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Paleoinformatics Impact

 

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We stress that paleoinformatics training will not replace or substitute for core preparation in the underlying domain areas but will involve interdisciplinary integration on top of a solid foundation. At the same time we strongly believe that the material remains of the human and pre-human past provide exciting and compelling intellectual challenges for students in computer science (cf. Vote et al 2002), biogeography (cf. Sever 1998), geomatics (cf. Patias 2001), and the paleoenvironmental sciences (cf. Stahle et al 1998). A number of recent studies (cf. Vesco 2005) have noted an alarming decline in numbers of students entering the computer science field. From our experience in previously funded NSF projects (e.g. IIS 0431070, BCS 0321286), we have seen that the excitement of dealing with data from the past can energize computer science, geomatics and other disciplines’ graduate students.

Information technologies have a long history of use in paleo-anthropology and archaeology. The most common area of IT applications includes the many examples of databases for artifacts, sites, and museum catalogues. Also common are systems for the digital acquisition of base-line field data such as the use of total systems to acquire digital topography and artifact location data. In some settings digital photogrammetric methods have been used for these purposes – though more commonly they are used for structural recordation (Patias 2001). In more limited cases digital photogrammetry, laser scanning, tomography and similar methods are used to allow complete and accurate measurement of not only structures and sites but artifacts, skeletal elements, etc. Satellite and aerial remote sensing methods have been used for both landscape and site recording and analysis (Campana 2002). Geophysical methods are becoming more common in their use to record the internal characteristics of sites. The interpretation and dissemination of the results of an increasing number of studies use computer visualizations of landscapes, sites and objects (e.g. Vote et al., 2002) .

Increasingly, informatics is also playing a more significant role in historic preservation, material conservation, and cultural heritage management, though this is more substantial in Europe than in the US. In the identification, collection and analysis of various historic attributes, objects and structures, the wide range of scales utilized in the innovative field of informatics is ideal. From large scale (architectural decoration), medium scale analysis (architecture), to small scale study (ancient road networks), the integration, interaction and inter-relationships of varied scale analyses is a difficult, yet vital task. As a case in point, in the ruined city of Petra, Jordan tourism is dramatically changing the condition of the famed 2,000-year old architecture carved from sheer sandstone cliffs (Paradise 2000) and an integrated multiple-scale data collection and analysis is long overdue to assist in the protection of this deteriorating site. Integrated and multi-scaled analyses need to be undertaken to merge data from the millimeter scale (bas-relief sculpture and Nabataean decorations), to centimeter scale (Cavetto-style corniches and roof overhangs), to multi-meter scales (irrigation systems and cistern networks), to decimeter and kilometer scales (ancient Nabataean road networks).

While much of the emphasis of the paleoinformatics program will be on the mastery of the technical tools, we are committed to maintaining an equal emphasis on hypothesis testing and the larger conceptual and theoretical issues that are raised by such approaches. Questions of authenticity, intellectual integrity and respect for cultural significance will be central (e.g. Ename Charter, 3rd draft -; ICOMOS Charter for The Protection and Management of the Archaeological Heritage and UNESCO Digital Heritage). Bridging engineering, the sciences and the humanities, our collaborative efforts using interdisciplinary applications of information technology will create exciting new opportunities for graduate education and research.

We believe that this progran will dramatically enhance the general analytical capabilities of paleoanthropologists and archeologists. Increasing the effectiveness of field investigation will result from the wider use of many of these new approaches. Development of new methods of interoperable data structures and dissemination will improve communication among and between researchers, increasing the quantity of information for synthesis. Improved understanding of visualization and related methods will expand the amount and quality of these products – enhancing the dissemination of high quality research results to the wider public. The proposed efforts will also materially enhance the accessibility of data on past environments and human responses to these environments and changes in them. These interoperable digital data and results of analyses will lead to an expanded, accessible data base for other disciplinary investigations that require time depth. These include topics such as long-term human response to drought cycles and to repeated natural hazards.