2006 ‘Networks, Agent-Based Modeling, and the Antonine Itineraries’. In The Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 19.1: 45-64.

It occurred to me that some of you might like to read this.

04_Graham

I’ve got some other papers kicking around that I would like to expose to a wider readership; I’ll post those too, once I find them on this machine again… my how cluttered things can get!

I’ve been thinking of doing this for some time, but the kick in the pants I needed was courtesy of http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2009/06/please-post-your-papers-on-internet.html

Abstract:

This paper presents a way of looking at Roman space from a Roman perspective, and suggests ways in which this point of view might open up new approaches in Roman archaeology. It turns on one conception of Roman space in particular, preserved for us in the Antonine Itineraries. Working from a position that considers the context of the itineraries as movement-through-space, this paper presents an investigation using social network analysis and agent-based simulation to re-animate the itineraries. The itineraries for Iberia, Gaul, Italy, and Britain are considered. The results of the social network analysis suggest structural differences in the way that the itineraries presented space to the reader/traveler. The results of the simulation of information diffusion through these regions following the routes in the itineraries suggest ways that this conception of space affected the cultural and material development of these regions. Suggestions for extending the basic model for more complicated archaeolgoical analyses are presented.

Google Wave & Archaeology

I’ve been involved with a couple of projects now, where the emails, the documentation, the whiteboards, the databases all morphed into a huge ugly monster. O Google, What Can Thou Doest About This?

From the horse’s mouth. Wired had a very good story about it, but darned if I can find it now. But if it works as well as the video suggests it ought to (a big if)… big collaborative research projects ought to get a whole lot easier…

Perhaps.

Let’s write a textbook

I’ve been talking with the folks at Flatworld Knowledge about the kinds of textbooks they’re looking for, and it was suggested that a world history textbook might be just the ticket. These things are typically in two volumes – before and after 1500. Who wants to write a textbook?

To my mind, writing another textbook that does the usual roundup of periods/cultures is not perhaps useful. As the Barenaked Ladies are wont to say, ‘It’s all been done before! ‘ A new medium of producing, distributing a textbook – a medium that allows for the content to be remixed by instructors at the coal-face, to suit their needs (read Flatworld’s material for more on that) it seems to me, needs a new approach. The folks at Grand Text Auto did a blog-based peer review for this book; perhaps a new world history textbook could be written via blog-based posts & peer review? Also, could it be written in such a way as to foreground networks & connections between times, places, and peoples: a 21st century textbook? Horden and Purcell’s volume from a few years back is apposite here; also is Urry’s Sociology beyond Societies…

…I’m just thinking out loud. Your thoughts?

70 000 views

With the birth of my daughter in March, and my new job at about the same time, my blogging pace and output have diminished considerably. But, this morning, according to the wordpress stats thingy, Electric Archaeology broke 70,000 unique views.

[balloons, streamers, fireworks: hurrah!]

Some metadata then:

Top ten posts:

Civilization IV World Builder Manual	7,483
Game Mods	2,561
Moodle + WordPress = Online University	1,986
Historical GIS and various Google Earth	1,405
About Shawn Graham	1,397
History Channel – Roman Battle Game	1,340
Publications & Conferences	929
Language Switcher for WordPress	916
Agent Models	871
Angel versus Moodle	826

These ten posts do capture pretty much what this blog is about.

Top referrers (I’ve deleted some that are obviously private reader software:

stoa.org	273
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANGEL_Learning	212
emshort.wordpress.com	156
thepiratesrealm.com/Captain%20Kidd.ht…	125
Mediterraneanworld.typepad.com/the_ar…	109
middlesavagery.wordpress.com	108
edugamesblog.wordpress.com/2007/12/08…	99
netvibes.com	97
WordPress Dashboard	96
egyptology.blogspot.com	91
	80
mediterraneanworld.typepad.com	77
ancientworldbloggers.blogspot.com	73

And finally, what does wordle have to say about this blog? Strangely – and sadly – I don’t see the word ‘archaeology’ anywhere, anymore…

The Ancient History Encyclopedia

Jan van der Crabben is a name you might be familiar with if you’ve played any of the mods or other community-built content for Civilization IV. Jan has a new project under way, called ‘The Ancient History Encyclopedia‘, and he’s looking for content and editors. And, in a lovely twist not often seen, he’s willing to pay contributors. His note is below:

The goal is to become the number one source of information on ancient history — for students, academics, enthusiasts, and the general public alike.

I believe that this is achievable due to our unique way of presenting information: The website is centered around tags (which are essentially the entries in a printed encyclopedia), with each tag having a definition, articles, a timeline, illustrations, and external links / book references displayed. Like this, one finds several different kinds of information at the same time, in a modern format. When you visit the website, you will be able to see this organization best on the “Babylon” page, simply because it is the page with the most content at the moment.

