SPARC, an NSF-funded program at CAST, is dedicated to promoting geospatial research in archaeology. SPARC offers direct support to archaeological projects through awards in three categories, 1. Fieldwork: On-site data collection; 2. Data and Analytics: Preparation, processing and analysis of geospatial data; 3. Publication: Presentation, publication and archiving of complex geospatial datasets. The SPARC program began in August 2013 with a grant from the NSF Archaeometry Program, and aims to expand the use of spatial analysis, 3D and geophysical remote sensing technologies in archaeological research projects around the world. The availability and sophistication of these technologies and methods has begun to profoundly affect how archaeologists and other scholars work. CAST was selected by the National Science Foundation in September 2015 to receive an additional grant and continue to serve as a national center for innovative geospatial research and methods in archaeology through the Spatial Archaeometry Research Collaborations (SPARC) Program. SPARC has been funded through two NSF Award 1321443 and NSF Award 1519660.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry

CAST researchers worked with the The Milot Archaeological Project (MAP) team, led by Dr. J. Cameron Monroe (UC - Santa Cruz) to collect ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys to map and identify the subsurface features within the Milot complex. With these data, the MAP investigates an example of state formation from the early modern Atlantic World: the short-lived Kingdom of Haiti (1811-1820), which emerged in the years following the Haitian Revolution. Essential research questions that the MAP seeks answer include: (1) did the Kingdom of Haiti draw from earlier forms of power in the region, and (2) did the Kingdom of Haiti restructure and routinize the social lives of its citizenry, or rather was it focused largely on public spectacles that sat suspended above everyday social life? The MAP mobilizes documentary and archaeological evidence to explore the relationship between architectural space and political power, evaluating competing models for the nature of Haitian political authority in the early 19th century.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

CAST, the Gabii Project, and Michigan Publishing are collaborating to produce a series of digital volumes based on the excavations and research of the Gabii Project, bringing together data publication, interactive 3D models, and synthetic text. The first volume, "A mid-Republican House from Gabii" is under preparation. In addition to designing and developing these volumes, this project aims to advance the sustainability of digital long-form publication in the humanities. This work is part of the "Building a Hosted Platform for Monographic Source Materials" Project, generously funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry

The historic Fort Randall Post Cemetery, located in Gregory County, South Dakota, contains well over 100 burials dating to the mid to late nineteenth century. A previous investigation of the site utilizing documentary evidence, aerial photographs, and targeted coring located many previously recorded and undocumented graves within the main fenced area of the cemetery. To locate additional unmarked graves within an area adjacent to the cemetery, a multi-instrument remote sensing investigation of the site was undertaken by CAST and administered through the South Dakota State Historical Society, Archaeological Research Center (ARC). Historic cemeteries are one of the most challenging contexts for remote sensing applications and graves are especially difficult to locate when they lack high contrast materials such as brick burial vaults or metal coffins, which is typical of nineteenth century cemeteries. Multi -instrument approaches offer the greatest likelihood of successfully mapping unknown grave locations. Results of the survey will be published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

This project was an expansion of the CORONA project specifically for extending the site database to southern Syria. The expansion of this dataset coupled with complementary data were combined with the “Do-Not-Strike” list of heritage and culture sites developed through collaboration of the US Department of State, the Blue Shield, and other partners. This list, distributed in August 2013, includes around 200 of the best-known archaeological sites (i.e., those that were home to excavation projects or that are on the tourist itinerary), but critically also includes a quite comprehensive list of museums, libraries, historic buildings, and monuments that are not easily mapped via satellite imagery. Combining this existing list with the archaeological site database helps to produce the most comprehensive inventory of known cultural and heritage sites that is currently achievable for that region.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; Image Analysis; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Reality Capture

The expansion of this NEH-funded project focuses on building a more robust interface for georeferencing, as well as storage and distribution of the CORONA images. The study area increased to include Eastern China and those surrounding regions. CORONA image coverage is abundant in these areas and its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry, Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

