Week 1

‘The notion of the site, and the use of maps to describe them, is based on an implicit

understanding that human behaviour is inherently spatial’ (Johnson, 2008: 2017). Johnson

identifies a variety of way that maps can used in an archaeological context, from documents

that record basic information about a site, to analytical tools (2008: 2017-2022).

Cosgrove et al.'s use of maps demonstrates that a single map can provide the reader with a

variety of information. The map below identifies the locations and sites mentioned in-text in

reference to the modern coastline (and major cities) but also provides information about the

past coastline and changes in sea level. The sites labelled in bold also differentiate types of

sites, in this case sites with megafaunal remains.

However providing spatial information is not the only way in which maps can be used.

'Every map holds a promise, and hides a lie. Cartography purports to represent reality, so the

map reader can navigate the world. But maps only exist because their makers manipulate

reality, if only by selecting what to show. Maps always represent some kind of truth, but

never the whole truth. If you know who made the map, you’re generally able to make a stab

at the narrative behind it - and which story it isn’t telling.' (Jacobs, 2011).

The above image is a historical map from East Berlin, supposedly depicting in a utilitarian

manner the trains lines of Berlin. Like most railway maps it is schematic, however it has been

deliberately altered. As Jacobs points out, the context of the map is all important (2011).

Produced during the height of the Cold War, the map deliberately overlaps the Potsdam train

lines with those of East Berlin, hiding the majority of West Berlin in the process. By

designing the map so that the Potsdam lines and East Berlin lines look like the link up, gives

the appearance that West Berlin is a small and insignificant enclave within East Berlin.

Jacobs use of the map is similar to the way a historian or archaeologists would use a

historical document. In this case the map is used to illustrate the way that East German

officials minimised and downplayed the presence of a rival Berlin during the Cold War. The

value of this map is not the geographic information it shows, but rather in what it reveals

about the ideology of the DDR. Jacobs use of this map demonstrates a different way maps

and highlights Johnson's point that 'mapping is of course subjective' (2008: 2019)

The first practical exercise involved learning some of the basics of ArcGIS, the foremost GIS

software available. and a seemingly easy user interface made the software accessible rather

than intimidating. The three tasks were:

1. Changing projections

2. Changing symbology

3. Mapping from coordinate data

Overall it was not the technology so much which caused me difficulties; I'm assuming that

the more I use it the more proficient I will be in it (hopefully), but rather knowing what it

makes to make a map legible and informative. Making a map that has lots of information and

hundreds of things going on in it was very easy to do, but, as shown by my second map,

makes them hard to interpret. It might have been made easier I I had figured out how to do a

scale bar and key for my maps though.

References

COSGROVE, R., FIELD, J., GARVEY, J., BRENNER-COLTRAIN, J., GOEDE, A.,

CHARLES, B., WROE, S., PIKE-TAY, A., GRÜN, R., AUBERT, M., LEES, W. &

O'CONNELL, J. 2010. Overdone overkill – the archaeological perspective on Tasmanian

megafaunal extinctions. Journal of Archaeological Science, 37, 2486-2503.

JACOBS, F. 2011. Then we take Berlin: When East ate West. Strange Maps [Online].

Available from: http://bigthink.com/ideas/38349 [Accessed 1 August 2011].

JOHNSON, I. 2008. Mapping Methods. In: PEARSALL, D. M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of

Archaeology. Elsevier.

Week 2

Mapping historical data has particular challenges which may not apply to contemporary

data. What do you think these challenges are?

You might like to think about some of the following and contrast them with the collection

and use of contemporary data such as environmental information, census data or houses

for rent:

o Sources of historical data

o Special characteristics of historical data

o Uses to which the data might be put

o Methods of representing historical data

References can be in books/journals and/or on the web, and should be listed as correctly

formatted bibliographic references (this can be done manually, but later in the course we

will come back to methods for generating correctly formatted references from a

database).

