What is Data Analytics?
Each day, an estimated 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created. The past two years alone have accounted for 90% of this data creation. Data is everywhere; it comes in different sizes and from different sources. There’s data in every second of recorded security camera footage, each open-ended survey question response, and even in the quarterly grades of all the students in a school district. However, until this data is sorted and analyzed, none of it is actionable. But what to do with it all?
This is where data analytics comes in. Data Analytics is the set of techniques used to analyze raw data (unprocessed data) to extract relevant information, trends, and insights. This process includes collecting data, organizing it, and storing it, then performing statistical analysis on the data. Once the information is collected, conclusions can be drawn from it, which can be used for problem-solving, business processing, decision-making, and predictions that can inform what a company’s next steps should be. This process relies on disciplines like mathematics, statistics, and computer programming.
This article will explore how the field of data analytics can be applied to archeology in order to help researchers and scientists learn more about the past.
Applying Data Analytics to Archeology
Archeology pertains to studying the past. By unearthing clues about how prior civilizations lived, scientists can learn how humans have changed and developed over time. Insights into how agriculture spread, how language developed, and how genomes spread help Archeologists have a deeper understanding of human civilization.
The field of Archeology has been greatly transformed with the incorporation of data analytic and data science tools and techniques. Unlike in the past, where ancient sites were often physically altered so that important information could be unearthed, today it’s not necessary to manipulate or destroy the environment around these sites. Instead, Archeological Data Scientists use digital technology and data to locate and map these locations, which can often be done remotely.
Here are some of the main ways data analytic techniques are being applied to the field of archeology:
- Computer vision algorithms are used to analyze imagery collected from planes and drones to automate the process of discovering potential archeological sites. Automated algorithms are also being used to identify large mounds native Southeast American native populations constructed long ago with shells and earth. These huge mounds often go undetected due to the dense forest regions they are buried beneath, which make surveying and aerial observation difficult.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) helps linguistic anthropologists study the origins of different languages. This technology has been applied to ancient Greek objects made of ceramics or stone and have damaged surfaces in order to recreate missing inscriptions. AI also has applications for analyzing the behavior of early humans. It was applied to the Navalmaillo Rock Shelter in Madrid to study this 76,000-year-old site in order to learn more about what life was like there. Paleontologists and Archeologists were able to gain valuable insights into early Neandrithal groups, who broke animal bones in order to consume their marrow.
- The huge pre-Columbian site Kuelap has recently been studied using a drone called LiDar (Light Detection and Ranging) so that its architectural complexity could be rediscovered and documented.
- When studying the Incan Empire in South America, researchers incorporated various techniques, such as online databases, drones, and satellite images, to gather information. In order to learn more about this ancient civilization, researchers created and populated two databases for collecting information and images pertaining to the mass resettlement of the Inca in the 1500s. Because more than a million people were forcibly moved by the Spanish at that time, it was one of the most massive resettlements in history. Yet there is no master list of where these individuals were moved. Through analyzing big data in these two databases, they have been able to identify nearly three-quarters of the sites where the Inca were relocated, and have even been able to create maps of every known Spanish-founded colonial settlement in the region.
- Using data analytics, Archeologists join with Climate Scientists to perform cross-analyses of the world’s climate in order to learn how it contributes to human behavior.
- Non-invasive archeological techniques are being applied to ancient sites that are either inaccessible or too fragile to physically explore. By compiling images and dimensions of these locations, it’s possible to recreate relics and entire sites so that they can be studied as they would have been when they were in use.
- Not only does the field of archeology rely on data analytics to help make sense of the past, but it also uses data visualizations to help present the findings to a general audience:
- Virtual reality and robotics technology are just two tools Archeological Data Scientists apply to find historical sites and reconstruct them visually.
- Three-dimensional recreations of historic sites provide a means for the general public to experience and explore past structures and civilizations.
- Enhanced reality experiences use image processing techniques like Reflective Transformation Imaging (a photographic method that records surface color and shape so that the image can have re-lighting applied to it from any direction, and so that its shape and color can be mathematically enhanced) to overlay digitally enhanced features onto the geometry in caves to discover archeological features that may not be apparent through observation alone.
- Machine learning tools are applied to help determine how relevant and accurate certain archeological findings are.
The Future of Data Analytics & Archeology
The field of data analytics offers an array of possibilities for preserving, understanding, and revisiting the past. By using cutting-edge data visualization techniques, Archeological Data Scientists can continue to recreate structures, societies, and relics that have been destroyed from natural disaster, tourism, or war.
In the coming years, cyber-archeology is expected to be used more and more to provide access to older data so that we can have a better understanding of how humanity has changed over the years. As world heritage and historical sites continue to be threatened by extreme weather, political upheaval, and the attrition of time, Archeologists can continue to incorporate machine learning, virtual reality, interactive data visualization, and big data analytic techniques into the search for past civilizations, as well as to help contemporary audiences experience these sites like never before.
Hands-On Data Analytics Classes
Are you interested in learning more about data analytics? If so, Noble Desktop’s data analytics classes are a great starting point. Courses are currently available in topics such as Excel, Python, and data analytics, among others skills necessary for analyzing data. In addition, more than 130 live online data analytics courses are also available from top providers. Courses range from three hours to six months and cost from $219 to $27,500.
Those who are committed to learning in an intensive educational environment may also consider enrolling in a data analytics or data science bootcamp. These rigorous courses are taught by industry experts and provide timely instruction on how to handle large sets of data. Over 90 bootcamp options are available for beginners, intermediate, and advanced students looking to master skills and topics like data analytics, data visualization, data science, and Python, among others.
For those searching for a data analytics class nearby, Noble’s data analytics Classes Near Me tool provides an easy way to locate and browse the 400 or so data analytics classes currently offered in the in-person and live online formats. Course lengths vary from three hours to 36 weeks and cost $119-$27,500.