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HESTIA2: Exploring spatial networks through ancient sources

Archaeogeomancy: Digital Heritage Specialists – archaeological geomatics – the majick of spatial data in archaeology – archaeological information systems for the digital age:

Herodotus

Herodotus

The Hestia2 project is described as “a public engagement project that aims to cross boundaries between the academic, commercial and educational sectors“.

As part of this, a free one-day seminar is taking place on 18th July organised by Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, Leif Isaksen and Tom Brughmans and in collaboration with The Connected Past.

The call for papers is as follows:

A free one-day seminar on spatial network analysis in archaeology, history, classics, teaching and commercial archaeology.

Spatial relationships are everywhere in our sources about the past: from the ancient roads that  connect cities, or ancient authors mentioning political alliances between places, to the stratigraphic contexts archaeologists deal with in their fieldwork. However, as datasets about the past become increasingly large, these spatial networks become ever more difficult to disentangle. Network techniques allow us to address such spatial relationships explicitly and directly through network visualisation and analysis. This seminar aims to explore the potential of such innovative techniques for research, public engagement and commercial purposes.

The seminar is part of Hestia2, a public engagement project aimed at introducing a series of conceptual and practical innovations to the spatial reading and visualisation of texts. Following on from the AHRC-funded “Network, Relation, Flow: Imaginations of Space in Herodotus’s Histories” (the Hestia project), Hestia2 represents a deliberate shift from experimenting with geospatial analysis of a single text to making Hestia’s outcomes available to new audiences and widely applicable to other texts through a seminar series, online platform, blog and learning materials with the purpose of fostering knowledge exchange between researchers and non-academics, and generating public interest and engagement in this field.

For this first Hestia2 workshop we welcome contributions addressing any of (but not restricted to) the following themes:

  • Spatial network analysis techniques
  • Spatial networks in archaeology, history and classics
  • Techniques for the discovery and analysis of networks from textual sources
  • Exploring spatial relationships in classical and archaeological sources
  • The use of network visualisations and linked datasets for archaeologists active in the commercial sector and teachers
  • Applications of network analysis in archaeology, history and classics

See the calendar entry for details of the venue and how to submit abstracts of up to 250 words.

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