Matthew Magnani | University of Maine (original) (raw)
Peer Reviewed Publications by Matthew Magnani
Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2023
The reconstruction and representation of ancient artifacts and scenes through illustration is a c... more The reconstruction and representation of ancient artifacts and scenes through illustration is a cornerstone in the communication of archaeological findings. Sketches of the past have transformed over time, incorporating broader technological changes, from photography to the digital tools that have become prevalent through the twenty-first century. Most recently, developments in generative artificial intelligence (AI) promise to reshape the way we represent the past to professional and public audiences. This article shows how to use an accessible and inexpensive artificial intelligence platform to generate complex archaeological illustrations. As a case study, we create multiple scenes representing competing hypotheses about Neanderthal behavior. Using the images to visually communicate alternative hypotheses, we demonstrate how archaeological illustration using artificial intelligence promises to democratize the production of visual representations of the past.
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Museum Anthropology , 2023
Of the 158 million things housed by the Smithsonian Institution, about 56 objects originate from ... more Of the 158 million things housed by the Smithsonian Institution, about 56 objects originate from Sámi communities. By all accounts a small group of objects--even by the standards of the Arctic collections at the Institution—it may be easily overlooked or dismissed as insignificant, based on entrenched ideologies about idealized collections. Presenting a community-based methodology for the engagement of distant museum collections using three-dimensional technologies, this article establishes the latent potential of small collections for Indigenous communities. We demonstrate how a group of 56 objects not only chronicles complex histories of exchange and colonialism, but also provide a manageable conduit for learning and exchange to facilitate the continued restructuring of relationships between museums and descendent stakeholders, from the individual to community level. Small collections, far from incomplete, may not only contain materials significant to descendent groups on their own terms, but provide the grounds to generate new forms of Indigenous initiated, balanced reciprocity.
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American Antiquity, 2022
This manuscript presents a novel approach to the study of contemporary material culture using dig... more This manuscript presents a novel approach to the study of contemporary material culture using digital data. Scholars interested in the materiality of past and contemporary societies have been limited to information derived from assemblages of excavated, collected, or physically observed materials; they have yet to take full advantage of large or complex digital datasets afforded by the internet. To demonstrate the power of this approach and its potential to disrupt our understanding of the material world, we present a study of an ongoing global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we focus on face-mask production during the pandemic across the United States in 2020 and 2021. Scraping information on homemade face-mask characteristics at multimonth intervals-including location and materials-we analyze the production of masks and their change over time. We demonstrate that this new methodology, coupled with a sociopolitical examination of mask use according to state policies and politicization, provides an unprecedented avenue to understand the changing distributions and social significances of material culture. Our study of mask making elucidates a clear linkage between partisan politics and decreasing disease mitigation effectiveness. We further reveal how time-averaged asssemblages drown out the political meanings of artifacts otherwise visible with finer temporal resolution.
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Current Anthropology, 2022
The theory and practice of decolonization present an awkward paradox: How can social change occur... more The theory and practice of decolonization present an awkward paradox: How can social change occur in everyday life to disrupt state structures while entangled with the mundane, social, and institutional practices and representations that perpetuate state power? In Sápmi, the transborder Indigenous Sámi homeland, decolonization has been intertwined with the institutionalization of Sámi governance and cultural reclamation through national governing bodies. In the Finnish-controlled regions, failures of national recognition of Sámi self-determination have fueled disenchantment with established political platforms and a growing movement to enact self-representation outside these realms. A study of Sámi craft making uncovers embodied mechanisms of decolonization, actualized through production as fluid boundary making and intergenerational healing. Craft makers reinforce relationships to land and family networks in ways that unsettle racialized and legal delineations of community belonging, redirecting the power of representation away from state-constrained decision-making bodies and toward everyday Sámi practice. In doing so, they also negotiate their own use of rejected tropes and colonial networks of production. This interplay establishes the transformative potential and constraints of an embodied decolonization.
