Digital Classicist Berlin

GIS-Based Metric and Visual Integration Analysis: Potential Applications and Methodological Issues

Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 +0100 2013

Talk: Dr. Piraye Hacigüzeller (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) "GIS-Based Metric and Visual Integration Analysis: Potential Applications and Methodological Issues".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000E-01D2-C

Date: Tuesday, 05 March 2013

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

Within social sciences and humanities research, spatial configuration of built environment at the architectural and urban scales is often studied with the help of space syntax theory and techniques. Although the value of space syntax approaches can certainly not be overlooked, it is somewhat inopportune that a well-developed existing technology such as geographical information systems (GIS) - that affords spatial modelling with raster data structure, and mapping spatial analysis results in visually powerful and statistically informed ways - has wide applicability at the landscape level but far less so at the architectural and urban scales.

In the presentation, two original GIS-based techniques to study spatial configuration of built environment at the architectural and urban scales, namely metric and visual integration analysis, will be introduced. The techniques are anchored in GIS-based cost-distance and visibility analysis both carried out with raster datasets. They treat absolute distance and visibility as configurational measures in a way similar to space syntax. Despite this similarity, however, the GIS-based analyses to be presented differ from space syntax technique in various and important respects as will be discussed.

Presenting Fragments as Quotations or Quotations as Fragments

Fri Feb 15 00:00:00 +0100 2013

Talk: Dr. Alexandra Trachsel (King's College London/University of Hamburg) "Presenting Fragments as Quotations or Quotations as Fragments".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000D-FC8D-4

Date: Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

When dealing with the fragments of Demetrios’ work, we are facing texts which are only transmitted through indirect transmission. This means that we have to rely on quotations made by ancient authors to get access to his work. Unfortunately we do not have kept the different steps of this initial selection-process and cannot measure the difference between the original lost work and the form ancient authors gave those quoted passages when introducing them into their own works. Likewise, the modern editors, when trying to extract the passages out of the source-texts in order to compose their collections of fragments, base their choices on selective principles which depend on their own understanding of the source-texts. They choices may therefore differ widely and provide competing reconstructions of the lost work.

Both selection-processes, ancient and modern, should therefore be taken into account when dealing with the fragments, as the perception of Demetrios as a scholar and the opinions about his achievement varied substantially over time.

Also when focusing on the content of the fragments, two approaches are possible, depending again on the opinion one has about Demetrios’ work and its aims. On the one hand, the geographical aspect can be highlighted and the fragments should then be linked to a map enabling us to understand the geographical frame of Demetrios’ work. On the other hand, Demetrios’ work is also a commentary on the Homeric text and this would suggest to link the preserved comments from Demetrios to the lines of the Iliad. Both approach bear however some difficulties as we will show in the presentation.

Slides

Or you can download the slides from here.

Video

Talk

Discussion

The Practical Prognosticator - On the Use and Abuse of Ptolemy’s Geography

Thu Jan 31 00:00:00 +0100 2013

Talk: Dr. Leif Isaksen (University of Southampton, UK) "The Practical Prognosticator - On the Use and Abuse of Ptolemy’s Geography".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000D-F270-0

Date: Tuesday, 05 February 2013

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

This paper will argue that Ptolemy’s Geography does not represent a linear development of Greek geographic thought but is instead a unique fusion of pre-Ptolemaic sources designed for a specific task that also conceals a compilation of both geographic and chorographic maps.

Part One will show that the Almagest, the Geography, and the Handy Tables all unequivocally state that the Geography’s function is to provide a terrestrial counterpart to the astronomical data compiled in the Almagest. This is expressly to derive local celestial phenomena for a given time in order to draw a wide range of astrological, meteorological and environmental conclusions. There is no evidence that it was intended to serve any other practical function.

Part Two will demonstrate that Ptolemy’s sources are ill-suited to this role. Geographic maps – representing the world as a whole - provided information vital for calculating relative time from his observational point at Alexandria and the relationship of locations to celestial bodies, but their reduced scale requires extremely limited coverage of individual locations. In contrast, chorographic maps- which represent individual regions - display dense relative configurations of cities but their relationship to the earth as a whole is left unclear. Unable to find satisfactory material for his stated purpose, Ptolemy is therefore obliged to create a new kind of map, using geographic sources (especially Marinos) as a global framework to which multiple chorographic sources can be pegged.

