferencing places

-formal, based on lat/long or other mathematical expressions

-Informal, based on placenames, and/or where no formal mathematical identifier is present

24.87

34.87


Human/socialTechnical/computational