On August 20th, 2020, 2:15-4:30 PM UTC (short interval by 3:30), Summer@LSTS 2020 had Filipe Castro, who gave a lecture on Archaeology and Engineering.

Archaeologists study and try to reconstruct past human activity based on the material remains left behind. To interpret and reconstruct habitats, ships, or even small artifacts, archaeologists look at similar behaviors or artifacts or settling patterns of live cultures around the globe, in order to try to understand the contexts they are studying. Because of that, in many countries around the world archaeology is a sub-discipline of anthropology, not history, as it is in Europe. In any event, archaeologists are anthropologists, because they study the human adventure, which is the very definition of anthropology. But excavating is a very destructive activity. To get to the lower levels of a context, archaeologists must remove – and thus destroy – the upper levels of an archaeological context. For this reason, recording is a big responsibility, and archaeologists work with all sorts of specialists, in order to collect as much information as possible: biochemists, geologists, paleontologists, ethnologists, chemists, photographers, and engineers. This session is about some of the applications of engineering that are extremely useful to archaeologists.

Filipe Castro is the Frederick R. Mayer II Professor of Anthropology and Director of Ship Reconstruction Laboratory (ShipLAB) at Texas A&M University. He holds a Ph.D. on Anthropology from Texas A&M University, a M.B.A. on International Management from Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and a Post-Graduation on Recuperation of Ancient Buildings and Monuments from the Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa, Portugal. He is a Professional Engineer licensed by the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal. Filipe is currently working with Archaeologist Massimo Capulli of Università degli Studi di Udine and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Fruili Venezia Giulia on the Anaxum Project, which consists on the study of the history of River Stella, in Northern Italy, through time. He also working on the development of a dendrochronology database for the Iberian Peninsula (P.I. Dr. Ana Crespo Solana), and on 3D visualization of ship structures (P.I. Dr. Pierre Drap).

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.