The website address is http://www.ancientopedia.com and I would be happy if you could visit it and have a look. Please be aware that it’s far from complete! There isn’t very much content yet, we clearly need a lot more content to make this website a success. Also, you are among the first people to be using this website, so there might still be bugs. If something doesn’t work, or doesn’t work as you would expect, please email me what you were doing, what happened, and why it’s not what you expected.

Please register at the website (the “Register” link is at the top), and start adding content wherever you can! Content is submitted through the website, using the existing online forms. You can add/edit a definition, an article, or an illustration. You can also contribute timeline entries. Look for the “Add”, “Edit”, and “Upload” buttons in the relevant sections of the site (generally on the right of the section headline).

You can choose what you want to write about… We need definitions, articles, and illustrations. Please be careful not to infringe on any copyright, so only submit your own work. Of course you are allowed to submit work that you’ve already written, as long as you hold the copyright to it (this might be a grey area if it’s published in an academic publication, for example). You can also submit work that falls under a Creative Commons or GFDL license (such as images from Wikipedia), as long as it is attributed and licensed correctly. Please do not copy & paste any text from Wikipedia or other websites, only images are fine to copy under a CC or GFDL license.

All content that you submit is reviewed and possibly edited. Before the review process is complete and your content has been approved it will not show up on the website. So if you don’t see something you’ve written, be patient. If it doesn’t show up within a few days, please contact me. There will be a more formal system that allows the contributors and editors to communicate through the website in the future.

The website makes money through book sales (via Amazon, we get a commission), as well as advertisements (which aren’t online yet). As I’ve mentioned before, the 100 first contributions will be paid at a rate of US $10 per article and US $5 per definition. For definitions, only new definitions are paid, edits do not count. You will be paid when the initial paid submission period is over and we’ve got 100 contributions. Payment will be conducted via PayPal. After the initial paid phase, you will be able to earn advertising revenue on your content using Google AdSense and possibly other revenue sources.

There are no deadlines: You can submit work at any time, on any subject you choose (subject to review). The more you submit, the more money will you receive.

I did ask him how he feels this will differ from Wikipedia, which is pretty solid on many things ancient. He responds that it is in the backend, and in how the information is served up with the ancillary materials. I’ve explored a bit, and I like that for any given article you can see who authored it; a little difference there with the big W; perhaps some sort of reputation-tracking mechanism would be useful. One thing I noticed is the feed from Amazon will serve up ‘pyramidiot’ and other nonsense they classify as ‘ancient history’ – 2012 anyone?  I don’t know how well those materials can be filtered before they’re displayed.

Check it out. I’m always ready to applaud new initiatives that make our subject better known to the wider world – good on you, Jan!

Visualisation in Archaeology

An interesting project hosted by Southampton in the UK and English Heritage – see the full website here. They’re hosting what looks to be a fascinating wee conference in October:

Visualisation In Context:
An Interplay of Practice and Theory
22 – 23 October 2009
Hosted by the University of Southampton

The 2009 VIA Workshop is designed to probe the intersections between theory (which might traditionally be represented in terms of critique – linear and written) and practice (which might increasingly be expressed in terms of production – non-linear and visual) within the field of archaeology as well as other disciplines from the humanities and the sciences.

Check out the VIA  showcase:

Online Research Showcase

Centred on the visualisation of data in both archaeology and the wider fields of the social sciences, arts, and science and technology studies. Like the bibliography, these summaries aim to link practitioners across disciplines, highlight innovative visual projects, and offer a platform for future planning and discussion of best practices around archaeological visual method and theory.

		Archaeology and Community Museology: Ancient Egyptian Daily Life Scenes in Museums
		Gemma Tully University of Southampton

		Choreographic Morphologies: Interdisciplinary Crossovers in the Use of Digital Visualisation Methods in Dance and Archaeology
		Helen Bailey, Stuart Dunn, James Hewison, Martin Turner King’s College London University of Bedfordshire University of Manchester

		Fractured Media: Challenging the Dimensions of Archaeology’s Typical Visual Modes of Engagement
		Sara Perry University of Southampton

		Framing Machu Picchu: Science, Photography and the Making of Patrimony
		Amy Cox University of Florida

		Imag(in)ing the Other at Dura-Europos
		Jennifer Baird Birkbeck College, University of London

		Institutionalising Images: Early Visualisation Networks in Aegean Archaeology
		Deborah Harlan University of Sheffield

		Interactive Panoramas and 3D Modelling Based on Panoramas
		Karol Kwiatek, Martin Woolner, Simon Standing, Jes Martens University of Plymouth, Institute of Creative and Cultural Industries University of Oslo, Norway, Museum of Cultural History

		OKAPI Island in Second Life
		Ruth Tringham, Noah Wittman, Colleen Morgan University of California, Berkeley

