@CAA Conference on SIG Chrono

Conference CAA 2023

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

https://2023.caaconference.org/, 2023-04-03/2023-04-06, Amsterdam

S12: Chronological modelling: formal methods and research software

Eythan Levy, Thomas Huet, Florian Thiery, Allard W. Mees

Conference CAA 2025

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://2025.caaconference.org/, 2025-05-05/2023-05-09, Athens

S1: Chronological modelling II: formal methods and research software

Eythan Levy, Thomas Huet

Time and its analysis are at the heart of archaeology: one of the main objectives of the archaeologist is the establishment of a temporal framework for a given layer, site or material culture. But archaeology covers such a wide range of cultures, dispersed both in time and space, that contextual chronological assessments are constructed using very different tools, languages and techniques. It creates as many different temporal and cultural frameworks as there are specialties, with notable differences in approaches depending on whether one is dealing with absolute or relative chronology, laboratory techniques or cultural approaches, deterministic or statistical methods (Buck and Millard 2004).

Conference CAA 2026

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

https://2026.caaconference.org/

S35: Chronological Modelling III: a Round Table on Time in Computational Archaeology

Thomas Huet, Eythan Levy

This round table aims at discussing the current challenges and future perspectives on the modelling of time in archaeology.

When	Where
Thursday, April 2, 14:00-16:30	room Hörsaal 05

Some 30 years ago, the introduction of GIS into the archaeological toolbox sparked a ‘spatial turn’ in the discipline, greatly improving the interoperability of spatial data. However, no such integrated tool exists for managing temporal data. Chronological methods are highly diverse (e.g., seriation, stratigraphy, cross-dating, absolute dating), each typically handled by different software applications and libraries. The lack of interoperability between software outputs, formats and standards hinders the ability to understand cultural developments across different societies. In our view, the time has come to make chronological data more interoperable through the use of standardised formats (e.g., EDTF), relative temporal relationships (e.g., before/after), and specialised software (e.g., OxCal). Such an approach could pave the way for a Temporal Information System (TIS), enabling the calculation of a temporal metric for the rate of human cultural evolution (see our position paper: Huet & Levy, 2025). We invite all interested colleagues to participate in the open-forum discussion at the round table.