Kamilla L. Lomborg, Carolina Cucart-Mora, Jan-Olaf Reschke
et al.
In a world of drastic climatic and ecological changes, our knowledge of how the environment influenced hominin behaviour is of the utmost importance. Archaeology plays a key role in this domain, as it is the only discipline that studies empirical evidence of past societies’ responses to environmental change. Computational models generating predictions about past climatic and ecological conditions are vital for understanding the archaeological record and how these factors shaped the dispersal of hominins out of Africa and into Eurasia during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene. In this paper, various models for past reconstructions of climatic and ecological conditions and simulation techniques are presented to provide an overview of the diverse approaches, possibilities, advantages and constraints of using computational reconstructions in archaeological research. Focusing on studies of hominin dispersals out of Africa and into Eurasia during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene, this paper discusses the links between environmental factors and hominin dispersal behaviour. The use of simulation techniques to represent hominin populations, such as cellular automata or agent-based modelling, can contribute to connecting small-scale environment-induced influences on hominins to large-scale patterns, supported by ecological theories of species survival and spatial behaviour. Collectively, these approaches provide an elaborate foundation for understanding environmental influences on past hominin dispersals.
Nicodemo Abate, Diego Ronchi, Sara Elettra Zaia
et al.
This study presents a multi-resolution and multi-temporal remote sensing approach to assess human-induced changes in cultural landscapes, with a focus on the archaeological site of Amrit (Syria) within the MapDam project. By integrating satellite archives (KH, Landsat series, NASADEM) with ancillary geospatial data (OpenStreetMap) and advanced analytical methods, four decades (1984–2024) of land-use/land-cover (LULC) change and shoreline dynamics were reconstructed. Machine learning classification (Random Forest) achieved high accuracy (Test Accuracy = 0.94; Kappa = 0.89), enabling robust LULC mapping, while predictive modelling of urban expansion, calibrated through a Gradient Boosting Machine, attained a Figure of Merit of 0.157, confirming strong predictive reliability. The results reveal path-dependent urban growth concentrated on low-slope terrains (≤5°) and consistent with proximity to infrastructure, alongside significant shoreline regression after 1974. A Business-as-Usual projection for 2024–2034 estimates 8.676 ha of new anthropisation, predominantly along accessible plains and peri-urban fringes. Beyond quantitative outcomes, this study demonstrates the replicability and scalability of open-source, data-driven workflows using Google Earth Engine and Python 3.14, making them applicable to other high-risk heritage contexts. This transparent methodology is particularly critical in conflict zones or in regions where cultural assets are neglected due to economic constraints, political agendas, or governance limitations, offering a powerful tool to document and safeguard endangered archaeological landscapes.
Mathias Bellat, Jordy D. Orellana Figueroa, Jonathan S. Reeves
et al.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in archaeology have increased significantly in recent years, and these now span all subfields, geographical regions, and time periods. The prevalence and success of these applications have remained largely unexamined, as recent reviews on the use of machine learning in archaeology have only focused only on specific subfields of archaeology. Our review examined an exhaustive corpus of 135 articles published between 1997 and 2022. We observed a significant increase in the number of publications from 2019 onwards. Automatic structure detection and artefact classification were the most represented tasks in the articles reviewed, followed by taphonomy, and archaeological predictive modelling. From the review, clustering and unsupervised methods were underrepresented compared to supervised models. Artificial neural networks and ensemble learning account for two thirds of the total number of models used. However, if machine learning models are gaining in popularity they remain subject to misunderstanding. We observed, in some cases, poorly defined requirements and caveats of the machine learning methods used. Furthermore, the goals and the needs of machine learning applications for archaeological purposes are in some cases unclear or poorly expressed. To address this, we proposed a workflow guide for archaeologists to develop coherent and consistent methodologies adapted to their research questions, project scale and data. As in many other areas, machine learning is rapidly becoming an important tool in archaeological research and practice, useful for the analyses of large and multivariate data, although not without limitations. This review highlights the importance of well-defined and well-reported structured methodologies and collaborative practices to maximise the potential of applications of machine learning methods in archaeology.
We present a novel underground imaging system that utilizes cosmic-ray muons to explore the subsurface environment at the City of David archaeological site in ancient Jerusalem. This report details the initial findings from measurements conducted at a large cistern, commonly called "Jeremiah's cistern" (referenced in Jeremiah 38:6). The system aims to locate and map hidden voids and structural anomalies within the overburden. Our primary outcome is the derivation of the angular ground depth, which serves as a proxy for understanding the integrated density distribution of the overburden. This work represents a significant interdisciplinary effort to deepen our understanding of this historically important site.
