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About PyLithics

The Project

PyLithics began as part of the Palaeoanalytics project (ended), a collaboration between The Alan Turing Institute and the University of Cambridge, led by Professor Robert Foley. After the original Palaeoanalytics project ended, PyLithics software development has continued as part of the British Academy funded project "Transitions in early stone tool technologies: a computer vision and machine learning approach" (ongoing) led by Dr. Jason Gellis. These innovative projects seek to apply cutting-edge machine learning and computer vision techniques to archaeological research, specifically focusing on the feature extraction and quantitative analysis of prehistoric stone tools from 2D illustrations.

Research Impact

PyLithics has been designed to support multiple types of archaeological research:

Methodological Advances

  • Quantitative analysis of lithic assemblages
  • Standardization of measurement protocols
  • Reduction of inter-observer variability
  • Large-scale comparative studies

Archaeological Applications

  • Technological analysis of prehistoric industries
  • Cultural transmission studies
  • Skill assessment in prehistoric populations
  • Temporal and spatial variation in tool-making traditions

Open Science Commitment

PyLithics embodies principles of open science:

  • Open Source: All code is freely available under GPL v3.0
  • Transparent Methods: Processing algorithms are fully documented
  • Reproducible Research: Analysis parameters are recorded and sharable
  • Community Driven: Development guided by user needs and feedback

The Team

Dr. Jason Gellis

Dr. Gellis leads the technical development of PyLithics and brings expertise in computer vision, machine learning, and archaeological methodology. He has been involved in the project at all stages and currently leads PyLithics development as part of his British Academy funded research. His research focuses on the intersection of computational methods and archaeological science.

Prof. Robert Foley

Professor Foley is an evolutionary and biological anthropologist with research interests in human evolution, particularly the ecological basis for patterns and processes of human behavioural evolution. His work covers social evolution, speciation and extinction in hominins, hunter-gatherer ecology, and the origins of modern humans, applying evolutionary models to human evolution through both palaeobiological and contemporary biological methods. He has contributed extensively to the development of the African origin of modern humans field, working across fossils, genetics and archaeology, and is currently engaged in field projects focusing on the evolution of modern humans in Africa. Professor Foley led the Alan Turing Institute portion of the original Palaeoanalytics project and continues to participate in PyLithics development as an advisor, providing archaeological expertise and project oversight.

Dr. Camila Rangel Smith

Dr. Rangel Smith contributed data science expertise during the initial Alan Turing Institute phase of the project, helping to bridge the gap between advanced computational methods and practical archaeological applications.

Institutional Affiliations

The British Academy

The UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences, currently funding the ongoing PyLithics development through the "Transitions in early stone tool technologies" project, enabling continued research and software enhancement.

The Alan Turing Institute

The UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, provided computational expertise and infrastructure for the original Palaeoanalytics project.

University of Cambridge

The Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies (LCHES) provides archaeological expertise and access to extensive lithic collections for method development and validation throughout both phases of the project.

Funding and Support

This research is supported by:

  • The British Academy
  • The Alan Turing Institute
  • The University of Cambridge
  • The Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies

We are grateful for the institutional support that has made this project possible.

Citation

If you use PyLithics in your research, please cite:

DOI

Gellis, J., Rangel Smith, C., & Foley, R. (2024). PyLithics: A Python package for
archaeological lithic analysis [Computer software].
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.303727518

BibTeX Entry

@software{pylithics2024,\n  author = {Gellis, Jason and {Rangel Smith}, Camila and Foley, Robert},\n  title = {PyLithics: A Python package for archaeological lithic analysis},\n  year = {2024},\n  publisher = {Zenodo},\n  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.303727518},\n  url = {https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/Palaeoanalytics}\n}

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the archaeological and computational communities:

How to Contribute

  1. Report Issues: Use our GitHub issue tracker
  2. Suggest Features: Propose new functionality or improvements
  3. Code Contributions: Submit pull requests with enhancements
  4. Documentation: Help improve user guides and tutorials
  5. Testing: Validate PyLithics with your datasets

Contribution Guidelines

Please see our Contributing Guidelines for detailed information on how to contribute to the project.

Community

User Support

  • Documentation: Comprehensive guides and tutorials
  • GitHub Discussions: Community Q&A and feature requests
  • Email Support: Direct contact with the development team
  • Workshops: Training sessions and conference presentations

Academic Collaboration

We actively seek collaborations with:

  • Archaeological research groups
  • Computer science departments
  • Digital humanities initiatives
  • Museum collections and cultural heritage organizations

Contact Information

General Inquiries and Technical Support

For general questions about PyLithics or the Palaeoanalytics project, please contact: - Dr. Jason Gellis: jg760@cam.ac.uk

License

PyLithics is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). This ensures that:

  • The software remains freely available
  • Users can modify and redistribute the code
  • Derivative works must also be open source
  • The archaeological community benefits from continued development

Acknowledgments

We thank:

  • The archaeological community for feedback and validation
  • Beta testers who helped refine the software
  • Contributors who have improved the codebase
  • Institutions that have supported this research

The development of PyLithics has been greatly enhanced by the collaborative spirit of the open science community.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our GitHub repository or contact the development team.