Archaeological
Research
Archaeology observes the traces left by processes that can no longer be observed directly. The problem is therefore one of reconstruction: from material evidence toward the processes that produced it.
The archaeological record is a transformed signal.
Objects, deposits, surfaces and spatial arrangements are not the past itself. They are observations produced by past activity and subsequently modified by further processes.
Activity
People, animals, environments and other processes interact through time and generate physical consequences.
Trace
Those consequences persist unevenly. Formation, disturbance and decay transform the original signal.
Inference
Archaeological explanation works backwards from observations toward plausible generating processes.
From archaeological trace to testable reconstruction.
The objective is not simply to produce a plausible narrative. A reconstruction should expose assumptions, represent uncertainty and generate expectations that can be tested against evidence.
Current directions
Areas of active research. Where the write-up is published, the card links to it; the others are still in preparation.
Lithics and technological processes
Reconstructing actions and technological processes from the morphology, distribution and transformation of archaeological materials.
In preparationLandscapes as process records
Treating spatial distributions and landscape modifications as records of interacting processes rather than static arrangements.
Research → Signal scienceArchaeology as an inverse problem
Formalising the relationship between generating processes, observable signals, transformation and reconstruction.
Research →AI and archaeological inference
Using machine learning, spatial modelling and data science where they improve the representation and testing of archaeological hypotheses.
In preparationArchaeology-related writing
A selection of recent work. Everything else is under All archaeology writing, below.
An Ancient Method for a New Science
Theoretical foundations for a scientific approach to archaeological inference.
Archaeological inference as signal reconstruction
Conference research connecting archaeological traces with signal and inverse-problem concepts.
What Streedagh Still Holds
The three Armada wrecks off Streedagh Strand, measured against the Galeón Andalucía, and what of them may still lie in the sand.
Digging in the Wrong Place
Why the public pays handsomely for archaeology while archaeologists are paid so little, and why campaigning aims at the wrong target.
The computational layer comes after the archaeological problem.
Archaeology first
Computational methods are useful when they represent something archaeologically meaningful. The research problem determines the appropriate mathematical or computational representation.
Science as constraint
Models should make claims explicit enough to be challenged by evidence.
- State the generating-process hypothesis.
- Represent the expected archaeological signal.
- Model transformation and uncertainty.
- Generate predictions that could fail.
The archaeological record is not merely what survives. It is what remains after a history of processes has acted upon it.
Connections:
- Applies principles from → Foundation
- Uses frameworks from → Signal Science
- Informs practical constraints for → Engineering & Design