#synthkat

##Synthetic Categories for Archaeological Vessel Comparison

Synthkat is a computational initiative to construct flexible, synthetic categories of established ceramic and glass vessel classifications and typologies of the ancient Roman world. It will take a collection of different vessel-types, expressed as a set of attributes, and recategorize them to allow for cross-project comparison of assemblages. Project files and algorithms are available for use under the GNU Public License v. 3.0.

The current script uses the following libraries:

• gensim
• matplotlib
• numpy
• scipy

Synthkat is a work in progress. Initial focus has been on second- and first-century BCE Italy, but the design of synthkat is to be aggregative, toward encompassing ever larger datasets. The first set of pilot data in .csv, .json, and .txt format, as well as scripts in python, are available on https://github.com/scollinselliott/synthkat/tree/master/pilot.

When citing synthkat, please use the following reference:

• Collins-Elliott, S.A. 2016. "Agglomerative Clustering using Cosine and Jaccard Distances: A Computational Approach to Roman Vessel Taxonomy." Archeologia e Calcolatori 27:7-25.

Stephen Collins-Elliott

Department of Classics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

1 May 2016

Knoxville, Tennessee