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Acknowledgements

ArchAIDE was born from a simple idea. Ten years ago, two archaeologists had a conversation about how difficult and time-consuming it was to classify their pottery, and how it might be possible to find ways to automate the process. Ten years ago ArchAIDE seemed impossible to create, a utopia, but we strongly believed in it, and are grateful for the opportunity to make it happen. ArchAIDE would still only be an idea without the effort and hard work of our great team. This skilled team includes archaeologists, computer scientists, IT specialists, mathematicians and videographers from across Europe who worked together over the last three years. The work was not always easy, having to take into account different cultures and approaches, but we found our common language by focusing on the same aim. Beyond the authors of this paper, we would like to thank all the other team members and people who took part in the project and helped us to reach our 'utopia'. In particular, from UNIPI: Antonio Campus and Sara Roberto; the Roman pottery specialists Paolo Sangriso and Simonetta Menchelli; the photo and video team including Nicola Trabucco, Simona Bellandi, Elda Chiriconi, Lorenzo Garzella, Serena Tonelli, Sonia Cerrai and Sandro Petri; Daniela Frediani, Massimo Bacci, Sandra Brondi and Michele Padrone. We would like to thank Mireia Pinto Monte from the University of Barcelona, and the ARQUB members Joan Sanmarti I Grego, Meritxell Tous Mata, Julia Beltrán de Heredia Bercero, Xavier Rubío, Cristina Fernandez de Marcos Garcia or the classification of Spanish Majolica; Felix Kußmaul and Michael Heinzelmann from the University of Cologne; the archaeologists and collaborators from Baraka, including Manuel Melero Serrano, Tomás Torres Gonzáles, Luis Alejandro García, Manuel Retuerce Velasco, Santiago Feijoo Martínez, José Luis Fuentes Sánchez, Jose Ignacio de la Torre Chávarri, Marian Arlegui Sánchez, Jacobo Fernández del Cerro, Rosario Cebrián Fernández, Olmo de Diego Pérez; and the developers of Inera Srl company, including Domenico Arenga, Alberto Cagetti, Bieder Muca and Christian Palombella.

The creation of the training dataset of photos of potsherds would not have been possible without the help of numerous colleagues who allowed us access to their finds warehouses and helped us to classify the materials. We would like to thank to Paola Olivanti, Maria Rosaria Barbera, Marcello Spanu, Emanuela Borgia, Francesca Romana Sabatini, Mara Elefante, Mara Sternini, Clementina Panella, Marta Casalini, Giovanni Altamore, Andrea Camilli, Claudia Rizzitelli, Eleni Shindler, Francesco Cini, Emili Revilla Cubero, Joan Carles Lladó, Jaume Cardell Perelló, Elena Inglada, Miguel Ángel Cau, Judith Peix, Marta Valls, Júlia Coso, Laura Suau, David Prida, Núria Miró, Jordi Ramos, David Jimeno, Isabel Fernández del Moral and Francesco Cini.

Thanks also to Barbara Casalini, Antonella Fabbrini and Luisa Gaggini from Casalini Libri for working with us to find a sustainable solution to the difficulties surrounding catalogue copyrights.

ArchAIDE has also been a collaborative project involving many people around the world. We are grateful to all the ArchAIDE Associates, participants and volunteers who helped collect data, contributed to vocabularies and gave feedback during workshops and training days across Europe.

Many thanks to the ArchAIDE Associates: Alberto Martín Esquivel, Alfonso Forgione, Andreas Puhl, Astrid D'Eredità, Carlo Baione, Carlotta Bassoli, Claudia Sciuto, Cyrille Chaidron, Dagmara Łaciak, Darren Bentham, David Gallego Valle, Dennis Nicolas Lorenzo, Elisabeta Kodheli, Ellen Hallingstad, Enrico Giannitrapani, Erika Cappelletto, Ernesto Agustí García, Eslam Fawky, Francesca Grassi, Francesca Valbruzzi, Francesco Meo, Gabriel Rodrigues Barbosa, Gianfranco Israel, Concepción Tiza, Gimena Avalos, Giorgia Greco, Giuliana Mattos, Guilherme D'Andrea Curra, Guillaume Teillet, Hunter Provyn, Ivana Å kiljan, Ivana Ožanić Roguljić, James Byrne, Jesús Molero García, Jill Hilditch, Joan Frigola Torrent, Jona Petešić, Jorge Onrubia-Pintado, Laurence Cullen, Lorenza La Rosa, Luis Gonzalo Jaramillo Echeverri, Marco Antonio Aza Loza, Markus Nothegger, Matteo Lorenzini, Miguel Torres Mas, Mircea Masserini, Natália Botica, Ouafa Slimane, Pablo Medina Gil, Paula Alves Pereira, Penelope Allison, Rachel Opitz, Roy Towers, Sara Puggioni, Silvia Ferreri, Silvia Gazzoli, Silvia Lischi, Simona Morandi, Stephen Collins-Elliott,Ulrich Stockinger, Vincenzo Soria and Vittorio Fronza.

Many thanks to the ArchAIDE participants and volunteers: Agata Gattiglia, Alberto Caroti, Andrew Birley, Anacleto D'Agostino, Anna Taddei, Antonella Andaloro, Antonella Fabbrini, Antonio Fornaciari, Chiara Gatti, Chris Cumberpatch, Dan Miles, David Griffiths, Dominik Hagmann, Duncan Brown, Elisa Paperini, Elizabeth Greene, Ennio Casaglia, Fausto Berti, Filippo Sala, Francesca Simoncini, Francesca Toto, Francesco Pacetti, Gail Falkingham, Geoffrey Dannell, Germana Sorrentino, Giovanna Coppedé, Giuseppe Rigoli, Gloriana Pace, Hayden Strawbridge, Judith Peix, Júlia Coso, Julie Edwards, Keith May, Maria Duggan, Martina Fontanini, Matteo Vangeli, Miriam Torregrossa, Nick Cooper, Noemi Guadagni, Nora Sacco, Penelope Allison , Phil Holliday, Roberta Mentesana, Sarah Colley, Silvia Lischi, Silvia Marini, Simone Sacco and Steve Roskams.

Finally, we dedicate ArchAIDE to the memory of Matteo Dellepiane, a bright scientist and gentle friend, who supported and helped shape our ideas from the beginning but left us too early in 2018.

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