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Journal of Social Archaeology, 2022
Global crises drastically alter human behavior, rapidly impacting patterns of movement and consum... more Global crises drastically alter human behavior, rapidly impacting patterns of movement and consumption. A rapid-response analysis of material culture brings new perspective to disasters as they unfold. We present a case study of the coronavirus pandemic in Tromsø, Norway, based on fieldwork from March 2020 to April 2021. Using a methodology rooted in social distancing and through systematic, diachronic, and spatial analysis of trash (e.g., discarded gloves, sanitization products), signage, and barriers, we show how material perspectives improve understanding of relationships between public action and government policy (in this case examined in relation to the Norwegian concept of collective labor, dugnad). We demonstrate that the materiality of individual, small-scale innovations and behaviors that typified the pandemic will have the lowest long-term visibility, as they are increasingly replaced or outnumbered by more durable representations generated by centralized state and corporate bodies that suggest close affinity between state directive and local action. We reflect on how the differential durability of material responses to COVID-19 will shape future memories of the crisis.
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Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2021
This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case s... more This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case study from the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway, we provide accessible tools to document broad spatial and behavioral patterns through material culture as they emerge. Stressing the importance of ethical engagement with contemporary subjects, we adapt archaeological field methods-including geolocation, photography, and three-dimensional modeling-to analyze the changing relationships between materiality and human sociality through the crisis. Integrating data from four contributors, we suggest that this workflow may engage broader publics as anthropological data collectors to describe unexpected social phenomena. Contemporary archaeological perspectives, deployed in rapid response, provide alternative readings on the development of current events. In the presented case, we suggest that local ways of coping with the pandemic may be overshadowed by the materiality of large-scale corporate and state response.
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Social Anthropology, 2020
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American Antiquity, 2020
The three-dimensional (3D) revolution promised to transform archaeological practice. Of the techn... more The three-dimensional (3D) revolution promised to transform archaeological practice. Of the technologies that contribute to the proliferation of 3D data, photogrammetry facilitates the rapid and inexpensive digitization of complex subjects in both field and lab settings. It finds additional use as a tool for public outreach, where it engages audiences ranging from source communities to artifact collectors. But what has photogrammetry's function been in advancing archaeological analysis? Drawing on our previous work, we review recent applications to understand the role of photogrammetry for contemporary archaeologists. Although photogrammetry is widely used as a visual aid, its analytical potential remains underdeveloped. Considering various scales of inquiry-graduating from objects to landscapes-we address how the technology fits within and expands existing documentation and data visualization routines, while evaluating the opportunity it presents for addressing archaeological questions and problems in innovative ways. We advance an agenda advocating that archaeologists move from proof-of-concept papers toward greater integration of photogrammetry with research.
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Antiquity, 2019
In a 2017 article, Holen and colleagues reported evidence for a 130 000-year-old archaeological s... more In a 2017 article, Holen and colleagues reported evidence for a 130 000-year-old archaeological site in California. Acceptance of the site would overturn current understanding of global human migrations. The authors here consider Holen et al.'s conclusions through critical evaluation of their replicative experiments. Drawing on best practice in experimental archaeology, and paying particular attention to the authors' chain of inference, Magnani et al. suggest that to argue convincingly for an early human presence at the Cer-utti Mastodon site, Holen et al. must improve their analogical foundations, test alternative hypotheses, increase experimental control and quantify their results.
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Antiquity, 2019
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Journal of Social Archaeology, 2018
Indigenous social movements contest histories of relocation, assimilation, and inequality. Archae... more Indigenous social movements contest histories of relocation, assimilation, and inequality. Archaeologists too have identified such processes in recent and deeper time. But what can ongoing sites of indigenous resistance tell us about those of the archaeological record, and what is the value in the present of linking such phenomena through time? The production of material culture embodies the motivations and constraints of these movements. Objects made and used promise to bridge temporalities, yet have been largely overlooked by anthropologists. To strengthen the ability to theorize such movements, we carry out an archaeological ethnography with the Skolt Sámi community of Arctic Finland. We focus our analysis on revitalization movements—a phenomena recognized at archaeological sites from the Pueblo homelands to western Europe—whereby communities intentionally direct cultural change in response to social stress. We bring anthropological conceptions of revitalization into dialogue with definitions of the term enacted by indigenous communities. The study analyzes the revival of technologies associated with Skolt lifeways: a boat made of planks sewn together with pine roots, and tools used to process inner pine bark.
