GIS for Archaeology and CRM

Site News: GIS for Archaeology on New Domain

2006-06-02T10:08:00.000-04:00

If you are visiting GIS for Archaeology and CRM on the Blogspot address, don't forget that the blog has been moved to a new domain. www.gisarch.comFrom now on, all new content will be posted on the new domain, but this site will be kept around for the archives and for anyone who has bookmarks linked to here.Please stop in and check out the new site!Thanks,Matt

HydroSHEDS: Hydrologic Watershed Data for the World

2006-05-18T11:44:00.000-04:00

As seen on the CAA: Cartography Blog this morning, the World Wild Life Fund is partnering with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR) of the University of Kassel, Germany to make available HydroSHEDS, a world wide watershed based hydrologic database. As of

Bosnian Pyramid Google Earth Model

2006-05-17T12:02:00.000-04:00

The Bosnian Pyramid [site link, GE Link ] finally got a Google Earth model. I guess when visual suggestion is the only evidence in your favor; you use all the tools in the shed. (please pardon the cynicism) If you are unfamiliar with the topic, the Bosnian Pyramid is the latest and greatest of Indiana Jones meets the Underwater World of Atlantis archaeological mysteries. Headed by Sam Semir

Tutorials for ArcGIS and Archaeology

2006-05-16T14:42:00.000-04:00

ArcGIS and Archaeology: Practical Tutorials for the Use of ArcGIS in Archaeology is a cool site I ran across last week. Born out of the need to use GIS for research and the want to help other archaeologists who may be put into the GIS chair, this site provides background info on both GIS and ESRI ArcGIS products. Further, this site has a small collection of tutorials for some more common GIS/

Egypt Archaeology in Google Earth

2006-05-15T14:17:00.000-04:00

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

Historic Reconstruction with SketchUp

2006-05-13T08:10:00.000-04:00

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

Mapchester: Citizen Cartography Mapping Project

2006-05-12T08:27:00.000-04:00

After the successful venture of Mass Mapping the Isle of Wight, an movement organized by OpenStreetMap.org, University of Salford, University of Manchester, and Futuresonic plan to create an opensource "wikimap" of Manchester."Mapchester will generate a new kind map of Manchester - produced by collective, community effort that will be completely copyright-free."Aside from creating license free

Site News: www.gisarch.com site down for the moment

2006-05-12T06:47:00.000-04:00

If there is anyone trying to reach gisarch.com, I apologize for the inconvenience. Gisarch.com has been down for over 24 hours due to a server change at my hosting service. I think the downtime is unacceptable and plan to switch hosting services in the near future.Sorry for the delay; I will try to have the site back on it's feet as soon as possible.

2nd International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology

2006-05-09T17:53:00.000-04:00

From Space to Place December 4-7, Rome Italy. The 2nd International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology deadline for abstracts is just around the corner (May 30th). Along with the entitled topic of Remote Sensing, the issues covered by this conference run the gamut of technology used in Archaeology. Landscape, environment, ecosystem, image processing, virtual reality, 3D visualization,

Online Proceedings from “3D Digital Imaging and Modeling”

2006-05-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

Posted by Jeff Thurston at Vector One, here are the full-text [pdf] proceedings from the 2005, Italy-Canada workshop on 3D Digital Imaging and Modeling Applications of Heritage, Industry, Medicine and Land” held in Padova, Italy, May 17th and 18th. Taking a quick look at the keywords and paper titles, there are no less than 10 references to Cultural Heritage and 5 each for Archaeology and

Comparing NASA to Archaeology?

