Archaeology in the age of big data

The AI-powered software “AutArch” automatically extracts data from archaeological drawings and photographs, ensuring that findings preserved in libraries contribute to the ongoing digital revolution in archaeology

Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

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Archaeologists often face major challenges when trying to connect new discoveries with information from old books: How can the findings of two hundred years of archaeological research be combined with new data? AutArch opens up completely new avenues here. It is based on neural networks that researchers have trained to independently detect, analyze, and relate common archaeological “objects” in catalogues, such as images of graves, human remains, pottery, and stone tools. AutArch does not only locate the data, but combines them to extract meaningful information. "When analyzing a grave drawing, for instance, the software detects the north arrow and the associated scale – and can use this to calculate the actual size of the grave and its orientation”, explains Dr. Maxime Brami, who led the project at Mainz University. For archaeologists, this means they can use AutArch to automatically generate vast amounts of data, spread across many publications, to answer specific questions about the past and compare it, for instance, with 3D scans of artefacts in museum collection. “Previously, researchers had to manually extract information from images, which takes a lot of time and involves tedious tasks like resizing, reorienting, and reformatting the images”, explains Kevin Klein, software developer at JGU and first author of the study. AutArch automates the entire process. Although it uses AI, the results are never black box. A user-friendly interface allows researchers to check and adjust the automatically extracted data, ensuring accuracy and accountability.

The software is widely applicable and scalable
AutArch is scalable and can serve the needs of the ever-growing field of digital humanities. Antoine Muller, a Palaeolithic researcher and one of the authors of the study, says “the methodology is applicable to virtually any material, as long as the shape, size, and/or orientation of an object holds technological, functional, or chronological significance”. Not only can it be applied to any material, but it also grows with increasing demands. “This development represents an important step forward in the application of artificial intelligence in archaeological research,” Brami summarizes. “It has the potential to fundamentally transform data access and analysis.”

The AutArch project is an interdisciplinary and collaborative effort involving computer scientists and archaeologists from all over Europe. Ralf Lämmel, a computer scientist from Koblenz University, for instance, oversaw the implementation of the machine learning aspects and the statistical validation of the results. The project was initiated by Maxime Brami with the support of the German Research Foundation (COMOVE Project). The work also received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (YMPACT Project, awarded to Volker Heyd).

The open-source software is available on Zenodo and GitHub at the following links:
https://zenodo.org/records/15369892
https://github.com/kevin-klein/autarch

 

Images:

https://download.uni-mainz.de/presse/07_iaw_AutArch_abb1.png
Example of the object detection result for one page of catalogue (here: third millennium BC site of Vliněves, Czech Republic). Copyright: Klein et al. 2025.

https://download.uni-mainz.de/presse/07_iaw_AutArch_abb2.png
Burial orientations can be automatically retrieved from grave drawings. For instance, archaeological cultures from the third millennium BC in Central Europe buried men and women in opposite directions. This can be shown for 100 Corded Ware graves and 66 Bell Beaker graves with skeletons that have a discernible orientation from the Czech Republic analysed with AutArch. Copyright: Klein et al. 2025.

https://download.uni-mainz.de/presse/07_iaw_AutArch_abb3.png
The AutArch workflow can also extract the outline of artefacts from catalogues, such as arrowheads, allowing for various shape analyses. Copyright: Klein et al. 2025.

 

 

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Journal

Journal of Archaeological Science

DOI

10.1016/j.jas.2025.106244 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

An AI-assisted workflow for object detection and data collection from archaeological catalogues

Article Publication Date

12-Jun-2025

Harper the Autocrat

Our newly elected King, Stephen the Haropcrite is an autarch. Some excuse this as the role of the PMO in the parliamentary system. Stephen Taylor said... Eugene, the PMO is inherently autarchic.

But King Stephen's rejection of the ethics commissioners request he answers questions about the Emerson affair shows that being an autarch is his personal political predilection. Always has been. The Harpocrite is just practicing good old Alberta style politics in Ottawa.

He ran the Alliance and the Conservative party as a one man show. Belinda Stronach faced his wrath and crossed the floor. Peter MacKay faced his wrath and has been sheepishly quiet of late. William Stairs faced his wrath and was fired. He has announced that he will impose Senate reform without consulting the provinces. And the man has been in office for just over a month now!

