On Monday 3 April CAA2023 will host a full day of workshops for participants. These will take place at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In order to participate, you will need to confirm your attendance in the conference registration form. All workshops have a limited number of attendants, so make sure to register in time! Instructions for workshop preparation will be sent to you by the workshop organizers.
The following workshops will be available:
| Workshop title (and organizer) | Time | Room |
| HALF-DAY WORKSHOPS | ||
| A Basic Introduction to Open Source GIS using QGIS (Scott Madry) | 09:00- 12:30 | WN-S631 |
| Documentation of cultural heritage data with Field (Juliane Watson) | 13:30-16:30 | WN-S631 |
| Realistic material modelling and rendering for 3D scanned archaeological artefacts in Blender (Tijm Lanjouw) | 09:00-12:30 | WN-S607 |
| Agent-based modelling for archaeologists (Iza Romanowska) | 13:30-16:30 | WN-S607 and NU-4B05 |
| Sharing and maintaining software with Git and Github (Ben Companjen) | 13:30-16:30 | HG-0G10 |
| FULL-DAY WORKSHOPS | ||
| CRMarchaeo Workshop: a stepping stone to FAIR practice (Jane Jansen) | 09:00-16:30 | HG-0G25 |
| 3D Artifact Documentation with the GigaMesh Software Framework (Hubert Mara) | 09:00-16:30 | NU-4B11 |
| Introduction to deep-learning (Djura Smits) | 09:00-16:30 | WN-S655 |
| Developing 3D Scholarly Editions. Storytelling in Three Dimensions (Costas Papadopoulos) | 09:00-16:30 | HG-0G23 |
A Basic Introduction to Open Source GIS using QGIS (Prof. Scott Madry, University of North Carolina)
max. attendance 25
This workshop will be an introduction to the QGIS Open Source GIS system. No previous GIS experience is required, and participants will, at the end of the session, have sufficient experience to continue their learning experience on their own. Participants will provide their own laptops and will load the QGIS software before the workshop (https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html). QGIS runs on Windows, Mac, and Linus systems. A sample dataset will be provided, along with a digital copy of my 2021 book: Introduction to QGIS Open Source Geographic Information System (https://locatepress.com/book/itq). Subjects covered will include vector and raster data and data processing, web-based data sources, archaeological data analysis, finding data, creating your own data, QGIS remote sensing analysis, and using GRASS and other Open Source systems using the QGIS processing toolbox.
Documentation of cultural heritage data with Field (Juliane Watson, DAI Berlin)
max. attendance 25
Field (formally known as iDAI.field) is an Open Source cross-platform tool for the documentation of archaeological field research. It enables researchers to deal with different needs from a variety of disciplines and methods like excavation, survey, architectural, or object studies. The core data model is designed to deal with most circumstances but can be adapted as needed while also maintaining as much standardization as possible. The very robust synchronization between clients supports distributed work, collaboration, and data entry in the field or in other places with no internet coverage. Spatial data, images, and drawings, as well as descriptive data can be stored, managed and interlinked. Multiple type catalogues can be included and linked with findings. While the data is stored in a NoSQL database, the various export and import functionalities allow for the integration of other fieldwork software like, for example, QGIS and survey2gis into the toolchain as well as statistics software like R. This workshop is designed to offer the participants hands-on experience with the program and enable them to use the software independently for their own projects. With version 3.0, released in Spring 2022 the Project configurations are stored in the database itself and can be created and edited in a configuration editor, a graphical user interface was integrated into the desktop application, so that every project/person can customize the application.
Realistic material modelling and rendering for 3D scanned archaeological artefacts in Blender (Tijm Lanjouw MA, 4D Research Lab, University of Amsterdam)
max. attendance 24
Modelling archaeological artefacts with 3D scanning techniques or photogrammetry has become widespread and very popular. Although archaeologists have largely mastered these techniques, the step to realistically render surface characteristics of objects is not often taken. On many models found online, shadows and highlights are often fixed on the textures, while transparency is rarely considered. In 3D graphics, realistic rendering of surface characteristics is known as Physically Based Rendering (PBR). In a PBR approach the object’s physical properties such as metalness, roughness and diffuse colour reflection are approximated through various texture maps. In this workshop we are going to discuss the basic principles of PBR, how to scan or acquire data for PBR rendering, and how to create texture maps that approach a realistic visualisation of your archaeological artefacts. And all this in open source and free 3D modelling software Blender: https://www.blender.org/download/.