2006-05-05T14:56:00.000-04:00

"He [Burt Rutan] likened NASA’s efforts to archeology.” - author Leonard Spitzer, Space.com How exactly do you compare NASA to archaeology? The context of this quote is Burt Rutan, head of California based, Scaled Composites, a privately funded space exploration design and construction firm, commenting on the current state of technology at NASA’s Crew Exploration Vehicle project. This

Site News: The CRMGIS blog is moving: www.gisarch.com

2006-05-04T11:13:00.000-04:00

I am ready to make the big move to a new domain, I think?The new site http://www.gisarch.com is up and running. There are a handful of cosmetic changes to be made, but the content is there. The RSS feed from Feedburner has been moved. If anyone is subscribed via anything but feedburner, please visit the new site and reconnect. Sorry for the inconvenience.I hope that the new publishing

Mass Mapping the Isle of Wight

2006-05-04T06:20:00.000-04:00

This morning, OpenStreetMap was covered on the hugely popular Boing Boing blog. The post, linked to a full story at digital-lifestyles, describes the critical mass like effort of 30+ mapping enthusiasts who plan to map the Isle of Wight off the UK coast. The effort will produce a spectrum of spatial data that will be distributed under the Creative Commons license. The intention, beyond

Archaeology of a 1945 Prison Escape ... Part 1

2006-05-03T18:02:00.000-04:00

The Story of the 1945 Escape TunnelOn April 3rd, 1945, 12 men escaped from the Eastern State Pennitentary in Philadelphia. Among them, was the notorius bank robber, "Slick" Willie Sutton. Sutton, as well as the tunnels engineer, Clarence Klinedinst were caught very shortly after the escape. Within 2 days, all then men were back in the prison.On April 1st, 2006, the tunnel was cleary seen again

Site News: Working on new CRMGIS blog

2006-05-03T13:04:00.000-04:00

Soon, I will be moving the "GIS for Archaeology and CRM" to a new home. I have secured a domain (www.gisarch.com) and I am working on configuring WordPress. Hopefully this move will offer a better site with little inconvenience to the readers. I suppose a few issues will need to be ironed out with RSS and such, but it shouldn't be too painful.I'll be sure to keep you posted...

Bosnian Pyramid: Google Earth Used to Disseminate Data

2006-05-01T14:16:00.001-04:00

Photo Credit: http://www.bosnianpyramid.com/ What are the chances of the world’s tallest man-made pyramid being found in Visoko, Bosnia-Herzegovina? Well, according to the data and available studies on the BosnainPyramid site, at least somebody believes it. Although, the intention of this post is not to support or debunk the authenticity of this find, but instead, just to point out an

Minnesota Historic Plat Maps Online

2006-05-01T09:25:00.000-04:00

Cover this morning at The Map Room blog, the Minnesota Historical Society has scanned and made available a large collection of historic maps ranging from 1848 to 1907. The online collection is drawn from the society’s archive of 19,000 maps and 2000 atlas volumes. The main archive contains map dating back to 1581. The online version of this amazing catalog contains plat maps and atlases

Google 3D Warehouse: "A 3D interface to the planet"

2006-04-27T16:28:00.000-04:00

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

Google SketchUp is now FREE!!!!

2006-04-27T09:23:00.000-04:00

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

USGS Bedrock Geology Maps for Google Earth

2006-04-26T08:13:00.000-04:00

Covered this morning in the Google Earth Blog is the introduction of a series of geologic maps for Northern California in Google Earth KMZ format. Produced and distributed by the United States Geologic Survey (USGS), these maps depict the bedrock geology for 12 counties.The network link from the USGS includes the geologic units and their abbreviated formation name as a label. Interestingly, the

New RSS feed

2006-04-26T08:03:00.000-04:00

After learning that my RSS feed was broken for a long time (thanks Tijl), I implemented a new Feedburner feed. By clicking on the RSS icon on the right hand column, you can add my feed to your favorite aggregator. Alternately, if you are using FireFox/Mozilla, you can click on the same icon in the location bar of your browser and add it as a live bookmark.To anyone who tried to subscribe

CAA 2006 - Pictures from Closing Party

2006-04-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from the closing bash of the CAA 2006.I know this post is long, sorry for the inconvenience. Click on my Flickr badge (under my links) for a few more CAA pictures.First time to my blog? Please continue past this post and read on about the excellent papers and topics discussed at the CAA.Seated dinner with great band!Stephen Stead (CIDOC) and Mark Mudge (CHI)A series of