There are a variety of challenges when dealing with historical maps and datasets, including:

Different types of data recorded than what is needed by the researchers

A different set of cartographic symbology

A limited data set

Accuracy of data sets

It is possible though to use limited data sets in meaningful ways. Kendall’s 1971 article

demonstrates that incomplete data sets, such as often found in historical research, can be used

to create reasonably accurate maps, which while obviously not perfect can create a good

approximation of the spatial appearance in a site. Kendall creates a readily recognisable map

of the Departments of France through the use of mapping software, but the only data entered

was whether any two Departments shared a border (1971: 158).

Kendall, 1971: 158

In a separate article Kendall applies this technique to historical data in order create a map of

an archaeological site; a manor house in Whixley, England (1975). Kendall concludes though

that all that can be hoped for is to provide archaeologists with a ‘very bad (emphasis in

original) seriation, or map, which he will then immediately proceed to refine with the aid

both of his own professional judgement and of external information. What he gains from your

activities is the knowledge that his starting point is a long way better than a purely random

one’ (1975: 575).

Kendall, 1975: 571

Exercise

References

KENDALL, D. G. 1971. Construction of maps from 'Odd bits of information'. Nature, 231,

158-158.

KENDALL, D. G. 1985. Review lecture: the recovery of structure from fragmentary

information. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A,

Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 279, 547-582.

Week 3

As we have discussed in class, there is no such thing as a 'correct' map. In which case, what

use is a map if it can't be correct? While it is obvious there can be incorrect maps (i.e. maps

which are inaccurate and have mistakes in them), the ‘correctness of maps’ appropriate in

regards to what information they are trying to convey.

The example that Andrew gave in the lecture of the London Underground is the obvious one,

and clearly shows how geographically inaccurate maps, can still provide valuable, and

arguably more useful in the context, topological information.

Monmonier highlights the different ways that the same dataset can be represented on a map

in different ways, each one presenting information that is correct, but may be presented in a

way which leads to an interpretation which is not necessarily accurate (2005: 217-220).

Monmonier contrasts maps 1. and 2. and shows that despite presenting the same information,

by changing the way the data is represented (map 1. the crude birth rate is divided on equal

interval cut-points; map 2. based it is divided on quantile cut points) significantly changes the

appearance of the maps.

Exercise

My main problems with (though that’s putting it too strongly) was not with the software itself

but with the process of map making itself. While I had some initial difficulty with removing

aspects of the Legend (it kept showing ‘Layer’ and ‘polygon’ in it) I was able to eventually

figure out how to edit that out. More problematic was actually designing the map.

How to fit in the scale bar? Should it be at the bottom of the map, even if it covers details, or

should it be where it clearly can be seen and does not obscure any cartographic detail. In

summary my issue was uncertainty in to how to create a map that conveys all the information

necessary in a clear, concise and attractive fashion. I am reasonably happy with my efforts

with the 2010 map, less so for 2007, but I think neither are complete failures.

References

MONMONIER, M. 2005. Lying with maps. Statistical Science, 20, 215-222.

Week 4

What is a GIS? What types of questions can it be used to investigate?

Discuss this with appropriate references and examples to illustrate the points you are

making.

GIS stands for “geographical information systems” and refers to any software designed for

‘capturing, managing, analysing and presenting spatially referenced data’ (Johnson, 2008:

2017). Generally GIS is used to ask questions about the spatial relationships, pattern and

trends between artefacts, sites and cultures in an archaeological context.

Johnson & Wilson also found that the use of GIS software impacted on the way that data was

collected, and that when it was collected it was able to put into a usable form very quickly,

greatly assisting with preliminary analyses (2003: 89).

Weekly Exercise

While changing the raster symbology proved to be unproblematic (though I’m unsure as to

what makes a topographic map with added hillshade successful or not), the same could not be

said for the vector data (see Figure 1.).

Figure 1.

ArcGIS refused to correctly interpret the query, initially it was unable to even verify, and

even when it did it continued to select all sites, not just the ones I had chosen to focus on (in

this case, mine sites). Even Andrew acknowledged the program was glitching, and that I

should reflect upon this incident as an example of the even the most expensive of software

having bugs.

I did eventually have some luck (see Figure 2.)

Figure 2.