This technical note presents a reproducible workflow for converting a legacy archaeological image collection into a structured and segmentation ready dataset. The case study focuses on the Lower Palaeolithic hand axe and biface collection curated by the Archaeology Data Service (ADS), a dataset that provides thousands of standardised photographs but no mechanism for bulk download or automated processing. To address this, two open source tools were developed: a web scraping script that retrieves all record pages, extracts associated metadata, and downloads the available images while respecting ADS Terms of Use and ethical scraping guidelines; and an image processing pipeline that renames files using UUIDs, generates binary masks and bounding boxes through classical computer vision, and stores all derived information in a COCO compatible Json file enriched with archaeological metadata. The original images are not redistributed, and only derived products such as masks, outlines, and annotations are shared. Together, these components provide a lightweight and reusable approach for transforming web based archaeological image collections into machine learning friendly formats, facilitating downstream analysis and contributing to more reproducible research practices in digital archaeology.
Yohann Perron, Vladyslav Sydorov, Adam P. Wijker
et al.
Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) technology has transformed modern archaeology by unveiling hidden landscapes beneath dense vegetation. However, the lack of expert-annotated, open-access resources has hindered the analysis of ALS data using advanced deep learning techniques. We address this limitation with Archaeoscape (available at https://archaeoscape.ai/data/2024/), a novel large-scale archaeological ALS dataset spanning 888 km$^2$ in Cambodia with 31,141 annotated archaeological features from the Angkorian period. Archaeoscape is over four times larger than comparable datasets, and the first ALS archaeology resource with open-access data, annotations, and models. We benchmark several recent segmentation models to demonstrate the benefits of modern vision techniques for this problem and highlight the unique challenges of discovering subtle human-made structures under dense jungle canopies. By making Archaeoscape available in open access, we hope to bridge the gap between traditional archaeology and modern computer vision methods.
The sacred landscape of Central Asia consisted of various religions and ritual practices that grew out of local traditions. The latest archaeological excavations of the Iron Age cultic structures in Central Asia reveal a diverse array of ritual and religious practices during the Achaemenid period. Textual and artefactual evidence confirms the coexistence of various belief systems in Bactria and Sogdia, with the Achaemenid form of Zoroastrianism (or Mazdeism) among the practiced religions. The deity of the Amu Darya/Oxus River held widespread reverence. The Achaemenid dominion over Central Asia left a lasting impact on the region’s sacred landscape, achieved not through direct imperial interference but through providing material support to the local religious institutions. Many traditions observed during the Achaemenid period endured over time, remaining fully operational throughout the subsequent Hellenistic era.
Ice-rich syncryogenic (termed “Ice Complex”) deposits are common in northern East Siberia and constitute the most important feature of the Quaternary geology of the region. The Ice Complex formed throughout the Late Pleistocene and not only contains an archive of paleoenvironmental proxies such as Pleistocene faunal remains, but also comprises a record of human habitation spanning ∼50,000 years, beginning with early MIS3. The development of syngenetic permafrost is an important variable in the formation of archaeological contexts in this depositional setting. Excavations of the Yana site complex in the lower Yana River area provide a unique opportunity to study archaeological finds preserved in Ice Complex deposits. Based on long-term field observations and dating results, we present important conclusions concerning the geology of the Yana sites. Taphonomic biases with potential to obscure the archaeological record are discussed. The thawing of frozen primary deposits has distorted depositional sequences, leading to the formation of secondary features and contexts, e.g., ice-wedge casts. Collapsed blocks of frozen sediment with undisturbed fragments of frozen layers containing artifacts and/or paleobiotic remains may become incorporated and refrozen into another depositional sequence and a source of misinterpretation and chronometric error. Furthermore, severe cryoturbation within the polygonal mounds warps the sediment in contact with the ice wedges; as a result, the contents of the sediment is uplifted with important consequences: 1) the hypsometric provenience of datable material is altered, creating chronometry problems; 2) in archaeology, there is an increased potential for misinterpretations with respect to dating, cultural classification, and human behavior; 3) transported material may form secondary concentrations at different hypsometric levels and thus bring further complications for its understanding; 4) in geology, the transportation of geochemical signatures may lead to erroneous interpretation of the geological potential of the area; 5) uplifted deposits contribute to increased Ice Complex thickness, which is thus not a direct function of sedimentation, but a combined result of sedimentation and redistribution of the deposits within an existing polygon deposit. Thus, the analysis of Ice Complex deposits during archaeological excavations at the Yana site complex has wider implications for Quaternary science.