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Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2018
Ethnographic museum collections have traditionally been acquired, maintained, and utilized by ant... more Ethnographic museum collections have traditionally been acquired, maintained, and utilized by anthro-pological and other museum-based researchers. Increasingly, indigenous communities consult museum holdings in order to inform social movements reclaiming cultural heritage, though collections and their records are often not conserved or made accessible with these goals in mind. We report a project conducted with Arctic Sámi communities in collaboration with the Sámi Museum Siida. Coupling the results of detailed ethnographic interviews with accessible three-dimensional modeling techniques – in particular photogrammetry – we propose a community-based methodology in archaeological ethnogra-phy aimed at increasing accessibility for descendant community members that may potentially expand collections' use for researchers. Concurrently, we stress that such an integrative approach must be particularly cautious in the sharing of models of indigenous cultural heritage, which encounter frequent threats of misuse and appropriation in an era of easy 3D modeling and printing. This abstract appears below in North Sámi.
Davvisámegiella: Etnográfalaš museaidčoakkáldagaid leat dábálaččatčoaggán, bajásdoallán ja geavahan antropologiijadahje museasuorggi dutkit. Eamiálbmotservošat galledit muse-aidčoakkáldagaidain eanet ja eanet vai besset ealáskahttit iežaset kulturárbbi. ˇ Coakkáldagaidja daidda gullevaš die – duid eai goittotge dábálaččat leat seailluhan ja dahkanrabasin dan dárkkuhusa várás. Dárk-ilis etnográfalaš jearahallamiid bohtosiidovttastahttin álkit logahahtti 3D hábmenteknihkkii, erenomážit fotogrammetriai-mii evttohit servoša geahččanguovllus vuolgi metodologiija, man ulbmilin leabuoriditčoakkáldagaid rabasvuo – da servoša lahtuide ja jos vejolaš, maiddáidutkiide. Seammás mii deattuhit, ahte dakkár lahkonanvugiin 3D-málliidjuohkimis galgá leat várrugas. Erenomážit dakkár eamiálbmogiid bokte, geaidkulturárbbi geavahit boastut dálá áiggis, goas 3D-hábmen ja prenten lea álki.
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Current Anthropology, 2019
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Artifact collectors are commonplace the world over. They range from individuals with personal col... more Artifact collectors are commonplace the world over. They range from individuals with personal collections, to organized looting ventures which supply artifacts to market. In the United States, a strong tradition of artifact collecting exists in the North American Great Plains. In this region, artifact collections obtained from private lands are a common and potentially important source of information about the past. Here, we report on 'Artifact Roadshows' which are held to document lithic projectile points held in private collections. Through these events – which include the three-dimensional digitization and general artifact recording – we have expanded our understandings of collector motivations, created a platform to educate on best practices, and begun to appreciate the types of analyses which can be run on data accumulated in such contexts. These efforts seek to encourage collaboration between professional archaeologists and the public in documenting the heritage of the Great Plains.
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The SAS Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, 2018
Closely following the invention of photography in the mid-1800s, stereophotogrammetry emerged as ... more Closely following the invention of photography in the mid-1800s, stereophotogrammetry emerged as the science of extracting metric data from pairs of still photographs. Although commonly employed and developed by governments for civil and military purposes (often using aerial photographs), it was not until the 1970s that archaeological publications employing pho-togrammetry became routine. Early applications in archaeology often featured specialized pairs of fixed-base cameras with precise calibration to take stereopairs of photographs, although individual cameras could also be moved to achieve similar ends. Early applications of stereophotogrammetry both facilitated the display of archaeological findings and aided in analysis. Subjects of study ranged in scale from engravings to monument complexes, and allowed linear and volumetric measurements to be made. Despite its acknowledged potential, in its earlier form the technology did not see widespread use by archaeologists; stereoscopic equipment was expensive and highly specialized, costing over six figures in the 1970s, and required a skilled operator. Some of these concerns were mitigated with increasing use of computers in analysis, although photogrammetry remained a relatively specialized tool into the early 2000s. While originally clumsy and inaccessible , early developments established both the conceptual and technological foundation for modern photogrammetry to progress.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digita... more Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digital 3D record of archaeological artefacts. The methodology has been widely adopted, but a number of issues remain, especially in relation to model variability, and to misalignments that result in gaps in the models generated. Two new approaches are presented here that have been shown to increase standardisation during data capture and processing routines. This ensures that models are seamless and quantitatively accurate.
