Archaeology on YouTube: 2025.07.14

Join the AIA for a fascinating evening with Mark Aldenderfer presenting "Archaeology and the Tibetan/Himalayan Afterlife" This presentation was given live at 8pm Eastern/on April 9, 2025. Description: Although historians and Tibetologists since the early 20th century have collected and interpreted religious documents describing in general terms rituals of death and safe passage to the afterlife among the early peoples of the Himalayas, the archaeological record offered little insight into them. But recent research by archaeologists across the region have made extraordinary discoveries that both challenge and corroborate current understandings as well as identifying previously unknown traditions for both commoners and kings.

Join the AIA as Rosemary Joyce (University of California, Berkeley) presents Complex Society Without Rulers. This lecture was given live at 8pm Eastern on March 19, 2025. Description: For many people, the word "archaeology" conjures up images monuments, traces of the lives of powerful rulers who can seem to be inevitable parts of any urban, agricultural society. But there are other stories archaeology can tell about societies where there is no apparent ruler, but where many of the hallmarks of "complex society" are found. This lecture explores one such society, the ancient Ulúa culture of northern Honduras, neighbors to Classic Maya states where people used religion to reinforce social relations in a society of wealthy farmers who enjoyed artworks of extraordinary beauty.

Society Sunday 2025 - March 9, 2025 Find your local AIA Society and see what they're up to: https://www.archaeological.org/programs/societies/find/ Join us as the AIA Societies Committee presents a virtual presentation and Q&A with Iyaxel Cojtí Ren presenting “Communal Government and Forms of Dependency in the K'iche' State” This presentation was be given live at 1pm Eastern on March 9, 2025. In the Maya highlands during the Late Postclassic period (1250-1524 CE), the K'iche' created an expansive state able to subdue various nations and form a network of dependent polities. Join archaeologist Iyaxel Cojtí Ren as she explains how the key to this lies in the K'iche' forms of local community organization and how they were integrated into the larger K'iche' political unit. Learn about the most common forms of community organization: chinamit and amaq'. Their members practiced communal solidarity and forms of communal government, which were vital for reproduction, problem-solving, and territorial defense. The K'iche' state’s strength resulted from incorporating these communities, chinamit and amaq', and adopting some of their values and forms of government. For example, in the Colonial-period K'iche' texts, the term tzuq “to sustain, to feed” appears frequently to describe the relationship of mutual dependence that existed between rulers and K’iche’ communities. This means that the rulers also had obligations to take care of the population under their authority. And while reciprocity between rulers and those they ruled was far from equal, the communal form of government employed by the K'iche' allowed representatives of the people to exert sufficient influence to prevent oppressive rulers and defend the people’s interests.

