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IBE meets AIR : A framework for structured archaeological reasoning and digital reconstruction

Campanaro, Danilo Marco LU orcid ; Derudas, Paola LU orcid ; Thomsen, Mikkel Haugstrup ; Foley, Brendan LU orcid and Nurra, Federico (2025) In Digital Heritage
Abstract
The increasing use of digital tools in archaeology has vastly expanded our capacity to document and visualise the past, yet the reasoning that connects evidence to interpretation often remains implicit or undocumented. This paper addresses that gap
by integrating Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE)—a philosophical model of hypothesis evaluation—into the Archaeological Interactive Report (AIR), a semantic platform for managing and visualising archaeological data. We demonstrate how this integration enables transparent, iterative, and reproducible archaeological interpretation by structuring hypotheses, linking them to evidence, and assessing them against explanatory virtues. Two case studies illustrate the potential of this... (More)
The increasing use of digital tools in archaeology has vastly expanded our capacity to document and visualise the past, yet the reasoning that connects evidence to interpretation often remains implicit or undocumented. This paper addresses that gap
by integrating Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE)—a philosophical model of hypothesis evaluation—into the Archaeological Interactive Report (AIR), a semantic platform for managing and visualising archaeological data. We demonstrate how this integration enables transparent, iterative, and reproducible archaeological interpretation by structuring hypotheses, linking them to evidence, and assessing them against explanatory virtues. Two case studies illustrate the potential of this framework: the systematic reconstruction of the House of the Greek Epigrams in Pompeii, and an experimental application to the Gribshunden shipwreck, where reasoning evolves alongside data collection. The result is a replicable method that formalises archaeological argumentation and embeds it directly within digital infrastructure, making interpretation not only visible, but critically assessable and reusable. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Digital Heritage
pages
10 pages
publisher
Eurographics - European Association for Computer Graphics
DOI
10.2312/dh.20253298
project
Floating Castles: the Built Environment and Social Signaling in Medieval Scandinavia
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
523949ef-3bfa-4ed9-8b88-27840909d18a
date added to LUP
2025-10-29 13:42:36
date last changed
2025-10-30 10:03:06
@article{523949ef-3bfa-4ed9-8b88-27840909d18a,
  abstract     = {{The increasing use of digital tools in archaeology has vastly expanded our capacity to document and visualise the past, yet the reasoning that connects evidence to interpretation often remains implicit or undocumented. This paper addresses that gap<br/>by integrating Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE)—a philosophical model of hypothesis evaluation—into the Archaeological Interactive Report (AIR), a semantic platform for managing and visualising archaeological data. We demonstrate how this integration enables transparent, iterative, and reproducible archaeological interpretation by structuring hypotheses, linking them to evidence, and assessing them against explanatory virtues. Two case studies illustrate the potential of this framework: the systematic reconstruction of the House of the Greek Epigrams in Pompeii, and an experimental application to the Gribshunden shipwreck, where reasoning evolves alongside data collection. The result is a replicable method that formalises archaeological argumentation and embeds it directly within digital infrastructure, making interpretation not only visible, but critically assessable and reusable.}},
  author       = {{Campanaro, Danilo Marco and Derudas, Paola and Thomsen, Mikkel Haugstrup and Foley, Brendan and Nurra, Federico}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Eurographics - European Association for Computer Graphics}},
  series       = {{Digital Heritage}},
  title        = {{IBE meets AIR : A framework for structured archaeological reasoning and digital reconstruction}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2312/dh.20253298}},
  doi          = {{10.2312/dh.20253298}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}