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Imperial Valley News
Sept 2 2014
Archaeologist 'digs' using drone for fieldwork in Armenia
Created on Tuesday, 02 September 2014 17:01
Written by Amy Patterson Neubert
West Lafayette, Indiana - A Purdue University archaeologist is
utilizing drone technology to capture details and data from Bronze Age
field sites in Armenia.
"Drones are a new tool in archaeologists' toolkits," said Ian Lindsay,
an associate professor of anthropology who has been excavating in the
South Caucasus region for 15 years. "It's a good alternative to kites,
balloons or sitting in the bucket of a crane with a camera trying to
visually document these ancient sites. Drones offer a detailed aerial
perspective that we've never had before, and by leveraging this
technology archaeologists can be more efficient in the field as drones
give us an immediate sense of spatial science scale useful for
planning excavation."
Lindsay's 3:49 minute video of various field Armenian sites from this
summer is available online. The drone, flying 300 meters from the
ground, navigated the valleys and mountains of the Tsaghkahovit Plain
and Mt. Aragats region to provide a view that is better quality and
less expensive than images captured by satellite or mapping imagery.
Lindsay is co-director of Project ArAGATS, Archaeology and Geography
of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies, that focuses on the exploration
of southern Caucasia's rich past and the preservation of modern
Armenia's diverse cultural heritage.
Funds from Purdue's College of Liberal Arts and Office of Executive
Vice President for Research and Partnerships supported the new drone
technology. Lindsay also is collaborating with Adam T. Smith, Cornell
University professor and co-director of the Project ArAGATS, and the
Aragats Foundation, which encourages and supports archaeological
tourism, education and development in Armenia.
In addition to the spatial analysis of the hilly region, Lindsay also
was able to use the drone images to count burials from the late Late
Bronze Age, dating to 1500 BCE, a time period contemporary to King Tut
in Egypt.
The societies of the South Caucasia society were mobile - pastoralists
who cared for livestock - so they didn't leave a strong footprint
other than cemeteries and fortresses which may have housed their
leaders. These fortresses were built with extremely large stone
boulders and on ridges overlooking plains and valleys. Because only
the lower courses of the foundation walls are preserved, researchers
do not know the height of the structures. Ancient remains and
artifacts, including a shrine enclosed within a stone room of a
fortress, can be found up to 2 meters underground, but there are some
visible surface features.
"I'm interested in how mobile pastoralists coalesce into larger
political structures," Lindsay said. "This group was mobile, so what
brought them back to these fortresses to pay their tithing and support
the local political structure? Artifacts show these places were homes
to ritual, and ritual is an important form of soft power that may have
encouraged people to return seasonally to support the fortresses'
institutions and leaders."
Lindsay also is interested in the development of metal production in
the area, as well as trade and communication routes through the hilly
region.
In addition to utilizing the drone technology this summer, Lindsay was
able to test a new iPad-based mobile GIS (geographic information
system) data collection system and mobile data collection app that he
and Nicole Kong, an assistant professor of library science who
specializes in GIS, developed to inventory new sites.
"This will be a collaborative tool for archaeologists in the region to
add and edit data about field sites," Lindsay said. "It also will be
helpful to update legacy sites, which are sites that were identified
or excavated but have not yet been published. Again, it's another tool
to help scientists be more efficient in the field."
Funds from the College of Liberal Arts and the Executive Vice
President for Research and Partnerships also supported the GIS data
collection system.
http://imperialvalleynews.com/index.php/news/world/10809-archaeologist-digs-using-drone-for-fieldwork-in-armenia.html
Sept 2 2014
Archaeologist 'digs' using drone for fieldwork in Armenia
Created on Tuesday, 02 September 2014 17:01
Written by Amy Patterson Neubert
West Lafayette, Indiana - A Purdue University archaeologist is
utilizing drone technology to capture details and data from Bronze Age
field sites in Armenia.
"Drones are a new tool in archaeologists' toolkits," said Ian Lindsay,
an associate professor of anthropology who has been excavating in the
South Caucasus region for 15 years. "It's a good alternative to kites,
balloons or sitting in the bucket of a crane with a camera trying to
visually document these ancient sites. Drones offer a detailed aerial
perspective that we've never had before, and by leveraging this
technology archaeologists can be more efficient in the field as drones
give us an immediate sense of spatial science scale useful for
planning excavation."
Lindsay's 3:49 minute video of various field Armenian sites from this
summer is available online. The drone, flying 300 meters from the
ground, navigated the valleys and mountains of the Tsaghkahovit Plain
and Mt. Aragats region to provide a view that is better quality and
less expensive than images captured by satellite or mapping imagery.
Lindsay is co-director of Project ArAGATS, Archaeology and Geography
of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies, that focuses on the exploration
of southern Caucasia's rich past and the preservation of modern
Armenia's diverse cultural heritage.
Funds from Purdue's College of Liberal Arts and Office of Executive
Vice President for Research and Partnerships supported the new drone
technology. Lindsay also is collaborating with Adam T. Smith, Cornell
University professor and co-director of the Project ArAGATS, and the
Aragats Foundation, which encourages and supports archaeological
tourism, education and development in Armenia.
In addition to the spatial analysis of the hilly region, Lindsay also
was able to use the drone images to count burials from the late Late
Bronze Age, dating to 1500 BCE, a time period contemporary to King Tut
in Egypt.
The societies of the South Caucasia society were mobile - pastoralists
who cared for livestock - so they didn't leave a strong footprint
other than cemeteries and fortresses which may have housed their
leaders. These fortresses were built with extremely large stone
boulders and on ridges overlooking plains and valleys. Because only
the lower courses of the foundation walls are preserved, researchers
do not know the height of the structures. Ancient remains and
artifacts, including a shrine enclosed within a stone room of a
fortress, can be found up to 2 meters underground, but there are some
visible surface features.
"I'm interested in how mobile pastoralists coalesce into larger
political structures," Lindsay said. "This group was mobile, so what
brought them back to these fortresses to pay their tithing and support
the local political structure? Artifacts show these places were homes
to ritual, and ritual is an important form of soft power that may have
encouraged people to return seasonally to support the fortresses'
institutions and leaders."
Lindsay also is interested in the development of metal production in
the area, as well as trade and communication routes through the hilly
region.
In addition to utilizing the drone technology this summer, Lindsay was
able to test a new iPad-based mobile GIS (geographic information
system) data collection system and mobile data collection app that he
and Nicole Kong, an assistant professor of library science who
specializes in GIS, developed to inventory new sites.
"This will be a collaborative tool for archaeologists in the region to
add and edit data about field sites," Lindsay said. "It also will be
helpful to update legacy sites, which are sites that were identified
or excavated but have not yet been published. Again, it's another tool
to help scientists be more efficient in the field."
Funds from the College of Liberal Arts and the Executive Vice
President for Research and Partnerships also supported the GIS data
collection system.
http://imperialvalleynews.com/index.php/news/world/10809-archaeologist-digs-using-drone-for-fieldwork-in-armenia.html