Tracing Networks

Using computers to increase our understanding of history and then using that understanding of history to increase the power of computers? It’s an astounding circular concept but one being realised by the Tracing Networks project.

An overlap between Museum Studies and Archaeology might be expected – although it’s harder to conceive of a link with Computer Science. And yet, these three Departments are joining forces with colleagues from other universities to lead a multi-million pound project, awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, which promises fascinating, world-class research.

The whole process starts with the study of thousands of artefacts produced around the Mediterranean between about 1500 BC and 200 BC. This reveals evidence for the existence of trading networks.

But these are not simply trade networks; this is about the movement of knowledge. Computer scientists will build an ontology-based repository - that is, a set of concepts and how those concepts relate to each other - and a collaborative online environment which will be able to infer new knowledge and reveal things that could not otherwise be discovered through the traditional method of cataloguing items.

And it doesn’t end here. These ancient networks of trade and knowledge offer exciting new models for the way software applications organise themselves in 'global computers'. The team plan to take the information generated by analysing these ancient knowledge networks and apply it to 21st century computer networks.

It is this aspect that marks Tracing Networks as truly innovative. It promises to enhance our understanding of the past, the present and the future, applying a historical understanding to cutting-edge technology and vice versa.

The conceptual distance between Bronze Age trading networks and computing paradigms turns out to be a lot shorter than we might expect.

• Tracing Networks
• Department of Archaeology and Ancient History
• Department of Computer Science
• Department of Museum Studies

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