Agent-based modelling for archaeologists (Iza Romanowska, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies; Tom Brughmans, Aarhus University; Ronald Visser, Saxion University of Applied Sciences; Doug Rocks-Macqueen, Landward Research; Laura van der Knaap, Leiden University)
max. attendance 25
In the last few years simulation approaches, such as agent-based modelling, have become increasingly popular among archaeologists. The aim of this workshop is to provide an introduction to agent-based modelling for archaeologists who have no previous experience in building archaeological simulations. Participants will finish the workshop with an understanding of agent-based modelling methods and the essential functionality of NetLogo. The workshop will focus on explaining the process of developing a simulation as well as provide a practical hands-on introduction to NetLogo – an open-source platform for building agent-based models. NetLogo’s user-friendly interface, simple coding language and a vast library of model examples make it an ideal starting point for entry-level modellers, as well as a useful prototyping tool for more experienced programmers. The first part of the workshop will be devoted to demonstrating the basics of modelling with NetLogo through newly developed open educational resources. These are guided tutorials that will take you through the NetLogo software and show you how to model with it, developed as part of the Erasmus+ project – Agent-Based Modelling for Archaeologists. This introduction will give each participant enough skills and confidence to tackle the second exercise of the day: building an archaeologically-inspired simulation in a small group. Here we follow the popular concept of a “Hack-a-Thon” where participants aim to code a problem in small groups. The aim is for participants to work together to solve an archaeological problem. In this way, participants will walk away from the workshop with a piece of working code that they can use in future research. No previous coding experience is necessary. Please bring your laptop along and install NetLogo beforehand: https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/download.shtml
CRMarchaeo Workshop: a stepping stone to FAIR practice (Jane Jansen, Intrasis; Stephen Stead, PavePrime)
max. attendance 25
In this workshop we will explore how to use CRMarchaeo, an extension of CIDOC CRM, to link a wide range of existing documentation from archaeological excavations. The CRMarchaeo extension has been created to promote a shared understanding of how to formalize the knowledge extracted from the observations made by archaeologists. It provides a set of concepts and properties that allow clear explanation (and separation) of the observations and interpretations made, both in the field and in post-excavation. Attendees will work through a series of case studies that reflect different excavation documentation practices: from 1950s style day books through to context recording sheets. Followed by database/CAD combos and on to modern integrated object oriented database/GIS systems, like Intrasis. The aim is to explore archetypical solutions and provide attendees with hands-on experience of mapping actual documentation practice to CRMarchaeo. This can then be applied to their own documentation, both current and historical, back in their own institutions and lead to integrated reusable composites being available for internal and external use.
3D Artifact Documentation with the GigaMesh Software Framework (Prof. Hubert Mara, Jan Philipp Bullenkamp MSc & Florian Linsel MA, Martin-Luther-University Halle)
max. attendance 16
The increased quality of low-cost and industrial 3D-acquisition devices typically using the principle of Structured-Light-Scanning (SLS) leads to more objects being digitized at excavations and in archives. Additionally, photogrammetry provides similar high-resolution 3D-datasets. Therefore both digital acquisition techniques get continuously integrated into the archaeological practice – especially for ceramics. In this workshop there will be two workshop parts: in the first half day, we will teach data acquisition with a 3D recording system (SFM, maybe SLS), so that the data can be processed over the lunch break. The second session will use these datasets for analyses and documentation using GigaMesh. The GigaMesh Software Framework is developed by the Forensic-Computational-Geometry-Laboratory (FCGL) as part of the eHumanities working group at the Martin-Luther-University of Halle. It provides a number of processing and analysis methods for 3D-data, the main format being the Stanford-Polygon (PLY) for triangular meshes. For the daily tasks of an archaeological excavation, we will show how profile lines can be rapidly computed as vector drawings in the XML-based Scalable-Vector-Graphics (SVG) format, rollouts (or unwrappings) of decorated vessels, and small features visualization using the MSII filter for e.g. fingerprints and sealings. Additionally, we will show data inspection and cleaning as preparation and for quality insurance of Open Data publications. The content of the workshop will enable archaeologists to improve or set up their own 3D-acquisition-based ceramic documentation pipeline similar to long-term users like the Honduras excavation of the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures (KAAK) of the DAI Bonn.
Introduction to deep-learning (Djura Smits MSc, dr. Maurice de Kleijn, Sven van der Burg MSc, dr. Pranav Chandramouli, Mateusz Kuzak, Netherlands eScience Center)
max. attendance 16
This is a hands-on introduction to the first steps in Deep Learning, intended for researchers familiar with (non-deep) Machine Learning. Deep Learning has seen a sharp increase in popularity and applicability over the last decade. While Deep Learning can be a useful tool for researchers from a wide range of domains, taking the first steps in the world of Deep Learning can be somewhat intimidating. This introduction aims to cover the basics of Deep Learning in a practical and hands-on manner so that upon completion, you will be able to train your first neural network and understand what next steps to take to improve the model. We start by explaining the basic concepts of neural networks and then go through the different steps of a Deep Learning workflow. Learners will learn how to prepare data for deep learning, how to implement a basic Deep Learning model in Python with Keras, how to monitor and troubleshoot the training process and how to implement different layer types, such as convolutional layers. The workshop will be taught with data and examples relevant to archaeologists.
