Arc-Team: Conflict Archaeology of the First World War on the Carnic ridge and in the Sexten Dolomites

With the centenary years 2014–2018, a hitherto relatively unknown branch of archaeological research, the so-called conflict archaeology, is coming into the limelight. Since  excavation work is able to supply only very selective assertions on account of the enormous extent of the mountain front, the overriding objective of monument conservation in the years to come must focus on taking stock of all material remains from the WWI era.

As a result of the developments in satellite geodesy and 3D documentation, it is now possible to approach this task on a wide scale and comparatively economically. The data collected form the basis of targeted protection measures and provide for future reference numerous new methods of presentation which fulfil the requirements of nature and monument preservation as well as the growing interest of demographic groups.

The article is illustrating the latest research results of Arc-Team and is written in German Language by Rupert Gietl. 
It was published inside the volume:
Das Pustertal und der Krieg 1914–1918 (TAP-Forschungen, Bd. 2) by the 
Tyrol Archive for Photography (TAP)

Download the article

Arc-Team: Professionals at Work - the "Frozen Stories" videoclip

Since several years, the Department of Archaeology of the Autonomous Province of South-Tyrol has been documenting and rescuing various archaeological remains in high alpine environment. The project area for late summer 2013 was the Langgrubenjoch a passage between the Schnalser- and the Matscher-Valley.

The site is located on an altitude of about 3100m.a.s.l. (10170ft) and offers a striking variety of wooden finds from prehistory to antiquity.

The project was directed by Dr. Hubert Steiner, member of the Department of Archaeology of the Autonomous Province of South-Tyrol, who is also one of the curators of the exibition "FROZEN STORIES - Discoveries in the Alpine glaciers" at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (Bozen) from 25 February 2014 to 22 February 2015.

+Luca Bezzi announced it on ATOR first in february 2014 in the post "High mountain archaeology: Frozen Stories".

The South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology is home of the "Iceman Ötzi"  one of the biggest archaeological sensations in the 20th century. The site of Langgrubenjoch is situated just a few kilometers from his finding place.

Frozen Stories provides for the first time some of the findings from Langgrubenjoch toegether with a video clip, filmed during the survey by ourselves, which shows the whole archaeological working process in such extreme circumstances.

The publication on ATOR was possible by courtesy of the directorship of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, represented by Andreas Putzer. Thanks also to Hubert Schönegger and the Team of Geosfilm, for converting the video and splitting the soundtrack.

„@MAP“ the Arc-Team Mobile Mapping Platform

In Summer 2013 Arc-Team was charged with the task to survey a micro-DTM on an archaeological area of about 10.000 m2.

The underlying archaeological remains on the side cause small differences in height on the surface and the shape of a nearly 60 x 60 meters large structure was known from aerial photographs.

We've had only 10 hours of fieldwork at our disposal and exploring our options we've made some numbers games:

• Doing the job with total station would allow us to take an average of 5 points per minute, which means a (very optimistic) total amount of 3000 points in 10 hours. (2 operators)

• Using our DGPS, the stroke per minute increases up to a maximum of 15 points per minute, working with continuous point capturing mode, having an operator on the field who's stepping forward, putting down the pole and balancing the bubble eyery 4 seconds. The total amount in this case is about 9000 points. This means an average of only 0,9 points / m2. That would be far to few...

So what would we going to do?

In this occasion we've had the idea to adapt a monocycle in order to have a rollable vehicle carrying the GPS antenna and maintaining a constant distance to the ground.

The result you can admire in the illustration below.

By the help of this tool we were able to increase the stroke on 42 points / minute and a total amount of almost 25.000 points. This means an average of at least 2,5 points / m2.

The result of our efforts was quite lovely: GRASS GIS produced a high quality DTM from which we derive 3D views, isolines and shaded reliefs.

The official name of the trolley is „@MAP“ Arc-Team Mobile Mapping Platform. ;-)

How to take pictures for photomosaics in narrow conditions: A clever solution for a common archaeological fieldwork problem.