CAA 2006 - Day 4: Google Earth, Quantitative Methods, 3D Cityscape

2006-04-23T20:12:00.000-04:00

Okay, a little late, but here are my notes from CAA Day 4...On the final day of presentations at the CAA, I drifted around to a variety of sessions and caught a bunch of great papers. Here is a brief summary of the topics I found interesting. Google Earth for Archaeological Aerial ProspectionDr. Scott Madry, of the University of North Carolina, was back with another paper demonstrating an

CAA 2006 - Day 4 and Closing Banquet

2006-04-22T20:10:00.000-04:00

Well, the CAA is now over, but the effects are still lingering. Although, I have a bunch of notes from some great papers on Day 4 (Friday), I will not get to them until tomorrow.Honestly, the closing banquet and fun that followed has put me out of commission. Between the great conversation, great food, great entertainment, and most of all, great people, the CAA 2006 in Fargo ended with a bang!

CAA 2006 - Day 3 Addendum: ArchaeoML and Tagging

2006-04-21T10:01:00.000-04:00

I couldn't quite get all this written last night, so here is a brief of the Day 3 afternoon session I attended...XML and Tagging The afternoon session on Database management was chaired by database rock star, Edward A. Fox. Ed Fox is gaining quite a fan club here in Fargo, well, there is at least two of us. If you ever need a real-deal session chair, he's the man!Back to the session, Tyler Bell,

CAA 2006 - Day 3: Archaeological predictive Models, XML, Tagging

2006-04-20T19:06:00.000-04:00

Another enthralling day in Fargo, ND. There was an abundance of great papers today and plenty of thoughtful discussion to match.With my chances for a free happy hour drink slipping away, I will just quickly cover some of the highlights.Inductive vs. Deductive Predictive Models: Battle-Royal!!!Will inductive models really send earth spiraling to hell in a handbasket? Or are deductive models the

CAA 2006 - Day 2: 3D data capture, Agent Based Modeling, Mobile Applications

2006-04-19T23:15:00.000-04:00

Althought blogging etiqutte seems to be a taboo topic, there must be some rule against blogging after a night of free wine and beer. The folks of Fargo have certainly rolled out the red carpet for this conference; it has been a great time so far.Since the wine flowed like, well, wine... I will have to confine myself to a quick recap of today's events.3D Data acquisition3D data acquisition papers

CAA 2006 - Day2: Morning Poster Session

2006-04-19T10:16:00.000-04:00

I had some time this morning to walk around and check out the posters. Here is a quick recap of two interesting topics:Google Earth, VRML, Native American Pit HousesSecondly, A University of British Columbia team, composed of Michael Blake, Sue Formosa, Dana Lepofsky, and Dave Schaepe created a poster for a very cool and effective project along the Fraser River in BC. Working with the local

CAA 2006 Day 1: Digital Earth and Fladers Archaeology

2006-04-18T19:45:00.000-04:00

The first day of the CAA 2006 conference has concluded. Before I head down to the hotel bar to... uh... “network”, I would like to share a bit about two interesting papers I saw today. The first paper is a topic that was briefly covered in a previous post concerning the Tijl Vereenooghe’s Google maps based Flanders Archaeology Project "OpGraven". After reviewing this project for the

Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology: CAA 2006

2006-04-17T16:39:00.000-04:00

Here I an in Fargo, North Dakota at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology: CAA 2006 conference. Starting tomorrow, there will be 5 days of great presentations and workshops dealing with topics such as, but not limited to, 3D technologies, remote sensing, VR, and database theory as applied to archaeology and cultural heritage. I will try to cover some of the

