Seminar by Henry Price
Spatial Networks, Information and Entropy in Archeology
Abstract: We attempt to reconcile complex systems and the simple models that have come to characterise much of the explained distribution of artefacts and settlement relationships to the wider Mediterranean. Archaeological data sets are typically large and sprawling, making them difficult to curate. We use ideas from information theory and elsewhere to give spatial and temporal shape to a 13,700+ ceramic data set from five Cretan sites. This data is too large for generic modelling but too small for data modelling (with only 1000 'useful' artefacts). Nonetheless, combining the data with geography, technology, assumptions about artefact function, and general network analysis provides a dynamic avenue for investigating the role of key Cretan sites during the period. Another major issue in curating assemblages is deciding which artefact ontologies to prioritise, because different choices extract more or less information from the same underlying knowledge (the data). Using diversity metrics, we address the intertwined issue of the cohesiveness of the total Cretan data set and its relationship to the subsets at the five Cretan sites that provide it.
Bio: Henry Price is currently a doctoral candidate in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London. Working on a diverse number of topics in network theory and applied mathematics. Mainly Complexity Science, Complex Networks and Directed Acyclic Graphs. His most recent research also concerns computational methods in the digital humanities, social and life sciences, in addition to derivatives and other topics in Cryptocurrency.