👋 welcome to the archaeology machine learning repository

📖 introduction to the project

Machine learning (ML) methods present new ways of approaching archaeological research questions and interest in applying these methods continues to grow.

This repository collects resources relating to the application of ML methods to archaeological data, aiming to:

• provide an overview of the ways ML is being applied in archaeology
• spark new ideas whilst reducing duplication of work
• encourage the sharing of code, data, and other resources
• make resources more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reuseable)

By doing this, we hope to support practitioners to learn about, critically apply, or contribute to conversations about, ML in archaeology.

✅ how to contribute

Check out our 🗺️ roadmap for an overview of what we're working on, or go straight to the ✅ contributor guidelines.

🔗 citeable releases

Please cite the project if you've found it useful. Releases are made at regular intervals and archived on Zenodo.

⚙️ resources

1. ML case studies (split by application area)
   • 🏺 artefact analysis
   • 🌱 ecofact analysis
   • 📚️ natural language processing
   • 🛰️ remote sensing feature detection
   • 🌏 spatial predictive modelling
2. 📊 datasets
3. 📖 glossary of technique names

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🏺 artefact analysis

task	authors	year	data type	technique	paper	code	data
segmentation for carved reliefs	Ji et al	2023	RGB images [digital photos], depth map, soft-edge images	CNN [DenseNet121]	paper	nan	nan
classification for ceramic elemental analysis	Ruschioni et al	2023	x-ray fluorescence	LR, LDA, MLP, SVM, DT, RF, NB, KNN	paper	code	data
classification for ceramic sherds	Helden et al	2022	RGB images [smartphone photos], synthetic data	CNN [VGG19, Mobilenetv2, ResNet50v2, Inceptionv3]	paper	models	data
classification for multiple artefact types	Resler et al	2021	RGB images [digital camera photos]	CNN [EfficientNetB3], KNN	paper	nan	data
classification for ceramic petrography	Lyons	2021	RGB images [microscope photos]	CNN [VGG19, ResNet50]	paper	nan	nan
object detection for rock carvings	Tsigkas et al	2020	RGB images [digital camera photos]	CNN [YOLOv2, TinyYOLOv2]	paper	nan	nan
classification for lithics	Grove and Blinkhorn	2020	lithic types, period	NN	paper	code	data
classification for ceramic elemental analysis	Charalambous et al	2016	x-ray fluorescence	KNN, DT, LVQ	paper	nan	nan

🌱 ecofact analysis

task	authors	year	data type	technique	paper	code	data
classification for multi-cell phytoliths	Berganzo-Besga et al	2022	RGB images [microscope photos]	CNN [VGG19, ResNet50v2]	paper	code	nan
classification for contexts	Vos et al	2021	geochemistry, phytolith type and quantity	DT	paper	nan	data
classification for starch granules	Arráiz et al	2016	morphometric and optical measurements	RF	paper	nan	nan

📚️ natural language processing

task	authors	year	data type	technique	paper	code	data
masked language modelling for archaeological text	Brandsen	2023	english language	BERT	paper	model	nan
named entity recognition for archaeological text	Brandsen	2023	english language	BERT	paper	model	nan
masked language modelling for archaeological text	Brandsen	2023	dutch language	BERT	paper	model	nan
named entity recognition for archaeological text	Brandsen	2023	dutch language	BERT	paper	model	data
masked language modelling for archaeological text	Brandsen	2023	german language	BERT	paper	model	nan
named entity recognition for archaeological text	Brandsen	2023	german language	BERT	paper	model	nan
restoration/attribution for ancient Greek inscriptions	Assael et al	2022	transcribed inscriptions, place, time	transformer	paper	code	data
transliteration and segmentation of cuneiform characters	Gordin et al	2020	encoded Unicode cuneiform	bidirectional LSTM	paper	code	data

🛰️ remote sensing feature detection

task	authors	year	data type	technique	paper	code	data
transfer learning between geographic areas	Sech et al	2023	lidar visualisations [e2MSTP]	CNN [U-Net, DeepLabv3+, ResNet, EfficientNet, SegFormer]	paper	nan	nan
segmentation for mounds on maps	Berganzo-Besga et al	2023	RGB images [historical maps], synthetic data	CNN [Mask R-CNN]	paper	nan	on request
segmentation for field systems	Küçükdemirci et al	2022	lidar DTMs	CNN [U-Net]	paper	nan	nan
classification for hollow roads	Verschoof-van der Vaart and Landauer	2021	lidar visualisations [local relief model, openness], lidar DTM	CNN [ResNet34]	paper	nan	nan
classification for land use	Mboga et al	2020	panchromatic images [historical aerial photographs]	CNN [FCN-ATR-SKIP, U-Net]	paper	nan	nan
classification for war landforms	de Matos-Machado et al	2019	morphometric measurements	SOM, HAC	paper	nan	nan
object detection for mining pits	Gallwey et al	2019	lidar DSM	U-Net	paper	model	nan
object detection for multiple classes	Verschoof-van der Vaart and Lambers	2019	lidar visualisations [simple local relief model]	CNN [Faster R-CNN]	paper	nan	nan

🌏 spatial predictive modelling

task	authors	year	data type	technique	paper	code	data
classification for site dating	Reese	2021	ceramic types, dendochronology dates	NN	paper	code	data
regression for roman sites	Castiello and Tonini	2021	soil, topography	RF	paper	nan	nan
regression for formative period sites	Yaworsky et al	2020	environmental, topography	MaxEnt, RF	paper	code	data
regression for strontium isoscapes	Bataille et al	2020	strontium, coordinates, geology, climate, environmental, anthropogenic	RF	paper	code	data
regression for strontium isoscapes	Funck et al	2020	strontium, coordinates, geology, climate, environmental	RF	paper	nan	data
classification for habitat suitability	Jones et al	2019	climate, topography	RF	paper	nan	nan
regression for strontium isoscapes	Bataille et al	2018	strontium, geology, climate, environmental, topographic	RF	paper	code	nan
classification for soil geochemistry	Oonk and Spijker	2015	soil geochemistry	KNN, SVM, NN	paper	nan	nan

📊 datasets

task	authors	year	data type	technique	paper	code	data
proposed null dataset for lithics	Eren et al	2023	tbc, qual and quant info from naturally fractured rocks	nan	paper	nan	nan
dataset for named entity recognition	Brandsen et al	2020	dutch language	named entity recognition	paper	nan	data
dataset for maya site detection	Kokalj et al	2023	lidar visualisations [multiple], lidar canopy height, SAR, optical satellite	object recognition, object detection, semantic segmentation	paper	nan	data

📖 glossary

acronym	technique
BERT	bidirectional encoder representations from transformers
CNN	convolutional neural network
DT	decision tree
HAC	hierarchical agglomerative clustering
KNN	k-nearest neighbours
LDA	linear discriminant analysis
LR	logistic regression
LSTM	long short-term memory network
LVQ	learning vector quantisation
MaxEnt	maximum entropy
MLP	multi-layer perceptron
NB	naive bayes
NN	neural network
RF	random forest
SOM	self-organizing map
SVM	support vector machine