Join the AIA as Zainab Bahrani (Columbia University) presents Towards an Archaeology of Preservation. This lecture was given live at 8pm Eastern on February 26, 2025. Description: The history of archaeology as a scientific discipline has received a great deal of attention in recent years. As a result of extensive archival research and the reading of archives against the grain, alternative or indigenous archaeologies and earlier forms of relationships to the past—such as antiquarianism—have also begun to receive more serious scholarly attention. Since the 1990s, Zainab Bahrani’s scholarship has contributed to these historical directions in archaeology. She now augments archival and theoretical work with fieldwork, presenting some of the archaeological evidence of millennia of preservation and conservation practices in the landscape of Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Bio: Zainab Bahrani is the Edith Porada Professor of Art History and Archaeology and Chair of the Department of Art History at Columbia University. She writes on ancient art and philosophical aesthetics, the history and politics of archaeology, collecting and the modernist and contemporary art and architecture of Iraq. She has also published widely on the destruction of historical heritage in war and occupation. Dr. Bahrani directs the Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments projects to document and conserve historical architecture and rock reliefs in Iraqi Kurdistan, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. Since 2019 she has been the Director of the Bahdinan-Mosul Gate conservation project in Amadiya/Amedi in Iraqi Kurdistan. Dr. Bahrani is the author of several books including Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia (Routledge, 2001), The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria (University of Pennsylvania, 2003), Rituals of War (Zone/MIT, 2008) which won the American Historical Association Prize, and The Infinite Image: Art, Time and the Aesthetic Dimension in Antiquity (Reaktion/University of Chicago, 2014) which won the Lionel Trilling Prize, and Mesopotamia: Art and Architecture (Thames and Hudson, 2018). She is also editor and co-author of volumes written to accompany her co-curated exhibitions: Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire 1753-1914 (Istanbul, 2011) and Modernism and Iraq (New York, 2009). Her new book is, War Essays, UCL Press, 2025. Distinctions include election to the Slade Professorship at Oxford, and awards form the Getty Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, a 2003 Guggenheim, and a 2019 Carnegie award. In 2020 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Join the AIA as Uzma Rizvi (Pratt Institute) presents Caring for MohenjoDaro Description: How do we understand care in the ancient world? This talk will focus on current archaeological research conducted in the city of MohenjoDaro (a World Heritage Site) located in contemporary Pakistan (Sindh Province). Archaeological excavations at MohenjoDaro document hundreds of dwelling-houses and large buildings built along streets and lanes oriented towards cardinal points, which index an architectural sophistication of a well-planned city. This talk will focus on the neighborhood of DK-G South, and look for indicators of care in the many ways the ancient inhabitants maintained their lived environment over generations. Bio: Uzma Z. Rizvi is Professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY; and Visiting Faculty in the Department of Archaeology, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Pakistan. Dr. Rizvi holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College, and a postdoctoral fellowship from Stanford University. She is an anthropological archaeologist specializing in the archaeology of the first cities. She teaches classes focused on anthropology, ancient urbanism, critical heritage studies, decolonizing methodologies and the postcolonial critique. She is the PI for the Laboratory for Integrated Archaeological Visualization and Heritage (liavh.org), and is currently working at MohenjoDaro. She has published widely and has presented her work to many different audiences, both domestically and internationally. With nearly two decades of work on decolonizing methodologies, intersectional and feminist strategies, and transdisciplinary approaches, Dr. Rizvi’s work has intentionally pushed disciplinary limits, and demanded ethical decolonial praxis at all levels of engagement, from teaching to research.

UPDATE: Please note the following updated information for this meeting that was rescheduled for May. Costa Rica has been added to the docket for this meeting.The letter submission deadline is May 13, 2025 and the new docket number is [DOS-2025-0003]. If you previously submitted a letter for the February you need not resubmit. More info: https://www.archaeological.org/preserving-chile-costa-rica-italy-morocco-and-vietnam/ If you’ve traveled to Chile, Italy, Morocco, or Vietnam and/or appreciate their cultural heritage, your experience and passion can help the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee with their upcoming deliberations. Watch this short video to find out how you can join the AIA to speak up for threatened archaeological sites. Visit www.archaeological.org/preser... for letter templates and more information. Submit your comments on regulations.gov on the docket: [DOS-2024-0048-0001] and follow the prompts!

Join the AIA as Solange Ashby (UCLA) presents Ancient African Queens This lecture was given live at 8pm Eastern on October 16, 2024. Description: This lecture focuses on a sequence of queens of the ancient kingdom of Meroe (Kush/Nubia) who ruled contemporaneously with Roman control of Egypt and the authors of the New Testament gospels in the 1st century of the Common Era (AD). Dr. Ashby contrasts the queens’ self presentation with the ways in which New Testament authors and contemporary Greek historians such as Strabo describe the sole-ruling Meroitic queens. Bio: Solange Ashby received her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Ashby’s expertise in ancient languages, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Meroitic, underpins her research into the history of religious transformation in Northeast Africa. Her book, Calling Out to Isis: The Enduring Nubian Presence at Philae, explores the Egyptian temple of Philae as a Nubian sacred site. Her second book explores the lives of five Nubian women from history including queens, priestesses, and mothers. Dr. Ashby is an Assistant Professor in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA where she teaches Egyptology and Nubian Studies.

