Ninetta Leone | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)

Papers by Ninetta Leone

Papers of the British School at Rome

Please contact authors for a copy of the full PDF. A two-week campaign in June 2021 marked the be... more Please contact authors for a copy of the full PDF. A two-week campaign in June 2021 marked the beginning of a planned multi-year project at the Roman city of Falerii Novi, located in the Comune of Fabrica di Roma (Viterbo, Lazio), in the middle Tiber Valley. The project takes place under the authorization of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la Provincia di Viterbo e per l’Etruria Meridionale and is a collaboration between the British School at Rome (BSR) and the Universities of Harvard and Toronto, along with researchers from the Universities of Ghent and Florence. This report outlines the methodology, aims and findings of the preliminary 2021 excavation season, which included a gridded test pit campaign across the entire intramural area supplemented by a series of cores along two axes.

travaux de la maison de l'orient et de la méditerranée n° 60 sous la direction de Cécile Batigne ... more travaux de la maison de l'orient et de la méditerranée n° 60 sous la direction de Cécile Batigne vallet LES CÉRAMIQUES COMMUNES DANS LEUR CONTEXTE RÉGIONAL Faciès de consommation et mode d'approvisionnement Cet ouvrage réunit les actes d'une table ronde organisée à la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée (Lyon) les 2 et 3 février 2009, consacrée aux céramiques communes romaines. Ces poteries domestiques bénéficient aujourd'hui d'une attention accrue en Occident et en Orient et deux axes de recherche ont été privilégiés : les faciès de consommation de ces céramiques de cuisine, c'est-à-dire les répertoires régionaux qui peuvent être identifiés sur un territoire, et les divers modes d'approvisionnement de ces céramiques mis en oeuvre sur les habitats. Ces actes rassemblent la contribution de seize groupes de chercheurs travaillant en France, en Suisse, en Belgique, en Autriche, au Portugal, en Italie, en Grèce, en Turquie et au Proche-Orient. LES CÉRAMIQUES COMMUNES DANS LEUR CONTEXTE RÉGIONAL Faciès de consommation et mode d'approvisionnement (TMO 60) © 2012 -Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée -Jean Pouilloux, Cécile BATIGNE VALLET est chargée de recherche au CNRS (UMR 5138 -Archéométrie et Archéologie, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon). Elle est céramologue et travaille essentiellement sur les céramiques de cuisine de Gaule romaine, celles de la région Rhône-Alpes plus particulièrement. Elle a dirigé l'ACR « Céramiques de cuisine d'époque romaine en Rhône-Alpes et dans le sud de la Bourgogne (i er s. av.-v e s. ap. J.-C.) : morphologie, techniques et approvisionnement ».

Journal of Archaeological Science

In this paper we propose an artificial intelligence imaging solution to support archaeologists in... more In this paper we propose an artificial intelligence imaging solution to support archaeologists in the classification task of Roman commonware potsherds. Usually, each potsherd is represented by its sectional profile as a two dimensional black-white image and printed in archaeological books related to specific archaeological excavations. The partiality and handcrafted variance of the fragments make their matching a challenging problem: we propose to pair similar profiles via the unsupervised hierarchical clustering of non-linear features learned in the latent space of a deep convolutional Variational Autoencoder (VAE) network. Our contribution also include the creation of a ROman COmmonware POTtery (ROCOPOT) database, with more than 4000 potsherds profiles extracted from 25 Roman pottery corpora, and a MATLAB GUI software for the easy inspection of shape similarities. Results are commented both from a mathematical and archaeological perspective so as to unlock new research directions in both communities.

A collection of more than 5000 B/W images of Roman pot... more A collection of more than 5000 B/W images of Roman pottery profiles from 32 corpora. An .xls file containing metadata is included. Reference webpage: https://mach.maths.cam.ac.uk/datasets/rocopot/ Associated publication: S. Parisotto, N. Leone, C.-B. Schönlieb and A. Launaro. Unsupervised Clustering of Roman Potsherds via Variational Autoencoders. (ArXiv)

This project deployed Ground-Penetrating Radar (henceforth GPR) survey alongside the study of cer... more This project deployed Ground-Penetrating Radar (henceforth GPR) survey alongside the study of ceramic assemblages across the full extent of two cities founded in this period - Interamna Lirenas founded as a colony in 312 BC and Falerii Novi founded by Rome in 241 BC (following Rome's razing of Falerii Veteres) to characterise their early development. Both sites were abandoned in the post-Roman period and now lie beneath agricultural land, hence they were available for total survey. The work built upon previous survey at both sites (which has included full magnetometry and topographical surveys of both) providing unique new data about the deeply buried deposits thereby allowing the integrated information to be used to map these towns and address key questions about the nature of Roman urban development in this key period