Resources

JOHNSON, I. 2008. Mapping Methods. In: PEARSALL, D. M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of

Archaeology. Elsevier.

JOHNSON, I. & WILSON, A. 2003. Making the most of maps: field survey on the island of

Kythera. Journal of GIS in Archaeology, 1, 79-89.

Week 5

What are the advantages of free and open source data, and what are the drawbacks? What

do you think are the problems with such data?

Do you think that open source data such as Open Street Map can compete with commercial

(or government) compiled data as a basis for mapping? In what circumstances are these data

particularly useful?

The clear and obvious advantage of free and open source data is its accessibility, both in

terms of the absence of cost and in the increasing level of detail provided by open source

maps. However like all open source data it is vulnerable to both malicious editing and honest

mistakes.

Open source mapping sites like Open Street Map will be able to compete with government

and commercial agencies when it comes to compiling mapping data that is used every day,

such as street maps (which unsurprisingly is the main sort of map that Open Street Map

mentions (OSMF, 2011)).

Where Open Source Maps are not likely to provide much competition to commercial and

government interests are maps which require rigorous scientific accuracy, or depicts data that

requires complicated equipment. Any Open Source Maps that do depict these details, will be

merely using the data collected by a government or commercial agency.

For me, what was most informative about today’s lecture was finding out about the wide

variety of data freely available and how we can access it.

Exercise

This week’s weekly exercise finally addressed something I was having issues with, how to

design a good map. While there was a technical aspect to this, it primarily involved skills we

had already used when working with ArcGIS and really had much more to do with what

makes a map a). informative and b). usable.

We were given an example of what we were supposed to emulate which while useful in

giving a goal to work towards, seems to me not necessarily. I think my map has it flaws (the

labelling of Parramatta, Penrith, and Liverpool is lost a bit in the detail) but I feel that overall

it is a rough equivalent of the map we were given.

References

OSMF (2011, 25 August 2011, 13:21). "Main Page - OSMF." Retrieved 27 August, 2011,

from http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Main_Page.

Week 6

Choose three of the web sites listed below and write a brief assessment of each of them from

your point of view as a user of historical and/or map based web resources. In making your

assessment you should include in your response:

What is the subject and scope of the site? What is it trying or promising to deliver?

How well does it achieve this?

Was it easy to navigate and use?

How does it compare with the other sites you have assessed?

Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney aims to provide a comprehensive history of the Greater Sydney

Metropolitan region.

The greatest strength of DoS is its ease of use, its interconnectedness and the wide variety of

types of information on the DoS.

The main weakness with the Dictionary of Sydney is simply the lack of content. It seems

hard to believe that there are no proper articles on Bennelong, Arthur Phillip or Jack Lang (to

name the first historical figures I thought of). Admittedly there are links to the Australian

Dictionary of Biography which does provide succinct biographies

Until this lack of basic content is addressed the Dictionary of Sydney will remain a

disappointing resource. The inability for users to add content directly while it might ensure

the quality of what content there is, prevents the Dictionary from growing. And even if it did

change this it would simply be a glorified wiki. At the moment it’s just a half empty online

encyclopaedia (but a very well designed one).

Gallipoli: The First Day

The aim of this site is to give a comprehensive and illustrated overview of the beginning of

the Gallipoli campaign.

The strength of the site is the wide variety of media used to explore the Gallipoli invasion.

The range of resources presented (first-hand accounts, timelines, 3D visualisations etc) and

the way they are linked to present one interactive narrative.

One weakness is, like all media which uses CGI, it has become clunky looking and

amateurish by virtue of being more than a year old (though in fairness the choice of graphics

was probably also made in light of making the site accessible to the widest range of people,

not just those with a high powered graphics card).

Queensland Historical Atlas

The QHA presents a visualisation of Queensland history, broken up into thematic concerns.

The site is easily searchable; you can search via the themes, or through the type of content.

The strength of the site is that it combines the visualisations with comprehensive information,

however, this information range does not appear as wide as the DoS.