The Gabii Project is an international archaeological initiative under the direction of Nicola Terrenato of the University of Michigan. It was launched in 2007 with the objective of studying and excavating the ancient Latin city of Gabii, a city-state that was both a neighbor of, and a rival to, Rome in the first millennium BC. CAST researcher Rachel Opitz leads the project's survey and digital data team, and is involved in bringing the project to publication. The Gabii Project is supported by generous grants from from the University of Michigan, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the National Endowment for the Humanities, FIAT-Chrysler, the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, and several private donors.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

In collaboration with The Field Museum, CAST researchers conducted aerial surveys resulting in photography/photogrammetry, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys, and magnetometry surveys to map the surface and to identify subsurface architecture on and around the platform mounds and sunken circular plazas at the site of Caballete in the Norte Chico region of Peru. This collaboration among CAST researchers and local Peruvian archaeologists uses innovative and experimental geophysical/remote sensing techniques to explore the Late Archair ceremonial structures and plan for later, more targeted excavations.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

This collaboration between CAST, the Gabii Project and Michigan Publishing aims to make 3D models and digital data a core part of scholarly archaeological publications, and to promote the acceptance of 3D models as basic data within the archaeological community. The project developed a prototype publication using data collected through the Gabii Project and conducted a series of peer review exercises and workshops online and at conferences. This work was supported by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; Spatial Archaeometry; Digital Preservation

project description needed...

Project tags:
Technology Education; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Image Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Reality Capture

project description needed...

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

Focusing on the northern Fertile Crescent, a study region of more than 200,000 sq km extending from the eastern Mediterranean to northern Iraq, the project brings together specialists in archaeology, environmental remote sensing, and geomatics to explore settlement and environmental histories through an innovative remote-sensing based series of analyses aimed at creating a model of dynamic trends in land cover and environmental change, or land surface phenology, over the past 30 years based on gridded climate data available through NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) and remote sensing-based vegetation series derived from AVHRR and Landsat satellite data. In a region like the northern Fertile Crescent, where nearly all pre-industrial settlement was dependent on highly variable and relatively sparse precipitation, documenting the full effects that minor variations in climate can have is critical to understanding settlement and land use in the past and present. Our methods will enable us to map the actual effects that years or seasons with higher or lower than average rainfall had on land cover throughout the study region.

Project tags:
Image Analysis; Spatial Archaeometry; GIS, GNSS and Mapping

The CI-TRAIN project is a partnership of institutions of higher education to transform the practice of information technology services for enabling scientific discovery. The CI-TRAIN project was founded by institutions in Arkansas and West Virginia in a partnership that builds on common research in nanoscience and geosciences and leverages complementary expertise.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; 3D Reconstruction; Reality Capture; Network Analysis; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Technology Education; Digital Preservation; Image Analysis

project description needed...

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; Spatial Archaeometry

CORONA images preserve a high-resolution picture of the world as it existed in the 1960s, they constitute a unique resource for researchers and scientists studying environmental change, agriculture, geomorphology, archaeology and other fields. This NEH-funded project focuses on the Middle East and surrounding regions, areas where CORONA coverage is abundant and where its value to archaeology and other fields has been well-demonstrated; however, other areas of the world are being explored as the project progresses. The large majority of the images we provide come from the KH4B satellites, the latest generation of CORONA missions in operation from September 1967 through May 1972.

Project tags:
Digital Preservation; GIS, GNSS and Mapping; Spatial Archaeometry

This project was funded by the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), Department of Defense. ArchaeoFusion is a tool for Archaeologists and others who use ground penetrating sensors to build subsurface maps. ArchaeoFusion will load data from many sources, processes the data, and then integrate it into a clear representation of subsurface features.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeometry; Image Analysis

Researchers in the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas have traveled around the world using their advanced remote sensing technology to provide a 3-D perspective of archaeological sites and historic structures. Time Scanners showcases CAST laser-scanning experts collecting and analyze billions of measurements. They use the data collected by laser scanners to produce what is known as a 3-D point cloud. The six-part documentary series includes full episodes from the Egyptian Pyramids, St. Paul's Cathedral, Petra, Machu Picchu, the Colosseum and Jerusalem. Episodes are available online at http://www.pbs.org/program/time-scanners/.

Project tags:
Spatial Archaeology, Reality Capture, Technology Education