GIS for Archaeology and CRM

In the current issue of ArcNews, ESRI is showcasing four articles on the use of GIS in archaeoloicial site managment. I have not yet had a chance to read these areticles, but plan to very shortly. Once read, I’ll through in my 2 cents with some comments. Until then, check them out for yourself.

GIS for Archaeological Database and Managment

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Administers Archaeological Sites with GIS

Modeling Archaeological Sensitivity in Vermont with GIS

Protecting Archaeological Resources During an Oil Spill in Washington State: Using GIS to Ensure Effective Communication and Protection

Prehistoric Sites on the Island of St. Kitts Studied Using GIS: Studying the Past to Understand Today’s Environment

Also, don’t miss the exclusive online article on Historic Preservation:

In New York State, the Olana Historic Site Viewshed Analysis Uses GIS: Preserving the Real-Life Landscapes of Frederick Church

The Theban Mapping Project, as seen last night on the Discovery Channel, is an amazing project dedicated to preservation, education, and the creation of a comprehensive archaeological database for the Valley of the Kings, Thebes (Luxor), Egypt. (Google Map).

The Valley of the Kings (Wikipedia), utilized primarily between 1539 BC - 1075 BC, is the resting place for the kings and Pharaohs of Egypt’s New Kingdom. Located on the West back of the Nile River, across from modern Luxor, this valley is the home of some of Egypt’s most famous figures, Tutankhamun (KV62), Amenhotep (KV39), and more recently The Sons of Ramessess (KV5), the Valley of the Kings has been attracting archaeologists, tourists, and grave robbers throughout antiquity. Due to this attention, much of the valley’s limited and invaluable resources have been plundered and destroyed.

In 1978, the Theban Mapping Project (TMP), began an ambitious program to document every aspect of the valley for future generations.

“The TMP believes that the first and most essential step in preserving this heritage is a detailed map and database of every archaeological, geological, and ethnographic feature in Thebes. Only when these are available can sensible plans be made for tourism, conservation, and further study.”

As seen by the “Atlas of the Valley of the Kings” on the TMP website and the Discovery Channel program last night, this project is producing astounding results. Viewing the TMP site, clicking on the “Atlas of the Valley of the Kings” opens a new window that explores the vast amount of spatial and archaeological information collected over the past 20 years. Once greeted with an overview map of the valley and its tombs, clicking on their plan will generate a short video or text description of its history. The atlas is searchable by KV number, if you have a favorite tomb, as well as a key word search. Another tab includes detailed information on each tomb including photos and video. While a final link is an interactive ortho plan of the valley’s tombs with has tools for zooming and measuring. Finally, clicking on the “3D Tomb” link on the bottom left of the atlas frame will launch a 3D experience which takes a narrated walk through of KV14 accompanied with photos of wall each chambers wall engravings and paintings. Similarly, the Atlas of the Theban Necropolis offers juicy visual media underlain by incredibly well documented archaeological data.

The TMP website and “Atlas” projects are an amazing product of archaeological information and visualization. Rarely do projects achieve such an in depth melding of data and visual context with deep rooted narration than anyone would find fascinating. If you have a few extra moments (and broadband to let the Atlas load), I highly recommend checking out the Theban Mapping Project website!

*panarama photo credit to Gilles Renault

Released today in the Directions Magazine site, is a blurb about Timmons Group completion of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) Data Sharing System (DSS). The DSS provides the DHR with the ability to store and disseminate data concerning architectural, historical, and archaeological resources, as well as, integrate resource based spatial analysis. Access to the DSS is granted to DHR employees, planners, property owners, developers and othe parties with a vested interest in DHR resources. This level of integration allows the DHR to make timely and informed decisions that are based on the input of those who are concerned. While the development of the DSS comes in the face of a shrinking work force at the VA DHR , the benefits of efficiency, quicker service, and a centralized database will help in maintaining the support and protection of VA’s cultural resources.

“DSS is an example of how Timmons Group can make the most of technology for state agencies and improve their effectiveness to serve the public, thereby helping them to become nationally recognized leaders,” said Dave Lucado, president of Timmons Group.

