In addition to our general issue, which has open submissions throughout the year, the JCAA also publishes themed special collections. If you would like to submit to any of your forthcoming collections, please follow the instructions in the below calls.
Unless stated otherwise, the following applies to all collections:
Open submission, prospective titles and abstracts due by 1 May 2022
Joan Anton Barcelo, Dept. of Prehistory and Quantitative Archaeology Lab. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Joshua Emmitt, School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland
Peter McKeague, Historic Environment Scotland
Nicole Smith, School of Humanities, University of Glasgow
CAA started as an annual event hosted in Birmingham in the early 1970s and became an international conference in 1992 with its event in Aarhus Denmark. Since then, the community has grown to over 500 active annual members, and 16 national chapters, working on a wide variety of applications of digital and computational approaches to archaeological research.
As the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) community approaches 50 years, this volume aims to critically assess the development of digital and computational archaeology and its contributions to the broader archaeological discipline and interdisciplinary research through the lens of the CAA community’s activities.
The special issue will be a combination of specially commissioned contributions and contributions solicited through an open call that may reflect on three core questions:
To address these broad questions, this special issue will be structured around two collections of papers, and we welcome contributions addressing aspects of the themes outlined above from members of the CAA community.
The first collection will focus on understanding the role of the CAA community in the development of methods and applications, and will include contributions which review the history of practice. Through historical overviews drawing on CAAs proceedings, archival material and interviews with key figures in the community, it will explore the typical applications at its origin in the 1970s: from computerised site recording, over data management systems, to statistical analyses. It will explore trends of how these and other applications changed through time: increasing diversification of computer applications, the emergence of GIS, the impact of the internet. This inward-looking overview will be guided throughout by the following key questions. To what extent did the CAA community develop and pioneer computational applications and to what extent did it follow existing trends? What was the role of the annual event in creating an international network to facilitate the coming together of different ideas, and how did this inspire original developments to emerge from the community? This call is also an opportunity to critically assess the make-up of the community and set out directions for our future.
The emphasis of the second collection of papers is outward facing, exploring the impact of work related to the CAA community on wider archaeological practice and on interdisciplinary work, where it intersects with data science, digital humanities and computer science. It will draw on published surveys, bibliometrics data, and qualitative assessments of key publications, individuals and communities. This section frames digital computational archaeology as a community of practice and provides focused explorations of overlaps with cognate communities of practice. It will assemble contributions to address a more diverse set of questions: Does computational archaeology form a coherent community, or does it bring together topical specialists that primarily contribute to substantive debates? Are computational archaeologists central or peripheral to their academic communities, and how are their contributions to fieldwork projects formally recognised? How does digital and computational archaeological work serve as a driver for interdisciplinary efforts, and do its challenges encourage the development of new computational techniques, that are recognised as innovations in computer science, digital humanities, or the emerging domain of data science? And, most crucially, how, if at all, have computational approaches fundamentally changed the way in which different aspects of the archaeological process is done, from fieldwork, through analysis, to publication and outreach?
The JCAA is committed to supporting diversity and improving access to research and practice around archaeological computing. We aim to promote inclusive working and publishing within the CAA community. The editorial team particularly welcomes authors from diverse backgrounds to propose submissions. We also encourage contributions from researchers in under-represented countries that describe the particular situation in their countries.
We are looking for prospective contributors to any of those collections. Please, send us a prospective title and a tentative abstract (around 500 words) for your contribution before May 1st. Accepted proposals will be negotiated with editors to give coherence to the final volumes.
Abstract submissions should be sent to Peter McKeague peter.mckeague@hes.scot
We are aiming to have the Special Collection completed by the time of the CAA2023 conference.
If you have any questions about this call, please contact Nicole Smith Nicole.Smith@glasgow.ac.uk
Open submission, papers due by 1 May 2022
Joshua Emmitt, School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland ORCID: 0000-0003-1224-200X
Matthew Meredith-Williams, Department of History and Archaeology, La Trobe University ORCID: 0000-0001-5284-641X
The aim of this JCAA special issue is to present a range of archaeological research undertaken by Australasian researchers, and our colleagues from the wider Pacific. Through showcasing the research being conducted by archaeologists in the region the issue aims to demonstrate the range of methodologies that are being employed to data from Australasia and beyond. Due to the relatively low number of archaeologists in total but also a relatively high proportion of commercial archaeologists in Australasia, methodologies are often applied in ways that encourage efficient implementation. In particular, the application of 3D technologies are often utilized in the region, whether in the form of objects or landscapes, for outreach and analysis purposes. This creates challenges in data management and the dissemination of data as ethical issues such as data sovereignty must routinely be taken into account. Addressing these challenges is critical in developing and maintaining meaningful relationships between archaeologists and indigenous communities.