Join the AIA as Chip Colwell (SAPIENS) presents On the Origins of Stuff. This lecture was given live at 8pm Eastern on September 25, 2024. Description: Over three million years ago, our ancient ancestors realized that rocks could be broken into sharp-edged objects for slicing meat, making the first knives. This discovery resulted in a good meal—and eventually changed the fate of our species and our planet. In this talk, Chip Colwell shares his thrilling and accessible new book, So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything published by the University of Chicago Press. An archaeologist, public anthropologist, and former museum curator, Colwell traveled the world to investigate how humanity took three leaps that led to stuff becoming inseparable from our lives—inspiring a love affair with things that made humans who we are and may also lead us to our downfall. Bio: Chip Colwell is an associate research professor at the University of Colorado, Denver, and the editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, a digital magazine of the Wenner-Gren Foundation about anthropological thinking and discoveries. He is the author and editor of 13 books including Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture, which received six major book awards.

Live presentation recorded on May 17, 2024. Letter deadline is May 28, 2024. More info: https://www.archaeological.org/preserving-ecuador-jordan-and-ukraine/ Visit (or revisit) some incredible archaeological highlights from these three countries and learn more about how to compose a letter to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee during our webinar. Join the AIA for brief presentations by experts who have traveled, lived, and worked in Ecuador, Jordan, and/or Ukraine and learn how you can advocate for the protection of archaeological sites in these three countries. The countries of Ecuador and Jordan recently requested that the U.S. renew the bilateral agreements that protects their cultural resources from being illegally imported into the United States and Ukraine has requested that a similar bilateral agreement with the United States be put into place for the very first time. After a whirlwind virtual trip across the globe with cultural heritage professionals Sarah Rowe (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Morag Kersel (Depaul University) and Roksolana Makar (Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab), make sure you join AIA VP for Cultural Heritage Ömür Harmanşah in writing a letter in support of preserving the cultural heritage of Ecuador, Jordan, and Ukraine to the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee!

Letter deadline: May 28, 2024 If you’ve traveled to Ecuador, Jordan, or Ukraine and/or appreciate their cultural heritage, your experience and passion can help the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee with their upcoming deliberations. Watch this short video to find out how you can join the AIA to speak up for threatened archaeological sites. Visit https://www.archaeological.org/preserving-ecuador-jordan-and-ukraine/ for letter templates and more information.

Heritage Staff Pick Saturday! Join us on a time-traveling trek to the lost land of Quivira! 🏹⛏️ Spanish conquistadors, high-tech archaeology, and a 1601 battle you’ve never heard about—until now. History just got a major plot twist. 📜💥 ► HERITAGE: (https://heritagetac.org/) ► INSTAGRAM: / (https://www.instagram.com/heritagebroadcastingservice/) / (https://www.instagram.com/archaeologychannel/) ► FACEBOOK: / (https://www.facebook.com/TheArchaeologyChannel/) ► X: / (https://x.com/archchannel/) #QuiviraRevealed #HeritagePick #TACFilmFest #DiggingUpThePast #LostCivilizations

Coming to Heritage on July 15th: “Tanishka” is a captivating exploration of rhythm in a child’s soul. Dive into Tanishka’s world of stunning imagery and dance and follow the personal journey of an 8-year-old girl who, despite her youth, learns the classical Indian dance form, Bharatanatyam. This colorful and culturally rich film comes from director Sudeep Sohni. Check out his other film, “Reminiscence of Gangaur,” in Heritage! Subscribe to Heritage Broadcasting Service and watch at https://heritagetac.org or via Roku. #archaeology #archeology #heritage #anthropology #history #culture #culturalheritage #documentary #India #Indian #Dance #Bharatanatyam #Slokas #Rasas #Shastras #tanishka