The Harpocrite ran the 2004 election as a one man show. He ran the 2006 election as a one man show, firing no less than three communications directors, before and after the election. Now this.

Defections Puts PM, Ethics Czar At Odds

Harper has found his Scott McLellan in Susan Buckler. The smear of Mr. Shapiro starts NOW!

BRIAN LAGHI

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Stephen Harper and Canada's Ethics Commissioner were headed on a collision course yesterday after the Prime Minister said he is disinclined to co-operate with a preliminary inquiry into his conduct over the political defection of David Emerson.

Some comments on this from the Progressive side of the Canadian Blogosphere include

Harper Loathes to be Accountable by using more Conspiracy Theories...

Still in the picture

Bernard Shaprio was also a Tory Appointment

Harper: "Loath to co-operate" with ethics commish Polunatics insiteful take on this whole affair with background on the controversial Ethics Commissioner.

And typical of the right wing the Blogging Tories all line up waving and cheering our friendly dictator on. It seems they are loathe to apply their sharp criticisms of ethics and accountability and disgust with the autarchy of the PMO to the Harpocrite as they were to Chretien or Martin.

Ethics Czar loses his credibility, just like that

Another useless ethics investigation

Mr. Shapiro, Investigate Yourself!

Ethics Commissioner on a witchhunt


And then our supposed liberal media pundits get in on it and reveal once again their easy ability to sashay to the right.Shapiro has to resign immediately says Paul Wells.

See what happens when you surround a liberal with neo-conservatives at Macleans they end up committing political suicide from sharing tainted water at the office cooler.



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The Conservative Dictatorship

Conservative blogger and a founding member of the Blogging Tories, Stephen Taylor has called a spade a spade, he says of the Harpocrite Regime in Ottawa ; the evolving tradition of the Conservative Party's consultatively autarchic approach to PMO power.

For those of you that don't know here is the definition of autarchic.

autarchic

ADJECTIVE:

Having and exercising complete political power and control: absolute, absolutistic, arbitrary, autarchical, autocratic, autocratical, despotic, dictatorial, monocratic, totalitarian, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous. See OVER, POLITICS.

Autarchy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Autarchy, in American English can refer either to a form of self-government, or to the absolute rule of an individual. The word comes from the Greek autarkhos (απολυταρχία), "auto" meaning self and "arkhos" meaning "ruler".

Traditionally, autarchy refers to a system of absolutism (see also: autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, monocracy, tyranny). It also implies a state enjoying absolute sovereignty.

In its self-government meaning, autarchy refers to a libertarian idea, championed by Robert LeFevre, of stateless self-governance, distinct from anarchism (a system which many associate, rightly or wrongly, with violence).

However, in British English Autarchy is the same as the American equivalent, Autarky, meaning a national economic policy that aims at achieving self-sufficiency and eliminating the need for imports (by imposing tariffs, for example). Such a goal may be difficult, if not impossible, for a small country. Countries that take protectionist measures and try to prevent free trade are sometimes described as autarchical.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autarchy"

Category: Forms of government

And there is nothing conslutative about it, unless you mean that the Supreme Leader 'lets' people give him opinions which he may or may not listen to.

Which is what Temp PM Stephen Harpocrite has been doing. So the New PMO is no different than the Chretien one; whom Jeffery Simpson called the "Friendly Dictator" .

Like all autarch's the Harper has already purged his office of those who disagree with his bunker mentality. Harper fires spokesperson after early PR stumbles

Harper loses aide over Emerson row

William Stairs, the Prime Minister's director of communications, left Mr. Harper's office after what sources said were problems putting out the fire over Mr. Emerson's decision to leave the Liberals and join the Conservative Party.

The sources said Mr. Stairs departed after arguing 10 days ago that the PMO and the Prime Minister needed to deal more forcefully with the Emerson problem. The Prime Minister had kept mostly silent on the difficulties surrounding Mr. Emerson despite the urgings of Mr. Stairs and a number of other individuals within the government.

