iArchaeology

Using an iPad at Pompeii

As the Google tricycle tricycles around Rome Apple is off to Pompeii. A new advertisement on the Apple website shows a team of archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati under Dr. Steven Ellis using 6 iPads helping to record the findings of a new site near the main thoroughfare of Pompeii.

I’m a little worried for my chum Joseph over at Digital Finds who has had an on-site digital recording system ready to go in 6 months for the last 3 years. However I’m sure he’ll manage to pick at least a few holes in using (the) iPad for just this sort of thing.

I haven’t used iDraw but can’t really imagine drawing detailed 1:20 plans with my stubby finger on a nice shiny screen especially when the British winter starts to hit. Two of the photos are used for reference – wall construction techniques and ‘to establish the chronological context of  pottery’ using a program which seems to draw Harris Matrices. Well, I’m sure it’s nice to have something to help one remember the difference between a wall that’s squared random to one that is squared, built to courses  but a couple of days on an urban or industrial site will hammer that sort of thing home. I’m not sure, however, that the fellow using (the) iPad for his pottery analysis really needs to be leaning on a wall on site, surely those finds’ people like being tucked up inside somewhere with a bit of Radio 2 gently eroding their sanity, but there you.

I suppose the main problem with this is that I’m just jealous. I did have a quick play with (an) iPad in Sydney airport recently and got bored relatively quickly I did however leave this venerable blog as the homepage on its browser so maybe some good will come from these overgrown iPhones, we shall see (but probably not on site in the UK in the next few months).

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Google Stonehenge, Google Pompeii, Google Iraq (and France too!)

Google Streetview

Well, Google have been busy recently. I noticed Martin, from Liverpool Landscapes, had found  Google has added Stonehenge to it’s Streetview, here at least there probably won’t be any complaints form locals about privacy, although there’s a policeman somewhere near the entrance to the tunnel who you can’t quite see. There is similiar way of experiencing Stonehenge if you use Microsoft’s Photosynth which I prefer; you can move around more freely and even go along and take your own photos and upload them.

View Larger Map

Both of these types of visualising landscapes are surely a step in the right direction but both of them create a rather disjointed experience. I have been to Stonehenge and thus use these websites more to jog my memory and enhance it’s visual aspect over the purely mental or emotional but I’m not sure how cohesive a sensation it would be for someone not to have previously visited the stones. Luckily Google have added the ruins of Pompeii to Streetview as well. And yes, it is a little disorientating (I haven’t been to Pompeii), especially with the blurriness as the image pans along. The mini map in the corner helps, although I found it hard to actually find the ruins in the first place (try searching for “pompeii, italy ruins”). However, my feeble criticisms aside, these are great tools.

Google in Iraq

Google have also been busy in Iraq, they will soon begin digitising artefacts and documents from Iraq’s National Museum. 14,000 digital images will be available next year for free to view, however it isn’t made clear what further uses the images could be used for. It’d be great if rather than just taking traditional photos they could use some Photosynth-like method so you could ‘move’ round the artefact and see it from all directions. We’ll see.

France in Iraq

I also read an article last week about France’s involvement in Iraq. I have only found other references to this in online Chinese newspapers which seems odd. The news is that French and Iraqi ministers have signed two cooperation agreements on defense, culture and science which is good, but the last paragraph mentions archaeology directly,

“According to French analysts, France needs an aiding center in Iraq to help French entrepreneurs who are interested in making investment in Iraq, as well as provide supports to French research in agriculture and archaeology in the country.”

I don’t often see archaeology gaining such a profile but maybe Sarkozy is getting the bug, I hear he recently visited the excavation of an Australian and British First World War group burial site at Pheasant Wood,  Fromelles, northern France, although I’m sure this was a matter of politics rather than pure interest.

Update: I have been informed by who I presume to be the Fromelles Project Manager that President Sarkozy hasn’t visited Pheasent Wood. I’ll have a word with my supposed sources!

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