Part Three will use a variety of digital methods to expose the ways in which this combination of this fragmentary source material has left traces within the structure of the catalogue. These include toponymic comparisons, linear interpolation and Exploring these spatial and categorical ‘fractures’ opens up new possibilities for appraising ancient cartographic practice. It will also show how this change in perspective may even allow us to identify development and change within the sources themselves.

Slides

Or you can download the slides from here.

Video

Talk

Discussion

Digital social network analysis and ancient literature: Libanius’ Epistolary Ego-Network

Wed Jan 16 00:00:00 +0100 2013

Talk: Dr. Lieve Van Hoof (Lichtenberg Kolleg – Georg-August Universität, Göttingen) "Digital social network analysis and ancient literature: Libanius’ Epistolary Ego-Network".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000D-F0D3-2

Date: Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

Recent years have seen a boom in the application of digital social network analysis to ancient history and archaeology (e.g. Schor, Ruffini). Greek and Latin literature, however, have seldom been studied from this point of view. This paper explores the opportunities and challenges involved in applying digital social network analysis to the letters of Libanius (314-393 A.D.).

Against traditional close readings of a selection of letters, social network analysis presents, for the first time in research on Libanius, a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of the whole of the letter collection. The result will be a thoroughly different image of the collection and its author, with more attention for cultural and religious interaction and for diachronic evolutions. Whilst highlighting these advantages, this paper focuses on the difficulties involved in the process of carrying out social network analysis. Based on work in progress, it thus presents a well-defined example of, but also invites critical reflection on, the application of digital analysis to ancient literature.

Slides

Or you can download the slides from here.

Video

Talk

Discussion

Egyptology meets Digital Humanities: the Book of the Dead

Mon Jan 07 00:00:00 +0100 2013

Talk: Dr. des. Patrick Sahle and Ulrike Henny (Cologne Center for eHumanities), "Egyptology meets Digital Humanities: The Book of the Dead".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000D-EC9A-0

Date: Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

(abstract in German)

The Egyptian “Book of the Dead” has been the object of study in a long term research project of the North Rhine-Westfalian Academy of Science and the Arts, operated at the University of Bonn (early 1990s - 2012). The “Book” is a corpus of c. 200 spells in the form of texts and/or illustrations (vignettes) and witnessed in varying order and completeness by c. 3000 objects. Within the digitization efforts of the academy, in 2011, the Cologne Center for eHumanities (CCeH) was commissioned to transform the internal research database and the image archive into a digital research platform. It is built on a project specific data model for object descriptions and a contextual knowledge base. Regarding data standards and techniques, the digital environment resides completely in the X-world: underlying XML data, an eXist database as backbone and XQuery, XSLT and XForms as processing methods to create the user interface. The archive provides several browse & search facilities allowing to explore the textual and visual witnesses. New information can be added by input interfaces, and various indices and visualizations have been prepared to support scholars in finding answers to their research questions. In addition to a general overview on the project and its achievements, three particular issues will be addressed: practical and theoretical implications of data visualization, the integration of the archive into the research community by technical interfaces, and the question of a sustainable information resource beyond the funding period.

Slides

Video

Talk

Discussion

Mapping the Catalogue of Ships

Tue Dec 11 00:00:00 +0100 2012

Talk: Prof. Jenny Strauss Clay (University of Virginia, USA/Humboldt Univ., Berlin) Benjamin Jasnow and Courtney Evans (University of Virginia, USA) "Mapping the Catalogue of Ships".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000C-110A-D

Date: Tuesday, 18 Decemebr 2012

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

Book Two of the Iliad notoriously contains a list of nearly 190 place names and includes the 29 contingents and that make up the Greek expedition to Troy. Before launching into an over 250-line catalogue of the leaders of the Greek forces and the number of their ships, Homer appeals to the Muses to aid him in this tour-de-force of memory. Without their help, he says:

I could not recount their numbers nor name them,
Not if I had ten tongues and ten mouths,
And an unbreakable voice and a brazen chest within,
Unless the Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing
Zeus, would remind me how many came under Ilium.

The Catalogue of Ships that follows this invocation can be mapped as an itinerary, or more precisely, three itineraries that traverse most of Greece. By creating a mental journey that used the mnemonic techniques involving loci or places, well known from ancient rhetorical writers, Homer could mentally walk – or sail – through Greece and produce a detailed catalogue. In cooperation with the Scholars Lab of the University of Virginia, and using their “Neatline” program, “Least-cost path” GIS analysis, and links with the Pleiades Project, we will explore that itinerary. Our presentation will be work in progress and present some early findings concerning the organization of space in the Catalogue.

