We propose to radically expand the use of extragalactic globular clusters as tools for extragalactic archaeology. We propose a large-scale spectroscopic facility to obtain high spectral resolution (R $\sim$ 20,000) spectroscopy for a significant fraction of all globular clusters in the nearby Universe. This will facilitate the reconstruction of galaxy assembly histories via chemical tagging, trace dark matter haloes, and measure extragalactic distances.
Considerable observational evidence suggests that the activity of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei is transient. The term ``active galactic nuclei archaeology'' has even been coined. This implies the possibility of reconstructing the history of activity, such as changes in the nuclear luminosity over time across various regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, by analysing how this activity manifested itself on galactic and extragalactic spatial scales. These phenomena include relic radio structures, gas clouds illuminated by the ``ionising echo'' of past activity, and Fermi/eROSITA bubbles. We provide a review of the results of galactic nucleus activity studies, focusing on its observable impact on the intergalactic medium and circumgalactic environment. Our main focus is on optical observations of ionisation cones and evidence of switching between radiative (ionisation cones) and kinetic (radio jets) modes of nuclear activity.
Michał Pawleta, Aleksandra Chabiera, Agnieszkka Oniszczuk
Dziedzictwo archeologiczne pełni istotną rolę w kulturze i historii, jednak jego wartości w polskim społeczeństwie wciąż nie są dostatecznie rozpoznane, rozumiane i doceniane. Badania społeczne dotyczące tego tematu prowadzone są rzadko, co utrudnia opracowywanie skutecznych strategii jego ochrony oraz promocji. W artykule dokonano analizy wyników badania dotyczącego wiedzy, postaw oraz zaangażowania Polaków w kwestie związane z dziedzictwem archeologicznym według danych z sondażu CATI (ang. Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews), przeprowadzonego w 2024 r. na reprezentatywnej próbie 1080 dorosłych mieszkańców Polski, w ramach projektu „Wartości dziedzictwa archeologicznego z perspektywy lokalnych społeczności – analiza porównawcza”. Uzyskane rezultaty przeanalizowano w kontekście szerszych wyzwań związanych z ochroną, zarządzaniem i popularyzacją dziedzictwa archeologicznego, proponując rekomendacje dotyczące poprawy obecnych strategii i działań w tym zakresie. Postulowano także konieczność prowadzenia dalszych badań społecznych na ten temat.
Auxiliary sciences of history, Prehistoric archaeology
The marginal arid region encompassing the western Nafud in the east to Wadi Tabuk in the west has only been subject to limited archaeological survey. This paper reports on data from a systematic remote sensing survey of the region as part of the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa project, using the results to produce preliminary models of settlement, occupation, and land-use, and contextualising within the broader archaeological landscapes of northern Arabia. It also provides datasets that can be used to outline broad trends in modern disturbances and threats to these sites, in part demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach for producing a cost-effective baseline dataset for the management of heritage sites at a landscape level. While confirming that long-term settlement and agriculture were largely confined to the Wadi Tabuk region from the later prehistoric period onwards, including the identification of a significant new fortified settlement south of Tabuk, it also demonstrates evidence of a broader complex landscape of pastoralism, funerary monuments, and other monumental structures across much of the survey area. Most notably, this area may mark a border zone when geographically distinct distributions of Neolithic-adjacent kites and mustatil meet with minimal overlap.
AbstractAccording to the archaeological discoveries, Zhejiang Province yields the most typical and well-preserved prehistoric wetland settlements in China. In this region, the development of prehistoric cultures is closely related to the natural environment and climate changes. The earliest settlements of the Shangshanculture appeared at about 10,000–8500 BP, probably accompanied by rice cultivation. Whereas rice cultivation was subsequently established, the followingKuahuqiao and Hemuducultures show strong maritime characteristics. In the Liangzhu period, the huge Liangzhu City and the peripheral water management system were built, which must be understood as symbols of complex society and early state. At the end of the Liangzhuculture, floodssubmerged most of the land, leaving behind thick sediment deposits. Only after 2000 years, in the Warring States Period (475–221 BC), this land became habitable again. With the establishment of a prehistoric chronology in Zhejiang province, a lot of multidisciplinary research has been carried out, and natural science and advanced technologies are increasingly applied. The current archaeological research in Zhejiang Province includes the origins of rice cultivation and the emergence of civilisation, geological formation processes and climate change, the spread of maritime cultures and further topics.
Chad Hill, Marco Madella, Nicki J. Whitehouse
et al.