Cartography: Paleogeogrpahic Maps of North America

2006-04-13T09:52:00.000-04:00

Blogged at the CCA weblog on Tuesday is a link to a fantastic project undertaken by Dr. Ron Blakey.The maps created by Dr. Blakey represent time slices of the geologic transformations, via plate tectonics, to the core of ancient North America, "Laurentia". The time slice maps are taken at 5-10 million year intervals over the past 550 million years. (PerryGeo has created a fantastic animated gif

Science Blog: Remote Sensing for Mayan Ruins

2006-04-11T21:35:00.000-04:00

From a story recently covered at the Science Blog. Researchers from NASA and the University of New Hampshire in Durham have discovered a number of previously unknown Mayan temple ruins in a densely forested region around San Bartolo, Guatemala. The team employed the use of NASA's Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) to remotely sense the jungle floor. Flown from 8km above the relative

GeoPriv - Geographic Location Privacy Protocol

2006-04-11T07:06:00.002-04:00

With location specific information and services becoming widely available, the privacy and restriction of these data becomes very important. GeoPriv is a transfer protocol (in development) aimed at authorizing the delivery of and rendering location specific information.The basics of this protocol, as I understand it, is an authorization system built from a rule set (policy) which is composed of

Robots, Prisoners, Lasers, and 18th Century Grist Mills

2006-04-04T06:53:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been in the field recently working on two very cool projects that include lasers, prisoners, robots, and yes, 18th century grist mills. I will write up each of these projects when they stop making me shovel for my paycheck.

News brief: Google includes ads in Google Local

2006-03-31T07:08:00.000-05:00

Launched Thursday night, Google Local is now including map icons to draw attention to a small set of advertiser in the new Local Business Ads program. The advertisers icons, once clicked, display sponsored link information including address, phone number, and a jpg logo.A Search for "Ralph Lauren NY" turns up an example of this new ad technique (is that the ICQ chat icon?). According to an

PerryGeo: Top 10 WMS list

2006-03-29T11:37:00.000-05:00

As blogged at SlashGeo, check out the top ten list of WMS (Web Mapping Services) layers over at the PerryGEO blog.The 10 WMS layers compiled my Matt Perry are a set of key base layers that can be pulled together in a web mapping interface such as MapServer, BeeldBlab, OpenJUMP, ArcIMS. Also, Matt's blog post includes tips on displaying data availability and a slick MapServer app with the included

GPS + Camera + Google Map = Fantastic Field Survey Tool

2006-03-29T07:31:00.000-05:00

As reported on Digg.com (and subsequently Dugg all to heck), here is a very cool GPS + Camera combo project. Simple concept; take a camera that supports recording GPS coordinatess in the image Exif data(Exchangeable Image File = like metadata for pictures), hook it up to a GPS, write a script to process the results into XML, put it on a google map. Check out the examples at the creators

Conversions and 3D visualization on the Cheap

2006-03-27T20:26:00.000-05:00

Within most GIS projects, particularly when 3D visualization is involved, divergent data sources and formats need to be brought together into a single product (Quickly and Cheaply). As an aid in figuring out how I was going to get data from one visualization platform to another, I created a simple chart that reminded me what went where. As I am sure there are more productive work arounds than

Location Technologies and Archaeology Sites

2006-03-26T21:26:00.000-05:00

map loading...The best and the worst thing about archaeology sites is location. Knowing the location of a site or multiple sites can help create models to find more sites and/or better understand what we know about a site. At the same time, archaeological site location is highly secure data. This is for the sites protection. There is a lot of money to be made on archaeological artifacts.Here

Google Map of Excavations in Flanders

2006-03-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

OpenGraven Be is Google maps based mapping of archaeological excavations in the Flanders region of Belgium (written in Flemish). Below the heading there are links to display sites mapped across Flanders organized by time periods. Each point on the map documents an excavation with a representative photo. Also embedded, is a link to more information regarding that site.This project represents a

Export Blender 3D to Google Earth KML

2006-03-23T09:35:00.000-05:00

Reported Monday, over at A Life Of Coding, Ynniv released a Python script for Blender 3D that exports your 3D meshes, with diffuse lighting, into Google Earth's KML format. Blender is an open source 3D modeling, rendering, and animation studio that has just celebrated its 10th birthday. This marriage of open source and user created software significantly adds to the body of available tools to

Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference

2006-03-23T09:11:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow morning I will be heading to Virginia Beach, VA for the 36th annual Middle Atlantic archaeological Conference. I will try to get the scoop on any new and cool GIS uses or applications in the Mid Atlantic archaeology/CRM world.

