{"id":245,"date":"2021-03-22T07:59:07","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T07:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/?p=245"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:30:16","slug":"news-and-new-normals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/2021\/03\/22\/news-and-new-normals\/","title":{"rendered":"News and New \u2018Normals\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Amid a third national lockdown, the Arch-I-Scan team continues with research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our principal investigator, Professor Penelope Allison has been active on the digital public lecture circuit, sharing research updates to international audiences from her current location in Australia. On Wednesday, 03 February, she delivered a virtual lecture for the Stanford University Archaeology Center\u2019s \u2018Distinguished Lecture Series\u2019. Entitled \u2018Big Data on the Roman Table: Developing new approaches to recording Roman finewares to investigate their uses’, the talk covered the origins of the Arch-I-Scan project in the Big Data on the Roman Table<\/em><\/a> research network, and the project\u2019s ongoing work to aid innovative approaches to \u2018big data\u2019 in archaeology and consumption-oriented approaches to Roman finewares. In addition to her formal presentation, Professor Allison also met with graduate students in Stanford\u2019s archaeology program to answer questions about her work and discuss their own ongoing research. You can find a recording of the Stanford seminar here: https:\/\/stanford.box.com\/s\/77zwvd33r1yi9865pi2abovs9rag4bjz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A screenshot from Professor Allison’s presentation for the Stanford University Archaeology Center’s <\/em>Distinguished Lecture series, in which she spoke about big data and Roman finewares.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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More recently, Professor Allison gave a presentation for the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies<\/em>, as part of their \u2018Domesticity and Domestic Life\u2019 evening event. On Tuesday, 09 March, she talked to an online audience of over 100 viewer about \u2018Artificial Intelligence and the Roman Table\u2019. A recording of the presentation should soon become available on the Roman Society\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meanwhile in Leicester\u2026 our Maths team members continued to work from home, and Daan and Victoria were able to begin the next phase of our sherd-scanning programme thanks to our project partners, the University of Leicester Archaeological Services<\/a> (ULAS), who provided us with a supply of samian ware. Special recognition belongs to ULAS\u2019s Nick Cooper, Liz Johnson, and Phil Hartley for making the pottery accessible despite the challenges posed by lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While it may be a return to a familiar scanning process and familiar lab spaces, of course it hasn\u2019t been \u2018business as usual\u2019 for Daan and Victoria given the ongoing pandemic. They have adjusted to a \u2018new normal\u2019 which includes weekly lateral flow-testing, a one-way system of movement around the School of Archaeology and Ancient History building, and a socially-distanced lab space with personal workstations at opposite ends of the lab, separated by a series of plexiglass screens. Still, both team members feel it is great to be back on campus to continue the scanning programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When working on-site during the ongoing pandemic, safety is the top priority. Maximum capacities, one-way systems, plexiglass screens, facemasks, sanitiser and social distancing are all part of the new ‘normal’<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Daan and Victoria are continuing to work with ULAS samian ware collections as they become available. So far, they\u2019ve processed materials from the Stibbe<\/a> and Southgates<\/a> sites in Leicester\u2019s City Centre. Victoria remarked on the process: \u2018Not only is it great to just handle Samian ware again after our session in Vindolanda, but I\u2019m also really enjoying the chance to work with pottery which comes from familiar locations right here in Leicester, where I\u2019ve called home for the past year and a half!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Daan and Victoria are continuing to process Samian ware sherds from the ULAS collections.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Despite all of the positive news that the project can boast during this new year, we also sadly report that our Mathematics Post-doctoral Research Associate, Dr. Santos N\u00fa\u00f1ez Jare\u00f1o, has left the Arch-I-Scan team and has returned to Spain. His contributions to the project in its first year have been invaluable, and he has been a wonderful colleague and friend. We\u2019ll truly miss him, but we wish him all the best in his future ventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Santos, our former Maths postdoctoral research associate, in one of his AI talks for volunteers at the Museum of London Archaeology in early 2020.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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With the national vaccination roll-out under way, and the UK government\u2019s \u2018Roadmap out of Lockdown\u2019 key dates published, a future which includes inviting others to join in our scanning and taking part in in-person conferences feels increasingly possible. Until then, we hope that everyone is continuing to stay safe, healthy and happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Please feel free comment on this or any of our blog posts, whether you have thoughts you\u2019d like to share, questions, or even requests about what you may like to read about in future posts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amid a third national lockdown, the Arch-I-Scan team continues with research. Our principal investigator, Professor Penelope Allison has been active on the digital public lecture circuit, sharing research updates to international audiences from her current location in Australia. On Wednesday, 03 February, she delivered a virtual lecture for the Stanford University Archaeology Center\u2019s \u2018Distinguished Lecture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":300,"featured_media":250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[3,2,5,19,16,6,15,14,13,17,18],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-uncategorized","tag-ai","tag-archaeology","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-leicestert","tag-news","tag-photography","tag-public-lectures","tag-research","tag-roman-pottery","tag-samian","tag-ulas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/archiscan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}