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Heritage
Special Issues
Recent Advances in Digital Archaeology and Bioarchaeology
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Recent Advances in Digital Archaeology and Bioarchaeology

A special issue of Heritage (ISSN 2571-9408). This special issue belongs to the section "Biological and Natural Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 6939

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gizeh Rangel-de Lazaro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Interests: 3D anatomy; biological anthropology; bioarchaeology; human evolution
Dr. Adrián Martínez Fernández

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Digital Mapping & 3D Analysis Laboratory, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
Interests: 3d reconstruction; geomatics; gnss; SFM photogrammetry; UAV; lidar; GIS; 3D processing; geomorphology; permafrost; geoarchaeology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to offer a venue to discuss the process of creating digital resources and to explore where the specialists working in this field are directing their efforts to produce new knowledge. We want to illustrate how the introduction of state-of-the-art technologies to digitize archaeological and bioarchaeological collections stimulates innovative research projects and new forms of learning.

We look to integrate a wide array of topics in this Special Issue, with topics of interest including but not limited to the following:

  • The application of digital tools to support archaeological and bioarchaeological heritage for research, including 3D acquisition techniques, 3D reconstruction, 3D modeling, 3D geometric morphometric analyses, virtual and augmented reality, geographical information systems, and other methods.
  • The application of digital archaeology and bioarchaeology in an educational context to support student-teacher interaction and to engage the next generation of archaeologists and bioarchaeologists.
  • The virtualization of archaeological and bioarchaeological heritage to promote new forms of preservation, revalorization, access, and management and to foster public engagement.
  • Ethical frameworks in digital archaeology and bioarchaeology that consider examples of best practices and failures.
  • Recent advances and changes in the discipline over the years defined by the COVID 19 pandemic.

We are keen to receive contributions in the form of research papers, case studies, reviews and meta-analyses, perspectives, and communications that seek to advance new ideas, theoretical perspectives, or methodological approaches.

Dr. Gizeh Rangel-de Lazaro
Dr. Adrián Martínez Fernández
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. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1600 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.

Keywords

  • digital archaeology
  • digital bioarchaeology
  • photogrammetry
  • 3D scanner
  • XRcomputed tomography
  • 3D reconstruction
  • 3D modeling, 3D geometric morphometrics
  • virtual reality
  • augmented reality
  • 3D printing
  • geographical information systems
  • teaching-learning experiences
  • student engagement
  • digital commitment
  • ethics
  • best practices
  • preservation
  • revalorization
  • access and management of digital remains

