TaRDIS, a Visual Analytics System for Spatial and Temporal Data in Archaeo-Related Disciplines

In this paper, we describe the application TaRDIS, a visual analytics system for spatial and temporal data designed for the needs of archaeo-related disciplines that supports domain experts in analyzing their data. The temporal data is visualized in form of an interactive Harris Matrix that illustrates the temporal position of the layers. The 2D and 3D visualization sketches the spatial position of findings with heat map colors and a Kernel Density Estimation. The application allows the visual comparison of the temporal and spatial data. We discuss the archaeological background followed by the technical implementation of the application and the generation of the Harris Matrix. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of the application by analyzing real zooarchaeological data from an excavation where we use TaRDIS to show the distribution of animal species in a case study.