M.C. Bishop

Bio: M.C. Bishop is an academic researcher from University of Western Australia. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 70 citations.

Archaeology of Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 300 BC–AD 700

Abstract: In the millennium after 300 BC, the western Indian Ocean emerged as a main hub of Old World exchange. Study of this commerce long depended on separate regional archaeologies and a handful of literary sources with Western/Roman bias. A recent surge in scholarly interest has led to a vast increase in data that has fostered a more balanced understanding of the commercial, human, and material aspects of ancient Indian Ocean trade. This review summarizes recent research on the topic and assesses its significance to wider scholarly debates on scale, organization, connectivity, agency, and social cohesion in ancient trade and exchange.

The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age

Abstract: 1. Arabia and the study of the ancient Near East 2. Ecological and environmental diversity in Arabia 3. The formation of Arabian society: 7000 to 3000 BC 4. Eastern Arabia from 3000 to 2000 BC 5. The Bronze Age in western Arabia 6. Eastern Arabia from 2000 to 1300 BC 7. Humans, dromedaries, and the transformation of ancient Arabia 8. Intensification and consolidation: Arabia from 1300 to 800 BC 9. Expansion and engagement: Arabia and the ancient Near East 10. Adaptation and social formation in ancient Arabia.

Exploration and contextualization through interaction and concepts

Abstract: Today's technology enables the continuous production of digital information. The abundance of available information provides researchers with the opportunity to ask new questions but also requires new research methods and tools. The traditional objects studied in the humanities have always been analogue records such as books, letters, and photographs. These objects are studied using analytical, critical, and interpretative approaches instead of computational ones. As the introduction of new technology and information sources is changing the way humanities researchers work and the questions they seek to answer, a new challenge arises for the development of tools and algorithms that support new practices as well as traditional ones. Particular challenges for humanities researchers raised by the abundance of available material are to gain insight in which materials to consider for a study through exploration and once chosen to obtain a holistic view of the research topic through contextualization. This thesis investigates two dimensions along which tools to support humanities researchers in dealing with the flood of information may be improved: by providing richer means of interaction with information systems and developing algorithms that allow discovery of information through relations between concepts. The results in this thesis show how both richer interactions and more effective related concept finding algorithms may be used to improve tools to support the research practices of humanities researchers. The insights from the work in this thesis may be used to inform the design and evaluation of future tools to continually support new needs and developments in the humanities.

From above and on the ground : geospatial methods for recording endangered archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa.

Abstract: The EAMENA (Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa) project is a collaboration between the Universities of Leicester, Oxford and Durham; it is funded by the Arcadia Fund and the Cultural Protection Fund. This paper explores the development of the EAMENA methodology, and discusses some of the problems of working across such a broad region. We discuss two main case studies: the World Heritage site of Cyrene illustrates how the project can use satellite imagery (dating from the 1960s to 2017), in conjunction with published data to create a detailed set of database records for a single site and, in particular, highlights the impact of modern urban expansion across the region. Conversely, the Homs Cairns case study demonstrates how the EAMENA methodology also works at an extensive scale, and integrates image interpretation (using imagery dating from the 1960s to 2016), landuse mapping and field survey (2007–2010) to record and analyse the condition of hundreds of features across a small study region. This study emphasises the impact of modern agricultural and land clearing activities. Ultimately, this paper assesses the effectiveness of the EAMENA approach, evaluating its potential success against projects using crowd-sourcing and automation for recording archaeological sites, and seeks to determine the most appropriate methods to use to document sites and assess disturbances and threats across such a vast and diverse area.