Petra Heřmánková | Aarhus University (original) (raw)

Papers by Petra Heřmánková

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2022

The research presented in the article tests quantitatively the existing hypothesis from the acade... more The research presented in the article tests quantitatively the existing hypothesis from the academic debate that the Greco-Roman cult of Asclepius was more popular in the times of the Antonine Plague which spread in the Roman Empire approximately in the years 165-180 CE. This hypothesis is based on the rationale that the god of medicine, Asclepius, could have been more appealing to the Roman population in times of health crisis. However, there are also voices in the debate arguing that there is no indication of an increase in popularity of the cult of Asclepius during the Antonine Plague. The article explores this question quantitatively by means of temporal modeling of epigraphic evidence from the Roman Empire, i.e., the primary material source for arguments in the academic debate on the topic. By employing Monte Carlo algorithms to simulate the temporal distributions of Latin inscriptions from epigraphic databases, the article demonstrates that there is no observable increase in the number of inscriptions dedicated to Asclepius in the times of the Antonine Plague that would deviate significantly from the temporal distribution of a) general epigraphic trend as represented by epigraphic databases Epigraphic Database Heidelberg and Clauss-Slaby Epigraphic Database, and b) inscriptions dedicated to other deities such as Apollo or Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The hypothesized increased popularity of the cult of Asclepius during the Antonine Plague is thus not supported by the results on the level of epigraphic trends. These findings have a significant potential to push forward the discussion which is divided by mutually opposing hypotheses that were constructed mainly by traditional historiographical approaches. The article also reveals the applicability of quantitative approaches in overcoming temporal uncertainties in archaeological data.

Oxbow Books, Jul 12, 2018

Graeco-Latina Brunensia, 2013

The Thracian goddess Bendis was worshipped in Classical Athens, and her cult became very popular ... more The Thracian goddess Bendis was worshipped in Classical Athens, and her cult became very popular in the 5 th and 4 th century BC. This article explores the available historiographical and archaeological record of an existing foreign cult within a Greek polis, and compares it to the data from the Thracian inland. As the literary sources limit themselves only to the Greek point of view, a combination of archaeological and epigraphical evidence has to be consulted in the case of Thrace. The aim of this paper is to determine and discuss the uniformity or potential discrepancies in the presentation of Bendis in the place of her origin, as well as in her new context. The mutual relations between Bendis and her Greek counterpart is not to be omitted.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jun 3, 2022

The second year of the Yurta-Stroyno Archaeological Project continued in the excavation of the ar... more The second year of the Yurta-Stroyno Archaeological Project continued in the excavation of the area selected the previous year. The stone foundations were further uncovered in their continuation both to the east and to the west of the investigated area. Disrupted soil from Rooms A and B, previously excavated by robbers, was cleaned to the sterile soil. The area of the settlement core was selectively walked while creating a geodetic site grid. During the random survey, several areas of outstanding surface concentrations were selected for future investigation. Further, documentation of the finds from the two years of the excavation progressed, with their selection given in this report. kEywordS Bulgaria; Thrace; Yurta; Stroyno; vicus; terracotta lamps; metals; glass; Thracian horse rider; votive terracotta plate. This volume of Studia Hercynia is very special to us, being dedicated to a great scholar and our men-tor, Prof. Jan Bouzek. He is the one who brought two of the authors-P. Tu...

The Thracian goddess Bendis was worshipped in Classical Athens, and her cult became very popular ... more The Thracian goddess Bendis was worshipped in Classical Athens, and her cult became very popular in the 5th and 4th century BC. This article explores the available historiographical and archaeological record of an existing foreign cult within a Greek polis, and compares it to the data from the Thracian inland. As the literary sources limit themselves only to the Greek point of view, a combination of archaeological and epigraphical evidence has to be consulted in the case of Thrace. The aim of this paper is to determine and discuss the uniformity or potential discrepancies in the presentation of Bendis in the place of her origin, as well as in her new context. The mutual relations between Bendis and her Greek counterpart is not to be omitted.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Jun 1, 2022

The Field Acquired Information Management Systems Project (FAIMS), based at Macquarie University,... more The Field Acquired Information Management Systems Project (FAIMS), based at Macquarie University, has been developing and deploying a generalised, customisable, open-source platform specifically designed for data capture during field research since 2012. FAIMS' goals are to: • Increase the efficiency and quality of scientific field data recording; • Promote transparency and reproducibility in support of research integrity; and • Facilitate data interoperability in support of large-scale research. We originally designed our platform, FAIMS Mobile, for archaeologists. However, it has been used for over 40 workflows at some 30 field projects around the world in domains including: archaeology, ecology, geology, and oral history. FAIMS Mobile was initially developed in 2012-14, and has continually improved in collaboration with field researchers

For optimized experience read this article using this link. You can also send yourself a link to ... more For optimized experience read this article using this link. You can also send yourself a link to this article for a later, more comfortable read.