Find two published examples of digital data capture during fieldwork in archaeology or

another discipline which includes spatial data. Your examples can be on-line or published on

paper. Assess the usefulness and significance of the digital data collected. How did it

contribute to the results of the research?

Remember your focus is on the data capture process – not later processing or analysis in a

GIS for example.

Week 7

Find two published examples of digital data capture during fieldwork in archaeology or

another discipline which includes spatial data. Your examples can be on-line or published on

paper. Assess the usefulness and significance of the digital data collected. How did it

contribute to the results of the research?

Remember your focus is on the data capture process – not later processing or analysis in a

GIS for example.

The Paterson & Wilson paper, ‘Indigenous perceptions of contact at Inthanoona,

Northwestern Western Australia’, details the use of handheld GPS in mapping Aboriginal

sites as part of the Pilbara Project (2009: 102). Digital photography was used to record the

actual engravings, and the timestamp of the photograph was matched with the GPS

coordinates (2009: 103).

The use digital data capture in this research was crucial, and would have probably been

impossible to complete without. The process of mapping individual stone artefacts by hand

(regardless of the surveying techniques used), recording attributes on individual find sheets

would have taken months, and required kilos of equipment.

The second paper I looked at (and this time I actually went out and found one for myself)

focuses on exploring ‘distributional and surface archaeology’ in an Indigenous Australian

context (Fanning & Holdaway 2001: 667). In the study Fanning & Holdaway compare the

results experimental studies on clast movements on hillslopes to ‘surface artifact scatters on

very low slope gradients to measure the magnitude of postdiscard artifact movement’ to lithic

scatters in the Australian arid zone (2001: 668).

The primary piece of data recording equipment was a total station which used to record the

location of artefacts down to the nearest centimetre (Fanning & Holdaway, 2001: 673).

Additional information, e.g. dimensions, shape, raw material, about the artefacts was

recorded using palmtop computers using data entry software (Fanning & Holdaway, 2001:

673).

The use digital data capture in this research was crucial, and would have probably been

impossible to complete without. The process of mapping individual stone artefacts by hand

(regardless of the surveying techniques used), recording attributes on individual find sheets

would have taken months, and required kilos of equipment.

The same issues surrounding the use of digital technology in the Paterson & Wilson paper are

relevant to the Fanning & Holdaway paper. Again, the use of manual recording equipment

would have made the project unfeasible.

Exercise

Geotagging

Contours

The main difficulty I faced with this part of today’s exercise was that the instructions were

for v. 9 of ArcGIS and we were using v.10. Once that was sorted it out using the program

went pretty smoothly.

Another difficulty was the activating the 3D Analyst extension, why there is even the option

of turning it off is beyond me, but c’est la vie.

In terms of visual I prefer my second image. I find the greyscale is harder to differentiate

between the different shades and that the shift to brown-yellow gradient makes it easier the

map easier to read. However it does have implications for impression that data is representing

(reflecting what Monmonier says in Lying with Maps). For instance if had made conclusions

of Irrawang falling into disuse as a result of drought the choice of this colour scale, if to

symbolise something nothing to do with climatic conditions, still gives the impression that

this is a dry, maybe even arid environment. The third map I made, with a green colour scale,

gives an opposite appearance, presenting Irrawang as a lush environment. More broadly it

demonstrates the problems of using colour scales for contours, when they are so often

associated with representing meteorological data, whether that been precipitation or

temperature.

That said Andrew grimaced at all my choices, so perhaps greyscale is safer…

References

References

FANNING, P. & HOLDAWAY, S. 2001. Stone artifact scatters in Western NSW, Australia:

Geomorphic controls on artifact size and distribution. Geoarchaeology: An

International Journal, 16, 667-686.

PATERSON, A. & WILSON, A. 2009. Indigenous perceptions of contact at Inthanoona,

Northwest Western Australia. Archaeology in Oceania, 44, 99-111.

Week 8

What is free or open source GIS (FOSGIS)? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of

using such programs, apart from the obvious one of cost? What reasons can you see for using and

supporting FOSGIS? What direction do you think the development of GIS will take in the future. You

must refer to specific examples and references in your discussion.

