College of Charleston professors have to be on the leading edge of research and discovery, which is why many are delving into archaeoinformatics. In May, a blog (http://blogs.cofc.edu/thearchaeoinformant), dedicated to archaeoinformatics at the College of Charleston was launched. The blog details the research and activities at the College relating to the computational, analytical side of archaeological research.
Some refer to archaeoinformatics as “where data meets the past,” or the intersection between information technology and the humanities. Within archaeoinformatics one would include GIS (geographic information systems), visualizations (3D rendering, virtual reality), modeling (agent-based or game theory driven), complex statistical analyses, and other approaches that involve large and/or complex datasets.
“Archaeoinformatics is one of those places where we see the integration of STEM, humanities, and social sciences. This blog is a place for cultivating innovation and communication internal and external to the institution,” says creator Jim Newhard, a Classics professor. “Leading research universities are working on archaeoinformatics projects and there is a need for collaboration and information sharing in this highly dynamic field. In just a few weeks, we’ve had a steady stream of international traffic and interest in projects going on at the College.”
Current archaeoinformatic work being conducted by faculty at the College includes a project by Kevin Pluta. Pluta is investigating and developing methods for reflectance transformation imaging (RTI), specifically tied to inscribed clay tablets. His work, building off of work being done at the Oriental Institute, USC, and Leuven, will be mobile and require limited space, making the tools attractive for capturing data in a variety of contexts.
One of the projects being undertaken in the Santee-Cooper GIS Lab this summer is an overhaul of the informatics for the Avkat Archaeological Project, an intensive survey project undertaken in central Anatolia between 2007 and 2009 by Princeton, Trent University, and the College of Charleston. Led by Newhard, the team is developing of a graphic user interface that allows querying of both tabluar and geospatial data, and the means to move effortlessly (as much as possible) between these two environments.
For more information about archaeoinformatics at the College of Charleston, contact Jim Newhard at newhardj@cofc.edu.
