Short bio

I am PhD researcher at ACASA-Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam, where I explore the possibilities of 3D technology to enhance pottery analysis. The PhD project is part of the larger Tracing the Potter’s Wheel (TPW) project, a five year research project funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), directed by my supervisor dr. Jill Hilditch. I obtained both MA degree in Archaeology (2010) and BA degree in Archaeology and Prehistory (2005) at the University of Amsterdam. In 2012 I assisted dr. P.S. Lulof in the establishment of the 4D Research Lab of the University of Amsterdam, where I continued to work as research-assistant and 3D visualiser of architecture until late 2015. In 2011 I started my company LOPD that was specialised in (digital) archaeological illustration.

Trained as an archaeologist specialised in both illustration and ancient architecture, and with a background in fine arts, I became increasingly interested in digital 3D visualisation. 3D visualisation techniques such as 3D modelling prove not only to be useful as a reconstruction technique, but also a valuable, integrated research tool of lost architecture. Other techniques, such as 3D scanning, which I initially deployed to scan architectural fragments and artefacts to recontextualise them in their original (architectural or archaeological) setting, is now employed in the PhD project to enhance pottery analaysis. Furthermore, I am fascinated by the history of visualisation techniques in archaeology and how digital visualisation techniques impact current archaeological practice.  

PhD project Tradition in Transition. Visualising innovation and change in past potting and present archaeological practice

In my PhD project I explore how both past and modern practices respond to the introduction of new technology, such as the uptake, use and transmission of the potter’s wheel in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, and the nature of the adoption, adaptation and deployment of modern (digital 3D) visualisation tools and applications in archaeological practice.

The presence (or absence) of wheel use and subsequent diffusion through the Aegean will be analyzed by studying the incremental process of the manufacture of clay vessels (or chaîne opératoire). Forming techniques such as wheel-coiling and wheel-throwing left their traces in the topography of the pottery, but these are very hard to discern with the naked eye and archaeologists need to be trained in order to do so. High resolution 3D scanning and automation of manual, traditional detection methods can enhance and even automate the process of the identification of wheel traces. The resulting 3D models will form a 3D reference collection of wheel-forming traces, where specialists and lay audiences alike can compare their pottery with the 3D models. The online reference collection provides the option to download the models in order to interrogate the models locally with analytical software, as well as to form a physical training set to teach and learn how to recognize different forming traces, when physical reference set are absent. 

It should be emphasized that the application of innovative 3D techniques is not performed in isolation, but is instead an integrated research method within the TPW project. As such, it are the archaeologists - experimental, analytical and digital alike - that do the interpretation based on all available data, in which digital tools and 3D models take an essential yet supportive role. It is this role of digital visualisation tools in archaeological knowledge production and its impact on archaeological practice that I'm particularly interested in. I'm developing an integrated approach of visualisation methods and archaeological (technology) theory that should provide a framework to analyse underlying processes and mechanisms that shape and change past and present practices.

Supervisors: dr. Jill Hilditch en prof. Robin Boast

Affiliations

Member Scientific Board 4D Research Lab

Staff member and illustrator Satricum Research Project

Courses

Omgaan met materiële bronnen 2 (Visualisation part; 1^st year course)

Conference 

Archon Winter School Sharing Practices: Archaeological 3D Visualisation in the Netherlands

20-22 February 2020, RCE Amersfoort and University of Amsterdam

Organisers: L. Opgenhaffen, M. Revello Lami, dr. H. Mickleburgh

The 2020 Archon Winter School Sharing Practices: Archaeological 3D Visualisation in the Netherlands aimed to move beyond traditional research boundaries, and seeks to establish a community of practice for young researchers in the Netherlands with a shared interest in 3D visualisation of (archaeological) heritage. Archaeologists from both academic and commercial settings contributed to the symposium by sharing their work in the form of oral presentations and/or interactive posters, showcased during the three-day event. All contributions promoted the development of an established set of standards, guidelines or methodology of the use and deployment of 3D technology in archaeological research.

The proceedings will be published in the Open Archaeology Special Issue on Art, Creativity and Automation. Sharing 3D Visualization Practices in Archaeology.