Having worked in a State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and helping with the creation of a agency wide Cultural Resource Data Portal, I am very glad to see another state take a huge step into the integration of cultural resource. Too often and in too many states, the DHR or SHPO acts much as a gate-keeper to valuable cultural data and the resources usually suffer for it. It is true that data such as archaeological site locations needs to be guarded, to some degree, though to view all cultural data as a privileged resource is detrimental to its protection. Systems such as the VA DSS allow planners, engineers, and clients to access the data with the freedom and availability that other environmental data is granted. This allows for the integration of cultural resource issues to be brought into the planning phase much earlier that in the past; in turn saving time and money. Further, system such as the DSS allow the employees at the DHR to access and study up to date cultural resource and contextual data to make the best informed and timely recommendation.

Many states have already started down this path, some have even reached a comfortable resting place, but many still need to begin. It is nearly inevitable that all states will need a system similar to this as long at the Federal laws protecting cultural resource are still standing. It looks like the Virginia DHR DSS will be a great model to follow.

News Realease from Greg Yetman:

Beta Release of New Raster Datasets by CIESIN/SEDAC
May 31, 2006

The U.S. Census Grids, 2000 (currently in beta release) provide raster
data sets that include not only population and housing counts, but a
wide range of socioeconomic characteristics. Produced by CIESIN’s
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), these gridded data
sets transform irregularly shaped census block and block group
boundaries into a regular surface—a raster grid—for faster and easier
analysis. Data sets are currently available for the year 2000; those for
1990 will be released in the near future.

See: http://beta.sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/usgrid/

Thanks to Kris Hirst, at archaeology.about.com, for pointing out a new blog (Digging Digitally Blog) sponsored by the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Digital Data Interest Group (DDIG).

The Digital Data Interest Group (DDIG) is organized to promote the preservation and sharing of archaeological data that are maintained in digital form.”

The DDIG group objectives include encouraging information and data sharing between researchers interested in sharing and preserving digital archaeological data, providing a forum for discussion of archaeological data sharing, and disseminating these data and ideas to the whole of the archaeological community.

The DDIG blog is directed by Eric C. Kansa and Sarah Whitcher Kansa of the Alexandria Archive Institute, makers of the Open Context, an on-line system for securing and sharing primary field data. Here is a brief post on Open Context, XML, and Tagging I wrote at the CAA conference in April.

The DDIG blog is a resource where DDIG members can post information on projects, news, and all things about digital data sharing. The initial posts include a great statement on politics and public access to archaeology, as well as, the announcement of BoneCommons, an Internet based forum for those interested in archaeozoology.

I look forward to reading future posts at Digging Digitally. This is a great group with objectives that I believe in whole heatedly. You might also notice that the DDIG blog creater has great taste in blog templates! Check them out…

In my work, I could be dealing with a GIS project in Maryland one minute, receive a phone call, and have to gear up for a whole new project in Indiana a moment later. I try to keep track of my data sources for each state and county, but they generally get lost in the shuffle of things. I had intended to start a site to keep track of these things, but luckily, GISPilot.com has done that for me.

GISPilot.com is a library of GIS Data links organized by nation, state, and county. The site claims over 1,300 links to data repositories from the United States to Australia with a large amount of links which are currently being added. Contact information is provided so that users can suggest data sources that may have been left out.

I took a look around some of the states that I have worked in before and the list of data centers looks pretty good. I’m sure with time the list will become even more comprehensive. Check it out…

Here (Finally!) is the technical - archaeological second part to a two-part story about the 1945 escape tunnel at the Eastern States Penitentiary. Please read Part I to hear the background of how this tunnel came to be.

The Archaeology of the 1945 Escape Tunnel

60 after the inmates were captured attempting to escape, the archaeological story starts. The task was to find the entrance and exit of the tunnel and then find out if the tunnel is still intact or has collapsed with age. The first phase was the excavation of the tunnel’s ends. With the aid of escape day photographs, it was relatively easy for the archaeologists to find the exact spot from which the prisoners escaped. Excavations were carried out, the backfilled escape hole was found, and a number of artifacts were recovered the dated to the period of the escape. Only a few feet of the exit hole were excavated. On the inside of the prison, in cell #68, heavy handed techniques were used to reopen the location where Kliney began his work. After the escape, the prison filled this cavity with large blocks of schist and concrete. The archaeologist’s excavation could only dent this barrier. With the ends of the tunnel found, it was now time to find the tunnel itself.