Happy Heritage Staff Pick Saturday! The Maya charted eclipses, solstices, and the stars with stunning precision long before modern science. 🌌 Now a groundbreaking discovery in Guatemala reveals that astronomy was also a powerful tool of political control. Dive into the ancient skies and hidden strategies of one of the most advanced civilizations in the pre-Columbian world. ► HERITAGE: (https://heritagetac.org/) ► INSTAGRAM: / (https://www.instagram.com/heritagebroadcastingservice/) / (https://www.instagram.com/archaeologychannel/) ► FACEBOOK: / (https://www.facebook.com/TheArchaeologyChannel/) ► X: / (https://x.com/archchannel) #HeritageSaturday #MayaCivilization #AncientAstronomy #IndigenousHistory #DocumentaryPick #HiddenHistories #staffpicks

Heritage Broadcasting Service ( https://www.heritagetac.org ), or just plain Heritage, launched on January 1, 2021. Developed by the nonprofit Archaeological Legacy Institute (that’s us, the people who created The Archaeology Channel at archaeologychannel.org), Heritage features more than 300 outstanding film titles from many countries on familiar subjects. As of June 30, 2025, new films include: “Neanderthal: In the Footsteps of Another Humanity,” “One Big Family: The History of the Kliafa Soft Drinks Company,” and “Humanity's Footsteps, Season 2, Episode 3: The Neolithic Artisan." ► HERITAGE: (https://heritagetac.org/) ► INSTAGRAM: / (https://www.instagram.com/heritagebroadcastingservice/) / (https://www.instagram.com/archaeologychannel/) ► FACEBOOK: / (https://www.facebook.com/TheArchaeologyChannel/) #archaeology #archeology #heritage #anthropology #history #culture #heritagebroadcastingservice #film #documentary

Heritage Staff Pick Saturday: Matronas "Matronas" sheds light on the incredible resilience of midwives during El Salvador’s Civil War, when they were the only support for birthing mothers amidst state violence. Fast forward to today, and these ancestral caretakers are facing government repression as efforts to ban home births threaten both their role and the cultural traditions they’ve preserved for generations. This film tells the urgent story of how the fight for humane, culturally respectful birth practices is being pushed to the brink. Watch on Heritage and learn more about the ongoing struggle for women's rights and cultural preservation. ► HERITAGE: (https://heritagetac.org/) ► INSTAGRAM: / (https://www.instagram.com/heritagebroadcastingservice/) / (https://www.instagram.com/archaeologychannel/) ► FACEBOOK: / (https://www.facebook.com/TheArchaeologyChannel/) #Heritage #Matronas #Midwives #BirthRights #CulturalPreservation #ElSalvador #HumanRights #IndigenousCare #FilmPick #culture

"The Neolithic wasn’t just the dawn of farming- it was a revolution in how we lived. From cooking in clay pots to weaving with wool and linen, this era reshaped human life forever. Innovation, community, and craft over 12,000 years ago. ► HERITAGE: (https://heritagetac.org/) ► INSTAGRAM: / (https://www.instagram.com/heritagebroadcastingservice/) / (https://www.instagram.com/archaeologychannel/) ► FACEBOOK: / (https://www.facebook.com/TheArchaeologyChannel/) ► X: / (https://x.com/archchannel) #NeolithicRevolution #AncientInnovations #FirstFarmers #TextilesAndClay #HumanHistory #Archaeology #Prehistory #Heritage #archeology #heritagetac #streaming #nonprofit #community"

"From a small town in Greece to a symbol of resilience and refreshment Kliafa has been ""cooling and sweetening the world"" since 1926. Powered by family, friendship, and community. For more go to HeritageTAC.org #Kliafa #GreekHeritage #FamilyBusiness #InspiringStories #Since1926 #CommunitySpirit #Heritage #DrinkLocal #ResilientRoots #documentary #heritagetac #streaming #nonprofit #community"

Over 2,000 Neanderthal footprints… left behind 80,000 years ago on the shores of Normandy. Archaeologists are racing against the sea to preserve this rare glimpse into a lost world—of men, women, and children just like us. HeritageTAC.org for more #Neanderthal #Archaeology #AncientHistory #HumanOrigins #Normandy #HeritagePreservation #FootprintsInTime #LostWorlds #Heritage #archeology #heritagetac #streaming #nonprofit #community