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Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digita... more Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digital 3D record of archaeological artefacts. The methodology has been widely adopted, but a number of issues remain, especially in relation to model variability, and to misalignments that result in gaps in the models generated. Two new approaches are presented here that have been shown to increase standardisation during data capture and processing routines. This ensures that models are seamless and quantitatively accurate.
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Advances in Archaeological Practice, Nov 2014
Although alternatives have become available, pen and ink drawings of stone tools dominate archaeo... more Although alternatives have become available, pen and ink drawings of stone tools dominate archaeological publications. Despite the existence of a conventional illustration framework, the work produced by illustrators can be inconsistent and hinges on skill level
and time commitment. Discussions going back to the 1880s critically question the use of illustrations for the purpose of scientific publication. Alternatives, such as laser scanning and photogrammetric modeling, are now available for displaying lithics. These alternatives can remove the subjectivity involved in artistic rendering, creating replicable results, regardless of who is collecting the data. In addition to creating more regularized and objective representations, there are a significant number of analytical and other benefits to adopting novel imaging techniques to depict stone tools in publications. A set of three-dimensional (3D) models are presented here to demonstrate the capabilities of laser scanning and, potentially, photogrammetric modeling as replacements for lithic illustration.
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Journal of Archaeological Science
The appearance of new force application techniques in the production of stone artifacts over the ... more The appearance of new force application techniques in the production of stone artifacts over the course of human evolution has been associated with the increasing technological capacity of hominin groups. Yet, the causal relationship between the knapping practice and the flake characteristics upon which these behavioral inferences rest remains largely untested under controlled settings. Here we present a recent controlled experiment examining the effect of various force application variables (hammer shape; location of force application; angle of blow; hammer displacement speed) on flake morphology. Results indicate that the independent variables interact with flake attributes in a complex way that makes simple analogies between particular attributes and specific force application techniques extremely difficult. However, trade-offs among the variables cast new light on the possible mechanisms underlying variation in force application techniques used in flintknapping.
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Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2021
This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case s... more This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case study from the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway, we provide accessible tools to document broad spatial and behavioral patterns through material culture as they emerge. Stressing the importance of ethical engagement with contemporary subjects, we adapt archaeological field methods-including geolocation, photography, and three-dimensional modeling-to analyze the changing relationships between materiality and human sociality through the crisis. Integrating data from four contributors, we suggest that this workflow may engage broader publics as anthropological data collectors to describe unexpected social phenomena. Contemporary archaeological perspectives, deployed in rapid response, provide alternative readings on the development of current events. In the presented case, we suggest that local ways of coping with the pandemic may be overshadowed by the materiality of large-scale corporate and state response.
