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Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology
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Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology

A special issue of Digital (ISSN 2673-6470).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2022) | Viewed by 24475

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Markos Katsianis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Patras, GR30100 Agrinio, Greece
Interests: digital cultural heritage; digital archaeological practice; GIS applications in archaeology; 3D spatial modelling; digital data management, preservation and re-use
Dr. Tuna Kalayci

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands
Interests: computational archaeology; landscape archaeology; remote sensing; quantitative methods
Prof. Dr. Apostolos Sarris

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Digital Humatities GeoInformatics Lab, Archaeological Research Unit, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Interests: geophysics and remote sensing; digital heritage; spatial analysis and GIS; landscape archaeology; spatial history; digital humanities; Cultural Resources Management (CRM)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The advent of the ubiquitous digital ecosystem has provided fresh impetus to research in archaeology and the cultural heritage domain. Digital practice has changed the way we do archaeology and opened new paths for imagining the past. Digitalization, however, is informed by the available technology and ever-changing socioeconomic circumstances. Such circumstances fill the ecosystem with drawbacks, promises, and possibilities. At the same time, archaeological research and knowledge generation are also historically situated events. “Digital archaeology” has embraced both sides of the spectrum and created novel challenges. One of these challenges concerns legacy data.

The speed of change in digitalization is creating relic data, antiquated machinery, and obsolete workflows in proportions that are expanding every year. Datasets, data collections, documentation materials, and research outputs have been created using different technological solutions that encompass variable levels of traditional and digital methods and equipment. The constraints in analogue recording, the numerical grounding of early computing, and the limitations in early and more recent hardware and software have resulted in datasets that may or may not be able to be used by the digital methods of today and tomorrow, broadly known as the legacy issue.

These “digital legacies” have been piling up faster than they are being integrated, affecting our ability to reflect on the sustainability of our digital products and re-use potential. Therefore, it is our natural duty to question: to what extent can new forms of data processing maintain, utilize, or even enhance existing datasets and open new paths to creative digital representations and interpretations of the past? Are there any ways to escape the rigidness of legacy or at least transform legacy to work in the current fourth paradigm of data-intensive scientific discovery?

This Special Issue is requesting contributions that describe success stories or failures when dealing with already compiled research datasets and documentation materials in both analogue and digital formats. We also hope to receive contributions related to legacy machinery and peripherals (e.g., serial ports, magnetic storage devices, SCSI connectors) and their impact on archaeological research. We encourage the submission of practical and theoretical works that critically examine legacy issues and provide pathways to alternative understandings of the digital issues in archaeology and cultural heritage. For all manuscripts submitted to this Special Issue, the Article Processing Charges (APC, 1000 CHF) will be fully waived if the paper is accepted after peer review.

Contributions are invited on topics including but not restricted to the following:

  • Tackling data absence and uncertainty in traditional research archives
  • Computational approaches to harvesting analogue or digitized data
  • The prospect and limits in AI legacy data processing
  • From analogue to digital data: establishing provenance
  • Remote sensing legacies and new opportunities
  • Retrospective photogrammetry
  • 3D spatial data augmentation
  • Data re-use in video gaming
  • Obsolete machinery and discontinued peripherals; equipment as material culture.
  • Political legacies in and of digital technology
  • Economics of legacies—(long term) costs of maintaining digital legacies and sustainability
  • Missed/disrupted digital legacies in the form of workflows, technologies, data, personal experiences, and know-how 

Dr. Markos Katsianis
Dr. Tuna Kalayci
Prof. Dr. Apostolos Sarris
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Digital is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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8 pages, 254 KiB  
Editorial
Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology
by Markos Katsianis, Tuna Kalayci and Apostolos Sarris
Digital 2022, 2(4), 538-545; https://doi.org/10.3390/digital2040029 - 09 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2418
Abstract
The emergence of the ubiquitous digital ecosystem has provided new momentum for research in archaeology and the cultural heritage domain [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology)

