Computational Intelligence in Archaeology

[j.barcelo]

Introducing the latest release from IGI Global:

Computational Intelligence in Archaeology

ISBN: 978-1-59904-489-7; 436; July 2008

Published under the imprint Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference)

http://www.igi-global.com/reference/details.asp?id=7791

Authored by: Juan A. Barcelo, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain

Computational Intelligence in Archaeology provides analytical theories offered by new and innovative artificial intelligence computing methods in the archaeological domain. This stimulating, must-have title is full of archaeological examples that allow academicians, researchers, and students to understand a complex but very useful data analysis technique to the field of archaeology.

"This book investigates what it means to solve 'automatically' archaeological problems."

- Juan A. Barcelo, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain

DESCRIPTION

Is it possible to build a machine to do archaeology?  Will this machine be capable of acting like a scientist?  Will this machine be capable of understanding how humans act, or how humans think they acted in the Past? This book tries to offer some possible solutions to these questions and to investigate what does it means to solve "automatically" archaeological problems.

The so called "intelligent" machines incite instinctive fear and anger by resembling ancestral threats -a rival for our social position as more or less respected specialists. But robots are here, around us. So, why to have fear of a machine classifying a prehistoric tool and deciding "intelligently" its origin, function and/or chronology? In other scientific domains the performance of humans at a particular task has been used to design intelligent computer programs that can do the same task in the same manner (and as well). Consequently, the design of an automated archaeologist should not be considered a mere science fiction tale. It is a technological reality.

I have tried to create an analogy with an "intelligent" machine, to understand the way we, archaeologists, think. If a computer can be programmed to perform human-like tasks it will offer a "model" of the human activity that is less open to argument than the empirical explanations that are normal in philosophical debates.

The book introduces the reader to the fascinating world of Artificial Intelligence theory, techniques and technology, and how a new archaeology will be possible if we arrive to integrate  the very best from "natural" intelligence and from "artificial" processing.

TOPICS COVERED: Archaeology, Artificial intelligence, Automated archaeology, Historical sciences , GIS, Remote Sensing, Classification, Typologies, Seriation, Burial Analysis, Neurocomputing , Shape analysis , Visual and non-visual analysis , Compositional analysis, Spatiotemporal analysis , Neuroclassification , Remote sensing data, Spatial interpolation , Self-organized maps, Genetic algorithms , Inverse reasoning

 

For more information about Computational Intelligence in Archaeology, you can read more details in:

http://antalya.uab.cat/prehistoria/Barcelo/IGIBook.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Joan Antón Barceló i Àlvarez is Reader in the Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Catalonia. Spain), where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on archaeological theory and methods. He is currently Head of the Laboratory for Quantitative Archaeology and Computer Applications, providing curricular support and technology training for faculty, staff, and students. In addition to his research in the applications of classical statistical tools, and the development of new methodologies from geostatistics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, he has worked extensively on historical and archaeological investigations about social dynamics in Bronze Age times, Phoenician colonization in the Mediterranean, the origins of agriculture and social complexity in the Near East, and economic resource management and social organization in hunter-gatherer societies in the southernmost parts of America: Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. He is now investigating long-term dynamics of Patagonian hunter-gatherer societies, with funding from the Spanish Ministry for Education and Research. He has authored a previous book on artificial intelligence applications in archaeology (in Spanish), and another book on statistical methods. He has also edited books on computer applications in archaeology and about virtual reality technologies. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 papers and publications. Eimail: juanantonio.barcelo@...

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To view the full contents of this publication, check for Computational Intelligence in Archaeology in your institution's library. If you library does not currently own this title, please recommend it to your librarian.

 

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