Video

Talk

Discussion

The Design of the Pantheon’s Portico Columns and the Justification of Research Results based on Digital Tools and Methods

Fri Nov 30 00:00:00 +0100 2012

Talk: Christian Berndt (Independent Researcher), "The Design of the Pantheon’s Portico Columns and the Justification of Research Results based on Digital Tools and Methods".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000C-4EBA-9

Date: Tuesday, 4 Decemebr 2012

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

Dass neue bildgebende Verfahren, neue Möglichkeiten zur maschinellen Analyse großer Datenmengen und neue Techniken zur Simulation komplexer Modelle der Wissenschaft neue Beobachtungs- und Erkenntnismöglichkeiten eröffnen, liegt auf der Hand. Wenig reflektiert hingegen scheint nach wie vor die Frage, auf welche Weise die Resultate solcher Untersuchungen aufbereitet und kommuniziert werden müssen, um die mit digitalen Erkenntnismitteln gewonnenen Ergebnisse auch angemessen zu rechtfertigen und nachhaltig für eine arbeitsteilige Forschungspraxis nutzbar zu machen.

Ausgehend von der These, dass sich mit der Umstellung auf digital gestützte Untersuchungsmethoden im Verbund mit der Verfügbarkeit immer leistungsfähigerer digitaler Kommunikationskanäle die Bedingungen für die Rechtfertigung wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse weitreichend verändert haben, wird am Beispiel des Digital Pantheon Project (http://www.digitalpantheon.ch) geschildert, wie in diesem Forschungsvorhaben mit dieser Herausforderung umgegangen wurde.

Der vorgeschlagene Beitrag wird exemplarisch demonstrieren, wie sich digitale Erkenntnismittel für Fragen der Architektur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte fruchtbar machen lassen. Er wird die bisherigen Ergebnisse der Auswertung des Koordinatenmodells des Pantheons vorstellen, wobei ein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf der Analyse der Geometrie der Portikussäulen und auf dem intensiv diskutierten Problem der Entasiskonstruktion liegen wird. Es wird gezeigt, wie sich durch die systematische Analyse der Schaftprofile außerordentlich detaillierte Rückschlüsse auf den Entwurfs- und Fertigungsprozess ziehen lassen.

Darüberhinaus soll der Versuch unternommen werden, die Erfahrungen aus der Arbeit am Pantheon-Projekt mit Blick auf ähnliche Vorhaben zu verallgemeinern. Der Beitrag wird einen Katalog von Anforderungen an digitale Erkenntnismittel zur Diskussion stellen, der das Bewußtsein für die spezifisch epistemische Dimension von Open Access und Open Data schärfen soll und auch für andere digitalgestützte Forschungsvorhaben von Interesse sein dürfte.

Slides

Or you can download the slides from here.

Video

Talk

Discussion

Treebanking in the World of Thucydides. Linguistic annotation for the Hellespont Project

Mon Nov 12 00:00:00 +0100 2012

Talk: Francesco Mambrini (CHS, USA/DAI, Germany), "Treebanking in the World of Thucydides. Linguistic annotation for the Hellespont Project".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000B-21BC-7

Date: Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: TOPOI-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstr. 18, 14195 Berlin (map).

Poster: Download the PDF here.

Abstract

The Hellespont Project (German Archaeological Institute and Tufts University) aims to integrate two of the largest collections for the study of Antiquity, the Perseus Digital Library and the Arachne archaeological database, in a dynamic digital research environ- ment. The historians will have access to materials and resources of heterogeneous type, like i.e. ancient texts, archaeological evidence, historical background, and modern schol- arly literature [7], while the documents related to each single event will be interconnected through the CIDOC-CRM model.

By focusing on a limited time period (the history of Athens in the years 479-430 BCE) and one written source (the relevant chapters in the work of the Greek historian Thucy- dides: 1.79-118) for a first case study, the project will also tackle a decisive problem, that has so far received comparatively limited attention. Digital Historians have been concerned with the problem of how documents can be organized into digital sourcebooks that can enable more powerful and meaningful queries (e.g. [6]). But how must the com- plex information transmitted by the Ancient Greek literary texts be structured, so as to highlight the event grid that underlies the narration and to get a more direct access to the passages that are strictly relevant to each topic? The problem is particularly important for the text of the ancient historians, which are a source of incalculable value for the history of Antiquity. Yet, the events that are narrated in their works are not only expressed through unstructured natural language, which is in itself already difficult to parse [4]; very often, they are reshaped according to constraints of ideology and genre.