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Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2023
The reconstruction and representation of ancient artifacts and scenes through illustration is a c... more The reconstruction and representation of ancient artifacts and scenes through illustration is a cornerstone in the communication of archaeological findings. Sketches of the past have transformed over time, incorporating broader technological changes, from photography to the digital tools that have become prevalent through the twenty-first century. Most recently, developments in generative artificial intelligence (AI) promise to reshape the way we represent the past to professional and public audiences. This article shows how to use an accessible and inexpensive artificial intelligence platform to generate complex archaeological illustrations. As a case study, we create multiple scenes representing competing hypotheses about Neanderthal behavior. Using the images to visually communicate alternative hypotheses, we demonstrate how archaeological illustration using artificial intelligence promises to democratize the production of visual representations of the past.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Museum Anthropology , 2023
Of the 158 million things housed by the Smithsonian Institution, about 56 objects originate from ... more Of the 158 million things housed by the Smithsonian Institution, about 56 objects originate from Sámi communities. By all accounts a small group of objects--even by the standards of the Arctic collections at the Institution—it may be easily overlooked or dismissed as insignificant, based on entrenched ideologies about idealized collections. Presenting a community-based methodology for the engagement of distant museum collections using three-dimensional technologies, this article establishes the latent potential of small collections for Indigenous communities. We demonstrate how a group of 56 objects not only chronicles complex histories of exchange and colonialism, but also provide a manageable conduit for learning and exchange to facilitate the continued restructuring of relationships between museums and descendent stakeholders, from the individual to community level. Small collections, far from incomplete, may not only contain materials significant to descendent groups on their own terms, but provide the grounds to generate new forms of Indigenous initiated, balanced reciprocity.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
American Antiquity, 2022
This manuscript presents a novel approach to the study of contemporary material culture using dig... more This manuscript presents a novel approach to the study of contemporary material culture using digital data. Scholars interested in the materiality of past and contemporary societies have been limited to information derived from assemblages of excavated, collected, or physically observed materials; they have yet to take full advantage of large or complex digital datasets afforded by the internet. To demonstrate the power of this approach and its potential to disrupt our understanding of the material world, we present a study of an ongoing global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we focus on face-mask production during the pandemic across the United States in 2020 and 2021. Scraping information on homemade face-mask characteristics at multimonth intervals-including location and materials-we analyze the production of masks and their change over time. We demonstrate that this new methodology, coupled with a sociopolitical examination of mask use according to state policies and politicization, provides an unprecedented avenue to understand the changing distributions and social significances of material culture. Our study of mask making elucidates a clear linkage between partisan politics and decreasing disease mitigation effectiveness. We further reveal how time-averaged asssemblages drown out the political meanings of artifacts otherwise visible with finer temporal resolution.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Current Anthropology, 2022
The theory and practice of decolonization present an awkward paradox: How can social change occur... more The theory and practice of decolonization present an awkward paradox: How can social change occur in everyday life to disrupt state structures while entangled with the mundane, social, and institutional practices and representations that perpetuate state power? In Sápmi, the transborder Indigenous Sámi homeland, decolonization has been intertwined with the institutionalization of Sámi governance and cultural reclamation through national governing bodies. In the Finnish-controlled regions, failures of national recognition of Sámi self-determination have fueled disenchantment with established political platforms and a growing movement to enact self-representation outside these realms. A study of Sámi craft making uncovers embodied mechanisms of decolonization, actualized through production as fluid boundary making and intergenerational healing. Craft makers reinforce relationships to land and family networks in ways that unsettle racialized and legal delineations of community belonging, redirecting the power of representation away from state-constrained decision-making bodies and toward everyday Sámi practice. In doing so, they also negotiate their own use of rejected tropes and colonial networks of production. This interplay establishes the transformative potential and constraints of an embodied decolonization.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Social Archaeology, 2022
Global crises drastically alter human behavior, rapidly impacting patterns of movement and consum... more Global crises drastically alter human behavior, rapidly impacting patterns of movement and consumption. A rapid-response analysis of material culture brings new perspective to disasters as they unfold. We present a case study of the coronavirus pandemic in Tromsø, Norway, based on fieldwork from March 2020 to April 2021. Using a methodology rooted in social distancing and through systematic, diachronic, and spatial analysis of trash (e.g., discarded gloves, sanitization products), signage, and barriers, we show how material perspectives improve understanding of relationships between public action and government policy (in this case examined in relation to the Norwegian concept of collective labor, dugnad). We demonstrate that the materiality of individual, small-scale innovations and behaviors that typified the pandemic will have the lowest long-term visibility, as they are increasingly replaced or outnumbered by more durable representations generated by centralized state and corporate bodies that suggest close affinity between state directive and local action. We reflect on how the differential durability of material responses to COVID-19 will shape future memories of the crisis.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2021
