Energetic Cost Calculator for Ancient Architecture (EnCAB) and Open Context
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-11-26

Architecture is one of the main elements of material culture that archaeologists find in the archaeological record, with the primary research focused on the typology, function, and the life of the building as shown in the stratigraphy. There is, however, another important aspect which is seldom explored: the process of construction leading up to the first use of the building. The chaîne opératoire methodology can be used to explore this process, allowing for its disarticulation into discrete steps. It cannot, however, explore the material, temporal, or energetic ‘cost’ of these steps; cost-calculation-algorithms are needed which can be applied to the volumes of ancient architecture. These algorithms attempt to answer specific questions regarding the cost (in time, material and/or energy) needed for the steps in the construction process on the basis of the actual (as present in the archaeological record) or estimated volumes of the building. The Energetic Cost Calculator for Ancient Architecture (EnCAB) Project builds on work done in analyzing the AP Palace of Tell Mozan, expanding the number of algorithms to allow for a broader range of architecture types to be examined. These algorithms are presented as a web-based calculator, allowing users to enter their own data, compare their results to a range of examples and explore the types of sources used in generating each algorithm. Hosting, documentation, and version control are all on Github to promote greater reproducibility, and the project will be published under an open access license to allow the calculator to expand as research in this field progresses. Used in collaboration with datasets from diverse contexts, EnCAB allows for a comparison of types of buildings across chronological and cultural boundaries. Questions such as: how do building materials change the overall cost of monumental constructions? How much of a role does size play in the construction of monumental architecture? Apart from size, how do public buildings differ from vernacular architecture? How does the investment in building a palace compare to what is needed for a city wall? Does the palace/city-wall ratio change across cultures? Time periods? In order to answer questions like these, EnCAB requires a sufficiently rich and well documented body comparative data. To this end, EnCAB will draw on digital repositories and data publishing programs like Open Context; such a collaboration will also help inform and guide metadata requirements for programs such as Open Context. Thus approaches to computational modeling can play an important role understanding how our discipline can better curate primary data.

Full title: Energetic Cost Calculator for Ancient Architecture (EnCAB) and Open Context – Combining a Digital Tool and Digital Data to Explore Ancient Architecture

(Federico Buccellati)