Mr. Stairs had been assigned the communications job after doing similar duties during the successful election campaign. But sources said the veteran Hill staffer, who had previously worked for Progressive Conservatives in the Senate and has been a long-time PC, ran into similar difficulties as those experienced by his predecessors. Mr. Stairs's departure makes him the third communications director to leave the job within the past 18 months or so, after James Armour and Geoff Norquay.

Now I hope that clears everything up and makes you all feel better, as I have said before this is Alberta Politics on the national stage.

The only difference between these two autarch's is the moustache. And notice how all autachs use the finger.















And for those of you who think that I am being harsh in comparing these two, just remember that in Russia Stalin is considered the hero of the Conservatives in that country. Those who support a strong state, family values, etc. etc.

This month is the Fiftieth Anniversary of Krushcheva's release of the Secret Testimony on Stalin that shook the CPC USSR to its foundation and laid the basis for its slow death which ended in that autarchies final burial in 1989.

The day Khrushchev buried Stalin

By Nina L. Khrushcheva, Nina L. Khrushcheva teaches international affairs at New School University in New York. Her latest book, "Visiting Nabokov," is forthcoming from Yale University Press.

It was only later, when I got older, that I learned about the "secret speech" my great-grandfather gave 50 years ago this week, in which he denounced the crimes committed by Stalin and the "cult of personality" that developed around him. The story of the speech is not a straightforward tale of good versus bad, of a benevolent, democratic leader replacing a tyrant. It is far more nuanced than that. Khrushchev, after all, had been one of Stalin's trusted lieutenants, who by his own admission "did what others did" — participating in the purges and repressions of the 1930s and 1940s, convinced that the total "annihilation of the enemy" had to be a communist's uppermost priority in order to ensure the shining future of international communism.

The most liberating events — Khrushchev's de-Stalinization campaign of 1956, or Boris Yeltsin's privatization of 1991 — generally end up in disillusion or disarray, suggesting that Russian society is never fast enough to digest modernization or patient enough to see the liberal changes through.

Instead, Russians look back fondly on their great victories and parades and, eventually, after short periods of thaw or perestroika, find themselves wanting their "strong" rulers back — the rulers who by inspiring fear provide a sense of orderly life, whose "firm hand" is associated with stability. Stalin's order was unbreakable while he lived; Vladimir Putin now promises a new order in the form of his "dictatorship of law."

Why Russia Still Loves Stalin
By Nina L. Khrushcheva

This is why the country rallies behind President Vladimir Putin. Putin promotes himself as a new Russian "democrat." Indeed, Russians view him less like the godlike "father of all nations" that Stalin was, and more like a Russian everyman -- a sign of at least partial democratization. Putin often notes that Russia is developing "its own brand of democracy." Translation: His modern autocracy has discovered that it no longer needs mass purges like Stalin's to protect itself from the people. Dislike of freedom makes us his eager backers. How readily we have come to admire his firm hand: Rather than holding him responsible for the horrors of Chechnya, we agree with his "democratic" appointment of leaders for that ill-fated land. We cheer his "unmasking of Western spies," support his jailing of "dishonest" oligarchs and his promotion of a "dictatorship of order" rather than a government of transparent laws.

Sacrificing Stalin

By Boris Kagarlitsky

Soviet society was never entirely monolithic. The proof of this can be found in the novels of Alexander Solzhenitsyn as well as in the Soviet archives. There was, however, a strong sense of a common fate and a common cause that united not just the working class and the bureaucratic elite, but even gulag inmates and their captors. The Stalinist regime was directly linked to the history of the Revolution. It was a sort of communist Bonapartism. It combined totalitarianism with democratic principles, fear and repression with enthusiasm and sincerity. This blend made the 20th Party Congress possible.

Outrage at revision of Stalin's legacy

After a number of delays, the "Stalin Museum" dedicated to the once-venerated Father of the People is due to be opened at the end of March in Volgograd, the World War II "hero city" once known as Stalingrad.

The project is being privately financed by local businessmen but will controversially enjoy pride of place in the official complex that commemorates the epic Battle of Stalingrad.