This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case s... more This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case study from the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway, we provide accessible tools to document broad spatial and behavioral patterns through material culture as they emerge. Stressing the importance of ethical engagement with contemporary subjects, we adapt archaeological field methods-including geolocation, photography, and three-dimensional modeling-to analyze the changing relationships between materiality and human sociality through the crisis. Integrating data from four contributors, we suggest that this workflow may engage broader publics as anthropological data collectors to describe unexpected social phenomena. Contemporary archaeological perspectives, deployed in rapid response, provide alternative readings on the development of current events. In the presented case, we suggest that local ways of coping with the pandemic may be overshadowed by the materiality of large-scale corporate and state response.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Social Anthropology, 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
American Antiquity, 2020
The three-dimensional (3D) revolution promised to transform archaeological practice. Of the techn... more The three-dimensional (3D) revolution promised to transform archaeological practice. Of the technologies that contribute to the proliferation of 3D data, photogrammetry facilitates the rapid and inexpensive digitization of complex subjects in both field and lab settings. It finds additional use as a tool for public outreach, where it engages audiences ranging from source communities to artifact collectors. But what has photogrammetry's function been in advancing archaeological analysis? Drawing on our previous work, we review recent applications to understand the role of photogrammetry for contemporary archaeologists. Although photogrammetry is widely used as a visual aid, its analytical potential remains underdeveloped. Considering various scales of inquiry-graduating from objects to landscapes-we address how the technology fits within and expands existing documentation and data visualization routines, while evaluating the opportunity it presents for addressing archaeological questions and problems in innovative ways. We advance an agenda advocating that archaeologists move from proof-of-concept papers toward greater integration of photogrammetry with research.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Antiquity, 2019
In a 2017 article, Holen and colleagues reported evidence for a 130 000-year-old archaeological s... more In a 2017 article, Holen and colleagues reported evidence for a 130 000-year-old archaeological site in California. Acceptance of the site would overturn current understanding of global human migrations. The authors here consider Holen et al.'s conclusions through critical evaluation of their replicative experiments. Drawing on best practice in experimental archaeology, and paying particular attention to the authors' chain of inference, Magnani et al. suggest that to argue convincingly for an early human presence at the Cer-utti Mastodon site, Holen et al. must improve their analogical foundations, test alternative hypotheses, increase experimental control and quantify their results.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Antiquity, 2019
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Social Archaeology, 2018
Indigenous social movements contest histories of relocation, assimilation, and inequality. Archae... more Indigenous social movements contest histories of relocation, assimilation, and inequality. Archaeologists too have identified such processes in recent and deeper time. But what can ongoing sites of indigenous resistance tell us about those of the archaeological record, and what is the value in the present of linking such phenomena through time? The production of material culture embodies the motivations and constraints of these movements. Objects made and used promise to bridge temporalities, yet have been largely overlooked by anthropologists. To strengthen the ability to theorize such movements, we carry out an archaeological ethnography with the Skolt Sámi community of Arctic Finland. We focus our analysis on revitalization movements—a phenomena recognized at archaeological sites from the Pueblo homelands to western Europe—whereby communities intentionally direct cultural change in response to social stress. We bring anthropological conceptions of revitalization into dialogue with definitions of the term enacted by indigenous communities. The study analyzes the revival of technologies associated with Skolt lifeways: a boat made of planks sewn together with pine roots, and tools used to process inner pine bark.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2018
Ethnographic museum collections have traditionally been acquired, maintained, and utilized by ant... more Ethnographic museum collections have traditionally been acquired, maintained, and utilized by anthro-pological and other museum-based researchers. Increasingly, indigenous communities consult museum holdings in order to inform social movements reclaiming cultural heritage, though collections and their records are often not conserved or made accessible with these goals in mind. We report a project conducted with Arctic Sámi communities in collaboration with the Sámi Museum Siida. Coupling the results of detailed ethnographic interviews with accessible three-dimensional modeling techniques – in particular photogrammetry – we propose a community-based methodology in archaeological ethnogra-phy aimed at increasing accessibility for descendant community members that may potentially expand collections' use for researchers. Concurrently, we stress that such an integrative approach must be particularly cautious in the sharing of models of indigenous cultural heritage, which encounter frequent threats of misuse and appropriation in an era of easy 3D modeling and printing. This abstract appears below in North Sámi.