Getting your feet wet

2006-03-22T12:58:00.000-05:00

Recent fly-over of the Delaware River?Nope, a new carpet in the Sacramento International Airport. As seen in Boing Boing, pulled from the textile's creator Seyed Alavi's site, this image is of a the airports newly installed carpet. This carpet is woven with the image of the Sacremento River laid along the airport's skybridge. The shaggy green rug in my office just found its new replacement!

Visualizing 200 years of utilities in the UK

2006-03-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

Much to the appreciation of UK archaeologists, a new program entitled VISTA (Visualizing integrated information on buried assets to reduce streetworks) aims to map the roughly 1.5 million kilometers of gas, sewer, water, and electricity utilities now in place under the their streets. With a significant portion of these conduits being nearly 200 years old, current knowledge of their whereabouts

Spatial Data Standard for Facilities, Infrastructure, and Environment (SDSFIE)

2006-03-21T07:34:00.000-05:00

The "Spatial Data Standard for Facilities, Infrastructure, and Environment" (SDSFIE), developed by the CADD/GIS Technology Center, part of the US Department of Defense DoD, is a set of tools to develop "non proprietary" GIS data content standards that can be used with most major off the shelf GIS/CADD and relational database applications. Basically, the SDSFIE is composed of a set of tools that

Fun with Google Earth and Archaeology

2006-03-20T12:23:00.000-05:00

Over at the Google Earth Community forum, there is an interesting on going competition in the "Fun and Games" board. The "Find the Archaeology" game posts display a Google Earth image of an archaeology site somewhere in the world and it is your job to find it. Play by either searching the boards, or check out the indexed list over at About.comThe most recent archaeological site in question (

GIS and Archaeology Conferences

2006-03-18T12:53:00.000-05:00

Although not the ESRI developers Summit, here a few upcoming conferences of interest:Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA 2006):The international CAA 2006 is being held for the first time in the United States. Way up in frosty Fargo, North Dakota, this looks to be a killer conference. Sessions range from the use of Google Earth and Wikipedia as archaeological tools,

Philadelphia GeoHistory Network

2006-03-17T19:47:00.000-05:00

New updates to the Philadelphia city wide Historical GIS project… The Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network (GPGN) is an initiative to create a web-based portal of the full range of geographic and document data concerning the history culture and architecture of the city and surrounding area. The idealized product is a free resource that anyone can use for researching Philly’s history. The

Getting into the Mood...

2006-03-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

Often times I am tasked with creating a seemingly endless number of indexed maps, atlas style. Since ESRI has not yet to hold my hand through the post "multiple layouts" of the ArcView 3.X days, I have *.mxd files coming out the ears. I have tried the Map Book developer sample in the past, but lost then when I upgraded to Arc9. I know, I know, I have to understand that it is a change in work flow

Bits in the Wind...

2006-03-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

I was working this morning on quickly putting together a visual for a wind turbine project. Here are two captures of "progress". These images are form google earth with imports of data from ArcGIS and Sketchup 5. I could write all day about how incredible SketchUp is. Interestingly, the makers of Sketchup, @Last, were just bought by Google..Since I am not a big fan at all of the use of the

First Post

2006-03-16T14:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess "Hello World" will have to do.My intention: to create a home for GIS/Geo Spatial/Spatial Tech ideas and general ramblings. Focus: the general focus will be towards how GIS is used in archaeology and particularly the realm of Cultural Resource Management (CRM).Goal: create an environment to foster discussion and distribute information.