We propose to use some of the methods of current computational linguistics to ad- dress this issue. In particular, we will explore how we can take advantage of the available annotated syntactic corpora (especially the Ancient Greek Dependency Treebank, [1]) and upgrade their model with supplementary annotation. Hellespont Project aims to enrich the text of Thucydides with word-by-word linguistic annotation on morphology, syntax, valency frame and other discursive features such as semantic roles, verbal as- pect, anaphora resolution and topic-focus articulation. This task is made possible by adopting the four-level scenario of the Prague Dependency Treebank of Czech [2]. The so called “tectogrammatical” annotation can provide an outline of the event structure underlying the narration of Thucydides. Semi-automatic linguistic annotation will also be the foundation for the first experiment of a completely data-driven event extraction from the text of an ancient author, following the path of other recent projects in Digital Humanities (e.g. [5, 3]).

Moreover, a fine-grained linguistic analysis of an ancient historical work is not only useful for information representation. A text annotated with syntactic and semantic information can allow for a multitude of linguistic and literary studies that can help us in understanding this masterpiece of historical prose.

References

[1] David Bamman, Francesco Mambrini, and Gregory Crane. An ownership model of annotation: The Ancient Greek Dependency Treebank. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories (TLT 8), pages 5–15, Milan, 2009. EDUCatt.

[2] Alena Bo ̈hmova ́, Jan Hajiˇc, Eva Hajiˇcova ́, and Barbora Hladka ́. The Prague Depen- dency Treebank: A three-level annotation scenario. In Anne Abeill ́e, editor, Tree- banks: Building and Using Syntactically Annotated Corpora, pages 103–127. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2001.

[3] Agata Cybulska and Piek Vossen. Historical event extraction from text. In Proceed- ings of the 5th ACL-HLT Workshop on Language Technology for Cultural Heritage, Social Sciences, and Humanities, pages 39–43, Portland, Oregon, USA, June 2011.

[4] F. Hogenboom, F. Frasincar, U. Kaymak, and F. de Jong. An overview of event extraction from text. In DeRiVE 2011. Detection, Representation, and Exploitation of Events in the Semantic Web Proceedings of the Workhop on Detection, Represen- tation, and Exploitation of Events in the Semantic Web, page 48–57, Bonn, 2011. CEUR.

[5] Nils Reiter, Oliver Hellwig, Anand Mishra, Irina Gossmann, Borayin Larios, Julio Rodrigues, Britta Zeller, and Anette Frank. Adapting standard NLP tools and re- sources to the processing of ritual descriptions. In Proceedings of the ECAI 2010 Workshop on Language Technology for Cultural Heritage, Social Sciences, and Hu- manities (LaTeCH 2010), pages 39–46. Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, 2010.

[6] Bruce Robertson. Exploring historical RDF with Heml. Digital Humanities Quar- terly, 3(1), 2009.

[7] Matteo Romanello and Agnes Thomas. The world of Thucydides : From texts to artefacts and back. In CAA proceedings 2012, pages 276–284. Amsterdam University Press, 2012.

Slides

Or you can download the slides from here.

Video

Talk

Discussion

Classifying Formal Features of Archaeological Artefacts [...]

Tue Oct 30 00:00:00 +0100 2012

Talk: Diego Jiménez-Badillo (INAH, Mexico), Salvador Ortíz-Correa and Omar Mendoza-Montoya (CIMAT, Mexico) "Classifying Formal Features of Archaeological Artefacts through the Application of Spectral Clustering".

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000B-216A-E

Date: Tuesday, 06 November 2012

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Wiegandhaus, Podbielskiallee 69-71, 14195 Berlin-Dahlem (map). Please note that the actual entrance to the Gartensaal, where the seminars are held, is from Peter-Lenné-Straße (approximately here).

A more detailed map of the DAI and surrounding areas can be downloaded from here.

