Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (2019-2023)

Integrative Human Historical Science of "Out of Eurasia"
Exploring the Mechanisms of the Development of Civilization

Members

C01 Integrative studies of anthropological, archaeological, and cognitive evidence through 3D database construction and mathematical analyses and modeling

Members

Principal Investigator
Hisashi Nakao (Anthropology and Philosophy/Anthropological Institute,
Nanzan University)
Co-investigators
Akihiro Kaneda (Archaeological Operations, Nara National Research Institute
for Cultural Properties)
Kohei Tamura (Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences,
Tohoku University)
Koji Noshita (Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University)
Project Researcher
Tomomi Nakagawa (Anthropological Institute, Nanzan University)
Research Associate
Ai Takeuchi (Anthropological Institute, Nanzan University)

Research outline

The aim of this project is to construct a database for sharing and analyzing interdisciplinary data, to mathematically and statistically investigate the spatio-temporal relationship, co-variation, and causal relationship among the data, and finally to build mathematical or theoretical models describing mechanisms of civilizations. In particular, we use geometric morphometrics to analyze 3D data gathered by measuring equipment such as SfM-MVS (Structure from Motion and Multi-view Stereo), laser scanners, and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). Through such quantitative analyses, we overcome problems frequently found in recent macroscopic comparative analyses of civilizations, i.e., qualitative arguments based on biased information.

We also aim to integrate various kinds of data from other research groups through closely collaborating with the steering committee. Such integration has the potential to reform the research methods of archaeology and anthropology and reveal tendencies and problems not readily apparent through traditional research means.