Paper submission invitation "Archaeology in the Woods: New Technologies, New Perspectives"

CAA 2014 paper submission invitation: S03 Archaeology in the Woods: New Technologies, New Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,
We invite you to submit papers for our session "Archaeology in the Woods: New Technologies, New Perspectives" at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology - CAA2014 Conference, to be held in Paris, France in April 2014. You can find information on our session and the conference below.

The Conference: Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology - CAA2014 Conference
Where: “Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - Institut d’art et d’archéologie” 3 rue Michelet, 75006 Paris, France
When: 22th to 25th April 2014.

Paper Submission Deadline: 31 October 2013
How to Submit: You can submit your proposal by creating an account on the conference website at http://caa2014.sciencesconf.org/.

Our Session: S03 Archaeology in the Woods: New Technologies, New Perspectives

Chairs: Rachel Opitz 1, Kasper Hanus, Clement Laplaige, Benjamin Stular,
1 : Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas (CAST)

Abstract: In this session, we hope to bring together papers on a range of technologies, prospection methods, and analyses applied in the contemporary study of forested environments. We define forests broadly, encompassing everything from the temperate deciduous woodland, to the mediterranean scrublands, to the tropical rainforest, from organized and intensively exploited plantations to regenerated and unmanaged mixed woodland, to ‘ancient' forests which have been exploited continuously or episodically over an extended period. The technologies and methods of interest include ALS (airborne laser scanning / LiDAR), which has been rapidly changing the large scale picture of archaeology preserved under woodland for the past decade, geophysical survey in woodlands, where important advances are being made in the detailed description of little studied types of sites, new applications of geochemistry and geochemically-oriented spectral surveys e.g. XRF/XRD which could complement both geophysical and ALS surveys, and the ever growing importance of digital databases and ontologies which make trans-regional comparisons and research increasingly feasible.

In this session we are taking inspiration from the work of researchers like A. Groves and O. Rackham, and asking ourselves how the big archaeological picture about woodlands and forests is changing as the result of the deployment of all these new technologies, which are producing enormous amounts of new evidence about past landscapes preserved under woodland canopy. We would like to address both our understanding of the past state(s) of these now-forested areas, our knowledge of activities and experiences of landscape specific to woodlands, and the implications of past activities in forest and the remains of these activities for the landscapes which exist today.
The implications of the technological and methodological leap which has been taking place for the past decade for the study of forests as an theme/concept/aspect of the landscape/aspect of past societies and economies are not always immediately evident. It is easy enough to say that the advent of these new technologies is changing our understanding of the archaeology of forests, but the nature of this change, the new ideas and understandings, are still in gestation.

The creation of a bridge between archaeologists working directly with new technologies, the enormous data generated by these technologies, and the ‘data wrangling' tools and methods needed to extract information from these data, and archaeologists and researchers in related disciplines studying forests and woodlands from various other perspectives requires that all concerned consider the broader implications of their work. This session aims to draw out expressions of the broader aims, implications, and new perspectives and understandings from the archaeologists working directly with the new technologies and the big datasets they often generate which, we argue, should be leading us to reconsider many aspects of past and present woodlands. The emphasis will be on the chaine operatoire between the technologies, the methodologies, and the archaeological knowledge they create.

Paper session

Topics : Field and laboratory data recording; GIS & Spatial Analysis & 3D Archaeology

Contact Us Directly: ropitz@cast.uark.edu
We hope to see you in Paris!
Best Wishes,
Rachel Opitz, Kasper Hanus, Clement Laplaige, and Benjamin Stular