GIS for Archaeology and CRM

About a year ago I posted a short blurb about an archaeology project I was working on that incorporated a SketchUp model. The model was not so much the focus, or even a requested, of the project, but the data and interest were there, so… I modeled.

Briefly, the this project entailed documenting a series of foundation walls that are eroding from the edges of the Valley Creek in front of General Washington’s Headquarters in Valley Forge National Historic Park, Pennsylvania. Unable to control the flooding of this flashy little stream, the National Park Service asked that the walls be documented and a small area excavated to determine the age of the walls. As the records indicate, there were a number of mills at this location. Two of them dated to the mid 1700’s and were standing when George Washington called this plot home during the brutal winter of 1776.

To make a short story shorter, the archaeology was done, a nice foundation wall was exposed, and the eroding foundations were linked to the archaeology and historic maps. Construction methods and limited artifacts told us that the foundations eroding from the bank were more likely from the mid to late 1800’s and no the 1700’s. Finding a handful of late 1700’s artifacts underneath of the exposed foundation proved that it was older than the original mills. The conclusion: the foundation walls were part of the 1880’s Areca Paper mill. Built on and from the remnants of earlier buildings, this mill operated from 1880 to through the 1890’s. The entire complex was torn down in 1909 after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought the property.In a super interesting twist, a comment received on the previous post of this models first generation, was from a gentlemen who had a family history tied to the mill! Paul Atkinson wrote:

“My Great grandfather worked at this mill in the late 1870 and 1880.My grandmother was born (1873) in a house just across the valley which her father bought after coming to the United States from England after the Civil War. Apparantly the mill went out of business late 1890.My grandmother tended cows on the very site of this mill. I recall seeing the foundation around 1940 or earlier when I very young. I was happy to see this historic reconstruction . The home my great grandfather bought in 1875 still stands and is a privite owned home . It was built in 1734..Seeing this gives me great pleasure. Also, knowing the fact my ggg grandfather served with Layfettye and George Washington at Valley Forge in 1777-1778. Paul Atkinson”

Using old documents and maps and the data we learned, I created a model of the Areca mill. (I <3 SketchUp!) Further establishing the historic visual context, I placed the mill model into photos of the landscape. This was a really fun part of the project (which was really my spare time, but people seemed to like it). Show is a recreation of an 1890’s photo.

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As many of you many have read, in the past few days, Google has unleaded a number of improvements to their suite of tools. Google Earth is now redesigned in Beta 4 with the ability to display textures, Google Geo-Coding, Picasa has web albums, and KML upgraded to version 2.1. For in depth reviews of these changes, check out some of the links at the end of this post.

The purpose of this post is just to give a quick how-to on quickly displaying archaeological data and pictures by geotagging images in the new Picasa, creating a .kmz, and making it available to your colleagues or clients (new Google Earth EULA clearly state no commercial use). The process is quick simple, thanks to Google, and very quick.

Download the example .kmz here

To start with, I have a few photos of a dig site in South Eastern, Pennsylvania. I also have sketch-up models of the archaeological structural remains, and a model for the interpretation of the once standing structure. ( I have posted a little about making these models, but plan on a tutorial one day).

After downloading or upgrading to the new Picasa, your HD is scanned for photos, and you are ready to go. Find the photos you are interested in, select them, go to [Tools] -> [Geotag] -> [Geotage with Google Earth]. GE will open up and a large cross hair will be in the center of the screen. Navigate and zoom yourself to where your photo was taken (I had to click back to Picasa to see the little window which tells you the particular photo you are Geotagging).

