About
Welcome to Archaeogeek
Archaeogeek is about one person’s experiences using modern computing technologies in archaeology, in the UK. My name is Jo Cook, and I am a Senior IT Support and Development Officer at the northern office of Oxford Archaeology, based in Lancaster. My job is pretty varied. It involves sysadmin duties, GIS, databases, and anything else that’s thrown at me. My real passion is building web-based interfaces to maps and data, but more generally I simply want to improve the digital tools and processes that my colleagues have available for doing archaeology.
The problem is that archaeology should be one of those disciplines that embraces digital technologies, GIS and the web, but it isn’t, yet. Furthermore, given the nature of what we do, we should be much better at open standards and data preservation, but we’re still working on that as well. Finally, we should investigate the ways in which modern technology can make our workflow more efficient, both in terms of time and money.
At Oxford Archaeology we’re investing a lot of time into improving this situation, and in the process I am learning about a lot of new things (new to me anyway). Some of these are new technologies, and some are simply new ways of doing things. So, as well as documenting the company’s progress into a new, more open and standardised era, I hope to document my own learning process, and in particular flag up those things that really inspire me.
More personally, I live with my husband Barry and a 3-year old rescue dog called Cassie in Lancaster, where we spend our time kayaking, diving, and amassing a large collection of techno-gadgetry.
View our photos on flickr:
Discovered your site from my comments section and just wanted to check it out. I used to be what we in the states title a shovel bum and I hold a BS in archaeology. Good to see some one discussing GIS in archaeology as there was very little while I was in my field years.
There was a really cool article in the Practical Archaeology (I think I have this right, been a while) where they used GIS as a tool to map the layers of a burial site in South America, really cool stuff.
What areas of Archaeolgy do you practice, I was focused in Casas Grandes (other word too difficult to spell) and Moche Peru.
Looking forward to reading more.
Aaron W. VanWieren
http://www.gisdevcafe.com
I just found your helpful blog. I’m working with an archaeologist who uses tablet PCs, some GIS, and Windows Journal to sketch her test pits. I wonder if you know of an academic journal that we could submit a manuscript to regarding this use of technology which would be either 1) education, or 2) field archaeology, or 3) assessment of the technology. I have not found anything in the archaeology field that seems promising. Here is a copy of a poster that describes briefly what she is doing with the tablets.
http://gisatvassar.blogspot.com/2007/04/fifth-annual-teaching-with-technology.html#johnson
Thanks,
Meg
Hi Meg,
Thanks for stopping by! Has your colleague tried Internet Archaeology http://intarch.ac.uk/? That would be my best guess. It sounds interesting, and just the sort of thing they would go for.
Jo
Dear all,
I am lokking for an up-to-date portable Quantum GIS version.
On your homepage I could only find the portable QGIS version 0.10.
Any ideas?
Many Thank
Lorenz Mikosch
Hi Lorenz.
Thanks for stopping by! The latest version of Portable GIS (out in the next month) will include version 0.11, but you can download the most up to date editions at the QGIS site. http://download.qgis.org/downloads.rhtml
I have yet to figure out how to make versions after 0.11 portable to go in Portable GIS, but if I can do that then Portable GIS will include the most up to date version too.
Hope that helps
Jo
I have made an updated version myself (except geoserver, gota work on that one). I changed the menu system to pstart, it’s easier to configure things. This is exactily what I’ve been looking for.
I work with arcView and MicroStation for an electric company. Thought the skillset might make for an amiture researcher…
Hi Fred,
Nice work! I started with pstart for the menu but it’s not strictly open source so I moved over to autoit. Version 2 has a full control panel rather than a system tray menu, also built with autoit. It’s easy once you get going with it. Geoserver is also quite straightforward to upgrade- you need the binary zip version of the download, and then edit the start and stop batch files in the bin folder to work with your setup. Good luck!
Jo (Archaeogeek)
Hi,
I know this isn’t the place, but I really could use some quick help on 2 topics, but first, I am NOT an archaeologist. I do data entry and editing in ArcEditor for an American power company who has a hobby of photography. Occasionally, I find the remains of some very old places in the middle of nowhere. If you have 2 minutes, I’d love a little help.
1. EXACTLY what do I key in to create a geometry column in PostGIS for a table called Site_GEOM and a column Called SG_GEOM? I think my syntax is wrong.
2. Other than “DO NOT DISTURB”, what do I do if I come across, say a cemetery form the 1700′s for an old iron mine, and should I contact someone, perhaps the archaeology department at Radford University? My daughter starts there in August.
If you can take a moment my addy is “tradewinds1961@gmail.com”
Many thanks!
Fred
Hi Fred,
Sorry for the delay in responding, I have been on hols and enforcing a general ban on using the computer!
In answer to your postgresql question, if you haven’t already sorted it, I think you need something like:
SELECT AddGeometryColumn(‘public’, ‘testtable’, ‘the_geom’, 4326, ‘POINT’, 2);
Where ‘testtable’ is the name of your table, ‘the_geom’ is the name of the geometry column, ’4326′ is the coordinate system EPSG code, ‘POINT’ is the data type, and 2 is the dimension. http://www.bostongis.com/postgis_quickguide.bqg
is a really good place to get help with postgis commands.
In answer to your second question, I don’t know what the procedure is in the States, though if the cemetery really is unknown then the archaeology department should at least know what you should do. In the UK it would be the county Historic Environment Record that I would advise you to contact.
Hope this helps,
Jo
Sorry its not really a comment, but I highly rate the blog and have commented before so….
We would like to invite people to submit abstracts for the AAA session this year on “Google Earth, Open Source and other Emerging Spatial Technologies: Innovation and Application in Archaeology”. The session is being convened by Illya Santos and Stafford Smith at the University of Western Australia. If you would like to present then please forward an Abstract to us by September the 30th.
If you would like more information about our session please contact us (details below) and please distribute this to any of your colleagues who you feel may be interested.
Google Earth, Open Source and other Emerging Spatial Technologies: Innovation and Application in Archaeology
In this session we would like to examine the ways in which emerging spatial technologies are being used in the study and practice of archaeology in Australia and abroad. Archaeologists have been using aerial photographs for over 70 years to study the ground and provide targets for excavation and survey. Since the 70s, often in tandem with aerial surveys, archaeologists have been using GIS programs to map and analyze sites. Recently however, there has been a proliferation of spatial technologies, from recording devices, to economically viable satellite imagery, to open source software.
Google Earth is probably the best known of these emerging spatial technologies. In addition to its repository of satellite imagery, it also offers an easily accessible platform to distribute spatial data, through Keyhole Markup Language. A number of open source geospatial technologies are also emerging as real alternatives to traditionally expensive options with everything from operating systems specific to archaeology to fully customizable GIS programs. These tools are being used in creative ways for viewing, displaying, analyzing and storing information by research, commercial and education organizations all over the world. How is this reflected in archaeology currently? What are Australian archaeologists doing with these technologies now and what would we like to do in the future?
contact:
Illya.sparkes.santos@gmail.com
staffordsmith83@gmail.com