Eight figures, one EM project.
Extended Matrix projects compose eight professional figures across the five phases of the method. The figures are not job titles — most projects cover them with two or three real humans wearing several hats. Naming them explicitly is what lets a project scale beyond a single researcher.
Data Collection
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Stratigrapher
The palimpsest reader
archaeologistReads the stratigraphic palimpsest on every surface it appears on — excavation, standing monument, 3D survey, documentary sources. Names SU, USV and SF nodes and their relationships. Intellectual author of what the graph encodes; also the natural home of material-culture readings (ceramics, epigraphy, numismatics).
Tools they reach for: -
Source Hunter
The archive detective
archaeologistFinds, evaluates and curates the documentary base of the project. Reads archives and old reports, tracks down photogrammetric campaigns, evaluates the reliability of each source, and stages everything in the DosCO document collection so the rest of the team can cite it as paradata.
Tools they reach for: -
Survey specialist
The reality capturer
modellerPlans and runs on-site or in-lab capture of reality-based data — photogrammetry, structured-light, total station, GNSS, drone, LiDAR, geophysical prospection. Produces the datasets the rest of the EM workflow annotates and reconstructs over. Home for geophysicists, topographic surveyors and photogrammetrists.
Tools they reach for:
Data Management
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Information Technology specialist
The infrastructure keeper
developerOwns the technical substrate that the rest of the team builds on. Sets up project storage and backups, configures shared cloud space, installs and maintains the EM tools across the team's machines, and keeps the data infrastructure (graph stores, triplestores, repos) running. Often invisible when the project goes well.
Tools they reach for: -
EM Drawer
The matrix scribe
archaeologistCreates the Extended Matrix by fusing the source hunter's dossier with the stratigrapher's reading into a formally well-formed graph in yEd. Wires SU, USV and SF nodes, attaches documents, extractors and combiners, draws the paradata chains. The figure who writes EM as a language.
Tools they reach for:
Implementation & Virtual Reconstruction
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Basic Modeller
Golden Twelve
modellerBuilds proxy geometries on the photogrammetric model and assembles reconstructive hypotheses from primitives — the figure the Golden Twelve card equips. Twelve keyboard-shortcut families cover semantic shapes, mesh polishing, control-point modelling and rendered documentation. The minimum viable 3D skillset for EM.
Representation Model
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Advanced Modeller
Silver Twelve
modellerPicks up where the basic modeller stops. Photorealistic texturing, UV mapping, material shading, cinematic lighting, production-grade rendering and Representation Models (RM) authoring. Competences that build on the Golden Twelve but extend well beyond — colour science, PBR, compositing.
Publication & Dissemination
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Storyteller
The publication owner
modellerarchaeologistCloses the loop. Turns the project's reconstructed scenes, paradata chains and supporting documents into a publication others can read, navigate and trust — a Heriverse scene, museum interactive, paper figure, turntable. Owns transparency: every claim a reader sees is anchored to its evidence.