PLOS ONE, Jun 16, 2022

Recent empirical studies on the division of labor in modern cities indicate a complex web of rela... more Recent empirical studies on the division of labor in modern cities indicate a complex web of relationships between sectoral specialization of cities and their productivity on one hand and sectoral diversification and resilience on the other. Emerging scholarly consensus suggests that ancient urbanism has more in common with modern urban development than previously thought. We explore whether modern trends in urban division of labor apply to the cities of the Western Roman Empire from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE. We analyze occupational data extracted from a large body of Latin epigraphic evidence by computerassisted text-mining, subsequently mapped onto a dataset of ancient Roman cities. We detect a higher frequency of occupation terms on inscriptions from cities led by Rome than from rural areas and identify an accumulation of tertiary sector occupations in large cities. The temporal dimension of epigraphic data allows us to study aspects of the division of labor diachronically and to detect trends in the data in a four centuries-long period of Roman imperial history. Our analyses reveal an overall decrease in the frequency of occupational terms between the first half and second half of the third century CE; the maximum frequency of occupational terms shifts over time from large cities to medium and small towns, and finally, rural areas. Our results regarding the specialization and diversity of cities and their respective impact on productivity and resilience remain inconclusive, possibly as a result of the socioeconomic bias of Latin inscriptions and insufficient representativeness of the data. Yet, we believe that our formalized approach to the research problem opens up new avenues for research, both in respect to the economic history of the Roman Empire and to the current trends in the science of cities.

University Press of Florida eBooks, Jun 28, 2022

Journal of Digital History

Digital Heritage and Archaeology in Practice

Large-scale synthetic research in ancient history is often hindered by the incompatibility of tax... more Large-scale synthetic research in ancient history is often hindered by the incompatibility of taxonomies used by different digital datasets. Using the example of enriching the Latin Inscriptions from the Roman Empire dataset (LIRE), we demonstrate that machine-learning classification models can bridge the gap between two distinct classification systems and make comparative study possible. We report on training, testing and application of a machine learning classification model using inscription categories from the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg (EDH) to label inscriptions from the Epigraphic Database Claus-Slaby (EDCS). The model is trained on a labeled set of records included in both sources (N=46,171). Several different classification algorithms and parametrizations are explored. The final model is based on Extremely Randomized Trees algorithm (ET) and employs 10,055 features, based on several attributes. The final model classifies two thirds of a test dataset with 98% accuracy an...

Water quality monitoring around Sydney, Streamwatch Project

Your Shore: Citizen science oyster monitoring program

This poster presents an open source digital tool for field epigraphers allowing them to collect t... more This poster presents an open source digital tool for field epigraphers allowing them to collect the spatial information, structured data and multimedia about each and every inscription on a single mobile platform that also works offline and is highly customisable. The “Epigraphic module” was built using the open - source FAIMS mobile platform specifically for digital collection of Greek and Latin inscriptions in the field in the various areas of Mediterranean.

The article discusses the purpose, design and development of an epigraphical database created for... more The article discusses the purpose, design and development of an epigraphical database created for a dissertation project with the title "Hellenisation of Ancient Thrace". The database has been populated with epigraphic data from a geographic area broadly conceived as falling within Ancient Thrace in a manner that crosses national and linguistic boundaries, and with an emphasis on the spatio-temporal attributes of individual inscriptions. The database makes possible the quantified analysis of more than 4000 inscriptions and their attributes, and is available for use and reuse by other scholars in epigraphy, philology, archaeology and other disciplines.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2022

Oxbow Books, Jul 12, 2018

Graeco-Latina Brunensia, 2013

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jun 3, 2022

The Thracian goddess Bendis was worshipped in Classical Athens, and her cult became very popular ... more The Thracian goddess Bendis was worshipped in Classical Athens, and her cult became very popular in the 5th and 4th century BC. This article explores the available historiographical and archaeological record of an existing foreign cult within a Greek polis, and compares it to the data from the Thracian inland. As the literary sources limit themselves only to the Greek point of view, a combination of archaeological and epigraphical evidence has to be consulted in the case of Thrace. The aim of this paper is to determine and discuss the uniformity or potential discrepancies in the presentation of Bendis in the place of her origin, as well as in her new context. The mutual relations between Bendis and her Greek counterpart is not to be omitted.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Jun 1, 2022

PLOS ONE, Jun 16, 2022

University Press of Florida eBooks, Jun 28, 2022

Journal of Digital History

Digital Heritage and Archaeology in Practice

Water quality monitoring around Sydney, Streamwatch Project

Your Shore: Citizen science oyster monitoring program

The presentation brings together known epigraphic evidence from funerary contexts in coastal and ... more The presentation brings together known epigraphic evidence from funerary contexts in coastal and inland Thrace from Classical and Hellenistic period. It presents various types of
inscriptions from funerary context and discusses the main differences in their character. Moreover, we discuss the possible underlying motives for the existence of epigraphy in the context of burial and its broader significance in the society of the respective period. The coastal Thrace has been colonised by Greeks already during the archaic period and not surprisingly, the colonisers brought with them not only their language but also their funerary habits. Thus, we can see the spread of inscribed funerary stelae in the vicinity of Greek colonies all over the Black Sea coast and the Northern Aegean coast. Did some of the habits penetrate to the inland Thrace, either via mutual contacts with the local population or via the internal colonisation? How did the Thracian population adopt and adapt the typical Greek habit of inscribing the funerary stelae and/or the deposited grave goods?

