https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/697 Thu, 07 May 2026 20:43:14 GMT 2026-05-07T20:43:14Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146156 Title: High-resolution 3D digitization and analysis of the Mesolithic site of Latnija (Malta) Authors: Tanasi, Davide; Fawbush, Alex; Kingsland, Kaitlyn; Calderone, Dario; Scerri, Eleanor; Vella, Nicholas C.; Groucutt, Huw S. Abstract: This paper presents the high-resolution 3D digitization of the Mesolithic archaeological site of Latnija (Għar Tuta), located in a doline in northern Malta. The study employed terrestrial laser scanning using the Faro Focus s150 scanner to generate a precise digital representation of the site's complex geological and archaeological context. The resulting point cloud data, meticulously processed in Faro Scene, was optimized, filtered, and transformed into a detailed 3D mesh model. Despite challenges such as geological instability and limited scan overlap, the digitized model achieved high accuracy and visual continuity. Furthermore, the model serves as a crucial tool for preserving this fragile archaeological context against ongoing environmental threats, enabling detailed spatial analyses, and facilitating public engagement. This research highlights the effectiveness and critical importance of integrating advanced digital methodologies into archaeological practice, ensuring long-term preservation and enhanced accessibility of significant prehistoric sites. Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146156 2025-10-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146150 Title: Revolution, modernity, and the dispersal of Homo sapiens beyond Africa Authors: Groucutt, Huw S. Abstract: In the recent past, evolutionarily speaking, every other kind of hominin, from the Neanderthals of western Eurasia to the ‘hobbits’ of Flores, became extinct while our species prospered and spread across the world, from remote islands to high mountains. Understanding how, why, and when this global spread of Homo sapiens occurred is a major question in human evolutionary studies. While there is broad agreement on our African origin and subsequent global expansion, currently fossil, genetic, and archaeological data and perspectives on the details of this process are, if not actively contradictory, then certainly uncomfortable bedfellows. In part, this uncertainty reflects the profound spatial and temporal biases in currently available archaeological, fossil, and genetic samples. However, there are also methodological and theoretical aspects which limit understanding. Two central examples, reviewed in this paper, are the challenges of accurately dating palaeoanthropological sites and the continuing influence of the outdated concept of a ‘Human Revolution’ and the related concept of ‘modernity’, in both cultural and biological forms. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146150 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146149 Title: Semi-automated detection of Holocene archaeological structures along the southern edge of the Nefud desert Authors: Hatton, Amy; Jambajantsan, Amina; Breeze, Paul S.; Guagnin, Maria; Fisher, Michael T.; al-Jibreen, Faisal; Alsharekh, Abdullah M.; Petraglia, Michael D.; Groucutt, Huw S. Abstract: Throughout the Holocene, humans covered the landscape of Arabia in hundreds of thousands of diverse dry-stone structures. These archaeological remains are predominantly funerary structures, enclosures, and camps although they also include ritualised features such as mustatils, all of which form essential components for understanding Neolithic and Bronze Age peninsular societies and their dynamic relationships with the natural environment. Archaeologists typically document these structures by either mapping them in the field or applying manual digitisation within a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework. Such methods are time consuming and can be expensive, especially in the case of field documentation. In order to develop a more time- and cost-effective method for identifying large numbers of stone features, we have tested three pre-trained semantic segmentation Deep Learning models (MA-Net, SegFormer, and U-Net) for semi-automatic feature detection by applying them to satellite imagery of archaeological landscapes in northwestern Saudi Arabia.; The results show that, the MA-Net model performed best on averaged metrics, however, the SegFormer model showed more stable metrics during training. We present confusion matrices to show that the SegFormer model is more consistently able to correctly identify stone structures, regardless of structure types, in contrast to the U-Net and MA-Net models. While survey and excavation of these structures is essential for producing fine-resolution data, automated workflows that incorporate remote sensing data can generate the breadth of coverage required for interpreting ancient social landscapes on a wider geographic scale. Such mapping is also critical for defining and protecting cultural heritage across the vast arid landscapes of desert regions such as Arabia and the Sahara. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146149 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146100 Title: (Re-) assembling the gilt-edged market : quantification, model misfire, and the politics of expertise in post war Britain Authors: Cassar, Dylan Abstract: This article explores the contested (re)-assembly of the UK gilt-edged market between the 1950s and 1980s, foregrounding the ever-shifting process of quantification in stockbroking firms that made and remade the market. Drawing on archival materials and oral history interviews, it first traces the consolidation of sociotechnical agencements, made up of actuaries, yield models and quantified evaluation practices in stockbroking research departments, which gained authority as investment became increasingly institutionalised. These calculative agencements reshaped trading practices, but were also subject to resistance, misfire, and rivalry as alternative, more formalised models were proposed. While actuarial authority was eventually displaced by ‘financial economics’ expertise, established valuation devices proved durable by being reconfigured and repurposed within new professional and institutional settings. The paper argues that the durability and performative capacity of models rest on their ontological mouldability: their capacity to be translated across successive regimes of expertise and institutional contexts while retaining practical relevance. The article contributes to recent scholarship in the Social Studies of Finance on performativity and post-performativity that emphasises the political, fragile, and historically situated nature of financial markets. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146100 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z