Toward the development of cultural evolutionary study by unifying archaeology and informatics

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H06615
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Library and information science/Humanistic social informatics
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Tamura Kohei 東北大学, 学際科学フロンティア研究所, 助教 (60725274)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 文化進化 / 形態測定学 / データベース / 土器

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of present study is to introduce mathematical analysis into archaeology, with a particular focus on methods in studies on cultural evolution. The present study has two steps. In the first step, I quantified shapes of a type of pottery in the early phase of the Yayoi period by using methods in geometric morphometrics. Then I visualized geographical variation in shapes of the pottery. This variation could be related with the spreading process of the pottery. In the second phase, I developed a database for the pottery with several analytical methods. In this database, we can intuitively use the above methods just by clicking subjects and methods on a web browser.

Free Research Field

人類学