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@uab.cat

****************************************

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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