Expanding Collaborative Opportunities for Research in Archaeo-Geomatics and Archaeo-Geophysics at CAST/AIL

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，阿肯色大学先进空间技术中心（CAST）和考古成像实验室（AIL）将为世界各地的考古研究项目提供下一代3D测量、分析和遥感技术。该项目将集中在CAST和AIL现有专业知识的三个主要领域：1)基于现场的考古地球物理和测绘，2)三维扫描，摄影测量，可视化和形态计量学；3)航空和卫星遥感、区域调查和制图。数字技术的日益普及和成熟，特别是在地理空间领域，已经开始深刻地影响考古学家和其他学者的工作方式。考古学家研究的东西——从文物到遗址再到景观——几乎总是有一个空间成分，空间被视为考古学研究的中心维度之一。地理空间技术的能力增强了对这些特征的发现和解释，不仅提供了新的数据，而且创造了与考古记录互动的全新手段。例如，高分辨率卫星图像使人们能够在广阔的地形上定位和绘制考古特征，使调查能够跨越现代文化和政治界限，以前所未有的规模探索古代政治。地下地球物理调查可以记录下埋藏的考古遗迹，揭示整个社区完整、详细的规划，为社区组织和过去的建筑环境提供新的见解。激光扫描和摄影测量建模技术提供了三维记录文物和建筑的新方法，并实现了从小型物体到大型场所的多种尺度的形态测量分析。目前，相对较少的个人或机构拥有将地理信息学有效地融入考古研究所需的设备、技术技能和考古敏锐度。虽然克服这一限制的一个明显方法是与具有互补知识的多个个体合作，但这并不能保证成功。有大量的记录表明，技术专家与考古研究项目合作，但由于技术专家缺乏对考古要求的理解和/或考古学家缺乏技术经验而错失了机会。在过去的二十年里，在美国国家科学基金会和其他机构的早期支持下，CAST和AIL稳步投资于地理空间技术的能力发展（设备和软件、分析实践、人员和专业知识），并通过测绘专家和考古学家之间的合作，将其应用于考古研究。今天，CAST和AIL在各种学科和应用的地理空间研究方面处于全球领先地位，并被广泛认为是这些技术在考古学中应用的最佳场所之一。这个项目将使这些方法的应用范围扩大到对过去的研究，这将对该领域产生重大影响。该项目将由中国科协主任杰克逊·科瑟斯博士和联合项目负责人杰克逊·科瑟斯博士领导。杰西·卡萨纳，戴夫·弗雷德里克，肯·克瓦姆和弗雷德·林普。

With National Science Foundation support the University of Arkansas' Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) and the Archaeo-Imaging Laboratory (AIL) will provide next-generation 3D measurement, analysis and remote sensing technologies to archaeological research projects around the world. The project will focus on three primary areas of CAST and AIL's established expertise: 1) site-based archaeo-geophysics and mapping, 2) three-dimensional scanning, photogrammetry, visualization, and morphometrics; and 3) aerial and satellite remote sensing, regional survey, and mapping. The growing availability and sophistication of digital technologies, particularly in the geospatial domain, has begun to profoundly affect how archaeologists and other scholars work. The things archaeologists study - from artifacts to sites to landscapes - almost always have a spatial component, and space is viewed as one of the central dimensions of archeological study. The capabilities of geospatial technologies to enhance discovery and interpretation of these features not only offers new data, but creates entirely novel means of engaging with the archaeological record. For example, high-resolution satellite imagery makes it possible to locate and map archaeological features across vast expanses of terrain, enabling investigations to cross modern cultural and political boundaries and explore ancient polities at scales never before possible. Subsurface geophysical investigations allow buried archaeological remains to be documented revealing complete, detailed plans of entire communities offering new insights into community organization and past built environments. Laser scanning and photogrammetric modeling techniques present new ways of recording artifacts and architecture in three dimensions and enable morphometric analysis at multiple scales - from small objects to large sites.Currently, relatively few individuals or even institutions have the combination of equipment, technical skills, and archaeological acumen needed to integrate geomatics effectively into archeological research. While an obvious approach to overcoming this limitation is to partner multiple individuals with complementary knowledge, it does not guarantee success. There is an extensive record of missed opportunities where a technical specialist partnered with an archeological research project but there was a lack of understanding of the archaeological requirements by the technical specialist and/or a lack of experience with the technology by the archaeologist. Over the past two decades, CAST) and AIL, with earlier support from NSF and others, have steadily invested in the development of capacities (equipment and software, analytical practices, staff, and expertise) in geospatial technologies and their deployment in archaeological research through collaborations between geomatics specialists and archaeologists. Today, CAST and AIL are global leaders in geospatial research across a variety of disciplines and applications, and are widely regarded as among the best places for the application of these technologies in archaeology. The expansion of the application of these methods to the study of the past that will be made possible by this project will have a significant effect on the field. The project will be lead by CAST Director Dr. Jackson Cothren and Co-PIs - Drs. Jesse Casana, Dave Fredrick, Ken Kvamme and Fred Limp.