Aramus Excavations and FieldSchool, an open project (original) (raw)
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In September 2006 the Institute of Ancient History & Ancient Near Eastern Studies of the University of Innsbruck (A) in cooperation with the University of Yerevan (AM) undertook the third excavation and survey campaign at the Early Iron Age and Urartian hilltop settlement of Aramus, situated about 15 km north-est from downtown Yerevan, Armenia. This year, Arc-Team s.n.c. supported the expedition with documentation of the excavation, architectural survey of the fortress walls and immediate processing of the data on site. As the excavation at Aramus was a field school too, the second endeavor of Arc-Team s.n.c. was to introduce the students to the practice of digital documentation, data recording, surveying and analysis.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related geospatial software have been increasingly employed in archaeological research and practice during the last twenty years. They have transcended their initial use in territory studies to become part of more theoretically conscious landscape and on-site focused analyses and nowadays are routinely used in most archaeological projects. GIS analysts, rather than using a single piece of software, employ combinations of them according to their knowledge, the specific needs of the project and the availability of software. However, most professional archaeologists using GIS tend to use proprietary software due to several reasons: its assumed ease of use, their wider availability in universities and research centres, their compatibility with mainstream proprietary operating systems (also standard in public institutions), the existence of courses, books, and seminars on the use of these packages and/or the provision of technical support. While some of these reasons are still valid, during the last years open source GIS software has become more accessible, secure and compatible and many efforts have been directed towards the provision of adequate tutorials, courses and “help” files, resulting in their increased use in archaeological applications. In this paper it is argued that GIS open source software offers, not just a valid but, in some cases, a better alternative to the use of proprietary packages. After a brief overview of the archaeological use and applicability of GIS and other geospatial software, different open source packages are presented and their characteristics outlined and compared to those of widely employed proprietary software. It is concluded that the implementation of non-proprietary geospatial software can cover most of the needs of both professional archaeologists and researchers reducing costs without compromising in strength, security, ease of use and training potential, traditionally attributed to most commercial software.
ArcheOS 1.0 Akhenaton, the first GNU/Linux live distribution for archaeologists
Archäologie und Computer. Kulturelles Erbe und Neue Technologien. Proceedings of 10. Workshop, 2006
In this paper we would like to present the first official release of ArcheOS 1.0 Akhenaton. It is an operating system specially designed for archaeological aims. It is based on GNU/Linux and fitted with different software, all with GPL license or similar. ArcheOS forms a part of the OpArc project and follows its guidelines. It is freely available at http://www.arc-team.com
The Project ArAGATS Kasakh Valley Archaeological Survey, Armenia: Report of the 2014–2017 Seasons
American Journal of Archaeology, 2022
During four field seasons spanning 2014 through 2017, Project ArAGATS (Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) expanded our long-term research on the origins and development of complex political systems in the South Caucasus with a comprehensive study of the upper Kasakh River valley in north-central Armenia. The Kasakh Valley Archaeological Survey employed both systematic transect survey of 43 km 2 and extensive satellite-and drone-based reconnaissance to accommodate the complex topography of the Lesser Caucasus and the impacts of Soviet-era land amelioration. Though our survey was animated by questions related to the chronology and distribution of Bronze and Iron Age fortifications and cemeteries, we also recorded Paleolithic sites stretching back to the earliest human settlement of the Caucasus, Early Bronze Age surface finds, and historic landscape modifications. Concurrent to the survey, members of the ArAGATS team carried out test excavations at select settlement sites and associated burials, and a series of wetland core extractions, with the goals of affirming site occupation sequences and setting them within their environmental context. This report provides an overview of the results of these multidisciplinary activities. 1
The Armenian-German Artaxata Project: Report on the Excavations in Artashat 2020
Boreas, 2021
This article describes the results of the excavation campaign 2020 of the Armenian-German Artaxata Project. The excavation focused on Hill XIII, where three phases of well-planned building complexes from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD were explored already in 2019. In 2020, a building complex with a central broad room was excavated on the eastern hilltop. This complex belongs to Phase I and thus, according to the C14 data, to the 2nd century BC. The central broad room and an associated bent entrance corridor were decorated with stucco plaster and destroyed by fi re. The unearthed structures belonged to a prominent building, possibly of public or private elite character. After its destruction, the area was rebuilt in two phases with corridor houses in the same orientation, and it seems that by the 1st century AD the area was abandoned.