Once located, click page to Picasa and “Geotag”. After a second, it will indicate that you are ready to geotag the next photo. Do this for all of your selected photos and click done. At this point, it will tell you that is is creating a .kmz of your photos. I was not sure where it saved this .kmz, so being lazy, I just right-clicked on the “temporary place” table of contents in GE and saved it as a .kmz in the folder I wanted it to. Now you have a .kmz file which uses your photos as the point icons, which are clickable for large images.
At this point, I brought in a model which represents the archaeological wall remains, extruded to show what is probably still underground. Combined with the photos, you can now see an archaeological interpretation complete with the photos of what it looked like in the filed. Better yet, it is georefferenced within its context. Zoom in, pan, tilt, to your heart is content. On top of this, I also included a model rendition of what the structure probably looked like. This model is based on archaeology, etchings, and maps. (by default it is turned off in the GE table of contents, go ahead and turn it on if you like).

This is a pretty quick example and even though it took me a few hours to make the Sketchup models, the Picasa Geotag part and .kmz creation took only minutes. I have not yet bothered to recreate the Sketchup models with textures, as GE Beta 4 now displays textures. Also, this process could have been faster, but running Flock Beta, GE 4 Beta, Picasa Beta, and Google Sketchup Beta all at the same time is quite a rough experience. A similar How-To for Picasa and GE can be found at ogleearth.com
I’m big into wanting people to see what I see as an archaeologist. It is a very secretive and data guarding profession. I want others to see a buried wall, and a 100 year old etching to make the same connections that I do. These new technologies make it easier by the day to share archaeological info and knowledge.

Check out these other blogs for current info on Googles redesigned products (Google 2.0? Has O’Reilly copyright that?):

OgleEarth

Google Earth Blog

Google Press Release

Google Maps Mania

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In a very similar fashion of the Google Earth “King Tut’s Tomb” model posted last week, Google Earth Commuity user “aft” has created a semi-transparent version of the Great Pyramid of Giza complete with tunnels and burial chambers. This model is constructed in the same ‘box-model’ style as King Tut’s Tomb in osrder to show the underground aspects of the pyramid without buring them under the terrain. Taking this a step further, aft adds transparency to the pyramid so that you can see the interworkings.

The techniques used by aft are great for showing hidden geometry and negative space. This technique is pretty well suited to archaeology but can certainly be used for a ton of other applications (test holes, geophysial data, etc…)

Use the different “views” provided with the model to get a good look at what the Great Pyramid of Giza has to offer.

Thanks to Google Earth Blog and OgleEarth for posting this earlier.

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At the end of last week, the Google Earth Blog wrote about a ver cool KML of the tomb of Tutankhamen. The underground tomb is designed with a very cool box model technique. Frank Taylor at the GEB has posted a good deal on the use of techniques such as this in Google Earth. Notably, Frank points to the work of Valery Hronusov from Russia’s Academy of Science in Perm. Valery has created a set of tools to integrate GIS data with Google Earth. From a look at the institute’s site and example projects, the software (KMLer) looks very powerful and quite affordable.

Back to Egypt… After reading the GEB post about the tomb of Tutankhamen model, created by ‘atf’ at the Google Earth Community, I went on a small hunt for other Egyptian archaeological KML examples.

There are a number of renditions of the Pyramids at Giza. Most that I have seen are pretty general and not at the proper elevation. Though, this model that only contains the Pyramid of Khfare is quite detailed and correctly placed.

Of course no Great Pyramid is complete without a Great Sphinx. This model is a low polygon rendering of the sphinx.

Also, here is a great model of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. This lighthouse is estimated as having stood nearly 450 feet tall. For many millennia, this was the tallest structure on earth. This world wonder was constructed on the island of Pharos just off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. Underwater archaeology is still going on today to try and solve the mystery of where the lighthouse precisely stood and how it met its demise.

Keep and eye on the Google Earth Community for more Egyptian models as well as numerous place marks and imagery overlays of Egyptian sights both past and present.

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A quick post from a current project. This is a SketchUp interpretation of a

historic structure from archaeological field data and historic records. Without going into too much detail, this is a quick image of a reconstructed 19th century paper mill that once stood in front of George Washington’s headquarters in Valley Forge, PA. While Washington was in tenure, the mill works included a Grist Mill and Saw Mill. In the 1840’s the Grist Mill burned and was rebuilt close to the original spot. Then in the 1860’s, the much larger paper mill was constructed, which encompassed the previous structures.The Model of Washington’s Headquarters is accurate to the modern standing reconstruction. Apparently, the building has been remodeled to its historic image at least three times.

