Archeologie tra Oriente e Occidente

Editorial

Andrea D'Andrea — 2023-02-26

Editorial of first issue

Making a Cat Mummy. Some Case Studies from Italian Collections

Maria Diletta Pubblico — 2023-02-26

The mummification of sacred animals surged in the New Kingdom and reached its peak between the Third Intermediate and Roman Periods. Animal mummies are artefacts, which give information about Egyptian cults and funerary practices, especially the mummification process. At the same time, their study offers a unique perspective where one can explore the social and economic impact of the proliferation of sacred animals, as well as the evolution of each individual species and their environment. After a brief overview on cats in Egyptian daily life and material culture, this work will focus on their role as sacred animals, and on different techniques used to make cat mummies, using unpublished samples kept in Italian collections as case studies.

Khor Kharfut (Dhofar). A reassessment of the archaeological remains

Michele Degli Esposti — 2023-02-26

The bay of Khor Kharfut, along the coast of Dhofar in southern Oman, hosts a variety of features connected with multiple phases of human occupation, including rock shelters, hut foundations, and more substantial - though heavily decayed - buildings. A survey was conducted to assess the age of these remains. Although the majority seems more likely to date to the Late Islamic period, earlier traces are present as well, including possible prehistoric graves and pre-Islamic structures. Overall the site, located at the mouth of Wadi Sayq, is a promising location for further archaeological research entailing the excavation of selected features.

From CAD to GIS: critical issues in the reuse of legacy archaeological data

Andrea D'Andrea — 2023-02-26

For several decades, archaeologists have been directly creating digital plans in CAD or GIS. This approach has revolutionized the recording of spatial data. Although the maps recorded in CAD or GIS share a common mode of numerical representation organized in layers, the difference between the two systems lies in the association between the geometry and the alphanumeric information related to it and the topology. Therefore, the reuse of CAD data in GIS is not an easy task without a reorganization of information based on the construction of semantic objects, corresponding to real archaeological features. Many tools have been developed with the aim of automatically converting CAD files into GIS formats; but despite the efforts, the results obtained so far are scarcely significant and the challenge is still open. Without the direct intervention of the researcher, this step risks generating inconsistent data. The paper examines the approach followed to organize and convert cartographic resources related to the al-Balīd site in the Sultanate of Oman. The objective is to provide a methodological framework for anchoring existing archaeological structures and to propose a workflow capable of converting CAD drawings into GIS files.

Arabic-Character Historical Document Processing: Why and How To?

Zied Mnasri — 2023-02-26

The aim of Arabic-character Historical Document Processing (HDP) is to design and develop techniques that will enable automatic transcription into text files, such as in .txt or .doc format, of historic manuscripts in Arabic characters, not only for Arabic, but also for other languages based on this character, such as Farsi, Urdu, Azari, ottoman Turkish, etc. The key idea is to go from the scanned image of the manuscript to the text file using artificial intelligence techniques to accomplish two main steps: First, processing the manuscript image to identify the characters and to remove other forms generally found in historic manuscripts, such as images and other types of ornaments; secondly, identifying the characters by pattern recognition. Such a work requires the availability of a rich dataset of Arabic character manuscripts, in addition to effective methods for image processing, pattern recognition and, optionally, language modelling. In this paper, an overview of the Arabic-character HDP state of the art, datasets, challenges, methods, and potential applications is presented, as a first step to set a general framework to undertake such a project.

First Archaeological Activities by the University of Naples L’Orientale in Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman

Roberta Giunta — 2023-02-26

Indagini archeologiche presso il tempio forense di Cupra Marittima (AP)

Fabrizio Pesando — 2023-02-26

Nuove ricerche nel settore termale e del cd. vigneto della villa imperiale del Pausilypon di Napoli

Marco Giglio — 2023-02-26

Nicolò Dell’Unto e Giacomo Landeschi, Archaeological 3D GIS, Taylor & Francis, 2022, London and New York. 154 pp.

Angela Bosco — 2023-02-28