One and a
half year ago I was contacted by Maria who told me about Silsila and the
projects that is running there. She asked me if I was interested in joining
them and thereby bringing in the technology we are working with in the
Humanities Laboratory at Lund University where I am working as a research
engineer. This technology is focused on 3d data and we mainly apply it on
archaeological research where we help to develop methods of using it in smart
ways and incorporating it into the archaeological workflow. For that reason we
are always interested in case studies, so Marias initial mail excited me. After
a lot of planning, I and my colleague Giacomo Landeschi finally had the
opportunity to visit the site and make a first study of it to find out if it is
a site that would fit our line of research.
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| First fixed point established |
The warmth
that met us, not only temperature wise (having left a very cold Sweden behind
us), but also from the very nice members of the team on site was a very good
start. And I must say it only got better as the days passed. Gebel el Silsila
is a really fascinating site and most of our techniques and methods could
easily be used there. But for this first visit we decided only to bring a
differential gps, since careful mapping of the site of course is a priority.
During the week we managed to set up a number of fixed points to be used in the
future either with the gps or a total station. We also mapped the perimeter of
the main quarry and some other interesting details spread over some parts of
the area. During the coming weeks we will post process the data and set up a
basic 3d-GIS system that can be built on in the coming seasons.
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| Giacomo records a point at the top of the main quarry |
We also
work quite a lot with 3d-models in our lab and one technique for this that we
used during the week is called structure from motion, in which a big amount of
ordinary 2d photos is taken from a lot of different angels of an object and
then processed in special software to create a 3d-model. You can see one such
example here, where a
3d-model was made of a sphinx that is close to one of the quarries on the east
side. It might take some time to load since it is rather big, even though its
resolution is reduced quit a lot from the original 3d-model.
Since it is
possible to move around the light source in most 3d visualizations systems,
this technique also is good to apply to rock carvings or quarry marks. When the
light hits the model of these from different angels, features in the carving
can be more pronounced. One example of that is here (to move the light click on the
light bulb to the left and then move the mouse over the model with the left
mouse button pressed).
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| Photos been taken to make a 3d-model. |
Silsila is
definitely a site where we will like to do more work. We will be back next
season and I already look forward to meeting Madame Silsila and also the
wonderful team there again. I would like to thank Maria and John for their
hospitality and generosity.
Stefan
Lindgren
