ÇATALHÖYÜK 2004 ARCHIVE REPORT

SUPPORT TEAMS

Digital Documentation at Çatalhöyük: A Media Update

Jason Quinlan & Michael Ashley

UC Berkeley

Abstract

Our goal has always been to have the complete photo and video archive online and searchable by the research team and the public. By leveraging less expensive and more powerful digital asset management technologies, we are closer than ever to completing this goal. Working with students as a media team, we created a local wireless network that enabled us to distribute the workload of media archiving and metadata entry at separate laptop workstations in the field. These students follow an established protocol for attaching metadata that have been developed from our experience over the years and reflects the sophisticated needs of the Çatalhöyük team*. By being able to provide imaging and cataloging in the field, we provide some assurance that specific archaeological contexts are thoroughly documented and available for research.

Özet

Her zamanki ana amacımız, araştırma ekibi ve diğer kişiler tarfından her an bakılabilecek internet ortamında   bir tüm video ve fotoğraf arşivi oluşturmak olmuştur. Bu yıl maliyeti daha düşük fakat daha güçlü bir dijital teknoloji donanımla amacımıza her zamankinden daha yakınız. Öğrencilerimizle birlikte oluşturduğumuz medya ekibi ile yarattığımız kablosuz ağ teknolojisini kullanarak medya arşivi ve metadata girişi işini farklı dizüstü bilgisayarlardan gerçekleştirme şansını elde ettik. Öğrenciler meta-data girişini, Çatalhöyük ekibinin ihtiyaçlarını yansıtan ve bizim yıllara dayananan tecrübemize göre şekillenmiş, oturmuş bir protokol çerçevesinde gerçekleştirmişlerdir. Kazı esnasında görüntüleme ve kataloglamayı gerçekleştirmemiz, özel arkeolojik tabakaların gerçek anlamda kayda geçmesi ve araştırma için hazır haline gelmesi açısından bir teminat sağlar.

 

Technologically, this season marked a significant upgrade in the digital cameras we used for our photography. With the prices of digital SLR cameras becoming more affordable, we had three Nikon D70 cameras on site to distribute amongst the media team. By the end of the season we had produced over 11,000 images complete with essential metadata, catalogued and archived.

We were fortunate to be visited this year by Tijl Vereenooghe from the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project. He demonstrated an innovative technique for recovering high resolution 3D models from uncalibrated digital photos. the results were impressive and we hope to further experiment with the technique in the 2005 season.

Video continues to play a significant role in the documentation of Çatalhöyük. This season we began a new system of archiving video footage to create a video database. The system will follow the protocols that were established for cataloging photography, allowing us to attach metadata and browse footage much like with still images. We are also continuing to shoot and edit short video segments of work being done in the field. These segments are intended to capture the “trowel's edge” thinking of excavators and specialists, creating an incremental documentary record of thoughts and interpretations as they evolve over time. Ultimately, this video database will also be available online.

We've also made substantial strides in making a definitive digital archive for the project. Rather than having all the media from previous seasons distributed amongst various collections of CD's and DVD's, we have collected them to a central archive. From here they can be more easily managed, cataloged, and backed up. Our goal is to have all catalogs from previous seasons online by Spring 2005. We look forward to the day when the media archive becomes an accessible and useful resource to researchers and the public at large.

* Please see the report on the media field school for more information.