We present the epigraphic material divided by the nature of the inscribed object and its position in the funerary context accordingly: the resultant three groups are encompassing ‘inscriptions on grave markers’, ‘inscriptions on grave goods’ and ‘inscriptions inside the grave’. The analysed material reveals rather diverse approach to the use of writing in funeral habit according to the geographic position, when comparing the coastal and the inland Thrace. The diversity might be explained as a result of different socio-economic structure in the areas.

This paper presents the new epigraphic finds of ancient Roman settlement at Yurta in the SE Bulg... more This paper presents the new epigraphic finds of ancient Roman settlement at Yurta in the SE Bulgaria and links them to the broader picture of Yambol District under the Roman Empire.

During 2015 season of Stroyno Archaeological Project several inscribed objects were found revealing new information about the population of the settlement at Yurta-Stroyno: a votive
terracotta tablet with an inscription, graffiti on pottery sherds and anepigraphic fragment of the horse rider votive plaque. All objects belong to the category of ‘small epigraphy’, which is often being neglected for its marginal character and relatively low informative value. The character and the appearance of presented objects points to their local production and their direct connection with the inhabitants of the rural settlement at Yurta-Stroyno. The otherwise unknown mass inhabiting Yurta is due to the recent finds known to have a limited literacy and basic knowledge of Greek script, but the identity of local population remains unknown. Nonetheless, the nature of
epigraphic evidence is outstanding for the rural parts of Thrace, presenting the site at Yurta as exceptional settlement with great archaeological and epigraphic potential. Based on the analysis
of the new epigraphic finds and the already published inscriptions from the broader area, settlement at Yurta seems to have a prominent position in the microregional scale, as well as further links to major cities of the region.

Funerary inscriptions in ancient Thrace are one of the most common of epigraphic monuments preser... more Funerary inscriptions in ancient Thrace are one of the most common of epigraphic monuments preserved until today. They are very informative about the society of the time, publication habits and their eventual disappearance. I would like to focus on the self-representation of the deceased, who often built monuments addressing people passingby. How did they presented their life to an unknown stranger? What was so important for themselves or for their families to be left after they leave this world, so they carved it into stone? Their graves may be lost by now, and thus the only available information we have about comes from the grave markers.
As these funerary monuments continued in tradition already established in the period before the Roman presence, I will compare how the situation changed over time and what might be sociological reasons for the shift in perceiving their own identity. Did Roman presence really have such influence in the region? Or was it just continuation of already existing trend? I would like to answer the question whether the social cohesion evolved and changed over time.

The research presented in the article tests quantitatively the existing hypothesis from the acade... more The research presented in the article tests quantitatively the existing hypothesis from the academic debate that the Greco-Roman cult of Asclepius was more popular in the times of the Antonine Plague which spread in the Roman Empire approximately in the years 165–180 CE. This hypothesis is based on the rationale that the god of medicine, Asclepius, could have been more appealing to the Roman population in times of health crisis. However, there are also voices in the debate arguing that there is no indication of an increase in popularity of the cult of Asclepius during the Antonine Plague. The article explores this question quantitatively by means of temporal modeling of epigraphic evidence from the Roman Empire, i.e., the primary material source for arguments in the academic debate on the topic. By employing Monte Carlo algorithms to simulate the temporal distributions of Latin inscriptions from epigraphic databases, the article demonstrates that there is no observable increase in the number of inscriptions dedicated to Asclepius in the times of the Antonine Plague that would deviate significantly from the temporal distribution of a) general epigraphic trend as represented by epigraphic databases Epigraphic Database Heidelberg and Clauss-Slaby Epigraphic Database, and b) inscriptions dedicated to other deities such as Apollo or Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The hypothesized increased popularity of the cult of Asclepius during the Antonine Plague is thus not supported by the results on the level of epigraphic trends. These findings have a significant potential to push forward the discussion which is divided by mutually opposing hypotheses that were constructed mainly by traditional historiographical approaches. The article also reveals the applicability of quantitative approaches in overcoming temporal uncertainties in archaeological data.

Large-scale synthetic research in ancient history is often hindered by the incompatibility of tax... more Large-scale synthetic research in ancient history is often hindered by the incompatibility of taxonomies used by different digital datasets. Using the example of enriching the Latin Inscriptions from the Roman Empire dataset (LIRE), we demonstrate that machine-learning classification models can bridge the gap between two distinct classification systems and make comparative study possible. We report on training, testing and application of a machine learning classification model using inscription categories from the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg (EDH) to label inscriptions from the Epigraphic Database Claus-Slaby (EDCS). The model is trained on a labeled set of records included in both sources (N =46,171). Several different classification algorithms and parametrizations are explored. The final model is based on Extremely Randomized Trees algorithm (ET) and employs 10,055 features, based on several attributes. The final model classifies two thirds of a test dataset with 98% accuracy and 85% of it with 95% accuracy. After model selection and evaluation, we apply the model on inscriptions covered exclusively by EDCS (N =83,482) in an attempt to adopt one consistent system of classification for all records within the LIRE dataset.