The museum will boast a writing set owned by the dictator, copies of his historic musings, a mock-up of his Kremlin office, a Madame Tussauds-style wax representation of him and medals, photographs and busts.

Svetlana Argatseva, the museum's future curator, told Ogonyok magazine she felt the project was justified.

"In France people regard Napoleon and indeed the rest of their history with respect. We need to look at our history in the same way."

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Harper Not In Cuba

While the leaders of Latin America celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Harper was in Mexico attempting to make the phoney government of Felipe Calderon look legitimate.

More than 1,300 politicians, artists and intellectuals from around the globe were attending the tribute to the man who governed Cuba for 47 years. Bolivian President Evo Morales, Haitian President Rene Preval, Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel Ortega and Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez were among the guests of honor.

Oh well Castro didn't make the Celebrations either.

And while folks were comparing what Calderon and Harper had in common, he shares a common authoritarian personality with Castro and he comes from the other One Party State in the hemisphere, so he would have felt right at home.

See

Castro

Cuba

One Party State

Harper Autarch

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No More Mr. Nice Guy

Provinces won't dictate equalization, Harper says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the national equalization program falls under Ottawa's jurisdiction and none of the provinces can dictate how the money collected from taxpayers gets divvied up among poorer regions.

So much for Asymmetrical Federalism. Gee this guy is sounding more and more like Trudeau.

In representative first past the pole parliamentary democracy it's so much easier to be an autarch than a democrat.

If Trudeau was Canada's Philosopher King, then the Harpocrite is Pooh-Ba, the Minister of Everything.




Also See: He Won't Share


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Democracy Is Messy

Sources tell CTV the regulatory changes to the registry will be fast-tracked through cabinet to avoid a messy parliamentary debate. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office reportedly want quick action on the file because it's a key campaign promise. Federal gov't planning a gun amnesty:

Ah yes that business of democracy is so messy.

Harper is once again showing his mastery of Alberta politics where King Ralph despite his overwhelming majority, and one party state, uses the same tactics to push through spending and policies to avoid facing question period in the legislature. As I have said Welcome to Ottawa, Alberta.

Harper's comments came during a rare press conference where reporters were allowed to pose questions to the prime minister. He touched on a number of topics including the recent murder of a Canadian couple in Mexico, Alberta's move towards a two-tier health system, and his plans to legislate the election of senators.

Press conferences are rare in Alberta and tightly scripted. Don Martin should feel right at home. Martin has just published a book called King Ralph, an unofficial biography on the life and times of Ralph Klein, the premier of Alberta.


Oh yes and remember how consultative Harper promised to be. Well forget that when it comes to Senate Reform. Harper is the ultimate autarch, he is acting positively Presidential. To bad this is Canada where we don't elect a President seperate from his party no matter Harpers illusions that this is so. Since we are a parlimentary system the PMO is an autarch now under Harper the PM is King. In Ottawa, Alberta we now have King Stephen I.

Harper said nothing stopped him from unilaterally creating an electoral process to have simultaneous elections for the Commons and Senate."While I obviously would like to see the co-operation of the provinces, it's a commitment our government has made to pursue Senate elections and that's something we believe we can do from Ottawa.'' Harper plans quick action on elected Senate

Yep he will impose his version of Senate reform on parliment in the grand tradition of that other English parlimentarian King Henry VIII. The fact is that the Senate itself is an elitist institution that denies youg or poor Canadians and renters the right to representation in the Red House. It is the very essence of the British Aristocracy the propertied rentier class.

Senators must be at least 30 years old, hold $4,000 in mortgage-free property. They earn more than $100,000 a year, plus pensions and benefits.

Real electoral reform would be to Abolish the Senate and expand the House of Commons through proportional representation.

Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, who champions abolishing the Senate as fundamentally undemocratic, had a cautious reaction to the prime minister's announcement.

"Every Canadian knows that reform or abolition is needed and if Mr. Harper can come up with a scheme that addresses both the election of senators and the powers of the Senate, that would be a great contribution.''

"If he aims at just dealing with the elections, I'm not optimistic of the outcome.''

Harper said he did not need the provinces' OK to reform the upper house, but urged them to support his initiative.

The King is dead! Long Live the King!

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