Free or open source GIS software is GIS software which is distributed free of cost and I open for

modification and improvements.

The main advantage of open source GIS is that it can often contain information that is not included

in national or commercial GIS providers. This can include niche information that is not deemed

relevant b these organisations, such as the locations of bus stops, bins or Thai restaurants.

The main disadvantages are that it can be viewed as accurate as commercial or national information,

as it lacks the resources to make complete and thorough datasets. On an international note, there is

lack of FOGIS options in languages other than English (Open Source GIS, 2008).

As time goes on it is likely that FOGIS will become comprehensive, more accessible and more

accurate.

Exercise

I had real difficulties with the weekly exercise, and I wasn’t able to complete it. I became stuck on

several points, but I was unable to get past adding the second data frame. I’ve put a progress image

of how far I got below.

References

OPEN SOURCE GIS. 2008. The future of GIS [Online]. Open Source GIS. Available:

http://opensourcegis.org/ [Accessed 24 October 2011].

Week 9

Read carefully the article by Mostern and Johnson. Discuss your response to the central

points of the article with reference to at least three other published works or web sites.

Mostern & Johnson define a historical event as the ‘instantiation of information about the

past in the form of a named, spatially located, temporally circumscribed entity’ (2008: 1092).

The paper highlights the ‘events themselves have no extrinsic existence beyond the

individuals or communities that define their significance’ (Mostern & Johnson, 2008: 1092).

Mostern & Johnson go on to explain exactly what they mean by this, highlighting the

plurality of names that events can have attached to them; that events may not have clear start

or end point or geographic extent; and that events do not occur in isolation, but that they have

relationships to other events (2008: 1092).

They argue that from both a theoretical and practical point of view, it is both appropriate and

more effective to consider ‘places’ as ‘events’ and illustrate this point by contrasting the

Abbasid Caliphate as a static place with it as a changing series of events (2008: 1093-95).

‘If such complex events are sufficiently rich in high quality and well-chosen spatiotemporal

data, it may be possible to further frame general questions about causality, such as what

makes wars occur or regimes collapse. This approach offers a possibility for initiating new

scholarly and pedagogical practices that bring history and geography together’ (Mostern &

Johnson, 2008: 1106).

This is clear by looking at the Minard visualisation of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia (Jacobs,

2007). The visualisation combines multiple datasets in a way that demonstrates that the

multiple events that made up the Russian invasion, highlights that changing spatial limits of

the invasion.

Another example of this would be looking at the archaeology of contact. Contact

archaeology, though currently lacking an exact, agreed upon definition can be broadly

described as the investigation of the material remains cross-cultural interaction, in which

contact is viewed as a ‘cultural process rather than as a discrete bounded event’ (Lawrence &

Davies, 2009: 634). The main theoretical work on contact archaeology relates specifically to

historical colonial contexts. That said, contact archaeology does not limit itself to the first

interactions between settlers and indigenous peoples.

There was no exercise this week.

References

JACOBS, F. 2007. Vital statistics of a deadly campaign: the Minard Map [Online]. bigthink.

Available: http://bigthink.com/ideas/21281?page=all [Accessed 24 October 2011].

LAWRENCE, S. & DAVIES, P. 2009. Natives and newcomers in the antipodes: Historical

archaeology in Australia and New Zealand. In: MAJEWSKI, T. & GAIMSTER, D. R.

M. (eds.) International handbook of historical archaeology. New York; London:

Springer.

MOSTERN, R. & JOHNSON, I. 2008. From named place to naming event: creating

gazetteers for history. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 22,

1091-1108.

Week 10 (11)

Choose four of the visualisations illustrated in the web sites below, two static and two

interactive. Write a brief assessment of each of them from your point of view as someone

interested in the information in the visualisation. In making your assessment you should

include in your response:

How clearly is the information conveyed?

How well does the style of visualisation suit the data?

Is it easy to understand and (if interactive) is it easy to navigate and use?

How does it compare with the other visualisations you have assessed?

GraphWords

GraphWords (Tataurov, 2011) is an interactive visual thesaurus for the English language.

