ArcheoFOSS 2024
ArcheoFOSS 2024: Panel proposals

1. Towards a Common Infrastructural Framework: Managing and Exploiting Big Data in Archaeological Research through Open Data Systems

  • Proponents:
  • Description: The increasing use of big data and open data systems in archaeological research, particularly in large-scale heritage documentation projects, generates vast and diverse datasets. These datasets necessitate advanced strategies for data management, ensuring accessibility, interoperability, and long-term preservation. The Arches open-source heritage inventory and management system provides a robust platform for organizing and visualizing archaeological data. This panel will explore innovative approaches to utilizing Arches and other databases in big data contexts, including case studies of successful applications, challenges in incorporating various open data sources, and the use of modern technologies for large-scale data analysis and visualization

2. Esperienze di archeologia virtuale tra ricerca e fruizione

  • Proponents:
  • Description:L’archeologia italiana da diversi anni sta riflettendo in maniera approfondita sul momento di criticità che sta vivendo da un punto di vista comunicativo, non riuscendo a trasformare le proprie competenze scientifiche in una prospettiva pubblica, capace di valorizzare sufficientemente il territorio indagato e costruire un sano senso di orgoglio identitario. La ricostruzione tridimensionale dei siti archeologici è un’innovazione significativa per valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale, ma presenta sia vantaggi che criticità. Le tecnologie 3D permettono di visualizzare strutture archeologiche parziali nella loro ipotetica interezza, grazie all’integrazione di dati archeologici e topografici. Il processo ricostruttivo risulta un valido strumento di verifica delle interpretazioni archeologiche, passando dal restauro virtuale fino alla definizione dei volumi e delle relative finiture cromatiche e materiali. Tuttavia, la necessità di interpretare evidenze incomplete può introdurre margini di errore, producendo ricostruzioni idealizzate che potrebbero non riflettere con esattezza la realtà storica. A tal proposito, risulta indispensabile una corretta metodologia di registrazione, elaborazione e interpretazione del dato grezzo.

3. GIS technologies and complex simulative reconstructions and model validation

  • Proponents:
  • Description: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become essential in archaeology, enabling precise analysis, management, and visualization of spatial data across various research areas, from site discovery to heritage management. This panel will examine recent GIS advancements, particularly in open-source tools and new applications transforming archaeological research. With the ability to handle large datasets and integrate remote sensing data, GIS allows archaeologists to detect undiscovered features, analyze landscape patterns, and manage heritage sites under environmental or human threats. The growing accessibility of tools like QGIS has democratized GIS, encouraging collaboration among researchers and institutions. The panel will showcase case studies demonstrating GIS’s role in predictive modeling, site management, and public archaeology through digital storytelling and community mapping. Emphasis will be placed on the integration of GIS with 3D modeling, remote sensing, and photogrammetry, highlighting GIS’s expanding role in research, conservation, and the interpretation of cultural heritage.

    4. Data collection and parameters for strata classification: a FLOSS approach to definition, composition, and calibration of post-depositional actions

  • Proponents:
  • Description: The panel aims to establish quantification parameters and standards for defining and classifying archaeological strata, starting with highly reliable contexts. It explores the possibility of defining compositional standards for specific types of strata and examines the relationship between material types, quantities, and post-depositional processes. Analytical systems using statistical techniques will be employed, leading to the creation of a database for open data sharing. The research also has practical applications, including predictive models for automatic strata classification and the potential development of a plug-in for archaeological software to assist in this process.

5. Digital and physical gamification for public archaeology experience

  • Proponents:
  • Description: Public Archaeology aims to engage the public in discovering, preserving, and valuing cultural heritage. Gamification has emerged as a powerful tool in this effort, using game mechanics to foster learning and interaction. Recently, innovative approaches combining gamification with immersive experiences—such as digital technologies, traditional role-playing games, and live-action role-playing (LARP)—have expanded opportunities for public involvement. Educational video games, augmented reality (AR), and open-source GIS platforms allow users to explore archaeological contexts interactively, learning about scientific methods and history in engaging, virtual environments. Traditional role-playing games similarly enable active engagement through collaborative storytelling, simulating archaeological scenarios that enhance historical understanding. LARP provides an immersive, experiential approach, allowing participants to enact characters in historical settings, forming a deep connection with the past. This panel will examine gamification’s role in Public Archaeology, discussing digital, tabletop, and live-action applications that enhance accessibility and participation. Through case studies, we will explore how these strategies are transforming cultural heritage education and public engagement.

6. Open Data for Urban Archaeological Potential Assessment

  • Proponents:

  • Description: Publishing preliminary reports and surveys of archaeological urban excavations online in a comprehensive and timely manner: what kind of impacts do this have on modern cities, and what kind of implications might it have for the future? This is the main question with which SITAR (Sistema Informativo Territoriale Archeologico di Roma) aims to launch an “Opendata” session for ArcheoFOSS 2024. The SSABAP-Rome, through SITAR, has long developed a public webgis platform that integrates archaeological and geological data management to safeguard and map the archaeological potential of the city of Rome. Authors are invited to reflect on how open access to archaeological data, along with their study and interpretation, can support urban planning and heritage management through a three-dimensional based approach of deposits. How can all this support the modern and contemporary city studies, highlighting the role of urban planners? A second point of reflection requested is to discuss theory and methods together to address the main computer-based techniques underlying the development of digital tools that can inform the public and professional sectors about the strength of the archaeological potential of urban layers, both quantitatively and qualitatively, with an open data and open-source perspective. Finally, authors are asked to discuss the use of non-invasive geognostic techniques, data from borehole sampling, the use of historical maps, and innovative applications of artificial intelligence algorithms. The session will thus highlight the importance of Open Data for making geo-archaeological information more accessible, facilitating transparency and promoting collaboration among archaeologists, geologists, planners, and builders. The discussion will also focus on the future of Open Data for archaeological excavation, the challenges, and benefits of automatic on-site integration of ongoing and future archaeological survey data with major public data management platforms. It is believed that opening access to archaeological data, as it is happening in Rome, can facilitate more sustainable urban growth, contributing to the safeguarding of the city’s exceptional cultural heritage. This session invites participation with a particular focus on the current state of open data in archaeology, with the aim of demonstrating how this approach, nearly two decades later, can still be a valuable tool for the sustainable development of historic cities that face similar challenges to preserve the past and plan for the future, ensuring that landscape cultural values approach become the base element for the development of new urban areas.