Eleftheria Paliou - Spatial Analysis and Social Spaces: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Interpretation of Prehistoric and Historic Built Environments

Eleftheria Paliou studied Archaeology and History of Art at the University of Athens and obtained a MSc in Archaeological Information Systems at the University of York. Her PhD thesis, which was completed at the University of Southampton, examined the communicative potential and social meanings of Theran mural painting in the build environment of Late Bronze Age Akrotiri (Thera, Greece) via the development and application of 3D visibility analysis methods. Her general research interests lie within the fields of Aegean prehistory, historical and prehistoric urban settlement in Mediterranean, landscape archaeology and computational analysis in archaeology (Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 3D modeling, architectural computing). She has been involved in a number of post-doctoral projects as a Junior and Senior Research Fellow at the Topoi Excellence Cluster (Free University, Berlin) and a Marie Curie Experienced Researcher, while currently she holds a Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Heidelberg. In 2012 she became a founding member and deputy chair of CAA GR (Computer applications and quantitative methods in Archaeology Greek chapter).

Undine Lieberwirth studied Prehistoric Archaeology and Classical Archaeology at the Humboldt-University Berlin and GIS and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology at the University College London. Her Masters thesis dealt with the modelling of archaeological stratigraphy in 3D GIS environments. This topic is also the focus of her PhD thesis specialising in 3D spatial statistics.

She is currently working at the institute for Prehistoric Archaeology at the Free University Berlin as a university lecturer for GIS Applications in Archaeology with a focus on methodology which allows participation of students with different archaeological interests. She is also working as a co-ordinator and supervisor for GIS applications and databases in the Excellence Cluster Topoi.

Her research interests are hence methodological approaches in terms of quantitative data documentation (digital 3D documentation), digital field techniques, survey methods and spatial analysis of archaeological data.

Silvia Polla obtained a degree in Classical Archaeology from the University of Trento (Italy) and a PhD from the University of Siena (Italy) within the framework of the International Graduate School The cultures of the Roman Provinces. Her doctoral thesis analyses the multi-period surface survey pottery record from a Mediterranean micro-region in the Roman Africa Proconsularis using an integrated archaeological and archaeometrical approach and GIS-based computational techniques.

Her research focuses on the use of spatial technology for the study of ancient urban and rural socio-economic systems, settlement patterns and infrastructures as well as practices of movement of people and goods at various scales. She has published contributions on Archaeometry and GIS technology in international and peer reviewed Journals and Conference Proceedings. She currently holds the position of Juniorprofessor of Archaeoinformatics at the Institute of Classical Archaeology of the Free University Berlin and is a member of the Excellence Cluster Topoi.