You search a word and a diagram (as shown below) pops up. The word you searched for

appears in the grey triangle in the middle, while possible synonyms appear in the large colour

circles around the edge. The small coloured circles that connect the big circles to the triangle;

when hovered over provide the definition of the word in the triangle that the big circles

attached to it are synonyms for. I hope that all makes sense.

This minimal style of visualisation suits the data very well, and combined with the easily

navigable interface makes this very convenient tool to use.

My only criticism would be that the thesaurus that is used to present the visualisations is

somewhat limited. You would expect for the word ‘cool’ a whole range of synonyms which

mean ‘fashionable’ or ‘trendy’ or ‘superlative’.

Selling Real Estate: Men vs. Women

This interactive visualisation explores the price differentiation between homes sold by

women realtors and male realtors in the USA (Trulia Inc., 2011).

The information is conveyed clearly, both visually using colour and colour intensity, and by

allowing the user to bring up further, more specific information, by hovering over the state

you are interested in. This is an appropriate use of this type of visualisation for this particular

dataset.

This is Living

This is Living (Porpora et al., 2011) is a static visualisation of a city’s….? I’m not sure, it is

very unclear. This is visualisation, while strickling beautiful, is not very readable. It is doing

a lot if things, and while they have clearly differentiated between the different sections of the

visualisation, it would have greatly benefited from a similar feature that Selling Real Estate

had: a function that brought up information when hovered over.

LifeMap 1.1

LifeMap 1.1 (Dey, 2005) is a static visualisation of the author’s life, highlighting major

events, academic career and hobbies. The information is clearly conveyed, easily understood

and visually arresting.

My single criticism of the visualisation is that it is not necessarily clear what vertical access

represents. Is it time spent engaged in particular subjects/hobbies? I’m assuming so, but it is

not clear.

References

DEY, R. 2005. LifeMap 1.1 [Online]. flickr. Available:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ritwikdey/426048360/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[Accessed 25 October 2011].

PORPORA, M., RIVA, P. R., ROSSI, L. F. & VISMARA, M. 2011. This is living [Online].

Density Design. Available:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/densitydesign/3409542518/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[Accessed 26 October 2011].

TATAUROV, A. 2011. GraphWords - Visualise & Save [Online]. Alex Tataurov. Available:

http://graphwords.com/word#nice [Accessed 26 October 2011].

TRULIA, INCOPORATED. 2011. Selling Real Estate: Men vs. Women [Online]. Trulia,

Incorporated. Available: http://insights.truliablog.com/vis/gender/ [Accessed 26

October 2011].

Week 11 (12)

Examine both of the contrasting visualisation web sites below and find two other web sites

that present visualisations of historical or archaeological information. Write a brief

assessment of each of them from your point of view as a user of historical or archaeological

information visualisations:

What is the subject and scope of the site? What is it trying or promising to deliver?

How well does it achieve this?

Was it easy to navigate and use?

How does it compare with the other sites you have assessed?

Angkor Interactive

Angkor Interactive (Greene et al., 2009) is site run by the National Geographic Magazine. In

conjunction with the 3D visualisations of Angkor at the height of is splendour there is an

article giving some of the background, context and highlighting the significance of Greater

Angkor in world history; a photograph gallery of modern-day Angkor; a timeline;

illustrations of the major temple complexes; and information on Hinduism and Buddhism.

Angkor Interactive is aimed at a broad, non-specialist audience who have a general interest in

history. As such the visualisations main purpose is to illustrate and bring-to-life Greater

Angkor at its height. The 3D visualisations are 8 short films depicting various aspects of life

in Greater Angkor:

A broad overview of Angkor Wat

A village shrine

A residential area

A city road

A major canal

The waterways

Central Angkor

A rice field

The visualisations present a good mix of both the monumental and the everyday. All movies

hand a soundtrack of appropriate background and ambient noises, to give the impression that

you are actually in medieval Angkor.