		Pervasive Gaming, Education, and Cultural Heritage: Emplaced Interpretive Games at the Presidio of San Francisco
		Ruth Tringham, Colleen Morgan University of California, Berkeley The Presidio Archaeology Lab

		Reflexive Representations: The Partibility of Archaeology
		Andrew Cochrane, Ian Russell Cardiff University University College Dublin

		Representing Prehistory: The Biographies of the Robenhausen Lake Dwelling Collections at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (2008-2009)
		Katherine Cooper University of Cambridge

		SahulTime: Rethinking Archaeological Representation in the Digital Age
		Matthew Coller Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

		Scandalous Artefacts
		Alessandro Zambelli Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London

		Strategies of Visualisation in German Archaeology, 19th-20th C
		Stefanie Klamm Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Humboldt University, Berlin

		The Archaeological Eye: Visualisation and the Disciplinary Foundations of British Archaeology
		Sara Perry University of Southampton

		The Gateway to Sarup
		Niels H. Andersen, Maria Isenbecker, Camilla Bjarnø, Jan Solheim Moesgård Museum, DenmarkSamsøgades Skole, Denmark Supported by the Danish Ministry of Culture and the Danish Ministry of Education

		The Remediated Places Project
		Ruth Tringham, Michael Ashley, Steve Mills, Eric Blind, Jason Quinlan, Colleen Morgan University of California, Berkeley

Historical Maps, GIS, and Second Life

I’ve just come across a presentation (in three parts) given by David Rumsey, over a year ago. Worth a view!

“A talk given by David Rumsey at the March 6, 2008 launch of his historical map library and exhibition in the virtual world of Second Life. The talk was delivered at the Rumsey Map Islands in Second Life. All of the maps in the talk can also be seen and downloaded from Rumsey’s free online map library at www.davidrumsey.com“

Part I

Part II

Part III

Computers from Prehistory to Today

Seen in Wired today:

Humans have probably been calculating since the moment that Paleolithic hunters first used a scorched stick to scratch a record of their kills on the limestone walls of a cave.

“Rrrr! Og kill four! More than Zog!”

Fast forward a few millennia to July 7, 1752, when Joseph Marie Jacquard is born. His automated loom, controlled by punch cards that encoded the complex fabric patterns it was to weave, led the way for many subsequent calculating and computing machines.

But Jacquard was hardly the first to conceive of using machinery to enhance the human brain’s computing power.

People have built calculating and computing tools for thousands of years. Let’s take a look at a few of the non-electronic predecessors to today’s silicon circuits.

[more]

box, Slideshare, and Angel

At a number of places I teach, we use ANGEL as our LMS.  One can of course upload content into Angel, and have students look at it – powerpoints, recordings, images, whatever. So far, so ho-hum. One thing that I am concerned about though is ownership of any materials that I have created that I upload into Angel. Depending on where you work, this could get dicey.

So I’ve recently starting using ‘box‘ to upload and host my audio lectures, and deliver them to the students in Angel. I could of course just upload into my space here on wordpress, or onto any number of servers I have access to. But that’s fiddly – and box is free. No messing with ftp. AND, the link to the files is a secure one, so I don’t have to worry that somebody will stumble across my lecture via Google.

Similarly, slideshare does a great job of delivering slides (and it will sync audio to them). When I first started playing with slideshare, anything you put on there was public, but I see now that I can control the privacy to a degree. After you upload your slides, you can set a contact list of people who are allowed to see them. This is a bit more fiddly than box, but if you’ve got the course roster handy, maybe not so much of a problem. And of course you can embed the slides a la youtube, so integration into Angel should be straight forward.

Of course, I haven’t tried that yet; there’s usually some kind of kink needing straightening.

Using Natural Language Processing and Social Network Analysis to study ancient Babylonian society

Also seen:

Using Natural Language Processing and Social Network Analysis to study ancient Babylonian society

In Near Eastern Studies, as in other areas of Humanities, researchers often study corpora of administrative and legal texts to understand economic, administrative, and societal structure, considering the activities of individuals and their interactions with each other. This is often painstaking work, as, for example, in studying ancient Babylonian texts where scholars must first be able to read Akkadian, and then must assemble all the references to people and activities by hand. This process is formally known as prosopography, and is used by many scholars across a range of Humanities research. Now, Professor Niek Veldhuis and Dr. Laurie Pearce are working with IST–Data Services’ Patrick Schmitz to apply some more modern approaches to the problem. They are applying techniques from the fields of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Social Network Analysis (SNA) to extract the names and basic familial relationships of people mentioned in texts, and then to assemble the social network of the people based upon the activities described.

SNA & Prosopography – a match made in heaven. Watch this project!

(cf also:  S Graham, G. Ruffini 2007 ‘Network Analysis and Greco-Roman Prosopography’ in K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, (ed.) Prosopography Approaches and Applications. A Handbook. Occasional Publications of the Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, Oxford.)