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The Digital Humanities for Marginal Areas (DH4MA) workshop aims to investigate the state of the art of tangible and intangible heritage digitalization in marginal and rural areas and their accessibility.

Last Year, I have presented our first experiments, which tested, if it is possible to use RCNNs for semi-automated annotation in our project. As those experiments were very promising, we now want to present our prototype of semi-automated annotation using RCNNs, which is currently under developement.

This panel will explore the various aspects of what is involved, not only in conceiving and building a 3D infrastructure, but in creating 3D Scholarly editions and developing the viewers that allow stories to be created around them. It will also explore issues around training the community of the infrastructure.

In 2023, Digital Humanities Research Institute at Siberian Federal University starts a working prototype of a research digital infrastructure for the aggregation, preservation, dissemination of Siberian historical and cultural heritage for historical, literary, ethnographic, art history and other kinds of research at the intersection of the humanities and computer sciences — Siberiana.online. The aim of the project is to launch a long-term initiative for digitization, analysis, and curation of the different collections of historical, cultural, and natural heritage of the Central Siberia (so-called Angara-Yenisei macro-region). The project is designed for research and education needs of the digital humanists at Siberian Federal University and world over, because Siberian artifacts and collections evoke a steady interest in the current literature.

OpenAtlas (https://openatlas.eu/) is an open source database software used to acquire, edit, and manage research data from various fields of humanities. By using OpenAtlas, information entered is mapped to CIDOC CRM in the background. Types can be added dynamically and make OpenAtlas usable for different projects.

In this contribution it is coined and presented a new concept: "Precision Archaeology'" (PA). PA is a concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in land. PA aims at defining a decision support system for archaeology management for optimizing returns on inputs while preserving resources.

This long paper examines the affordances and challenges in interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, projects and contemporary digital research infrastructures for the analysis of ancient narratives. Our case study is Pausanias's Description of Greece a 10 volume 2nd century CE traveling guide to Greece.

The Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts runs a project of digitisation of Roman Inscriptions from the territory of Serbia, that will be encoded in EpiDoc TEI-XML and published in an open, digital archive of Latin and Greek inscriptions.

The paper presents the implementation of various anthropological analyses such as sex, age at death, and body height estimations within the open source database application OpenAtlas and their usages as well as visualisations in thanatoarchaeological and Digital Humanities research projects.

Studies claim that open data will foster collaboration and cooperation. Our goal is to study how archaeologists collaborate and analize the potential of opening research data. To do that, we conducted 15 interviews to archaeologists in Catalonia and asked about their data sharing habits and perspectives on open data.

The paper presents the work on the Telamon and the Tituli projects which aim at creating online databases respectively of Greek and Latin epigraphic heritage from Bulgaria. The AIAX front-end service for the indexing and visualisation of EpiDoc XML files is described, as well as collaborations with different Bulgarian museums.