However there is no interpretation given during the movies. Even with the interpretative

article, the images of the different temples and the photographs it is not always clear what the

specific parts of Greater Angkor is being viewed. I interpret this as meaning the visualisations

are more for entertainment purposes, than to practically inform.

Digital Digging

In contrast with Angkor Interactive, Digital Digging (SHER, 2010) appears to have a stronger

pedagogical and research focus.

Digital digging presents simple 3D models, primarily from the British Neolithic. The models

are presented in Google Earth. In addition it also provides comprehensive map location for a

wide range of sites across the landscape. Basic mapping information is provided, including:

Site name

Civil parish

Grid reference

Reference to the original aerial photograph

These both the model and the sites physical location are presented on the same page, and also

includes information about the site and the reconstruction, including dimensions, material etc.

References for further reading are also given along with the summary.

However the modelling is not as elaborate as that used by Angkor Interactive.

Spatial History Project

The Spatial History Project (SHP, 2011) describes the titular project thus:

‘Our projects operate outside of normal historical practice in five ways: they are

collaborative, use visualization, depend on the use of computers, are open-ended, and

have a conceptual focus on space. Our lab structure and culture is specifically

designed to support the iterative nature of the spatial history research process where

new questions and opportunities for further exploration frequently arise. We promote

creative thinking and problem solving on the technical, conceptual, and intellectual

challenges – from applying existing technology in new ways to developing custom

tools and solutions. Our process begins by outlining initial research goals and

objectives, and gathering and digitizing relevant data from archives, libraries, and

organizations. We organize our data in geospatial databases to better facilitate the

integration of spatial and nonspatial data, and then use visual analysis to help

identify patterns and anomalies. Many of our visualizations are experimental and only

a few eventually become final products. We embrace visualization as a way not simply

to illustrate conclusions, but a means of doing research.’

The SHP is research orientated from start to finish, the projects are conceived with using

visualisations to explore historical problems with the end goal being publication of the

results.

Of all the projects, the SHP was the one of was most impressed with, due to its incredibly

broad thematic and technological scope, and the presentation of the site which could be easily

searched in terms of:

Historical Themes

Publications

Visualisations

This will be a website I will come back to explore for interests sake.

Sahul Time

SahulTime aims to be ‘create a visual, interactive representation of the Earth's history.

Imagine we could go back in time and view the ancient Earth from space...’ (Coller, 2007).

The scope of the project is explicitly stated: ‘Having started with Australia over 100,000-year

scale, the SahulTime project is now widening its scope to cover all timescales and spatial

scales’ (Coller, 2007). As of yet the project does not yet achieve this. The best data is still for

Sahul in the last 100 000 years, areas outside of this both temporally and spatially are

presented in a much lower resolution of detail.

Navigating the project is easiest of all the sites. The data is presented on a single page, and

there a simple icons to turn on and off datasets. Unfortunately a weakness with SahulTime

compared to the other sites is that the panel in which you can turn on/off features is

incomplete, and some datasets have evidently not been added.

Exercise

Having been taught the basics of sketch-up before, I did not find this particular task difficult

(though I did make a mistake in exporting a 3D model rather than 2D image initially).

I had few problems with the other part of the exercise, in which we used maps projections to

depict non-topographic data.

Census data

Aboriginal population (exaggerated by 100)

English speakers (exaggerated by 2)

While these are visually engaging maps, some of the information is obscured, partly because

of the angle I view the map on but also as a result of the protrusions obscuring each other (the

absence of legend also hampers the comprehensibility of my maps).

References

COLLER, M. 2007. SahulTime [Online]. Monash University. Available:

sahultime.monash.edu.au [Accessed 5 October 2011].

GREENE, S., CHAWAL, S., ESTRADA, S., SWERTGEGER, G., VELASCO, J.,

MORSER, B., REID, R., VESSELS, J. & HARRIS, G. 2009. Angkor Interactive

[Online]. National Geographic Society. Available:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/07/angkor/angkor-animation [Accessed 12

October 2011].

SOMERSET HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT RECORD. 2010. Digital Digging [Online].

Somerset Historic Environment Record. Available:

http://www.digitaldigging.co.uk/index.html [Accessed 5 October 2011].