Happy Saturday! We have another amazing film picked out for you from outr Heritage Staff: The Tumuk Humak Expedition A century after Claudius de Goeje first encountered the Wayana during a colonial expedition, his descendant returns—armed with a projector and a forgotten 1937 film—to screen history in the heart of the Surinamese jungle. 🌿📽️ A powerful story of legacy, memory, and cultural reconnection. ► HERITAGE: (https://heritagetac.org/) ► INSTAGRAM: / (https://www.instagram.com/heritagebroadcastingservice/) / (https://www.instagram.com/archaeologychannel/) ► FACEBOOK: / (https://www.facebook.com/TheArchaeologyChannel/) #Wayana #JungleCinema #AncestralExpedition #TACFilmFestival #culture #history #heritage

This Juneteenth consider sitting down with some popcorn and enjoying these educational documentaries on Heritage. Follow Amanda Eke as she explores both the Bronx and Harlem and uncovers the black history and culture within the cities. Watch exclusively uncovered archival footage dating back over 50 years, along with a deep array of over 45 raw and candid interviews that tell the incredibly heartbreaking tale of a once-in-a-generation talent who was shunned by a game he was destined to dominate. ► HERITAGE: (https://heritagetac.org/) ► INSTAGRAM: / (https://www.instagram.com/heritagebroadcastingservice/) / (https://www.instagram.com/archaeologychannel/) ► FACEBOOK: / (https://www.facebook.com/TheArchaeologyChannel/) #blackhistory #juneteenth #june #history #culture #relevent #harlem #bronx #art #poetry #poet #culture #history

Why don't archaeologists excavate entire sites?

Watch our response to Expedition Bible's claims in "The Problem" of Joshua's Ai...SOLVED!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvvICHXsNo

This week, we're talking with Dr. Briana Jackson about propaganda in ancient Egypt! What counted as propaganda? How was it used? And how different is Egyptian propaganda to what we see today? Interested in more? RSVP for Dr. Jackson's upcoming online class (July 12th) Never Has There Ever: Royal Propaganda in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (it's free!) https://www.saveancientstudies.org/event-details/sasa-master-class-never-has-there-ever-royal-propaganda-in-ancient-egypt-and-mesopotamia For more from Dr. Jackson visit www.brianacjackson.com Join Dr. Cargill for his new online course Cities of the Bible: patreon.com/bibleandarch/shop Become a patron for bonus content and early access: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch Send us your questions: bible-archaeology@uiowa.edu Visit the Bible & Archaeology website: http://www.uiowa.edu/bam Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bible-and-archaeology/id1753393688 Find us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3tbe91wqMwkHcudArRi1ue?si=d483a9f54bf94753 The Bible & Archaeology podcast is made with support from Amanda Stone Guest: Dr. Briana Jackson, www.brianacjackson.com Produced and Edited by Jordan Jones Additional Contributions by Mary Kathryn Lichty 0:00 Intro 1:50: What was propaganda? 4:45: How accessible was propaganda? 12:32: How do tones shift? 17:22: Comparing the “histories” 23:40: The Amarna Letters 28:58: The Battle of Megiddo 41:04: Rameses Portrayal 46:11: Was propaganda seen as propaganda?

This week, we're talking with Dr. Briana Jackson about propaganda in ancient Egypt! Available now on Patreon! Interested in more? RSVP for Dr. Jackson's upcoming online class (July 12th) Never Has There Ever: Royal Propaganda in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (it's free!) https://www.saveancientstudies.org/event-details/sasa-master-class-never-has-there-ever-royal-propaganda-in-ancient-egypt-and-mesopotamia