Introduction Advances in computing have made it easier to produce three dimensional (3D) models of heritage material culture. Incorporating these models into virtual reality (VR) games has the potential to increase peoples engagement with other communities including those from the past. This paper examines the creation of 'Uvira's Pot' (uviras-pot.vercel.app), a prototype VR puzzle game where the user reassembles a ceramic vessel from fifteen sherds. Refitting vessels is an important archaeological technique that can provide information on the function and origin of the artefact. A broken ceramic vessel can also reveal details, such as the mineral crystals in the clay, that act as temper, and the colour of the core, which relates to firing conditions. Agarabi speakers of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) were the only recorded highlanders to make pottery (Watson, 1993). In 1987, the creation of several vessels in three different highland villages was documented by Chris Ballad in field notes and photographs. Recently these notes were prepared for academic publication and the 'Uvira's Pot' application was created as an experiment in conveying this research to a less academic audience. One vessel, created by Uvira of Anonantu has unfortunately broken and this was used for the application. The time and effort spent assembling puzzles, both 2D and 3D, often connects the puzzler with the object of the puzzle, and can also lead to closer inspection of details on the object (or image) (Balabanian & Shahrabi, 2022). It is hypothesised that when reconstructing Uvira's vessel some puzzlers will become interested in how it was created and the photographs of the different steps in its creation (the chaîne opératoire) have been displayed around the virtual space. Asset Creation Digital models of the sherds were created with photogrammetry using the Polycam iPhone application (photo mode). The models, while not archival quality, were sufficient for a VR experience. The automatic model scaling, was incorrect for the smaller pieces and the models had to be normalised to sherd measurements. The colouring of at least one sherd could have been improved. To reduce the mesh polygon count, Metashape mesh decimation was used. The photo panels were made using Affinity Designer and importantly sized to have lengths and widths of pixel numbers that were a power of two. Coding VR applications can be downloaded or viewed via a webpage in a browser. The later option is more likely to attract a casual user. The Three.js JavaScript library allows for the display and manipulation of 3D models. The library has code examples that can be combined and modified to allow models to be moved with VR controllers such as those for the Quest2 (with which the application was tested). In the application the initialisation step imports the sherds and places them randomly on a grass floor. The photographs of vessel creation are in a circle around the user. With either hand controller, the user can select and move a sherd and place them together to reveal the pot form. Conclusion VR websites to convey archaeological research, can be created with minimal JavaScript experience and it should now be possible for others to modify the publicly available code (https://github.com/tosca-har) to create experiences focusing on the material culture of other regions. Phone photogrammetry applications have made asset creation much easier, although model retropology is essential. The ethics behind creating models, especially those of artefacts from communities previously exploited by colonisation, should always be considered and appropriate permissions sort. User testing protocols are currently being designed so that the ability of the application in engaging the audiences' interest in the Agarabi pottery chaîne opératoire. The creation of sites with 3D models has greatly facilitated by Three.js, thus lowering the time costs associated with site creation, and allowing for more experimentation to find puzzles that will effectively communicate the wonders of Papuan, and other, material culture. References Balabanian, A. and Shahrabi, S. (2022) Dev Chat #5: The Making of "Behind High Walls" (https://puzzlingplaces.ghost.io/devchat5/) Watson, V.D. (1993). Adzera and Agarabi: contrastive ceramics in Papua New Guinea. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 102(3), 305–318.

We propose a method to extract orthogonal views of facades from photogrammetric models of cities. This method was applied to extract all facades of the city of Venice. The result images open up new areas of research in architectural history.

During the year 2021 we carried out intensive archaeological surveys at several sites of Roman chronology in the Iberian Peninsula. The recording of materials in the field was carried out using GPS. The data collected have allowed us to characterise them, at least partially, by inserting the data into GIS.

This paper aims to visualize connections between Egypt and Southern Levant during the Bronze and Iron Ages. We compare Egyptian representations of animals and zooarchaeological records from documented excavation reports related to locations of zoological species in the Southern Levant. The comparison is possible through the use of GIS and network analysis to connect the iconographic and zooarchaeological data.

This paper presents a proposal for the management, and analysis of archaeological data through GIS with the aim of characterising the late-antique rural settlement in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. The paper will present the methodological process used and the results obtained.

We propose a framework for the construction of 4D scientific models for cities of the past. It leverages both the use of computational methods for bootstrapping, and a collaborative interface for visualisation and edition. This permits to continuously enrich the model and dynamically update it through procedural modelling.

The dating of organic findings is a fundamental task for many scientific fields. Radiocarbon dating is currently the most commonly used method. For wood, dendrochronology is another state‐of‐the‐art method. Both methods suffer from systematic restrictions, leading to samples that have not yet been able to be dated. Molecular changes over time are reported for many materials under different preservation conditions. Many of them are intrinsically monotonous. These monotonous molecular decay (MD) patterns can be understood as clocks that start at the time when a given molecule was formed. Factors that influence these clocks include input material composition and preservation conditions. Different wood species, degrees of pyrolysis, and pretreatments lead to different prediction models. Preservation conditions might change the speed of a given clock and lead to different prediction models. Currently published models for predicting the age of wood, paper, and parchment depend on infrared spectroscopy. In contrast to radiocarbon dating, dating via MD does not comprise a single methodology. Some clocks may deliver less precise results than the others. Ultimately, developing a completely different, new dating strategy‐such as MD dating–will help to bring to light a treasure trove of information hidden in the darkness of organic findings., This review focuses on molecular changes over time. Having been discussed since the 1960s, the variety of molecular clocks includes the change in amino acids in the primary structure of a protein over time. Molecular decay (MD) has a mainly monotonous function, a prerequisite to serving as such a clock. In addition, such clocks need a defined starting point and a defined decay function. In contrast to the decay of alpha and beta emitters, MD is influenced by several environmental factors indicated by preservation conditions. The MD method has the potential to be used for different organic materials and different scientific fields.