THE SPATIAL HISTORY PROJECT. 2011. The Spatial History Project [Online]. Stanford:

The Spatial History Project. Available:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/index.php [Accessed 26

October 2011].

Week 12 (13)

Read the paper below from 2000 that presents a survey of emerging trends in virtual

heritage. Briefly assess whether the author correctly interpreted the trends. Support your

assessment with at least 3 references or web-sites.

Addison states ‘even PCs are still not accessible to much of the world’s population’ (2000:

24). That phrase, more than any other, dates this article.

3D laser scanning has not taken off, as Addison seems to imply it would (2000: 22-3). In

contrast the use of handheld GPS to map heritage sites has become common (Johnson, 2008:

2028), despite Addison claiming that ‘touch limitation’ would limit their practicality (2000:

22). I’ve tested in a rough, methodologically questionable, but still worth considering

manner. I used Google Scholar to search the term 3D laser scanning archaeology and

received 3 620 results. The search for the phrase GPS archaeology returned 9 590 results. 3D

laser scanning heritage came back with 5 310 results. GPS heritage came back with 27 400

results. Addison’s prediction was as accurate as any astrologist’s.

Addison’s second point is that there will be an increase in the use of websites which present

digital reconstructions of history and heritage (2000: 23-24). The use of these sites has

continued, as evident from the Angkor website looked at previously (Greene et al., 2009).

What Addison fails to predict is the use of programs like Google Earth, which make

extensive use of satellite imagery and superimposed 3D models to deliver heritage.

The final point Addison emphasises is that the way heritage is presented and disseminated

will dramatically change with the advent of new technology ‘virtual overlays’ of historic

reconstructions at heritage sites (2000: 24-5). This has not happened. As the lecture

demonstrated the use of virtual environments for heritage remains, at best, a gimmick.

Addison’s attempt to predict future trends was not particularly successful. Personally I have

my doubts all such predictive articles.

One final, slightly irrelevant note, what an awful journal. It doesn’t present key bibliographic

information within the article. I had to go to another article which quoted Addison to find out

the volume.

Exercise

Georegister the 1917 map

Make the polygon layer editable

Trace the 1917 map to create additional polygons dated 1917

Use Edit>Merge to merge these into a single object

Enable Time on the layer and run an animation

I’ll be blunt. The above instructions were of no use at all in completing this exercise.

Completely lacking in detail they gave me no clear understanding of how I was supposed to

complete this activity. Consequently, I couldn’t.

I wasn’t able to get past the third step. There was no obvious way for me to select multiple

polygons after creating them.

As we only use ArcGIS once a week, for a very brief period, and doing something different

each time, the decision to provide limited instructions for the exercises given at the end of

semester was probably the wrong one. The Help function was completely useless. Nothing in

the sections on polygons or editing was relevant.

That was half an hour ago (3.10ish).

I have now, more or less achieved the exercise, through a process of trial and error. Some of

it’s not perfect. Technically I’ve got 2 polygon labelled 1917. I somehow managed to select

one polygon by itself, and was able to change the date individually to 1917, a feat I was

promptly unable to reproduce. The other polygons I was able to correctly merge. The effect is

still the same, but it was still agonising trying to figure it out.

I’m sure there is some way you can select polygons using the editor tool, but I ending up

selecting them using the selection tool and select by query.

All in all I probably should have asked Andrew for more help.

On the plus side I had no problems with the first part of the exercise; make a timeline for

World Heritage sites. The results are below.

References

ADDISON, A. C. 2000. Emerging trends in virtual heritage. IEEE Multimedia, 7, 22-25.

GREENE, S., CHAWAL, S., ESTRADA, S., SWERTGEGER, G., VELASCO, J.,

MORSER, B., REID, R., VESSELS, J. & HARRIS, G. 2009. Angkor Interactive

[Online]. National Geographic Society. Available:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/07/angkor/angkor-animation [Accessed 12

October 2011].

JOHNSON, I. 2008. Mapping Methods. In: PEARSALL, D. M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of

Archaeology. Elsevier.