Alex Brandsen, Iris Kramer, Wouter Verschoof-van der Vaart For over two decades there have been sporadic presentations of diverse machine learning (ML) applications to digital archaeology at the CAA. In recent years there is a notable increase of papers using ML in archaeology, which may be ascribed to the success of Deep learning and Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs) across various disciplines that were previously described as being too complex for using machine learning. Applications using deep learning now show high performance on challenging tasks ranging from computer vision to natural language processing. In digital archaeology we have seen and foresee applications of these techniques including automated object detection in remote sensing data, artefact image classification, use-wear analysis, text mining, paleography, predictive modeling, 3D shape analysis and recognition, and typology development. Our aim for this session is to bring together the previously scattered ML research to discuss practical as well as theoretical approaches for ML in digital archaeology. For practical approaches we would encourage a critical dialogue to identify individual and shared problems, opportunities, and solutions. We invite authors to provide a thorough explanation on their approach and engage on some of the following questions: How do you structure archaeological datasets which are often small, incomplete, and noisy? What considerations applied to your choice of ML technique and how did was this technique tuned to your particular research? Which threshold do you find appropriate to determine the success of your method? What was your desired outcome and how did your final results compare to this? If your outcome resulted in a lot of new data that needs further manual validation, how do you plan to verify this? Do you foresee other applications for your method within archaeology or in other fields? Our request for theoretical approaches can be more broadly interpreted. Some examples include: creation of annotated benchmark datasets, sharing of developed methods, data (or data structure), and code, data science challenges, conventions for data structure and performance metrics, need for collaboration or special interest groups, insights from ML fields outside of archaeology, ethics of ML in archaeology, education of ML in archaeology, rapid publishing of new ideas, future gazing.

Bolesław Zych, Wiesław Koszkul, Jarosław Źrałka, Bogumił Pilarski This paper is focused on the presentation of the data which were obtained by Terrestrial Laser Scanning from the Maya center of Nakum, located in north-eastern part of Guatemala. The ruins of Nakum and its surroundings are covered by low and high vegetation which makes it difficult to analyze all surface features and modifications by aerial photography. One of the goal was merging 3D data with information from archaeological excavation and creating database. Point Cloud from Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) was classified and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with vegetation class was build. It allows us to conduct a very detailed analyze of area and its structures. Those data were integrated and compared to ESRI raster from examined area. The second way of use TLS data was to create interactive 3D map, which is based on triangulated point cloud and contains all digitalized tunnels, excavation unites with georeference, 3D models, photos, drawings and other important research data. It builds accurate database for the inventory and spatial planning, taking into account terrain shape, architectural objects and vegetation density. These data were combined with GIS and free-ware game engine software to create a database with easy open access, interactive publishing, and to build various interactive simulations in real time (flood, sun). Most of used software were open source (Meshlab, Blender, Unreal Engine) or accessible for research purposes (Arcgis).

Piotr Wojciech Szczepanik, Patrycja Obrempalska-Majdak, Jarosław Źrałka, Wiesław Koszkul

Radosław Biel, Paweł Konczewski

Anna Schneider, Alexander Bonhage, Alexandra Raab, Florian Hirsch, Thomas Raab The remains of historic charcoal hearths (RCHs) occur in many forest areas as characteristic small-scale relief features, and are valuable archives of land use history. The increasing availability of high-resolution ALS data has given rise to many recent studies mapping such land use legacy features, which have revealed impressively high numbers and spatial densities of RCHs in many regions of the world. Nevertheless, the limitations of mapping from remotely-sensed data still need to be considered to allow for meaningful interpretations of RCH spatial distribution patterns and conclusions on past forest use. We present an assessment of the possibilities and limitations of RCH mapping from ALS data on the landscape scale, comparing mapping results from study areas in the Northeastern German Lowlands, the German lower mountain ranges and the lower mountain ranges in the northeastern USA. RCHs were mapped using automated detection and manual digitization, and mapping results were validated against archaeological excavations and detailed field surveys. The results allow for a detailed analysis of mapping accuracy in relation to DEM resolution and feature size, but furthermore show up relations of mapping success to RCH age and preservation and to geomorphology and subsequent forest use. Results from a GIS analysis of RCH spatial distribution in relation to historic charcoal-consuming industries affirm that RCHs are a widespread and underestimated legacy of past woodland use in many regions, but also underline the relevance of considering variable mapping accuracy in landscape-scale analyses of archaeological relief features mapped from ALS data.