Archaeology can be broadly defined as the study and interpretation of the past through material remains. Videogame worlds, though immaterial in nature, can also afford opportunities to study the people who existed within them based on what they leave behind. In this paper we present the first formal archaeological survey of a predominantly single-player game, by examining the player-generated content that is asynchronously distributed to players in the videogame Elden Ring.
The purpose of this article is to present some of the considerations that arose following the development of an experience of caregiving for teams of professionals who support, investigate, and collect testimonies on human rights violations and the processing of Chile’s dictatorial past. The care experience was based on the psychodrama method, applied in workshop format, over three sessions of approximately two hours each, throughout the months when the interviews of the oral archive project “Resistir Recordando” (2019) were being designed and implemented. This process lasted a year. The project had an archaeological-anthropological approach, developed under the auspices of the Borgoño Memory Corporation, a collective dedicated to building a memorial site for the former secret detention, torture, and extermination center Cuartel Borgoño (1977-1989), located in Santiago, Chile. A qualitative analysis of the instruments used in the care workshop, especially letter writing, observation, and personal notes, is presented to explain the approaches, focus decisions, scopes, and projections. From a perspective that gathers the principles of Dussel’s ethics and multisite ethnography, and that understands the social actors as collaborators, the text discusses the notion of otherness implied in memory work. We conclude that, in general, memory work and research on human rights violations, focused on the testimonial-victim voice, deploy self-care actions that pathologize and individualize the problem. This article proposes that we should consider the figure of professionals and the field of memory as a working space susceptible of being cared for. This opens a new field of discussion on the practice of caring for professional teams, which implies considering other places of enunciation and listening, from the recognition of the density that acquires the treatment of “our catastrophe,” the otherness involved in memory work, and the unresolved nature of the violence it entails.
У статті аналізується рівень розвитку бронзоливарного ремесла у Північному Причорномор’ї у VI-V ст. до н.е. Автор дійшов висновку, що всупереч традиційній думці про виняткову роль античних колоній в історії місцевого населення, кольорова металооб-робка у грецьких колоніях поступалася скіфській за обсягом і складністю технологічних прийомів. Така точка зору сформувалася у результаті певної лакуни у дослідженні скіфських пам’яток осілого побуту, яка трималася до 50-х рр. ХХ ст., коли розпочалися широкі дослідження скіфських городищ лісостепової зони. Практично на кожному великому городищі виявлено яскраві сліди місцевої металообробки, які за кількістю й якістю значно перебільшують ольвійські. Аналіз решток металообробного ремесла в Ольвії й у Нижньому Побужжі в цілому дає можливість стверджувати, що у зазначений час в Ольвії і на поселеннях її хори, на Березанському й Ягорлицькому поселеннях здебільшого працювали бродячі майстри – вихідці із варварського середовища – Балкано-Карпатського басейну, лісостепової зони України, Північного Кавказу і, навіть, Волго-Уралля та Західного Сибіру.
International Space Station Archaeological Project, :, Alice C. Gorman
et al.
This paper outlines some of the difficulties faced by archaeologists studying human activity in outer space. The International Space Station Archaeological Project has identified solutions to these problems, including the use of historic photographic archives and documentation of discard practices such as processes associated with the return of space-flown items to Earth.
This paper analyses the application of artificial intelligence techniques to various areas of archaeology and more specifically: a) The use of software tools as a creative stimulus for the organization of exhibitions; the use of humanoid robots and holographic displays as guides that interact and involve museum visitors; b) The analysis of methods for the classification of fragments found in archaeological excavations and for the reconstruction of ceramics, with the recomposition of the parts of text missing from historical documents and epigraphs; c) The cataloguing and study of human remains to understand the social and historical context of belonging with the demonstration of the effectiveness of the AI techniques used; d) The detection of particularly difficult terrestrial archaeological sites with the analysis of the architectures of the Artificial Neural Networks most suitable for solving the problems presented by the site; the design of a study for the exploration of marine archaeological sites, located at depths that cannot be reached by man, through the construction of a freely explorable 3D version.
