We
would like to bring a session on archaeological network science at the 2015
Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) meeting in
Siena (Italy) to your attention. We welcome papers describing archaeological
applications of network science, with a particular focus on the treatment of
space and time in these applications. Please find the abstract below for more
details. The call for papers for CAA2015 is now open, the submission deadline is
20 November 2014. The full list of CAA2015 sessions can be viewed
here. Papers can be
submitted
here.
We
will also host a practical workshop at CAA2015: Introduction to exploratory
network analysis for archaeologists using Visone (abstract below). Registration
for this workshop will open at a later date.
Geographical
and temporal network science in archaeology
Tom
Brughmans and Daniel Weidele
Formal
network techniques are becoming an increasingly common addition to the
archaeologist’s methodological toolbox. Archaeologists have adopted these
techniques mainly from the fields of social network analysis, physics and
mathematics, where they have been developed and applied for decades. However,
network science techniques for the analysis or visualisation of geographical and
long-term temporal phenomena have seen far less development than those for
social and technological phenomena. Conversely, archaeology has a long tradition
of studying long-term change of socio-cultural systems and spatial phenomena, a
research focus and tradition that is a direct consequence of the nature of
archaeological data and our ambition to use it as proxy evidence for past human
behaviour. We believe this spatial and temporal research focus so common in
archaeology could inspire the development of innovative spatial and temporal
network science techniques.
This
session welcomes archaeological applications of formal network science
techniques. It particularly encourages elaboration on the geographical and
temporal aspects of applications. What are the implications of working on large
time-scales for the use of network science techniques and the interpretation of
their outputs? How can the study of long-term change of social systems inspire
the development of innovative network science techniques? What advantages do
geographical network approaches offer over other spatial analysis techniques in
archaeology? How can the long tradition of studying spatial phenomena in
archaeology inspire the development of innovative network science
techniques?
Introduction
to exploratory network analysis for archaeologists using Visone
Daniel
Weidele and Tom Brughmans
Network
science techniques offer archaeologists the ability to manage, visualise, and
analyse network data. Within different archaeological research contexts, network
data can be used to represent hypothesised past social networks, geographically
embedded networks like roads and rivers, the similarity of site assemblages, and
much more.
A
large number of software programs is available to work with network data. Visone
is one of them and offers a number of advantages:
•
Free to use for research purposes
•
A user-friendly interactive graphical user interface
•
Innovative network visualisations
•
Exporting publication-quality raster and vector files
•
The incorporation of statistical modelling techniques
This
workshop introduces the basics of network data management, visualisation and
analysis with Visone through practical examples using archaeological research
questions and datasets. The workshop is aimed at archaeologists with no required
previous experience with network science.
Participants
should bring a laptop with Visone installed (download Visone:
http://visone.info/ )
Maximum
20 participants.