Anthropogenic land cover change (ALCC) models, commonly used for climate modeling, tend to utilize relatively simplistic models of human interaction with the environment. They have historically relied on unsophisticated assumptions about the temporal and spatial variability of the area needed to support one person: per capita land use (PCLU). To help refine ALCC models, we used a range of data sources to build a new database that attempts to bring together PCLU data with significant time depth and a global perspective. This new database can provide new nuance for our understanding of the variability in land use among and between time periods and regions, data that will have wide applicability for continued research into past human land use and present land-use change, and can hopefully help improve existing ALCC models. An example is provided, showing the potential impact of new PCLU data on land-use mapping in the Middle East at 6000 BP.
Reseña de: Barahona Oviedo, Marisa, Presas romanas y altomedievales de la cuenca media del río Tajo, análisis constructivo y funcional, Anejos de AESPA, XCVII, CSIC, Madrid 2023, 335 pp. ISBN: 978-84-00-11238-7.
Prehistoric archaeology, Auxiliary sciences of history
Se presentan nuevos datos acerca de una inscripción medieval procedente de Corcos del Valle (Valladolid) (CIHM 3, 25) en dos manuscritos de la Biblioteca Nacional de España (Ms. 18227 y Ms. 7879) que contienen el Itinerario «perdido» de Juan Arce de Otálora. Asimismo, se trata de los testimonios escritos más antiguos que se conocen sobre este epígrafe que, además, presentan una nueva lectura. Se abre, por tanto, la posibilidad de aportar nuevos datos sobre el contenido de la inscripción, así como del contexto y las circunstancias de su elaboración.
Andrej Maczkowski, Matthias Bolliger, John Francuz
AbstractIn the past few decades, a number of prehistoric wetland archaeological sites have been detected in the south-central part of the BalkanPeninsula. However, only a few of them have been excavated. In this study, we discuss the characteristics of the wooden remains and selected tree-ring width chronologies from the archaeological sites of Sovjan, Ploča Mičov Grad and Dispilio. They represent the first prehistoric centennial and multi-centennial tree-ring chronologies from the region, covering various periods of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age. The dominant wood species utilised on the sites are members of the genus Quercus, but significant numbers of Juniperus and Pinus were also recovered, in addition to someotherdeciduous species. Through radiocarbon dating and wiggle-matching, we were able to anchor these floating tree-ring chronologies on the calendar scale with high temporal resolution.
Gregory Sech, Giulio Poggi, Marina Ljubenovic
et al.
Hyperspectral data recorded from satellite platforms are often ill-suited for geo-archaeological prospection due to low spatial resolution. The established potential of hyperspectral data from airborne sensors in identifying archaeological features has, on the other side, generated increased interest in enhancing hyperspectral data to achieve higher spatial resolution. This improvement is crucial for detecting traces linked to sub-surface geo-archaeological features and can make satellite hyperspectral acquisitions more suitable for archaeological research. This research assesses the usability of pansharpened PRISMA satellite products in geo-archaeological prospections. Three pan-sharpening methods (GSA, MTF-GLP and HySure) are compared quantitatively and qualitatively and tested over the archaeological landscape of Aquileia (Italy). The results suggest that the application of pansharpening techniques makes hyperspectral satellite imagery highly suitable, under certain conditions, to the identification of sub-surface archaeological features of small and large size.
The Prism XR project is a curated exhibition experience in virtual reality (VR) for art and archaeology education with features designed for the enhancement of interactivity and collaborative learning. The project integrates peer annotations and a virtual exhibition guide to augment educational experiences. The peer annotation features are intended for facilitating visitor critiques and comments pivotal in fostering a dialog between the curator and the audience and a dialogue between the visitors in art and archaeology education, which are demonstrated to have positive impacts on the learning motivations and learning outcomes. The virtual exhibition guide is intended to address the issue of isolation in the virtual exhibition space and to increase interactivity in the virtual curatorial experiences.
Galactic archaeology represents a multidisciplinary approach aimed at unraveling the intricate history of the Milky Way galaxy through the study of its stellar populations. This abstract delves into the significance of galactic archaeology as a vital tool for understanding the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. By examining the distribution, kinematics, chemical compositions, and ages of stars within the galaxy, researchers gain insights into the dynamic processes that have shaped its structure over billions of years. Stellar populations serve as invaluable relics of past epochs, preserving clues about the conditions prevalent during their formation. The utilization of spectroscopic and photometric data has enabled the classification and analysis of stars, allowing astronomers to discern distinct populations and unveil their origin stories. Through these studies, the emergence of the Milky Way's various components, such as the thin and thick disk, halo, and bulge, becomes discernible.
