ArcheoFOSS I, proceedings of the workshop now available as Open Access

Hi all,

this fast post is to notify that are finally available as Open Access the proceedings of the first workshop "Open Source, Free Software e Open Format nei processi di ricerca archeologici" (en: "Open Source, Free Software and Open Format in archaeological reasearch precesses"), which in the later editions will be known as ArcheoFOSS. The event took place in Grosseto in May 2006.

Since Open Access in archeology has always been one of the main topics of this workshop, some days ago we started a discussion on the official mailing list to try to free some of the proceedings which are actually available just as printed publications. The first result has been the release of the articles collected in the first edition, thanks to the kindness of Giancarlo Macchi Janica. Currently we are working on the other two workshops which are not yet available: ArcheoFOSS V (held in Foggia in 2010) and ArcheoFOSS VI (held in Neaples in 2011). 

The image below shows the front cover of the digital publication of the proceedings of the first edition, while here you can read the official announcement about the Open Access publication (pdf here).

Front cover of proceedings of the first workshop "Open Source, Free Software e Open Format nei processi di ricerca archeologici"

A special thanks also to +Stefano Costa for uploading everything on ArcheoFOSS website.

PS

In the proceedings you can also find some articles written by Arc-Team members, regarding:
1. One of the first release of ArcheOS (v.1.6): here in Academia and here in ResearchGate (by +Alessandro Bezzi, +Luca Bezzi, +Denis Francisci, +Rupert Gietl)
2.  The use of +GRASS GIS in archaeology: Academia / ResearchGate (by Michael Burton, +Alessandro Bezzi, +Luca Bezzi, +Denis Francisci, +Rupert Gietl, +Markus Neteler)
3. The use of FLOSS in a case of study in archaeology: Academia / ResearchGate (by +Luca Bezzi, Stefano Boaro, Giovanni Leonardi, +damiano lotto)

Homo floresiensis

"Homo floresiensis ("Flores Man"; nicknamed "hobbit" and "Flo") is widely believed to be an extinct species in the genus Homo. The remains of an individual that would have stood about 3.5 feet (1.1 m) in height were discovered in 2003 on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Partial skeletons of nine individuals have been recovered, including one complete skull, referred to as LB1"

This is the incipit of the Wikipedia page dedicate to the Homo floresiensis. I started the post with this sentence because today I will share the result of our research about Archaeological Foresic Facial Reconstruction (AFFR) of the individual LB1 of this species, performed for the open source exhibition "Facce. I molti volti della storia umana". If you are a regular reader of tis blog, you will know that we attempted already a facial reconstruction of the "hobbit", as he was one oh the Hominini we worked on for the Brazilian exposition "Faces de Evolução" (curated by Prof. Dr. Moacir Elias Santos of the Archaeological Museum of Ponta Grossa and Prof. Esp. Vivian Tedardi of Rosicrucian and Egyptian Museum in Brazil). Like it happened for the Taung Child (Australopithecus africanus), also in this case we developed a new model (v 2.0), after a first reconstruction, simply based on a an anatomical study and on basic paleo-artistic techniques.
Here below you can see the image of the first reconstructive model (H. floresiensis v. 1.0), while here you can read the old ATOR post about this first attempt.

Homo floresiensis version 1.0

After the first model, we changed completely our approach to paleo-art, as we developed the new technique based on the anatomical deformation of Pan troglodytes or Homo sapiens ct x-ray scan (depending of the kind of hominid to be reconstructed). The result of this new approach is the H. floresiensis new model (v. 2.0) we release today and that you can see in the image below.

Homo floresiensis version 2.0

Also in this case, the model is the result of a team work. Here below are the credits:

1. 3D scan of the cast: Moacir Elias Santos (Archaeological Museum of Ponta Grossa)

2. 3D modeling (skull restoration, anatomical study, CT deformation): +Cícero Moraes (Arc-Team) with the precious contribute of Prof. Peter Brown (New England University in Armidale, Australia)

3. scientific validation: Prof. Telmo Pievani (University of Padua, Department of Biology), Dott. Nicola Carrara(Anthropological Museum of the University of Padua), Prof. Peter Brown (New England University in Armidale, Australia)

The image of the new model of Homo floresiensis has just been added on Wikimedia Commons and it is avalible for any use under the CC-BY license (which we use normally for the material we share through ATOR).

Have a nice day!