Nanette Paz Liberona Concha, Evelyn López San francisco
El año 2007 se instala el programa de Refugio en Iquique, debido al aumento de solicitudes en la región de Tarapacá. En 2010 se dicta la Ley de Refugio en Chile, no obstante, a partir de entonces, tanto las solicitudes de asilo como las concesiones de protección comienzan a disminuir, alcanzando cifras irrisorias en 2012. Nuestra participación en el Programa Refugio y un Diagnóstico Participativo con mujeres colombianas solicitantes de refugio, han dilucidado algunos aspectos al respecto. Se identifica que en la región existe una instancia preliminar al proceso de solicitud de asilo, de “pre admisibilidad”. El ingreso irregular es un motivo determinante para la inadmisibilidad al proceso. El principal factor que propende el ingreso irregular es la negación del ingreso a Chile. Como consecuencia, los solicitantes de asilo no admitidos en el proceso, optan por la permanencia clandestina en el país. Quienes son reconocidos como solicitantes o
refugiados quedan sujetos al asistencialismo desmovilizador del sistema humanitario internacional
o al desconocimiento de su condición por parte de instituciones claves y de la comunidad en
general, situación que se traduce en discriminación y racismo...
Mónica Amparo Ayala Esparza, Galo Fernando Gallardo Carrillo, Miguel Molina-Alarcón
In Ecuador, bottles as containers for liquids appeared in the Late Formative period at the end of the Machalilla culture (1600 BC to 800 BC). Whistle bottles were created and perfected during the Chorrera culture (900 BC to 100 BC), and finally evolved into polyphonic bottles during the Bahía culture (500 BC to 650 AD). During the Chorrera phase, moulded aesthetic elements were developed and incorporated:, such as zoomorphs and anthropomorphs, phytomorphs, architectural forms, whose animated references were related to the acoustics they produced, giving 'onomatopoeic' sounds of nature (e.g. birds, monkeys, frogs). The current research focused on the structural and systematic study of a double ellipsoid ornithomorph bottle with a whistle from the Chorrera-Bahía culture (900 BC to 100 BC), an object that is currently in the National Archaeological Reserve of the Ministry of Culture in the city of Quito, Republic of Ecuador (Ch-B-1-38-69) (Figure 1). Two replicas and the original were investigated in situ by the Universidad Central del Ecuador and it was possible to determine that both blowing into and moving the objects when filled with water produced the sound. We interpret this as a need to 'automate' the sound production, and the acoustics derived from the movement of water is what possibly motivated Crespo (1966) to call them 'magical objects'.
Овај рад износи основне поставке теорије Ајрис Јанг која, насупрот идеалу универзалног грађанства и једнакости жена истиче неопходност структурне и историјске анализе положаја различитих категорија жена. У њеним размишљањима се могу наћи елементи феминистичких теорија, политичке филозофије, марксизма и афроамеричке филозофије истичући важност и анализу положаја жена, структурно, али и историјски. Први део рада се бави темом одговорности и права где Јанг позива своје читаоце да размишљају о одговорности и обавезама друштва у стварању правде/исправљању неправде. У другом делу рада се говори о универзалном грађанству и остваривању једнаког права за све у друштву. Следећи део рада се тиче партиципативне демократије и хетерогене јавности. Уместо универзалног грађанства залаже се за групно диференцирано грађанство и хетерогену јавност. Јангова се не задржава само на критици споменутих теорија, него нуди и алтернативно решење засновано управо на њеним ставовима који представљају комбинацију феминизма, марксизма и теорија парципативне демократије.
Archaeology, History (General) and history of Europe
This paper is the fifth of a series and focuses on tracing the history of the use of gypsum based products as well as of the use of ground layers, centred on a review of published analytical evidence. The purpose is to contribute for the understanding of these long traditions which led to the choice of specific materials and practices used for producing gilding grounds in southern Europe. In fact, several practices and the raw material gypsum used in gilded surfaces do have an extremely long tradition, which can be traced back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. The systematic use of these materials, especially the use of ground layers for decoration and other purposes, suggests not only an intention but also, somehow, the notion of a complex concept, the concept of a composite material, even at these very early periods, from which gilding origins. In addition, the particular case of Portugal shows that aspects such as religious, political, and sociocultural influences played a central role in the choice of gypsum as the raw material, which was curiously used exclusively for gilding.