Disciplinary encounters : computer science and archaeology . A dialogue.

1. Disciplinaryencounters: computer science and archaeology. A dialogue. Lin Foxhall University of Leicester (lf4@le.ac.uk) and the ‘Tracing Networks’ team

2. Tracing Networks Craft traditions in the ancient Mediterranean and beyond • investigates the network of contacts across and beyond the Mediterranean region, between the late bronze age and the hellenistic period (c.1500-c.200 BCE) • settingtechnological networks in their greater social, economic and political contexts to expand our understanding of wider cultural developments.

3. Tracing Networks www.tracingnetworks.ac.uk • How does technical knowledge move from one person/group/society to another? • How do people choose which particular knowledge to use from the repertoire available? • In what kinds of contexts does innovation appear? • How can the networks of human relationships through which knowledge moved in the past contribute to digital knowledge transmission today?

4. Interdisciplinary aspects archaeology computer science • 7 archaeological projects with complex, varied databases and data issues • Collaborative Working Environment (CWE) and Ontology: real world applications • Global Ubiquitous Computing: networks from the past can help us devise new and more effective ways of transmitting knowledge and information in our digital world

5. Tracing Networks www.tracingnetworks.ac.uk • We are from different sub-fields and traditions of archaeology (and computer science): prehistory, classical archaeology, archaeological science, ancient history • University of Leicester • Lin Foxhall (PI), Colin Haselgrove, Ian Whitbread, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury: Archaeology & Ancient History • Ann Brysbaert: Museum Studies • José Fiadeiro, Emilio Tuosto: Computer Science • University of Exeter • Anthony Harding, Archaeology • University of Glasgow • Peter van Dommelen, Archaeology

6. Tracing Networks: structure and individual projects PI: Foxhall financial Brysbaert (Athens) RA: Quercia Whitbread RA: Vetters RA: Strack RF Project Manager Rebay-Salisbury Research Technician Alonzo Lopez Van Dommelen RA: Roppa Haselgrove Harding Fiadeiro/Tuosto RA: Krmnicek RA: Uckelmann RA: Hong RA: Bocchi communication management

7. Technologies in social contexts • Two key concepts : • The chaîneopératoire • Cross-Craft Interaction (CCI), allow us • to develop comparisons across cultures and over time, and across disciplines • to set technologies in their social contexts • to explore networks of knowledge Craft traditions can be viewed as tools of communication, linked to identities

8. Chaîne opératoire • Tracking all technological and social elements of the production, distribution and consumption of a specific commodity in relation to each other

9. Cross-craft interaction The ways in which multiple crafts studied together have a technological and social impact on each other via human interaction

10. The archaeological guinea-pig is confronted with computer science...

11. How we describe our knowledge… …as archaeologists • Unstructured free-form text • natural language • human readable, highly expressive • no universally-agreed terminology • reflect individual interpretations and explanations of archaeological evidence “Archaeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.” Indiana Jones

12. How we describe our knowledge….as computer scientists • Formal Specification • programming language, metadata • machine readable and executable • controlled vocabulary, Limited expressivity • well-defined, highly uniform mathematical symbols and notations “Computer language design is just like a stroll in the park.  Jurassic Park, that is.”-Larry Wall inventor of “Perl”

13. Describing knowledge with Ontology • A Triple is: • Basic element in the ontology world. • contains three parts: subject, predicate and object. Predicate Subject Object

14. Describing knowledge with Ontology RDF Graph A set of triples become a graph An ontology-based database is a graph • A Triple is: • Basic element in the ontology world. • contains three parts: subject, predicate and object. is riding • rider horse

15. Loomweights, 4th c. BCE, marked with impressions of jewellery, Metaponto (Greek communities) Oppido Lucano (indigenous community) Loom weight from house D (325-280 BCE), and fibula from the house next door

16. Loom weight production and use at Metaponto Disc LWs – can be coil made, as well as mould made Pyramidal LWs hand-shaped from coiled ‘sausage’ Investigation (SEM) of wear around holes, may represent different family or group traditions

17. Working through the issues: archaeologists and computer scientists in dialogue Try explaining ‘context’ to a computer scientist…

18. Torre di Satriano, Basilicata elite residence, 6th c. BCE 285 loom weights in a c.2 m space What mode of reasoning is ‘self-evident? New ways of thinking about relationships in data. Computer scientists: modelling or mining process (actual real-life processes) Archaeologists: reconstructing the possibilities for process, links, relationships

20. Ann Brysbaert & Melissa Vetters • Department of Museum Studies University of Leicester • Peter van Dommelen & Andrea Roppa • Department of Archaeology University of Glasgow • José Fiadeiro & Yi Hong • Department of Computer Science University of Leicester • Lin Foxhall & Alessandro Quercia • School of Archaeology and Ancient History University of Leicester • Anthony Harding & Marion Uckelmann • Department of Archaeology University of Exeter • Colin Haselgrove & Stefan Krmnicek • School of Archaeology and Ancient History University of Leicester • Katharina Rebay-Salisbury • School of Archaeology and Ancient History University of Leicester • Emilio Tuosto & Laura Bocchi • Department of Computer Science University of Leicester • Ian Whitbread & Sara Strack • School of Archaeology and Ancient History University of Leicester www.tracingnetworks.ac.uk