Contributions are encouraged from people who have presented at the 2020 or 2021 CAA Australasia conferences, but are open to any Australasian based researchers or research based in Australasia and adjacent regions. Submissions are encouraged but not limited to; Indigenous engagement, artefact analysis, photogrammetry, machine learning, remote sensing, FAIR and CARE principals, landscape analysis, and data presentation.
Potential contributors will submit abstracts to both Joshua Emmitt (josh.emmitt@auckland.ac.nz) and Matthew Meredith-Williams (m.meredith-williams@latrobe.edu.au). These will be reviewed to ensure they fit with the special issue, then the authors will be asked to submit their paper through the JCAA. The submission and review of full manuscripts will follow the guidelines of the JCAA.
Open for abstract submissions until 31 December 2021
Editors: Maria Elena Castiello, Damase Mouralis, Julie Gravier, Lucie Nahassia
The study of past societies requires describing and explaining patterns and their dynamics (diffusion of materials, settlement organization, raw material exchanges, biological indicators of landscape changes, etc.) in a multi-dimensional spatio-temporal environment from incomplete, ambiguous and heterogeneous datasets, which often lead to (retro)prediction.
Though traditional methods remain important to investigate material culture complexes and past human societies over time and space, novel quantitative approaches based on computational modeling are rapidly gaining momentum. Researchers can rely nowadays on multi-modelling approaches from various backgrounds, including conceptual models, data mining and data-driven analysis (e.g. machine learning and stochastic models), spatial analysis and computer simulations, at different stage of the work process.
In such context, this special collection aims at exploring challenges and opportunities offered by bringing together traditional archaeological questions with the most cuttingedge technological applications.
We invite contributions, related with but not limited to, the following complementary thematic studies and methodological approaches:
Potential contributors should submit abstracts of about 500 words to Maria Elena Castiello (maria.castiello@iaw.unibe.ch).
The submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the editors and a selection of abstracts will be made to ensure content relevance and consistency.
The authors of selected abstracts will be contacted to submit full manuscripts.
The submission and review of full manuscripts will follow the guidelines of the JCAA.
Open for abstract submissions from the 15th September 2019
Editors: Arianna Traviglia and Riccardo Giovanelli
The aim of this JCAA special issue is to bring together ongoing digital practices attempting to understand and fight the phenomena of pillage and illicit trade of archaeological objects, in order to boost the discussion and define a set of good practices. In recent years, in fact, despite the 1970 “UNESCO convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property”, plundering and illicit trade of archaeological objects have been on the rise and becoming a global-scale phenomenon, further exacerbated by the turmoil stemmed from the crisis in the MENA regions.
As a consequence of this upsurge, we are assisting the widening of digitally enhanced initiatives, promoted by diverse actors engaged in the protection of endangered cultural heritage and in halting illicit trade, which increasingly rely on technological and digital advances. Remote sensing is being used to detect and monitor illicit excavations, exploring new ways to automate looting recognition methods; Illicit online sales, social media, online forums, the deep web and trafficking networks are being investigated with the support of machine learning, delivering quantitative and content data; 3D imagery-fed blockchain technologies are currently being investigated to customise this emerging technology to immutably trace provenances records and create a record of assets that cannot be tampered with.
We seek contributions discussing different digital approaches like (but not limited to):
Potential contributors will submit abstracts of about 500 words to both Arianna Traviglia (arianna.traviglia@iit.it) and Riccardo Giovanelli (riccardo.giovanelli@unive.it).
The submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the editorial team and a selection of abstracts will be made to ensure content relevance and consistency.
The authors of selected abstracts will be contacted to submit full manuscripts.
The submission and review of full manuscripts will follow the guidelines of the JCAA.
The call will remain open until the end of 2020.
This special issue is promoted within the framework of the H2020 Netcher project (NETwork and digital platform for Cultural Heritage Enhancing and Rebuilding) that aims at creating a structured network of actors engaged in fighting archaeological property pillage: https://netcher.eu/