Research

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22 pages, 2147 KiB  
Article
Digitising Legacy Field Survey Data: A Methodological Approach Based on Student Internships
by Anita Casarotto
Digital 2022, 2(4), 422-443; https://doi.org/10.3390/digital2040023 - 22 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4110
Abstract
In the Mediterranean, field survey has been the most widely used method to detect archaeological sites in arable fields since the 1970s. Through survey, data about the state of preservation of ancient settlements have been extensively mapped by archaeologists over large rural landscapes [...] Read more.
In the Mediterranean, field survey has been the most widely used method to detect archaeological sites in arable fields since the 1970s. Through survey, data about the state of preservation of ancient settlements have been extensively mapped by archaeologists over large rural landscapes using paper media (e.g., topographical maps) or GPS and GIS technologies. These legacy data are unique and irreplaceable for heritage management in landscape planning, territorial monitoring of cultural resources, and spatial data analysis to study past settlement patterns in academic research (especially in landscape archaeology). However, legacy data are at risk due to often improper digital curation and the dramatic land transformation that is affecting several regions. To access this vast knowledge production and allow for its dissemination, this paper presents a method based on student internships in data digitisation to review, digitise, and integrate archaeological primary survey data. A pilot study for Central–Southern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula exemplifies how the method works in practice. It is concluded that there are clear benefits for cultural resource management, academic research, and the students themselves. This method can thus help us to achieve large-scale collection, digitisation, integration, accessibility, and reuse of field survey datasets, as well as compare survey data on a supranational scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology)
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32 pages, 5894 KiB  
Article
Practices of Linked Open Data in Archaeology and Their Realisation in Wikidata
by Sophie C. Schmidt, Florian Thiery and Martina Trognitz
Digital 2022, 2(3), 333-364; https://doi.org/10.3390/digital2030019 - 22 Jun 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5455
Abstract
In this paper, we introduce Linked Open Data (LOD) in the archaeological domain as a means to connect dispersed data sources and enable cross-querying. The technology behind the design principles and how LOD can be created and published is described to enable less-familiar [...] Read more.
In this paper, we introduce Linked Open Data (LOD) in the archaeological domain as a means to connect dispersed data sources and enable cross-querying. The technology behind the design principles and how LOD can be created and published is described to enable less-familiar researchers to understand the presented benefits and drawbacks of LOD. Wikidata is introduced as an open knowledge hub for the creation and dissemination of LOD. Different actors within archaeology have implemented LOD, and we present which challenges have been and are being addressed. A selection of projects showcases how Wikidata is being used by archaeologists to enrich and open their databases to the general public. With this paper, we aim to encourage the creation and re-use of LOD in archaeology, as we believe it offers an improvement on current data publishing practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology)
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24 pages, 9774 KiB  
Article
Virtual Reconstruction of the Temple on the Acropolis of Kymissala in Rhodes
by Zoi Stamati, Manolis I. Stefanakis, Georgia Kontogianni and Andreas Georgopoulos
Digital 2022, 2(2), 296-319; https://doi.org/10.3390/digital2020017 - 20 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2650
Abstract
In recent years, the rapid development of technology has offered scientists new powerful tools. Especially in the field of cultural heritage documentation, modern digital media are an integral part, contributing significantly to the process of recording, managing, and displaying architectural monuments, archaeological sites, [...] Read more.
In recent years, the rapid development of technology has offered scientists new powerful tools. Especially in the field of cultural heritage documentation, modern digital media are an integral part, contributing significantly to the process of recording, managing, and displaying architectural monuments, archaeological sites, and art objects in a fast and accurate way. Digital technologies have made it possible to produce accurate digital copies of heritage sites and contribute to their salvation and conservation. At the top of the hill of Agios Fokas, acropolis of the ancient Demos of Kymissaleis, are the remains of a small Hellenistic temple of the 3rd–2nd century BC. This article proposes a virtual reconstruction of the temple on the acropolis of Kymissala. The geometric documentation of the temple and the creation of a three-dimensional model with its virtual reconstruction are analyzed. Modern photogrammetric methods are applied by taking digital images in the context of the experimental application of a relatively simple and semi-automatic method that does not require highly specialized knowledge and therefore can be used by non-specialists. With the use of modeling software, a three-dimensional model of the temple is created with the main goal of its virtual reconstruction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology)
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23 pages, 9784 KiB  
Article
Temporal Frankensteins and Legacy Images
by Ian Dawson, Andrew Meirion Jones, Louisa Minkin and Paul Reilly
Digital 2022, 2(2), 244-266; https://doi.org/10.3390/digital2020015 - 11 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2827
Abstract
Digital images are produced by humans and autonomous devices everywhere and, increasingly, ‘everywhen’. Legacy image data, like Mary Shelley’s infamous monster, can be stitched together as either smooth and eloquent, or jagged and abominable, supplementary combinations from various times to create a thought-provoking [...] Read more.
Digital images are produced by humans and autonomous devices everywhere and, increasingly, ‘everywhen’. Legacy image data, like Mary Shelley’s infamous monster, can be stitched together as either smooth and eloquent, or jagged and abominable, supplementary combinations from various times to create a thought-provoking and/or repulsive Frankensteinian assemblage composed, like most archaeological assemblages, of messy temporal components combining, as Gavin Lucas sums it up, as “a mixture of things from different times and with different life histories but which co-exist here and now”. In this paper, we take a subversive Virtual Art/Archaeology approach, adopting Jacques Derrida’s notion of the ‘supplement’, to explore the temporality of archaeological legacy images, introducing the concept of timesheds or temporal brackets within aggregated images. The focus of this temporally blurred, and time-glitched, study is the World Heritage Site of the Neolithic to Common Era henge monument of Avebury, UK (United Kingdom). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology)
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Review

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29 pages, 816 KiB  
Review
Data Legacies, Epistemic Anxieties, and Digital Imaginaries in Archaeology
by Jeremy Huggett
Digital 2022, 2(2), 267-295; https://doi.org/10.3390/digital2020016 - 19 May 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3046
Abstract
Archaeology operates in an increasingly data-mediated world in which data drive knowledge and actions about people and things. Famously, data has been characterized as “the new oil”, underpinning modern economies and at the root of many technological transformations in society at large, even [...] Read more.
Archaeology operates in an increasingly data-mediated world in which data drive knowledge and actions about people and things. Famously, data has been characterized as “the new oil”, underpinning modern economies and at the root of many technological transformations in society at large, even assuming a near-religious power over thought and action. As the call for this Special Issue recognizes, archaeological research is socially and historically situated and consequently influenced by these same broader developments. In archaeology, as in the wider world, data is the foundation for knowledge, but its capacity is rarely reflected upon. This paper offers just such a reflection: a meditation on the nature of archaeological digital data and the challenges for its (re)use. It asks what we understand by data: its etymology and comprehension, its exceptionality and mutability, its constructs and infrastructures, and its origins and consequences. The concept of the archaeological data imaginary is introduced to better understand approaches to the collection and use of archaeological data, and a case study examines how knowledge is mediated and remediated through the data embedded in grey literature. Appreciating the volatility and unpredictability of digital data is key in understanding its potential for use and reuse in the creation of archaeological knowledge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bridging Digital Approaches and Legacy in Archaeology)
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