Sharing and maintaining software with Git and GitHub (Ben Companjen, Leiden University & Stephanie van de Sandt, UBVU)
max. attendance 16
Description to follow soon.
Developing 3D Scholarly Editions. Storytelling in Three Dimensions (Dr. Costas Papadopoulos, Prof. Susan Schreibman, Kelly Gillikin Schoueri MSc & Sohini Mallick MSc, University of Maastricht)
max. attendance 24
Digital storytelling is the latest in a long tradition of various modalities for communicating context and meaning about our histories and societies. However, when adding 3D elements to interactive digital storytelling, there is arguably less development than other digital formats. Indeed, 3D models for digital cultural heritage are typically presented in more of an information space rather than a narrative space. Sketchfab and other such platforms allow for hotspot labels on the 3D model, thus augmenting it in the form of annotative enrichment. It is also common for museum collections to publish online 3D models of individual objects together with their associated metadata. In terms of rich storytelling capabilities, 3D models are frequently reduced to animations in which there is some form of guided linear narrative over camera movements that lead a user through the virtual space. There are, however, a few recent examples of prototypes that allow for the real-time exploration of 3D models that privileges the model as central to the story being told and from which to frame a narrative. Smithsonian’s Voyager Story (https://3d.si.edu/; Smithsonian 2022a) is one such narrative-oriented platform that the PURE3D Project (https://pure3d.eu), funded by PDI-SSH to develop a national Dutch infrastructure for the publication and preservation of 3D scholarship, has been exploring for the development of a framework for 3D Scholarly Editions (Schreibman and Papadopoulos, 2019; Papadopoulos & Schreibman, 2019).
Voyager Story
Voyager Story is a 3D editing interface that has been developed by the Smithsonian Institution as part of a larger 3D digitisation ecosystem. It provides a flexible framework and intuitive editing environment for multiple types of digital content, as well as the modalities of designing engagement between the model and the accompanying narrative. Voyager Explorer is the front- end, end-user view of the curated 3D model – a number of examples can be explored via the Smithsonian’s online 3D collection. The Voyager ecosystem is wholly open-source and is published with good documentation on their GitHub website (Smithsonian 2022b). Despite this, it is currently an under-used tool for publishing 3D narratives online.
Workshop Format This is a full day, hands-on workshop which is divided into two parts. The workshop will startwith a brief introduction to the PURE3D infrastructure, followed by hands-on training with Smithsonian’s Voyager Platform that has been adapted by the project as one of the web viewers for creating 3D scholarly editions. For this, we will use one of PURE3D’s pilot projects, a 3D reconstruction of the battlefield of Mount Street Bridge; a battle during the 1916 Irish Easter Rising. Using training material that has been developed for the needs of the project and already tested with students, heritage professionals, and researchers, participants will use Voyager Story to develop 3D narratives in the form of: a) Annotation Labels: expandable hotspots as spatially aware annotation); b) Articles: HTML-based pages with text and multimedia that can either overlay the 3D model or be situated to the side of it; and, c) guided tours: a flexible combination of annotation, articles, camera movements and a set of analysis features, such as alternative material shaders, light settings measuring tape and slicer tool (Smithsonian, 2022). In the second part of the workshop, participants will use their own 3D models to start conceptualising them in the context of a 3D Scholarly Edition. Although due to time constraints, it will not be possible for participants to develop their own, the guided conceptualisation of their work will give them the opportunity to think through the premises of such scholarship and will provide them with a preliminary concept should they wish to further develop their 3D work to be ingested into PURE3D. Participants are expected to bring to the workshop any material that may be useful to contextualise their 3D models (such as text-based information, images, maps, videos, hyperlinks, etc.) and provide a sufficient amount of metadata and paradata for their work.
Workshop Audience
This workshop is suitable for researchers and educators who work on or would like to embark on the use of 3D in their practice. Museum professionals and representatives of cultural heritage institutions who have been developing digital collections or plan on digitising their holdings will benefit from getting to know how the infrastructure that the PURE3D project is developing can provide the means to develop rich annotated and contextualised narratives around 3D models. No prior experience in 3D modelling is required.
References
Schreibman, S. and Papadopoulos, C. (2019). Textuality in 3D: three-dimensional (re)constructions as digital scholarly editions. International Journal of Digital Humanities 1, 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42803-019-00024-6
Smithonsian (2022a). Voyager Overview. Available at https://smithsonian.github.io/dpo-voyager/explorer/overview/ (Accessed 26 August 2022).
Smithonsian (2022b). Smithsonian Github. Available at https://smithsonian.github.io/dpo-
voyager/introduction/ (Accessed 26 August 2022).
Papadopoulos, C. and Schreibman, S. (2019). Towards 3D Scholarly Editions: The Battle of Mount Street Bridge. DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly, 13(1). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/13/1/000415/000415.html