A small box, hitherto described as white lacquerware, currently displayed at the Chinese Pavilion, Drottningholm, Sweden, is an unusual example of artefacts imported from the Far East during the era of the East India Companies. By using microscopy for cross- and thin sections, X-ray fluorescence microscopy, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, some of the specific characteristics of the box are described, and it was possible to differentiate original from more recent restoration material. Among other findings, the results suggest that white glue tempera is a better description, based on indications of calcium carbonate and protein, and support an earlier attribution of the box to an Edo period doll maker in Kyoto.

The present review article reports the most innovative methods to detect proteins in historical and archeological samples as well as to characterize proteins used as binders in artworks. Difficulties to ascribe proteins to a certain animal species are often due to post-translational modifications originated by chemical or microbial deterioration during aging. Combining different techniques such as peptide mass fingerprinting and tandem mass spectrometry can solve some of these problems and also allow discrimination between taxonomically related species like sheep and goat. The most studied proteins in bones and textile samples are osteocalcin, collagen and keratin, whereas egg yolk and white proteins, casein and collagen are the most relevant for binders used in old paintings. With the suitable approaches (immune-based methods, DOT-blot, etcaEuro broken vertical bar) it is also possible to obtain in situ characterization or analyze the samples directly in the museum laboratories, with the advantage of avoiding artwork damage and expensive external commitments. Recent cutting-edge strategies allowed detection of proteinaceous infection markers that, for instance, were used to establish the cause of death of old Inca mummies and also proved the presence of Yersinia pestis in old documents dating from the period in 17th century in which the plague ravaged Europe.

The study of micro-objects, both inorganic and organic, which can be found associated to parchment or cellulose fibres of books and documents, or in the inks and the dirt, accumulated over the centuries between the pages, can unravel important information on the manufacture of the ancient documents, on their past vicissitudes or on the causes of aging and deterioration of the materials they contain. The results of a critical observation of micrometric objects and structures with a diagnostic or archaeological significance have in some cases been surprising. Apart from the curiosity that certain findings may or may not raise, what needs to be discussed is the fact that some chemical components, usually attributed to the manufacture of materials or the inks may instead have a particular origin and nature, and therefore lead, if not properly highlighted, to some erroneous diagnostics. Examples are given where the information obtained by means of scanning electron microscope imaging and Raman microscopy were coupled with dispersive X-ray microanalysis and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.

Recently, historical and conservation studies have attached an increasing importance to investigating the materials used in historic documents. In particular, the identification of the animal species from which parchments are made is of high importance and is currently performed by either genetic or proteomic methods. Here, we introduce an innovative, non-invasive optical method for identifying animal species based on light-parchment interaction. The method relies on conservation of light energy through reflection, transmission and absorption from the sample, as well as on statistical processing of the collected optical data. Measurements are performed from ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared (NIR) spectral ranges by a standard spectrophotometer and data are processed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA data from modern parchments, made of sheep, calf and goat skins, are used as a database for PCA analysis of historical parchments. Using only the first two principal components (PCs), the method confirmed visual diagnostics about parchment appearance and aging, and was able to recognise the origin species of historical parchment of among database clusters. Furthermore, taking into account the whole set of PCs, species identification was achieved, with all results matching perfectly their proteomic counterparts used for method assessment. The validated method compares favourably with genetic and proteomic methods used for the same purpose. In addition to animals’ proteomic and genetic signatures, a unique “optical fingerprint” of the parchments’ origin species is revealed here. This new method is non-invasive, straightforward to implement, potentially cheap and accessible to scholars and conservators, with minimal training. In the context of cultural heritage, the method could help solving questions related to parchment production and, more generally, medieval writing production.

The subject of this present work is a group of nine historical pictures shot in Palermo by the Sicilian photographer E. Interguglielmi in 1912. They are nine matte-collodion prints mounted on the original cardboard supports and all of them show foxing stains affecting the paper surface. In order to characterise the chemical composition of the supports and investigate foxing spots, non-destructive and micro-destructive analysis were carried out. X-rays fluorescence (XRF) analysis was used to characterise the elemental composition of all the mounting boards, allowing a comparison between the foxing spots and non-affected areas. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy was used to investigate the presence of lower atomic number elements, not detectable by XRF, while SEM imaging allowed the investigation of surface appearance and nature of original paper samples from the cardboards.