Davvisámegiella: Etnográfalaš museaidčoakkáldagaid leat dábálaččatčoaggán, bajásdoallán ja geavahan antropologiijadahje museasuorggi dutkit. Eamiálbmotservošat galledit muse-aidčoakkáldagaidain eanet ja eanet vai besset ealáskahttit iežaset kulturárbbi. ˇ Coakkáldagaidja daidda gullevaš die – duid eai goittotge dábálaččat leat seailluhan ja dahkanrabasin dan dárkkuhusa várás. Dárk-ilis etnográfalaš jearahallamiid bohtosiidovttastahttin álkit logahahtti 3D hábmenteknihkkii, erenomážit fotogrammetriai-mii evttohit servoša geahččanguovllus vuolgi metodologiija, man ulbmilin leabuoriditčoakkáldagaid rabasvuo – da servoša lahtuide ja jos vejolaš, maiddáidutkiide. Seammás mii deattuhit, ahte dakkár lahkonanvugiin 3D-málliidjuohkimis galgá leat várrugas. Erenomážit dakkár eamiálbmogiid bokte, geaidkulturárbbi geavahit boastut dálá áiggis, goas 3D-hábmen ja prenten lea álki.
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Current Anthropology, 2019
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Artifact collectors are commonplace the world over. They range from individuals with personal col... more Artifact collectors are commonplace the world over. They range from individuals with personal collections, to organized looting ventures which supply artifacts to market. In the United States, a strong tradition of artifact collecting exists in the North American Great Plains. In this region, artifact collections obtained from private lands are a common and potentially important source of information about the past. Here, we report on 'Artifact Roadshows' which are held to document lithic projectile points held in private collections. Through these events – which include the three-dimensional digitization and general artifact recording – we have expanded our understandings of collector motivations, created a platform to educate on best practices, and begun to appreciate the types of analyses which can be run on data accumulated in such contexts. These efforts seek to encourage collaboration between professional archaeologists and the public in documenting the heritage of the Great Plains.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The SAS Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, 2018
Closely following the invention of photography in the mid-1800s, stereophotogrammetry emerged as ... more Closely following the invention of photography in the mid-1800s, stereophotogrammetry emerged as the science of extracting metric data from pairs of still photographs. Although commonly employed and developed by governments for civil and military purposes (often using aerial photographs), it was not until the 1970s that archaeological publications employing pho-togrammetry became routine. Early applications in archaeology often featured specialized pairs of fixed-base cameras with precise calibration to take stereopairs of photographs, although individual cameras could also be moved to achieve similar ends. Early applications of stereophotogrammetry both facilitated the display of archaeological findings and aided in analysis. Subjects of study ranged in scale from engravings to monument complexes, and allowed linear and volumetric measurements to be made. Despite its acknowledged potential, in its earlier form the technology did not see widespread use by archaeologists; stereoscopic equipment was expensive and highly specialized, costing over six figures in the 1970s, and required a skilled operator. Some of these concerns were mitigated with increasing use of computers in analysis, although photogrammetry remained a relatively specialized tool into the early 2000s. While originally clumsy and inaccessible , early developments established both the conceptual and technological foundation for modern photogrammetry to progress.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digita... more Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digital 3D record of archaeological artefacts. The methodology has been widely adopted, but a number of issues remain, especially in relation to model variability, and to misalignments that result in gaps in the models generated. Two new approaches are presented here that have been shown to increase standardisation during data capture and processing routines. This ensures that models are seamless and quantitatively accurate.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digita... more Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digital 3D record of archaeological artefacts. The methodology has been widely adopted, but a number of issues remain, especially in relation to model variability, and to misalignments that result in gaps in the models generated. Two new approaches are presented here that have been shown to increase standardisation during data capture and processing routines. This ensures that models are seamless and quantitatively accurate.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Advances in Archaeological Practice, Nov 2014
Although alternatives have become available, pen and ink drawings of stone tools dominate archaeo... more Although alternatives have become available, pen and ink drawings of stone tools dominate archaeological publications. Despite the existence of a conventional illustration framework, the work produced by illustrators can be inconsistent and hinges on skill level
and time commitment. Discussions going back to the 1880s critically question the use of illustrations for the purpose of scientific publication. Alternatives, such as laser scanning and photogrammetric modeling, are now available for displaying lithics. These alternatives can remove the subjectivity involved in artistic rendering, creating replicable results, regardless of who is collecting the data. In addition to creating more regularized and objective representations, there are a significant number of analytical and other benefits to adopting novel imaging techniques to depict stone tools in publications. A set of three-dimensional (3D) models are presented here to demonstrate the capabilities of laser scanning and, potentially, photogrammetric modeling as replacements for lithic illustration.
