Anthropogenic and environmental processes present unique challenges for preserving cultural heritage in North Africa. Large parts of this region are characterised by unfavourable arid and semi-arid conditions and rapid changes to the landscapes caused by heightened regional development (e.g., urban expansion, road building, agricultural intensification, and socio-political conflicts). As a result, we are facing a fast-paced disappearance of heritage sites in regions that are still poorly understood. Following this, the utilisation of Earth observation data through aerial photographs and satellite imagery has emerged as an unmatched tool in the exploration of endangered archaeological heritage. Drawing on this context, this paper underscores the critical significance of incorporating digital research methods, such as remote sensing, GIS, or cartographic analysis, to ensure the evaluation and (digital) preservation of the historical sites along these vulnerable areas. Furthermore, our study seeks to provide new insights into data management and dissemination, fostering open research practices within North African archaeological research.

La investigación de redes en arqueología es una subdisciplina en auge, en la que una gran diversidad de preguntas de investigación sobre el pasado humano se estudian a través de la teoría relacional y los métodos formales de redes. Este artículo pretende exponer el potencial de la investigación de redes en arqueología. Para ello, comenzamos definiendo la propia subdisciplina, abordando la importancia de cada uno de los elementos que la constituyen y qué tipo de preguntas históricas pueden resolverse a través de ella. Como resultado, tratamos de que el lector comprenda mejor “qué” es la investigación de redes, “qué” podemos hacer con ella y, lo que es más importante, “por qué” la necesitamos.

This study examines the influence of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology to understand the complexities of historical mobility. Based on Landscape Archaeology, this study considers some of these theoretical principles for studying and reconstructing the movements of past human populations. This discussion is grounded on the example of a research project focused on modelling movement and interaction patterns between the Aegean area (Crete) and northeastern African region (Marmarica) from the Late Bronze to Roman times. The project works with multivariate data representative of the routes and non-human factors that may interplay in biocultural processes. Three key aspects structure this article: (1) the emergence of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology in archaeology, (2) their impact on the theoretical evolution of Landscape Archaeology, and (3) the methodological implementation of these principles through a case study. We specifically discuss the strengths of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology to enhance the conceptualisation of mobility by considering the heterarchical interrelationships between human and non-human agents. Our methodological implementations showcase this by using computational approaches to model human pathways influenced by and in constant relationship with their environment. This research thus highlights the importance of transdisciplinary approaches to studying historical mobility from an archaeological and complex systems perspective.

Over the last decades, archaeology has experienced a transformative revolution in the wake of the digital that has shaped the ways in which it is researched and published. A key concept, openness, has emerged from this shift. This article explores digital approaches to data management conducted within the framework of the PERAIA project, which provides a comprehensive open database and a web application that integrate data on archaeological heritage spanning from late prehistory to antiquity, covering the Aegean area (Crete) and northeastern Libya / northwestern Egypt (Marmarica). We used a methodology that integrates legacy data with historical aerial and satellite imagery to identify archaeological features in the landscape, thereby enriching them with associated environmental and historical (meta)data. Our open data practices reflect a commitment to open science, in which digital technology and the LOUD+FAIR principles have been at the core of the project to achieve data openness, fair access to information, and enhanced data reusability potential.