On January 4th was held at UBC in Vancouver the annual meeting of the GEOIDE project Geomatisation of the archaeological excavation process. While the name of the project seems intimidating at first, the talks that were held over that day show promising results regarding the integration of two fields that are at first glance, pretty dissimilar. However, upon a closer look, it can be seen that both fields have to work consistently with spatial data.
The aim of that project is to introduce geomatics technology, such as GPS or laser scanners, to help the archaeological process, from the acquisition of data up to its analysis.
Tools are being developed to help both the acquisition and the analysis of this special kind of spatial data, such as the prototype built by Bernard Lachance and Michel Fortin which allows the storage of archaeological information in a database customized for this kind of data. Everything is included in this, from excavation units to pot shreds, and the relations between the different constituents of the excavation site are linked in order to facilitate the analysis of the data.
The acquisition of the data is to be improved in two different regards. Archaeologists are currently working a lot with a pen-and-paper based solution, with many task redundancy and dodgy sketches. Mathieu Rondeau presented is solution for that problem: Arch-Tablet. It’s a TabletPC based solution that allows the archaeologist to draw directly on a rectified photo. This will facilitate the making of sketches and the transfer of that data into a database management system for the analysis.
In a whole other point of view, Sylvie Daniel and Julien Marchand presented the laser scanner technology, in the context of the archaeological excavation. Using these tools, it is possible to quickly build a 3D model of the site with astonishing details, far more that can ever be achieved with traditional ways. Also was demonstrated the HandyScan3D, from Creaform, a Québec based company, for the scanning of artifacts. Using this small handheld scanner, it is possible to build a model of an artifact quite quickly and with good details. This product is relatively new, so the researchers are just peeking into the opportunities that are being offered.
The demand for geomatics tools in archaeology is there. However, most of the time, the archaeologists are too comfortable within their own method to dare to change them. Fortunately, there are some that have a long-term view and that try to make their field a better and more efficient one.
January 10th, 2007 | Earth Sciences and Geomatics, General Science