The first step in this process was to employ a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) unit to non-invasively probe the sediment below to look for signs of collapsed strata or a telltale void. Stating close to cell #68, the initial results gave the impression of a “V” shaped infilled trench under the courtyard. Possibly this could be part of the brick sewer or it could be the collapsed tunnel. Moving further towards the prison wall, the “V” shaped trench gave way to a very indistinct refraction signal which only showed the faintest shimmer of a hollow cavity. Due to the nature of the iron rich, intermittent sandy/clayey sand sediment below, the feedback from the GPR was diffuse. The locations of possible tunnel sightings were flagged and the survey was concluded, inconclusively.

With a 12” concrete saw, two 2’x2’ blocks of concrete were removed to expose to top of the soil. Closer to the cell, the first of two auger holes (4” diameter) was excavated. From contemporary reports, it was known that the tunnel should be about 10-12’ below the surface. With an auger hole 15’ below the surface and a continuous profile of fill, the hole was abandoned. Either this hole missed the mark or the tunnel was collapsed in this area.

The second auger hole, 10’ closer to the prison wall, was noticeably different form the start. The sediment being augured was much cleaner and sandier than previously, worked progressed quickly. At 8.5’ below the surface, the auger was set back into position to take another 10” deep sample when all of a sudden, “Thump”, the auger dropped. Falling nearly to the handle, the auger had found its mark.

In order to verify, and hopefully inspect, the tunnel, special video equipment was needed. The first attempt at seeing in the tunnel was done through the use of an “Electric Eel” sewer camera. This piece of equipment consists of a LED lit camera head on the end of a semi-rigid cord hooked into a small close caption display and VCR. The initial results were low quality, but stunning none-the-less. After 60 years, the tunnel from which 11 men tried to gain their freedom was seen again. As the camera was pushed through the soft sediment, only glimpses of the tunnel environment were seen. After some exploration, the camera, sprung by the tension of its own cord, flashed from darkness to the view that everyone had been waiting for; a clear picture of the wooden braces used for shoring. This “artifact” was one of the two key pieces to telling the tunnels story. Aside form the once rumored wooden supports was a description of an electrical lighting system used by the inmates. No evidence of this could be seen in the sewer cameras images.

The second attempt, some months later, to get a clear picture of the tunnel utilized much more advanced video equipment. Thanks to the very accommodating team from EnviroSight, the second phase of tunnel video was an unqualified success. Using two pieces of equipment, a video camera wielding robotic crawler and a high resolution zoom camera on the end of a pole, the inside of the tunnel came to life with highly detailed and very clear pictures.

The robotic crawler, aka Rovver, was lowered into the tunnel and proceeded to drive across the lumpy floor

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.

Here is a link to a well done tutorial for creating 3D models of buildings using historic plans. This tutorial utilizes Inkscape for the vector data and Blender for 3D modeling. Both programs are available freely, for multiple platforms, under open source licenses and have active development communities.
This tutorial is created by Sanna Tammisto & Ari Häyrinen at 3D-Bridge. 3D-Bridge, “Transferring of Cultural Heritage with New Technology”) is a pan-European group the is established to foster heritage preservation through the melding of opensource technology with a mulitperspective architectural practices. As stated in the 3D-Bridge site, there objectves are:

• The target of the 3D-Bridge project is to develop tools of new technology based on an open source policy for the research and preservation of cultural heritage.
• The 3D-Bridge project will highlight the common European contents of regional cultural heritage research based on different geographic, ecological and cultural starting points.
• The 3D-Bridge project will translate European cultural heritage into the language of future societies and media literate generationbels.

IF you are interested in this organizations like this, check out the recent post on IOSA.it, “Open Source Software and Open Standards in Archaeology”

*image property of 3D-Bridge

Thanks to Jonathan at the Map Room blog for pointing out this fabulous historic map resource. Old London Maps is a free repository of 16th to 20th century maps of London. The purpose of this collection is to offer access to scores of rare historic maps, engravings, and plans of Old London for use by historians, genealogists, and those who are simply curious.

Along with the fantastic map collection is over 500 pages of information and articles and a collection as many as 4000, when the uploading is complete, 19th and 20th century photos related to Old London.

*All linked photos/maps are the property of Sarah Douglas Enterprises Ltd 2006