International audience; We report a pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) method capable of analyzing traditional East Asian papers. The method proposed is based on rapid and easy single step Py-GC/MS analysis that can be carried out with a minimum amount of matter, in the few g range. Three reference papers manufactured from kozo (Broussonetia kazinoki Siebold & Zucc.), mitsumata (Edgeworthia chrysantha Lindl.) and gampi (Wikstroemia sikokiana Franch. & Sav.) with the traditional hand paper making processes were examined. The method allows discrimination between terpenic and steroid compounds, which were revealed as chemical markers of origin of the plant fibers. Each paper investigated was found to have characteristic pyrolysis fingerprints that were unique to the traditional handmade paper, demonstrating the potential for differentiation of these biochemical components of fiber plants on East Asian papers towards identification and conservation of cultural heritage. The investigation on Py-GC/MS was extended to liquid extraction followed by GC/MS analysis to characterize the biochemical components of fiber plants. The main contribution of this study is to provide molecular criteria for discriminating plant species used for traditional East Asian hand papermaking. Py-GC/MS complements efficiently microscope identification especially for adverse cases. A case study of archaeological Chinese paper painting artefacts was thereafter successfully investigated to address informative potential and efficiency of the criteria of identification on ancient and degraded East Asian paperworks.

During a conservation project of a luso-oriental altar ivory cross from the 17th century, 59 paper fragments were found on its four level step base, between some of the low relief ivory plates and its wooden sockets of the four level base, and behind some cabochons of the decoration. Some fragments present a watermark and hand writing. These elements, together with the observation of the stains, dimension of fragments and their perforations, lead us to formulate the hypothesis of their having occurred three mountings, in different time periods. The paper characteristics and the history of other materials used in those mountings permit to pinpoint time periods for their occurrence.

Three experiments were undertaken to establish the potential for forensic palynological analysis in cases of suspected document fraud. The first study tested 6 different types of paper and 9 different types of ink (n = 54) and it was established that the best retainer of particulates (in this case a proxy was used in the form of UV powder) was medium biro ink and Wove and Connoisseur paper. It was found that for the different paper types 42–52% of the particulates collected were found in the ink and thus both the paper and the ink are potentially valuable sources of trace evidence in a forensic investigation. The second study sought to address the differences in the spatial distribution of particulates on documents when writing took place before or after the paper was treated with UV particulates. Ninety-six observations were made for each piece of paper tested and it was found that when the writing took place after the particulates were applied to the paper; more particulates were retained on the paper in contrast to when the writing took place before the particulate treatment. The spatial distribution of particulates was also affected, with particulates being retained in the folds of the paper when the writing took place before particulate treatment in contrast to a more erratic pattern that emerged due to the pressure of the hand of the writer when the writing took place after the particulate treatment. The third study utilised lily ( Lilium ) pollen grains and the findings broadly concurred with the second study. The main difference identified was when the writing took place before the particulates were applied; when UV powder was used the particulates were retained in the folds of the paper whereas this pattern was not seen to the same degree when pollen grains were used due to their ‘stickier’ nature. Envelopes and the pen nibs were also found to be rich sources of pollen grains after the experiments were undertaken. These studies have implications for the application of forensic palynology in cases of suspected document fraud. Pollen grains may well be present, and their analysis has the potential to reveal not only the timing of the generation of the document, but the spatial trends revealed indicate that it may well be possible to establish the sequence of significant events for forensic reconstruction. As such forensic palynology is demonstrated to have great potential in aiding forensic investigations, and is as yet an under-utilised form of trace evidence.

International audience; Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), also known as electron spin resonance (ESR), is more and more used in archaeology, and types of materials analyzed or purposes expand each year. Among its applications, dating is one of the most important. Many materials containing quartz or carbonates could be dated, from sediments to tephras including heated lithic artifacts and potteries, but also teeth, speleothems, shells, corals, and even mortars or plasters. The thermal history is also an important information which can be obtained by EPR to understand ancient ways of using fire for cooking or for lithic or ceramic industry. A third application is the determination of the soil or water source, which could help to understand whence original matter used for lithic or ceramic industry came or to describe climatic environment of settlements. Archaeological artifacts can also be studied, leading to the knowledge of ancient pigments and techniques used in glasses, oil paintings, or inks. Ideas of aging status or processes can be obtained for organic materials such as paper, wood, or leather. Finally, other alternative EPR experiments, such as other frequencies than X-band, EPR microscopy, and pulsed EPR, will be described. In several archaeological research domains, EPR has been, only recently, frequently used, and a lot of effort is spent to increase reliability of the results, especially in EPR dating of the earliest or oldest samples, but also in thermal history, and tendencies to try to normalize procedures for better accuracies and easier comparisons are observed.