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 29341 KiB  
Article
Digital Documentation in Narrow Burial Spaces Using a 360° Borescope Prototype
by Riccardo Valente, Luigi Barazzetti, Mattia Previtali and Fabio Roncoroni
Heritage 2023, 6(5), 3998-4014; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6050210 - 26 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1084
Abstract
This paper illustrates and discusses a novel method for the digital documentation of human remains in narrow spaces. A 360° borescope prototype made up of a panoramic camera and a lighting LED system was designed and assembled to acquire data in confined spaces [...] Read more.
This paper illustrates and discusses a novel method for the digital documentation of human remains in narrow spaces. A 360° borescope prototype made up of a panoramic camera and a lighting LED system was designed and assembled to acquire data in confined spaces for photogrammetric processing. A series of laboratory experiments were planned to assess the method’s validity. A modern concrete tunnel and a mock grave were surveyed using surveying instruments and a laser scanner, comparing the results with the borescope prototype. Then, data acquisition was moved to the field, i.e., in a real case study. Two burial vaults in a church containing human remains were selected and surveyed. The remains were accessible only from small breaches. The results show that using the 360° borescope is suitable for documenting narrow/confined spaces with minimum alteration of the scene. This result can be of interest for archaeological and forensic purposes, especially when the context is hardly accessible, with minimal intervention on the scene. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Digital Archaeology and Bioarchaeology)
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29 pages, 3671 KiB  
Article
A New Virtual Reconstruction of the Ndutu Cranium
by Gustavo Montiel and Carlos Lorenzo
Heritage 2023, 6(3), 2822-2850; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6030151 - 09 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2839
Abstract
The Ndutu cranium is a partial, fragmented, and distorted hominin specimen from the Lake Ndutu site in Tanzania. It was first reconstructed by R. J. Clarke in 1976 and later revisited using now-outdated techniques. Consequently, features such as facial projection, cranial height/length, and [...] Read more.
The Ndutu cranium is a partial, fragmented, and distorted hominin specimen from the Lake Ndutu site in Tanzania. It was first reconstructed by R. J. Clarke in 1976 and later revisited using now-outdated techniques. Consequently, features such as facial projection, cranial height/length, and cranial flexion are contestable. Here, we present a new virtual reconstruction following a transparent and replicable approach that employs virtual anthropology techniques to reassemble, mirror, digitally align, complete the cranium, and remove the effect of plastic deformation. Before deciding on an approach to align the unarticulated fragments, we tested the effects of symmetrization and the use of surface semilandmarks on the performance of our tool of choice: the digital alignment tool (DTA), developed by A. Profico and colleagues in 2019. Upon completion, we compare our reconstruction to a sample of Pleistocene hominin crania via geometric morphometrics. Test results reveal that DTA performance varies by fragment and that the use of surface semilandmarks bears no statistically significant advantage. We found our reconstruction to boast a more prognate and narrower face with a less flexed cranium overall than previous reconstruction efforts. The shape of the reconstructed cranial vault of Ndutu resulted closest to Sima de los Huesos (SH) 5, while its sagittal profile was most similar to Kabwe’s, lending support to J. L. Arsuaga and colleagues’ 1997 work and to P. Rightmire’s, respectively. We warn that further work is necessary before settling the debate surrounding Ndutu’s phylogeny. However, if our reconstruction hypothesis is held, its inclusion in future morphological studies is granted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Digital Archaeology and Bioarchaeology)
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22 pages, 5287 KiB  
Article
Human Peopling and Population Dynamics in Sicily: Preliminary Analysis of the Craniofacial Morphometric Variation from the Paleolithic to the Contemporary Age
by Gabriele Lauria and Luca Sineo
Heritage 2023, 6(2), 1187-1208; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6020066 - 27 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1772 | Correction
Abstract
The geographic position, isolation, and the long and dynamic history of colonization created a human context in Sicily that allows for a particular anthropological study; information about “migratory flow” and “population influx” could be investigated in the cranial morphology of a localized geographical [...] Read more.
The geographic position, isolation, and the long and dynamic history of colonization created a human context in Sicily that allows for a particular anthropological study; information about “migratory flow” and “population influx” could be investigated in the cranial morphology of a localized geographical region. The research goals are the identification of temporal trends in facial morphology in order to assess the adaptations and the microevolutionary trends and to verify if the cranial morphology of humans was modified by the various genetic contributions and more or less related to the intense and significant migratory flows. This work includes a diachronic morphometrics study of 3D models of 95 Sicilian skulls coming from 19 populations (from the Paleolithic to the Contemporary Age), providing an overview of human biodiversity and variability in Sicily. To achieve this, a geometric morphometrics analysis of the facial features of adult human skulls was performed. The approach used allows for the identification of the main micro-anatomical and micro-evolutionary features. Considering sample size/composition, it has been possible to discriminate between prehistorical and historical populations. The results highlight a series of morphological changes related to different migratory flows that have followed one another with different intensities and effectiveness starting from the Prehistory up to the Contemporary Age. The human peopling of Sicily is a subject of continuous debate; however, this study points to the coexistence of microevolutionary patterns and population dynamics, with the latter being one of the main causes of the morphological variations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Digital Archaeology and Bioarchaeology)
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