Event Details

Dr. Erik Otárola-Castillo is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University. He specializes in Computational Anthropology/Archaeology. He has been a developer of geometric morphometric methods (GM) since 2008. At Purdue University, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on statistical and computational methods. He is a founding co-developer of “geomorph,” a popular GM software in the R programming environment. He is the main developer of “GUImorph” a GM software that allows users to conduct GM analyses in R through an easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Melissa G. Torquato is a graduate student in Anthropology at Purdue University, specializing in data management and modeling and geometric morphometrics. Since 2014, she has used computational methods to answer questions related to behavioral and morphological variation in humans.

Morphology is the comparative study of form and it is fundamental to archaeological inquiry. Increasingly accessible 3D-scanning technology has allowed digital models of artifacts to have a prominent role in archaeological analyses. Modern landmark-based geometric morphometrics (GM) has become a staple analytical toolbox to evaluate archaeological hypotheses of artifact form across space and time. This seminar provides participants with examples of innovative 3D geometric morphometric analysis in the R programming environment. Instructors will work through archaeological examples to import, digitize, manipulate, analyze, and display 3D data using “GUImorph”, a user-friendly Graphical User Interface to R. No coding experience is necessary.

1. Collect 3D morphometric data
2. Conduct a limited range of analyses
3. Visualize morphometric patterns