PERAIA project

The Greek islands of the Aegean Sea, scattered across 800 kilometers from north to south and between Greece and western Turkey, are uniquely situated at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa.

The project name

Through the term “Peraia” (περαίᾶ) the ancient Aegeans defined the territories beyond their boundaries, usually those separated by the sea. This term seemed to represent a duality: insularity versus mainland; land versus sea (Lambrinoudakis 1997; Knappett 2014). However, in the last decades, there has been an exponential growth in the number of projects studying this connectivity around the Mediterranean in the past, from ecological to social and economic dynamics (Horden & Purcell 2000; Broodbank 2013, Knapp & Van Dommelen 2014, Cherry & Leppard 2014; Leidwanger & Knappett 2018). These approaches have generated a research perspective that allows us to understand how communities created and modelled their identity, through the interaction with other communities. 

The PERAIA project emerges within this framework that aims to reconceptualize Mediterranean connectivity with the main aim to represent and analyze the social, economic, and cultural impact of the historical transport networks between territories in the context of the ancient Libyan Sea, from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age (c. 1500 – 700 BC).

Interdisciplinary approach

Research in Archaeology has experienced exponential growth over the last decades, mainly due to the influence of digital technologies and the fusion of different theoretical schools. Quantitative approaches from the Digital Humanities have opened up new possibilities for interpretation by combining techniques from other disciplines, such as Geography, Computer Science and Social Science, which allow for the development of new research methods.

NASA image acquired October 13, 2012 The Nile River Valley and Delta comprise less than 5 percent of Egypt’s land area, but provide a home to roughly 97 percent of the country’s population. Nothing makes the location of human population clearer than the lights illuminating the valley and delta at night. On October 13, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of the Nile River Valley and Delta. This image is from the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected moonlight. The city lights resemble a giant calla lily, just one with a kink in its stem near the city of Luxor. Some of the brightest lights occur around Cairo, but lights are abundant along the length of the river. Bright city lights also occur along the Suez Canal and around Tel Aviv. Away from the lights, however, land and water appear uniformly black. This image was acquired near the time of the new Moon, and little moonlight was available to brighten land and water surfaces. NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using VIIRS Day-Night Band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Michon Scott. Instrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRS Credit: NASA Earth Observatory.

Remote Sensing

Geographical Information System

Social Network Analysis

Objectives

The overall aim is to créate a geospatial network model to improve the understanding of connectivity at different scales in the Eastern Mediterranean, from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age (c. 1500 – 700 BC).

  • Identify and register the settlements and occupation phases of the coastal communities located in the Libyan Sea area during the (Pre)historical period.
  • Reconstruct and analyse, in a diachronic and multi-scale approach, the transport network and settlement patterns among the regions located within the study area.
  • Disseminate and make available research results both to the scientific community and to institutions involved in the protection of terrestrial and underwater archaeological heritage.

Research methodology

Our methodological approach combines the use of satellite imagery, GIS spatial analysis, and social network analysis (SNA).

Data modelling. The development of an information model is the essential first step in designing a robust yet modular structure for the spatial database. The aim is to create a model adapted to the research questions of the project, to extend its inferential potential, and at the same time to take into account existing ontologies and published datasets.

Remote sensing. Through satellite imagery and photo-interpretation, combined with georeferenced topographic maps and field survey data, we are mapping and recording archaeological sites within the landscape units. This procedure has two main outcomes: first, it aids in better understanding the spatial organization of the territory and the location of features in the landscape. Second, it allows for digitally mapping and recording the cultural heritage inside the study area, adjusting thus to the aim of monitoring this heritage.

Geographic Information Technologies and spatial analysis for the structured storage, management, and processing of alphanumeric and spatial information. Using GIS software, we will georeference the locations by integrating geomorphological and hydrographic factors. In addition, the GIS platform will allow us to combine archaeological and environmental data, and to work at different scales (macro, meso and micro) with spatial analysis tools applied to the study of the landscape.

Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA offers tools and concepts for exploring the different human interactions at work within given settings but beyond geographical frames and it is applied to study the model of land and maritime transport routes.

Team

DAVID LAGUNA PALMA – IP

FPU fellowship at the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Granada (Spain). His research interests include the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Network Analysis to analyze communication and transport routes between ancient Crete and other surrounding areas in the Mediterranean context. For so doing, he employs a methodology based on data analysis, mapping and computational simulation modelling, all of which are guided by the theoretical principles of Landscape Archaeology.

MAURIZIO TOSCANO – CoIP

ICT Senior technician at the European Office of the Department of International and Intersectoral Science at the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT – Spain). Degree in Cultural Heritage Conservation, MA in ITC applied to Archaeology and PhD in Digital Humanities at UGR. His research interests include Web Information Systems, Public History, Croudsourcning and Open Science.

TOM BRUGHMANS

Associate professor at the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet) and Classical Archaeology. His research interests include the study of Roman economic and urban phenomena, past social networks, and visual signalling systems. He performs much of his work by applying computational methods such as network science, agent-based simulation and geographical information systems.

BORJA LEGARRA HERRERO

Lecturer in Comparative Mediterranean Prehistory at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, assistant director of the Knossos Urban Landscape Project, and co-director of the VERASUR project in Spain. His research interests include long-term perspectives on political change, state formation in the Aegean, and the later prehistory of Iberia. He approaches these topics through a combination of field surveys, spatial analysis, and artifact studies.

PAU DE SOTO

Lecturer at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. PhD in Classical Archaeology (2010) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). His research includes the use of GIS and Network Analysis to analyze the roman transportation and communication routes, mainly in the NE of the Iberian Peninsula.