ArXiv, 2020

In this paper we introduce the ROman COmmonware POTtery (ROCOPOT) database, which comprises of mo... more In this paper we introduce the ROman COmmonware POTtery (ROCOPOT) database, which comprises of more than 2000 black and white imaging profiles of pottery shapes extracted from 11 Roman catalogues and related to different excavation sites. The partiality and the handcrafted variance of the shape fragments within this new database make their unsupervised clustering a very challenging problem: profile similarities are thus explored via the hierarchical clustering of non-linear features learned in the latent representation space of a stacked sparse autoencoder (SSAE) network, unveiling new profile matches. Results are commented both from a mathematical and archaeological perspective so as to unlock new research directions in the respective communities.

Our interdisciplinary team Mathematics for Applications in Cultural Heritage (MACH) aims to use m... more Our interdisciplinary team Mathematics for Applications in Cultural Heritage (MACH) aims to use mathematical research for the benefit of the arts and humanities. Our ultimate goal is to create user-friendly software toolkits for artists, art conservators and archaeologists. In order for their underlying mathematical engines and functionality to be optimised for the needs of the end users, we pursue an iterative approach based on a continuous communication between the mathematicians and the cultural-heritage members of our team. Our paper illustrates how maths can speak art, but only if first art speaks maths.

Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2018

There can hardly be any doubt that goods moved in large quantities and over great distances under... more There can hardly be any doubt that goods moved in large quantities and over great distances under the Roman empire. This awareness is borne out of a long tradition of archaeological research attesting to the widespread distribution of specific categories of material culture across the full expanse of the Mediterranean and beyond. This phenomenon has been interpreted as a more or less direct result of Rome's military expansion and the fundamental political unification which came with it, bringing about unprecedented conditions which favoured trade and exchange. Scholarship has often stressed the rôle played in this by ‘institutions’: the spread and adoption of a common set of laws, currency and units of measure, fostered by a relatively long period of internal peace and political stability, would have boosted the economic performance of the empire to levels that had not been witnessed before and would not be seen again for many centuries. Indeed, the notion of ‘efflorescence’ has...

Papers of the British School at Rome, 2016

Cette etude est consacree aux ceramiques de cuisine utilisees en Etrurie septentrionale cotiere. ... more Cette etude est consacree aux ceramiques de cuisine utilisees en Etrurie septentrionale cotiere. Elle est fondee sur l’observation des recipients destines au stockage domestique, a la cuisson et a la preparation des mets, retrouves sur huit sites localises sur les territoires de Pise et de Volterra, et dates entre le IVe av. J. ‑C. et le VIe s. ap. J. ‑C. : centres de production (trois ateliers pres de Pise et de nombreux ateliers pres de Vada Volaterrana, port de Volterra), sites de consommation (habitats urbains ainsi que fermes et villae) et centres de distribution (les ports de Portus Pisanus et de Vada Volaterrana). Ces recipients se repartissent en cinquante‑cinq types presentes ici, dont la description morphologique est enrichie par l’association a une pâte ceramique, par une liste d’attestations regionales et par la fourchette chronologique concernee.

A total of 2475 B/W images of Roman pottery profiles&l... more A total of 2475 B/W images of Roman pottery profiles from 11 catalogues (refined with 231 Bases, 278 Handles, 2103 Rims and 248 Rims with handles). An .xls file containing asoociated metadata is included. Reference webpage: https://mach.maths.cam.ac.uk/datasets/rocopot/ Associated publication: S. Parisotto, A. Launaro, N. Leone and C.-B. Schönlieb. Unsupervised clustering of Roman pottery profiles from their SSAE representation. (ArXiv)

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022

Lazio e Sabina 10, 2014

This paper presents the goals of the “Ager di Aquinum – conoscere per tutelare” project, and the... more This paper presents the goals of the “Ager di Aquinum – conoscere
per tutelare” project, and the new project “Ager di Aquinum – una
forma di valorizzazione integrata”, with a focus on the entire cultural landscape that was once controlled by the ancient city, whose primary goal is that of increasing and disseminating knowledge of the archaeological heritage of the ancient colony.
The article also shows the GIS map of the database of archaeological fieldwork and research in southern Latium, and the results of excavations carried out at the site of Piedimonte San Germano - loc. Le Grange in 2012.