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Journal of Archaeological Science
The appearance of new force application techniques in the production of stone artifacts over the ... more The appearance of new force application techniques in the production of stone artifacts over the course of human evolution has been associated with the increasing technological capacity of hominin groups. Yet, the causal relationship between the knapping practice and the flake characteristics upon which these behavioral inferences rest remains largely untested under controlled settings. Here we present a recent controlled experiment examining the effect of various force application variables (hammer shape; location of force application; angle of blow; hammer displacement speed) on flake morphology. Results indicate that the independent variables interact with flake attributes in a complex way that makes simple analogies between particular attributes and specific force application techniques extremely difficult. However, trade-offs among the variables cast new light on the possible mechanisms underlying variation in force application techniques used in flintknapping.
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Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2021
This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case s... more This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case study from the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway, we provide accessible tools to document broad spatial and behavioral patterns through material culture as they emerge. Stressing the importance of ethical engagement with contemporary subjects, we adapt archaeological field methods-including geolocation, photography, and three-dimensional modeling-to analyze the changing relationships between materiality and human sociality through the crisis. Integrating data from four contributors, we suggest that this workflow may engage broader publics as anthropological data collectors to describe unexpected social phenomena. Contemporary archaeological perspectives, deployed in rapid response, provide alternative readings on the development of current events. In the presented case, we suggest that local ways of coping with the pandemic may be overshadowed by the materiality of large-scale corporate and state response.
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The use of photogrammetry in archaeological contexts has exploded in recent years, due in large p... more The use of photogrammetry in archaeological contexts has exploded in recent years, due in large part to the affordability of the hardware and software (Agisoft is specifically discussed here), as well as the speed with which the data can be collected. While widely used for object-based recording, little work has explored causes of digital model variation. To be used as an analytical tool, it is crucial to understand the sources and impact of model variation according to how data collection occurs. Using one “expedient” and one “refined” data collection protocol, we compare caliper measurements to digitized models of a sample of lithics. Comparing the models, we isolate sources causing variability, including camera stability, lighting, method of model merging, and camera settings. We find that although models made with an expedient setup are equally accurate, they lack the clarity of those produced under more controlled settings. In order to reduce model variability, reducing user noise during both data capture and model processing is ideal. We suggest that the setup used should be dictated by the research question at hand, though with minimal effort portable refined data collection setups can be used under most all field conditions.
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Indigenous movements around the world are increasingly connected through political and social net... more Indigenous movements around the world are increasingly connected through political and social networks, existing in different contexts but sharing in common narratives of identity reclamation, social change, and strong relation to environment. This class explores how such narratives and experiences shape a sense of group identity, reviewing key historical trajectories related to indigenous movements, including shifting laws and interactions between indigenous peoples and nation-states informing current cultural and political initiatives. We focus on how narratives of the past shape experience in the present – guided by oral histories and collective memory, the archaeological record, and museum and ethnographic collections. We will explore tangible and intangible aspects of cultural revival programs, ranging from relearning of production techniques in craftsmanship to building a sense of community. In northern Finland, particular facets of engagement with the environment shape what it means to be Sami. We explore similar phenomena in diverse geographical case studies ranging from the Arctic to sub-Saharan Africa and the tropics, and engage with a variety of sources ranging from ethnographies to archaeological and legal documents.
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