Using a cellulosic material dating method recently proposed by three of the authors of the present article further applications to real samples are discussed. In the first instance, to wood samples, that is, to a type of sample for which the method was specifically developed but with the samples differing widely in age, and then to textile or paper samples. Of course in the latter two cases the results obtained are still quite preliminary, above all because of the difficulty of procuring certainly dated samples of this type.

Bundles of paper, similar to sterling banknotes, were counted in banks in England and Wales. Subsequent analysis showed that the counting process, both by machine and by hand, transferred nanogram amounts of cocaine to the paper. Crystalline material, similar to cocaine hydrochloride, could be observed on the surface of the paper following counting. The geographical distribution of contamination broadly followed Government statistics for cocaine usage within the UK. Diacetylmorphine, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA) were not detected during this study.

[ES] Material de apoyo para la presentación de la comunicación presentada para el ´V Congreso Internacional sobre musealización de yacimientos arqueológicos. Arqueología, discurso histórico y trayectorias locales (Cartagena, 24-27 de noviembre de 2008)´. El trabajo arqueológico siempre ha resultado atractivo para el público. Desde la vigencia de ciertos tópicos fílmicos y literarios, hasta su rentabilidad didáctica y capacidad de responder a preguntas tipo “quiénes somos, de dónde venimos, a dónde vamos”, y su potencialidad para favorecer el desarrollo cultural, todo subraya la capacidad de la Arqueología como disciplina para alentar estrategias de puesta en valor y Cultura Científica. Por nuestra parte creemos que esta capacidad está relacionada estrechamente con los cinco valores didácticos esenciales que sustentan el quehacer arqueológico; a saber: (1) el trabajo arqueológico se desarrolla en grupo, de modo cooperativo; (2) se trata de una actividad al aire libre, con todo lo que conlleva; (3) el trabajo arqueológico implica una actividad física y de destreza manual; (4) la actividad arqueológica permite conciliar el trabajo intelectual con el trabajo físico, desmontando prejuicios y rompiendo estructuras jerárquicas, un profesional de la arqueología es al tiempo intelectual y obrero; (5) la didáctica de lo oculto; a través de la actividad arqueológica descubrimos que la claridad está en el fondo, que el conocimiento no se encuentra en la superficie, hay que profundizar, con trabajo y esfuerzo, para hallar las respuestas. Con base en estos valores, el Laboratorio de Arqueología del Paisaje (IEGPS-CSIC) desarrolla un amplio programa de Cultura Científica en Arqueología y Patrimonio que pretende hacer partícipe a toda la comunidad del trabajo arqueológico y del resultado de las investigaciones en curso y, correlativamente, enculturar en los agentes sociales esos cinco valores inherentes a la actividad arqueológica. Para ello contamos con un amplio programa de actividades de divulgación y difusión, y con una dilatada experiencia en este campo, iniciada en el año 1999, que moviliza cada año a unas 2000 personas. A través de este programa pretendemos implicar a los diferentes públicos en las actividades prácticas y didácticas de temática arqueológica y contribuir a la puesta en valor del concienciación ciudadana sobre los valores del Patrimonio y sobre su conservación para las generaciones venideras. Estas actividades incluyen Campos de trabajo, actividades dirigidas al público adulto especializado (ej: mesas redondas, conferencias), actividades para público general (exposiciones), actividades escolares (Visitas guiadas, talleres, charlas, jornadas de puertas abiertas), y actividades que fomentan la integración social de diferentes colectivos como es el programa de actividades con los internos del centro penitenciario de A Lama (Pontevedra). La evaluación permanente es esencial en todo este planteamiento. La observación de los resultados del programa nos permite comprobar si las acciones llevadas a cabo consiguen transmitir los valores e idearios que nuestro grupo de investigación pretende inculcar a través de este compromiso efectivo con la Cultura Científica.

Inks and paper are the main materials and components of library and archive collections. Since the beginning of paper and ink production empirical recipes have been followed, but in the 19th century with the transformation of Europe during the Industrial Revolution, the continent became the main leader for the discovery of new products and new industrial production processes. The aim of this study is to shed light on paper and ink production processes during this key historical period. In this study we have chosen some documents preserved in the archive of the Soprintendenza dei Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici (B.A.P.) di Venezia e Laguna, held in the Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace) of Venice. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FT-IR), and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) allowed us to obtain a qualitative and quantitative characterization of the organic and inorganic components in both paper and inks. Cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were employed for statistical analysis of the results.