Everyone who works on archaeological excavations knows situations like this:

A narrow and deep trench or a wall near to the limit of the excavation area.

If subsequently we have to make a photomosaic of the profile or facade, it means:

• either photographing from the top, hazarding the consequences like distorsion:
  
  
  
• or splitting the photomosaik in numerous single tiles, and that means a lot of work!
  

A very simple and clever solution for this problem can be the use of a mirror:

Putting it down in an inclined position on the ground and positioning yourself on the opposite side (watch the illustration beneath and heed me kneeing outside of the trench), it allows you to take a shot of the reflection of your facade in the mirror.

Of course the picture will show the object mirror-inverted, but don't worry:
The rectification software will fix it again...

Thanks a lot to Granma for borrowing us her wonderful kitsch bedroom-mirror!

The Taung Child is now touchable, thanks to 3d printing

As Luca Bezzi said in his presentation in Catania, the next step in the Taung project was 3d printing; in a previous post, I explained some issues we found in the original mesh. But thanks to Cicero's suggestions, the problems have been fixed, and 3 days ago Kentstrapper finally printed the Taung Child skull.

Here are some images:

The .stl model

Kentstrapper strongly believe that 3d printing can be a real revolution in education and culture. And, of course, in archaeology 3d printing should also be a great change in museum expositions: facial reconstructions, scale models of ancient buildings or (as in this case) plastic copies of finds could make archaeology much more easily understandable for visitors.

HERE you can download the final .stl file of the skull.

Arc-Team and Antrocom NPO start "Taung" project

"Taung" project starts: its aim is the craniofacial reconstruction of the fossil known as "Taung child", a specimen of Australopithecus africanus discovered by Raymond Dart in 1924 in a quarry near the town of the same name in South Africa.

"Taung" is a collaborative project between Antrocom non-profit organization, an association for anthropological studies, Arc-Team, a company that operates in the field of cultural heritage, and Cicero Moraes, an expert in 3D modeling applied to the forensic context.

The Museum of Anthropology of the University of Padua has provided the casts of its collection to the experts of Antrocom NPO and Arc-Team. Among the objectives of the project: to evaluate the applicability of the used method to the reconstruction of faces of contemporary human beings, to the paleoanthropological context and to create a database of examples of application of modern techniques of digital reconstruction to the anthropological context for research and popularization.

The researchers decided to work through a three-dimensional survey of the cast of Taung child at first, and then they decided to reconstruct the facial muscles of the skull through the observation and comparison of DICOM scans of primates.

In particular, the three-dimensional survey of the find was made through techniques of Structure from Motion and Image-Based Modeling (SFM / IBM), using only free and open source software (Python Photogrammetry Toolbox). For the digital reconstruction of the facial musculature researchers chose open source programs (including Blender), modeling using the technique of "metaballs" the needed muscle bundles, while they will be used mainly the free software InVesalius for the comparison with DICOM data of other primates.

The project is located in a wider context of research that aims to explore the application of digital techniques in the museum context, with particular attention to the findings of anthropological nature.

The search results will be released as soon as possible in turn under an open source license and therefore freely distributed. Antrocom NPO and Arc-Team would like to thank, for their invaluable cooperation, the Museum of Anthropology of University of Padua, in the person of the keeper, dr. Nicola Carrara, and the Centre for Museums of University of Padua.

Antrocom non-profit organization promotes and encourages the development of studies of physical and cultural anthropology, working in scientific research, education, training and in the popularization of anthropological sciences. The Association is careful to perceive and enhance both the local tradition that the new technological perspective applied to anthropology.

Arc-Team sas is a company based in Cles (TN, Italy) formed up by young archaeologists and anthropologists working in the field of cultural heritage, characterized by wide-ranging collaborations at national and international levels. In particular, it deals with archaeological excavations, documentation and digital modeling (2D and 3D), GIS geoarchaeology, WebGIS, paleopathology, anthropology and musealization.