Seren Griffiths

Alternative Representations of 3D-Reconstructed Heritage Data

By collecting images of heritage assets from members of the public and processing them to create 3D-reconstructed models, the HeritageTogether project has accomplished the digital recording of nearly 80 sites across Wales, UK. A large amount of data has been collected and produced in the form of photographs, 3D models, maps, condition reports, and more. Here we discuss some of the different methods used to realize the potential of this data in different formats and for different purposes. The data are explored in both virtual and tangible settings, and—with the use of a touch table—a combination of both. We examine some alternative representations of this community-produced heritage data for educational, research, and public engagement applications.

A Bayesian Radiocarbon Chronology of the Early Neolithic of Yorkshire and Humberside

The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition is one of the mostly hotly (and vociferously) debated periods of British prehistory. Chronology has been key to this discussion. Informal ‘visual’ interpretations of radiocarbon data used both to argue for a rapid uptake of Neolithic practices by indigenous Mesolithic populations, and for the introduction by Continental settlers and then the rapid acculturation by local populations. This paper offers new evidence for the timing of the beginning of the Neolithic in Yorkshire and Humberside, an area with a range of monuments that have been a focus of research into early Neolithic communities. From this new synthesis it is possible to suggest implications for our understanding of ‘neolithization’, but also as to provide the basis for critical future research themes.

Crowd-Sourced Digitisation of Cultural Heritage Assets

With the rise of digital content and web-based technologies, archaeologists and heritage organisations are increasingly striving to produce digital records of archaeology and heritage sites. The large numbers and geographical spread of these sites means that it would be too time-consuming for any one team to survey them. To meet this challenge, the Heritage Together project has developed a web platform through which members of the public can upload their own photographs of heritage assets to be processed into 3D models using an automated photogrammetry work flow. The web platform is part of a larger project which aims to capture, create and archive digital heritage assets in conjunction with local communities in Wales, UK, with a focus on megalithic monuments. Heritage Together is a digital community and community-built archive of heritage data, developed to inspire local communities to learn more about their heritage and to help to preserve it.

Enclosing the Neolithic World: A Vinca Culture Enclosed and Fortified Settlement in the Balkans

Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary role of enclosures as defensive features to others that explore the symbolic, ritual, social, and ideological dimensions of separating space into an inside, an outside, and an in-between. Such evidence and interpretative accounts are inevitably linked to wider anthropological discussions on modes of social interaction and reproduction in the past, whether altruistic or predatory, and evolutionary narratives regarding changes in the level of intergroup violence over the course of human history. Growing evidence indicates that many Neolithic settlements in Europe were enclosed by a complex system of ditches, ramparts, and palisades. We present a case study from the central Balkans at the Neolithic Vinča culture site of Oreškovica-Selište in Serbia, dated to the last centuries of the sixth millennium BC, where recent geophysical surveys, stratigraphic excavation, and accelerator mass spectrometry dating document the existence of an early enclosed settlement with multiple enclosure features. We interpret these features as defensive and discuss the social dynamics that led to the founding and abandonment of this short-lived occupation in the context of other contemporaneous settlements in the Balkans.