Google Maps Link to Area

Google Earth Link to Area (sorry, no models)

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That is what Google said about the 3D Warehouse and at this point, I believe them.

The 3D warehouse, as described in the post below, it Google/SketchUps new 3D data housing format and model search portal. As described by Google:

“Click here to download the 3D Warehouse network link. With this file Geo-referenced SketchUp models in the 3D Warehouse become available for viewing within Google Earth. Virtual world builders, start modeling!”

Virtual World Builders… Very cool.
In a days work, I was able to take CAD footprints, photos, and a hand drawn archaeology map and produce a georeferenced, downloadable, and sharable models of insitu archaeological structural components (walls) and detailed surrounding standing structures. I hope my boss does not find out how productive I can be when Google does cool things like this.

Okay, here is a rundown of the online end of the 3D Warehouse. By clicking the “Share Model” icon, a Google window pops up that ties into your own Google account. (What else did you think you were going to do with those 2 gigs for each of the 10 Gmail accounts you have?). Type in a bunch of info about your model, including the Tags, and the upload begins.

You model is loaded in to your “My Models” page. From here, you can search the tags and filename of others people models. For instance, this is the return from the search for “Building”.
When you find a model you like, you can download to either Sketchup or Google Earth. Simple as that.

It seems pretty obvious that Google wants a copy of Google Earth and SketchUp installed onto every able bodied computer. They want to see a legion of modelers “SketchIng” their favorite places, tagging them, and sharing them. Content of the world, built by the world, for the world. (or at least the 20% that have access to computers.)

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Yup, you heard it correctly, the recently acquired @Last team has worked with Google to produce a free version of their very popular 3D architecture and landscape program, SketchUp. (FREE download Here) As of now, SketchUp is the most commonly used program to create 3D models to be placed in Google Earth.

The free Google SketchUp version is windows only. There is also a Pro version which can be purchased for $495. This is much more like the original and at the original SketchUp price.

SO what are the new features!? Well, the Free version appears to have a similar tool selection as the original without some features like realtime shadow modeling and, most noteably, the ability to export in formates other than the Google 3D warehouse. What? Did you say Google 3D warehouse?

Yes, there is a new Kml housing format called a 3D warehouse. Although my download has not completed yet, I have messed with it a little from a link on the ogle earth blog. Save your models to a 3D warehouse and when put on a server, you point people to a 3D warehouse network link, much like a KMZ. When the link is opened in Google Earth, the Places menu will display the locations of the 3D models. Also, on the virtual globe itself, a icon appears at the location of the model or a icon will appear for an “object collection”, a group of models.

The models are not directly downloaded with the 3D warehouse network link. By clicking on a model name/location in the Places menu or clicking on the icon, a popup window will give you details about the model and ask if you would like to download it.

On this popup, details such as model name, size, and complexity are given. Also TAGS!!! Yes, Google has employed tags into the models. Let the Metaverse begin!!!! From here, you may download the model to either Google Earth of Google Sketchup.

At this moment, textures are still not supported in Google Earth. I suspect, as well as many others, that this will change soon.

Here is a list of features the separate the Pro version from the Free version:

		Print and export raster images at higher-than-screen resolution.
		Access to the following 3D export formats: DWG, DXF, 3DS, OBJ, XSI, VRML and FBX.
		Export animations and walkthroughs as MOV (Mac) or AVI (Windows) files.
		Use the Sandbox Tools (for organic modeling of terrain, etc) and the Film & Stage Tools (for pre-viz work).
		Have access to free email tech support for two years from purchase.

This story has been scooped this morning on a number of other blogs (Cartography, Google Earth Blog, All Points Blog, ogle Earth). Get out there and make some models!!!!

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