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Archaeological Computing Research Group

Data mining and image processing experiments on photographs from Portus

As large-scale data processing becomes easier and more affordable to everyone, so too increases the temptation to try and use new technologies and methods to reduce the amount of manual labor that usually comes with classifying and categorising big data collections. With textual data, the techniques of extracting useful information from unstructured data have already been more or less established. Continue reading →

Archaeological Survey at Ras Al Hadd, Oman

Over the last few weeks a team from the University of Southampton has been working with a team from the British Museum, surveying the archaeological site at Ras Al Hadd. The focus of the survey work was to carry out a topographic survey of the site, and to conduct magnetometer and GPR survey of areas of the occupation mound, prior to the commencement of excavation of the site. Continue reading →

Portus: Opera in natura

The Portus Project, comprising the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma, the British School at Rome and the University of Southampton, has commissioned Franco Mapelli to give a visual interpretation of the Archaeological Park of the Trajanic Port. This exhibition is made up of 30 large-scale photographs through which the photographer focuses on the relationship between archaeological remains and nature. Continue reading →

Bringing the Neolithic Figurines of Koutroulou Magoula Back to Life

Clay Neolithic figurines are some of the most enigmatic archaeological objects, which depict in a miniature form humans, animals, other anthropomorphic or zoomorphic beings, and often hybrid or indeterminate entities. Figurines have excited scholarly and public imagination, and have given rise to diverse interpretations. The assemblage from Koutroulou Magoula, a Middle Neolithic site – 5800-5300 BC – in central Greece (excavated under the co-direction of Prof. Continue reading →

Portus Summer Blog Round-Up

Between May and December last year I found myself working for quite a period of time on the Portus survey and excavations. The research and practical elements of the project were, as ever, thrilling, involving a large team of individuals from different backgrounds interested in different aspects of the archaeology of the site and surrounding landscape, and on the different approaches and methods applied as part of the project. Continue reading →

En route for Easter Island and a piece of Google’s doodle

Photogrammetry image of the statue featured in the Google doodle from 15 January 2014 (James Miles, ACRG) A century ago today, the Mana, an auxiliary schooner captained by Scoresby Routledge, stewarded by his wife Katherine and crewed by a collection of English seamen, fishermen, scientists and the odd Royal Navy lieutenant, had just been hauled up onto a floating deck in Talcahuano on the Chilean coast. They were nearly a year into their voyage. Continue reading →

Portus in National Geographic Espana

Computer Graphic Reconstruction of Portus (BBC/ Portus Project) It was very heartening to see that the National Geographic Espana, which is celebrating its 125th Anniversary, voted the results of our 2013 Portus Field School excavations, which were presented at a public lecture at Rome in November, as one of the ten principal archaeological finds of 2013. This is a great tribute to all the staff and students who were involved in the project. Continue reading →

Portus and its Hinterland

Portus and the Mediterranean As we enter a new year of research and education focused on Portus I thought I would flag up some wider activities from last year relating to the site, its hinterland and wider networks. The first of these is our new ERC funded project. In October 2013 the European Research Council announced that a bid that I had submitted to the Advanced Grant scheme for a project to the value of €2.49 million (£2.1 million) had been successful. Continue reading →