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New Discoveries at Ostia Antica and the Isola Sacra

  David Knight undertaking magnetometry in the vicinity of the Tiber levee on the Isola Sacra in 2008 The new discovery of extensive urban remains to the north of the river Tiber at Ostia Antica http://www.portusproject.org/blog/2014/04/new-city-wall-discovered-ostia/#.U063XyX5rTc.twitter highlights part of the survey project conducted between 2008 and 2012 across the Isola Sacra, the area of delta between Ostia Antica and Portus. Continue reading →

Imaging Event/Hackathon

Few days to go to Rode Imaging Event where ACRG will be represent on power of three: Graeme Earl, James Miles and me. List of presenters at the seminar and workshop day include specialist with different expertise: multispectral imaging, 3D data acquisition and processing and theoretical approach. Hackathon weekend is supported by Garage48, people specialised in hackathons and helping start-ups. Continue reading →

Gamer data – the heart of the matter (oh dear)

Enough pussyfooting around with ludic.interest. We conducted this survey because we wanted to get an idea of what would encourage people to play a game that used mobile technology to engage players in the story that take place in a number of cultural heritage locations around Southampton. (Though in other news, our funding bid for that project fell at the second hurdle, so this research is likely to now be, both literally and metaphorically “academic. Continue reading →

Lead and the Roman water system

Half a century after lead poisoning was proposed as the cause of the fall of the Roman Empire, a wave of publications to refute this idea put an end to this theory. Although lead is no longer considered the main culprit in the decline of Roman civilization, its presence in the Roman water distribution system water is still worthy of consideration as a major public health problem. The Archaeology of Portus course will introduce some of the methods employed in this research. Continue reading →

More maths

Last time I finished with this matrix of scatter-plots, ordered by the magnitude of correlation. But what does it actually mean? Lets take a step back, and look at those derived variables. I ask R to describe the table of variables that I created previously, which include the notional ludic.interest variable and the Hard, Serious, Easy and People fun preference variables. Continue reading →

Material seas

    In the last week I’ve spent an improbably large amount of time thinking about various philosophical conceptions of maritime space. This is due partly to Monday’s British Waters and Beyond: The cultural significance of the sea since 1800 at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, and partly to my increasing obsession with sailing directions. Continue reading →

Call for session chairs…

The PGRAS 2014 committee are looking for some willing PGR students to chair our sessions. This will involve introducing the speakers and fielding questions from the audience during panel discussions. The session titles are: Thinking and Doing in Archaeology, Exchange and Contact on the Fringes of the Mediterranean. Museums, Heritage Management and Public Engagement. Settlements, Migration and Social Landscapes. Archaeologies of Technological Innovation. Continue reading →

Axes and ancient boat building skills

CMA masters students spent most of the long bank holiday weekend at Buckler’s Hard in the New Forest learning ancient boat and ship building skills. The backdrop of the River Beaulieu, the intermittent sunshine and occasional ice cream belie the serious labour (both physical and intellectual) involved in learning to work with adzes and axes. Using a range of replica tools students worked with chunks of oak to recreate boat building technologies from the Bronze Age to the Post Medieval period. Continue reading →