European Archaeological Association annual conference, Bern 4-7 September 2019.

Session 144 Towards a Spatial Data Infrastructure for Archaeology

Are we getting best value out of the spatial data we create? Help deliver value from the data you create at Session 144.

Through the INSPIRE Directive (2007) public organisations across Europe are required to share environmentally-related spatial datasets to support decision making and management of the environment. As a result heritage agencies responsible for the designation and management of Protected Sites across Europe have released Web Map and Web Feature Services through the INSPIRE Geoportal.

In contrast to datasets mandated by INSPIRE, which are underpinned by consistent data standards, little consideration has been given to the wealth of spatial data created through archaeological fieldwork and research. Digital technologies now enable the high-precision recording of archaeological excavations and surveys, placing these activities in their wider landscape, whilst advances in remote sensing techniques combined with processing power allow recording to be undertaken over many hectares compared to the targeted, site-specific surveys of the early 21st century. Ground and Airborne Laser Scanning offer new opportunities for the recording and analysis of our past. This is data that ultimately informs our understanding and management of sites and archaeological landscapes, from informing the planning process to measuring the long-term impact of climate change. Despite its potential, the data is largely inaccessible beyond illustrations fossilised and siloed within individual final published reports. The underlying primary data is difficult to find, access and reuse. The data structure not only differs across but also within organisations, hindering efficient reuse. Then there are questions of who should collate, manage and publish spatial datasets, as well as access rights.

The Amersfoort Agenda recognises the need to share, connect and provide access to archaeological information through digital technologies, with the aspiration to improve collaboration, yet examples of a collaborative approach to managing and publishing spatial data pooled from archaeological projects are rare. We welcome papers that discuss the challenges and solutions to finding, compiling and accessing spatial data across multiple projects.

Call for papers closes Thursday 14  February 2019

The 25th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) will take place from 4-7 September 2019 in Bern, Switzerland.

The event will be organised by the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bern.

Themes

The Annual Meeting themes, as defined by the Scientific Committee, incorporate the diversity of EAA and the multidimensionality of archaeological practice, including archaeological interpretation, heritage management and politics of the past and present.

1. Archaeological theory and methods beyond paradigms
2. Interpreting the archaeological record: artefacts, humans, and landscapes
3. Archaeology of mountainous landscapes
4. Digital archaeology, science and multidisciplinarity: new methods, new challenges
5. Archaeological heritage and museum management: future chances, future risks
6. Global change and archaeology

Registration for the 25th EAA Annual Meeting is now open. Please note that eventually all participants of the Annual Meeting have to be current (2019) EAA members and pay conference registration fee. Check registration policy for more details.

For more information go to: https://www.e-a-a.org/eaa2019

The mission of the Europae Archaeologiae Consilium (EAC) is to support the management of the archaeological heritage in Europe.

The topic of the 20th Heritage Management Symposium will be ‘Archaeological sites and monuments in the care of the state – sharing our experiences’.

The 20th Annual Meeting of the EAC will be held in Dublin Castle on 28 February – 2 March 2019. The event will be hosted and organised by the National Monuments Service (Ireland).

Online registration is open until 6 January 2019.

To register click here: https://www.europae-archaeologiae-consilium.org/annual-meeting-2019

Spatial Humanities 2018 – Call for Papers

• Where: Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
• When: 20-21 September 2018
• Deadline for Abstracts – 28^th February 2018

Lancaster’s Digital Humanities Hub is hosting a Spatial Humanities 2018 conference in September 2018. The conference will explore what geospatial technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have to contribute to humanities research.

The main aim is to explore and demonstrate the contributions to knowledge enabled by these technologies, approaches and methods within and beyond the digital humanities.  Submissions on all aspects of using geospatial technologies in humanities research, including database development, methodological innovation and applied research that develops our understanding of the geographies of the past, is welcomed.

Contributions are invited from all humanities disciplines, including (but not limited to) history (including fields from social science history such as historical demography and environmental history), archaeology, literary studies, classics, linguistics and religious studies, as well as from technical fields including GISc, digital humanities, computational linguistics and computer science.

Keynote speakers

• Prof. David Bodenhamer, The Polis Center, Indiana Purdue University, Indianapolis
• Dr. Janelle Jenstad, Department of English, University of Victoria.

Cost: Full registration (including teas & coffees and lunch on both days) will cost £195.

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY DIGITAL HUMANITIES HUB

Call for Papers for the next ICOM-CIDOC Conference entitled The Provenance of Knowledge.

Where and when: Heraklion, Crete, 29 September – 4 October 2018.

Deadline for conference proposals (presentations, workshops and case studies): 28 February.

Conference theme

‘As an essential aspect of documentation, Provenance of Knowledge refers to the attempt to trace the origins of the information and knowledge about an object, an entity or an idea in order to reconstruct the whole chain of creation, use, interpretation and dissemination of relevant information and knowledge.

The ultimate purpose of this reconstruction is to confirm, illustrate, and validate the information and knowledge contained in the documentation in order to facilitate understanding across times and cultures. In this way, it contributes to scholarly citation in information handling while connecting all the material evidence kept in museums and other memory institutions.

The validation of information and knowledge has been greatly helped by the increasing use of digital technologies in documentation. However, this advancement in documentation has created new difficulties as the abundance of the available information makes it difficult to introduce standards and processes to model and maintain the development and validity of documented information.

The 2018 CIDOC conference aims at supporting museums by deepening the understanding of documentation as a means of knowledge preservation, dissemination and exchange.’

The 2018 Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA)  conference will take place between 19-23 March, at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

The Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) Annual Conference is one of the major events in the calendar for scholars, specialists and experts in the field of computing technologies applied to archaeology.

The 46th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2018) has been given the theme “Human history and digital future”. The conference will address a multitude of topics. Through diverse case studies from all over the world, the conference will show new technical approaches and best practice from various archaeological and computer-science disciplines. The conference will bring together hundreds of participants from around the world in parallel sessions, workshops, tutorials and roundtables.

For general information about the conference: caa2018@caaconference.org