Image showing the results of spectral clustering applied stone masks in the image are from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (Aztec, XV-XVI centuries)

Abstract

This paper is part of a broader project that seeks to introduce the Digital Classicist community with a range of computer and quantitative methods that can be applied for a better understanding of archaeological collections. This comprises, among others, the following research subjects:

Application of clustering techniques for unsupervised classification
Acquisition and analysis of 3D digital models of archaeological artefacts
Automatic recognition of artefact features through the application of computer vision algorithms

Our main objective has been to promote generic methodologies, which can be applied to many other projects. In this occasion we will focus on a new kind of quantitative procedure called Spectral Clustering. This technique uses a graph representation of the original data set in order to analyse the Eigenstructure of its Laplacian matrix. In this way, the clustering problem can be reformulated as that of finding an optimal partition of the graph into disjoint clusters. The main algorithms were developed a decade ago by authors like Alpert, Kahng, and Yao (1999), Shi and Malik (2000), Ng, Jordan and Weiss (2001), Melia and Shi (2001), Zelnik-Manor and Prona (2004), Bach and Jordan (2003, 2006), Azranand and Ghahramani (2006b), Yan et al. (2009), etc.

To the best of our knowledge, this technique has not been applied before in archaeology despite its proven performance in partitioning a collection of artefacts into meaningful groups.

We argue that Spectral Clustering yields better results than more traditional approaches such as single and total linkage numerical taxonomy, as well as k-means. The technique is especially useful in exploring archaeological collections because it can analyse categorical data.

As a study case we choose a collection of stone masks found in the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan, the main ceremonial Aztec centre whose remains are located in Mexico City. The schematic features of these objects set them apart from other artefacts with more naturalistic style. This has attracted the attention of many specialists and during the last three decades the typology of these items has been the subject of intense debate. Through the application of Spectral Clustering we were able to segment this collection into well-defined groups, offering better results than previous classifications.

References

Alpert, C., A. Kahng, and S. Yao. 1999. Spectral Partitioning: The more eigenvectors, the better. Discrete Applied Mathematics, v. 90, pp. 3-26.

Azranand A., Z. Ghahramani. 2006. A new Approach to Data Driven Clustering. In International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), v.11.

Azranand, A., Z. Ghahramani. 2006. Spectral Methods for Automatic Multiscale Data Clustering. In IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR).

Bach, F. R., and M. I. Jordan. 2003. Learning Spectral Clustering. Report No. UCB/CSD-03-1249. Computer Science Division (EECS), University of California, Berkeley, California (available at www.cs.berkeley.edu/˜fbach, 2003). Bach, F. R., and M. I. Jordan. 2006. Learning Spectral Clustering, with Application to Speech Separation. The Journal of Machine Learning Research. V.7: 1963-2001.

Meila, M., and Shi, J.B. 2001. A random walks view of spectral segmentation. In Tenth International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS).

Ng, A.Y. , M.I. Jordan, and Y. Weiss. 2001. On spectral clustering: Analysis and an algorithm. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), v. 14,

Shi, J., and J. Malik. 2000. Normalized Cuts and Image Segmentation. In IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, v. 22.

Zelnik-Manor, L., and P. Perona. 2004. Self-Tuning Spectral Clustering. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, v. 17.

Slides

Or you can download the slides from here.

Video

Talk

Discussion

DCSB opening keynote: "A View on Digital Classics Collaboration"

Fri Oct 19 00:00:00 +0200 2012

Dr Gabriel Bodard (King’s College London) will be giving the opening keynote of the Digital Classicist Berlin Seminar series entitled “A View on Digital Classics Collaboration: from a cacophony of epigraphic databases to a citizens’ web of inscriptions”.

Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1780-0000-000B-02A1-C

Date: Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Time: 17:00-18:30

Venue: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Wiegandhaus, Podbielskiallee 69-71, 14195 Berlin-Dahlem.

A more detailed map of the DAI and surrounding areas can be downloaded from here.

(image of the funerary inscription for Marcus Aurelius Zenon, IAph2007)

Abstract

This paper will discuss the history of public epigraphic databases, including the Packard Greek Inscriptions database, the Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg and Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches to online collections, especially with reference to scale, usability, technical standards, openness and transparency, collaboration and discoverability through metadata. Some consideration of user reactions to these databases will lead to the conclusion that the Digital Humanities perspectives discussed above do not reflect well the desires and apparent needs of normal epigraphic scholars. Does this disjunction of priorities suggest that we should reconsider the aims of electronic publication, or attempt to educate academics as to the importance of standards and metadata? The paper will close with a suggestion for an approach drawing from the papyrological community that might combine these two facets, building scale without sacrificing quality, and harnessing the epigraphic scholarly community to build a more powerful and interoperable epigraphic corpus.

Slides

Or you can download the slides from here.