Procedural content generation has been applied to many domains, especially level design, but the narrative affordances of generated game environments are comparatively understudied. In this paper we present our first attempt to study these effects through the lens of what we call a generative archaeology game that prompts the player to archaeologically interpret the generated content of the game world. We report on a survey that gathered qualitative and quantitative data on the experiences of 187 participants playing the game Nothing Beside Remains. We provide some preliminary analysis of our intentional attempt to prompt player interpretation, and the unintentional effects of a glitch on the player experience of the game.
Théophane Nicolas, Ronan Gaugne, Bruno Arnaldi
et al.
The IRMA project aims to design innovative methodologies for research in the field of historical and archaeological heritage based on a combination of medical imaging technologies and interactive 3D restitution modalities (virtual reality, augmented reality, haptics, additive manufacturing). These tools are based on recent research results from a collaboration between IRISA, Inrap and the company Image ET and are intended for cultural heritage professionals such as museums, curators, restorers and archaeologists.
Gregory Sech, Paolo Soleni, Wouter B. Verschoof-van der Vaart
et al.
When applying deep learning to remote sensing data in archaeological research, a notable obstacle is the limited availability of suitable datasets for training models. The application of transfer learning is frequently employed to mitigate this drawback. However, there is still a need to explore its effectiveness when applied across different archaeological datasets. This paper compares the performance of various transfer learning configurations using two semantic segmentation deep neural networks on two LiDAR datasets. The experimental results indicate that transfer learning-based approaches in archaeology can lead to performance improvements, although a systematic enhancement has not yet been observed. We provide specific insights about the validity of such techniques that can serve as a baseline for future works.
Kent K. Chang, Mackenzie Cramer, Sandeep Soni
et al.
In this work, we carry out a data archaeology to infer books that are known to ChatGPT and GPT-4 using a name cloze membership inference query. We find that OpenAI models have memorized a wide collection of copyrighted materials, and that the degree of memorization is tied to the frequency with which passages of those books appear on the web. The ability of these models to memorize an unknown set of books complicates assessments of measurement validity for cultural analytics by contaminating test data; we show that models perform much better on memorized books than on non-memorized books for downstream tasks. We argue that this supports a case for open models whose training data is known.
Elena A. Hensel, Martin Kehl, Luisa Wöstehoff
et al.
The Sodicho Rockshelter in the southwestern Ethiopian Highlands presents a unique site that contains sediments of Upper Pleistocene and Holocene occupation phases of hunter-gatherer communities. Excavations and previous geoarchaeological research provided a first <sup>14</sup>C chronostratigraphic framework for the last 27 ka cal BP, which supports the hypothesis of a potential environmental refugium during the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~21 ± 2 ka). Nonetheless, it is necessary to extend the preliminary interpretation of stone tool assemblages, and the geoarchaeological analyses carried out so far to provide in-depth information on prehistoric human behavior at the site under changing climatic and environmental conditions. In this study, we reinvestigate the complex stratigraphy and the paleoclimatic context of Sodicho in order to expand the knowledge about site formation, post-depositional disturbances, weathering influences, and the anthropogenic impact on the sediment deposits. Micromorphological observations and the determination of active pedogenic oxides offered a more detailed look at the microstratigraphic record in relation to shifting moisture conditions during the African Humid Period (AHP, ~15 − 5 ka). Sediment alteration and reworking are connected to the influence of sheet flow, biological activity, and human impacts such as dumping activity and site maintenance. A comparison with black carbon (BC) analyses and a qualitative phytolith ratio (quantification of dark and light phytoliths) provided evidence for variations in human fire intensity. Our collaborative and multidisciplinary approach demonstrates how the complex formation of a rockshelter site in a tropical setting with changing climatic and anthropogenic impacts can be tackled.
Archaeology is an intriguing domain for computer vision. It suffers not only from shortage in (labeled) data, but also from highly-challenging data, which is often extremely abraded and damaged. This paper proposes a novel semi-supervised model for classification and retrieval of images of archaeological artifacts. This model utilizes unique data that exists in the domain -- manual drawings made by special artists. These are used during training to implicitly transfer the domain knowledge from the drawings to their corresponding images, improving their classification results. We show that while learning how to classify, our model also learns how to generate drawings of the artifacts, an important documentation task, which is currently performed manually. Last but not least, we collected a new dataset of stamp-seals of the Southern Levant. Our code and dataset are publicly available.