Michał Jakubczak, Michał Szubski, Janusz Budziszewski, Kamil Niedziółka Białowieża Forest is one of largest forested areas in Europe. In total, it occupies nearly 1,500 km2, of which 42% is in our country and the rest is located in Belarus. This area is almost entirely considered as protected, including strict reserve in the form of the Bialowieża National Park. Such situation conducive to maintaining the remnants of an older settlement, but forest cover made the area almost inaccessible for archaeologists. Change of this state provide technology development of airborne laser scanning (ALS). Launched at the end of 2016 project "Cultural and natural heritage of Białowieża Forest" is aimed at a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of the archaeological resources of the forest with the background of nature sciences. During the project, three different point clouds were used, with a nominal density of 4, 6 and 12 points per square meter. The clouds also differed in the size of the laser beam footprint, form 50 centimetres for two first point clouds and about 12 centimetres in case of the last one. As research has shown, changing the scanning parameters has a large impact on the ability to detect archaeological sites, but also on the quality of analysis and the conclusions. As the research shows, the cloud of points has to be adapted to the needs of the research and data with a density of 4 points per meter and 50 cm of footprint are sufficient for detection, but in analysis more sophisticated small forms of terrain, better quality is needed.

Javier Fernandez-Lopez de Pablo In this session I will discuss my experience with the ERC and provide some examples about the implementation of a range of quantitative and computational methods in the context of the PALEODEM project.

“Welcome to the Aegean Bronze Age”Computer-enhanced Open Access in archaeological research Few landscapes have been so intensively modified over time than that of the Argolid (Greece) since at least the Early Bronze Age and certainly in the Mycenaean Late Bronze Age (c. 1600–1100 BCE). The ERC-funded CoG project, SETinSTONE, investigates if and how monumental building activities undertaken there may have impacted on the social, economic and political structures of the Mycenaean polities in this period, and how people responded to changes in these structures. The overall team investigates (1) the minimum levels of human and material resources input in the prolonged building efforts present in this region between c. 1300–1200 BC, and what happened to these resources; (2) what subsistence strategies and other activities people were undertaking in this period, and what resources they had at their disposal. Mobility and access to resources, for agricultural and building activities, were crucial factors in daily life. The subproject of both authors investigates and assesses the usability of past infrastructure and routes to transport resources between the region’s major hubs. In line with the ERC request for Open Access in publishing project results, we went one step further in employing devices and open-source software (OSS) that everyone has access to during our walks in this landscape while checking published remains. This paper demonstrates that our research enhances and advocates total Open Access for anyone who is willing to persevere in taking available hard/software to new levels. We believe that such an approach makes this landscape even more accessible to all.

Efthymia Priki In this short presentation, I will provide practical details on the ERC, its funding schemes, and the evaluation process including general tips for potential applicants. The presentation will also showcase examples of projects in the field of Archaeological Science.

Kelsey M Reese Agriculturally-reliant societies are especially vulnerable to changes in climatic patterns and increases in local populations. Increases in population require more food to be produced, while extreme climate volatility results in progressively unreliable annual agricultural yield. In the northern U.S. Southwest, maize agriculture provided 70% of annual calories in the ancestral Pueblo diet from A.D. 880–1300. This paper presents a case study from the Mesa Verde North Escarpment, an ecologically marginal and culturally liminal space occupied from A.D. 600–1300. This paper will present a localized maize paleo-productivity model—an approximation of annual prehistoric maize yields from retrodicted precipitation and temperature records—and a regional demographic reconstruction to trace potential periods of internal migration through the north escarpment in response to climate change. The production and maintenance of trade networks that could supplement poor annual maize yields on the ecologically marginalized north escarpment, and the regional ramification of supporting such a population through hard times will also be explored. The longitudinal scale of this study can inform the point at which populations no longer respond to climatic hardships with trade or small-scale movement. This case study will be used to examine the effects of climate change on local population responses to food shortages, the points at which supportive trade networks break down, the levels of resiliency in local populations when a space is increasingly uninhabitable, and the climatic conditions in which societies determine life is no longer sustainable in the area.