Founded in 2025 at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz by prehistoric archaeologist Maxime Brami and software developer Kevin Klein (about us), the ARCANE lab integrates various AI (Artificial Intelligence) initiatives to push the boundaries of archaeological research. By harnessing neural networks to automatically extract data from images, these projects enable the analysis of massive datasets and transforms time-consuming manual tasks into efficient workflows. All resulting software is released free of charge and open source, supporting FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability). Explore our projects and contact us for more information.
AutArch is an AI-assisted workflow capable of creating uniform archaeological datasets from heterogeneous published resources. The implementation takes large and unsorted PDF files as input, and uses neural networks to conduct image processing, object detection, and classification.
GrainWise is a software developed to facilitate the taxonomy of archaeobotanical materials by determining their shapes (through segmentation) and measuring their sizes. It automatically generates tables and makes the export of the segmentation via PAST possible.
Inspired by the Dutch Heritage Quest, this project seeks to discover new archaeological sites in Luxembourg through the analysis of LiDAR images. It uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect sites, while actively involving the public in the research process.
Conducted in partnership with the LEIZA (Leibniz Center for Archaeology), this project seeks to facilitate the integration of 3D scans of artefacts with 2D outlines extracted with AutArch. It focuses on Iron Age Alb Hegau ceramic vessels (c. 800-600 BC) held at the LEIZA.
Funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), from 2021 to 2026, this project explores how people and innovation spread around the turn of the 3rd millennium BC. It uses innovative data mining and machine learning approaches to collect and analyse burial attributes.
9 Jun 2026: We are delighted to take part in the AI Days organised by the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) in Mainz with a paper entitled “AutArch — AI-Assisted Artefact Analysis for Hallstatt-Period Alb-Hegau Ceramics”. This includes an overview of recent work on AutArch at JGU Mainz and on Alb Hegau ceramic at the LEIZA.
7 May-28 Jun 2026. We have created a small display for the “KI und Archäologie” exhibition hosted at the Visitor Centre of the IPAI in Heilbronn. Visitors have a chance to compare Alb Hegau ceramics in 2D and 3D. You can try the software at this address: https://autarch.eu/ipai_showcase
28 Apr-2 May 2026. As part of our collaboration with the LEIZA, we prepared a poster on Alb Hegau ceramics for the “mainzedZWEI26: Digitalität und Diversität – Geisteswissenschaften JETZT” exhibition at the LUX Pavilion of Hochschule Main. More details here: 3D Alb Hegau