Month: November 2022

Changing of the Guard

Gygaia Projects

We are just about to conclude the first part of the 2021 season. All team efforts so far have focused on supporting the ongoing excavations along the fortification wall and associated material processing, especially of ceramics, of which large quantities were recovered this year.

Ongoing COVID precautions mean that only a limited number of team members can live and work with us at one time this year. With the ongoing depot inventory work, as well as needed ceramic, lithic, ground stone, metal, environmental archaeological, and other analyses beginning, we will usher in almost entirely new group of specialists and students. In the meantime, we bid fond farewell and profuse thanks to those who worked with us until now!

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!

Two New Publications on Digital Archaeology at Kaymakçı

Gygaia Projects

We are pleased to share news that two new publications on digital archaeology at Kaymakçı have just appeared in Open Archaeology. See below for details!

Born-Digital Logistics: Impacts of 3D Recording on Archaeological Workflow, Training, and Interpretation

Catherine B. Scott, Christopher H. Roosevelt, Gary R. Nobles, and Christina Luke

Abstract: Digital technologies have been at the heart of fieldwork at the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) since its beginning in 2014. All data on this excavation are born-digital, from textual, photographic, and videographic descriptions of contexts and objects in a database and excavation journals to 2D plans and profiles as well as 3D volumetric recording of contexts. The integration of structure from motion (SfM) modeling and its various products has had an especially strong impact on how project participants interact with the archaeological record during and after excavation. While this technology opens up many new possibilities for data recording, analysis, and presentation, it can also present challenges when the requirements of the recording system come into conflict with an archaeologist’s training and experience. Here, we consider the benefits and costs of KAP’s volumetric recording system. We explore the ways that recording protocols for image-based modeling change how archaeologists see and manage excavation areas and how the products of this recording system are revolutionizing our interaction with the (digital) archaeological record. We also share some preliminary plans for how we intend to expand this work in the future.

Filling the Void in Archaeological Excavations: 2D Point Clouds to 3D Volumes

Gary R. Nobles and Christopher H. Roosevelt

Abstract: 3D data captured from archaeological excavations are frequently left to speak for themselves. 3D models of objects are uploaded to online viewing platforms, the tops or bottoms of surfaces are visualised in 2.5D, or both are reduced to 2D representations. Representations of excavation units, in particular, often remain incompletely processed as raw surface outputs, unable to be considered individual entities that represent the individual, volumetric units of excavation. Visualisations of such surfaces, whether as point clouds or meshes, are commonly viewed as an end result in and of themselves, when they could be considered the beginning of a fully volumetric way of recording and understanding the 3D archaeological record. In describing the creation of an archaeologically focused recording routine and a 3D-focused data processing workflow, this article provides the means to fill the void between excavation-unit surfaces, thereby producing an individual volumetric entity that corresponds to each excavation unit. Drawing on datasets from the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) in western Turkey, the article shows the potential for programmatic creation of volumetric contextual units from 2D point cloud datasets, opening a world of possibilities and challenges for the development of a truly 3D archaeological practice.

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!

That’s a Wrap!

Gygaia Projects

A productive period of excavations on the edge of Kaymakçı’s citadel provided new evidence for the configuration and phasing of fortification architecture and subsequent buildings. Area 95.555 has now been “wrapped” in a layer of geotextile so its features can withstand the region’s sometimes intense winter storms. Cinderblock-like briquettes line the edge of the trench to hold the geotextile in place and obstruct surface water flow. Protective fencing and cautionary signage keep all visitors out, whether two or four legged.

Thanks to years of coaching from our head conservator Dr. Caitlin O’Grady (UCL), our team knows the process well and was able not only to wrap up area 95.555 quickly but also to re-wrap all other areas that needed renewed protections. Some steps in the process can be seen below.

First come the materials: rolls of geotextile and a light version of cinderblocks (“bimsblok”), both sourced locally from Uşak and Salihli, are delivered to the area in our trusty pickup.

Sheets of geotextile are unrolled over the area and custom cut to hug all surfaces, vertical and horizontal.

Unworked field stones found loose on the ground or recovered from excavation areas are repurposed to secure the geotextile in place. Stones are distributed evenly across the area by hand and well-coordinated teamwork.

Fencing stakes are hammered into the ground at regular intervals, and guide wires and chicken-wire fencing are stretched and secured in place.

The final result is a gleaming white excavation area, wrapped like a birthday present to be opened again in future seasons!

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!

Another Season of Material Analyses…

Gygaia Projects

With this year’s excavations behind us, we welcomed a team of researchers and graduate students to work on detailed analyses of materials. The largest effort, as measured in person hours, was dedicated to ceramics, as is typical of a Bronze Age excavation in Anatolia like Kaymakçı. Significant progress was made also with analyses of small tools in flaked stone and non-flaked stone, ground stone implements, and assorted small finds including terracotta spindle whorls, small craft tools in copper alloys like awls and chisels, and other small metal finds.

Magda Pieniążek photographs copper alloy pins and other small craft tools.

A second team picture of the year, including the “second phase” group of material analysts (from left to right: Magda Pieniążek, Kristina Doležalová, Ceren Çilingir, Ján Bobik, Atilla Vatansever, Peter Pavúk, Anna Peterková, Tunç Kaner, Nami Shin, and Chris Roosevelt).

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!

A Birdless Watching Tower

Gygaia Projects

The shoreline of the beautiful and ecologically important Lake Marmara has continued to recede since we last wrote about it in late June. Recriminations range from climate change, to dam and drinking-water reservoir policies, to unwise overuse for irrigation. To see the situation up close, a small contingent recently visited the bird watching tower constructed in summer and fall 2020.

The solidly built tower is flanked by well-designed signage that provides information about the lake and wetlands as well as important cautions for when to ascend the six flights of stairs and when not… when lightening is near, for example!

Signs at ground level define the protected zone of the wetland (the Marmara Gölü Sulak Alanı Koruma Alanı) and describe what types of activities are allowed and prohibited within it. One panel displays 30 examples of the more than 100 species of birds that are said to traditionally inhabit the area. Many of these are resident only seasonally during migration periods, yet they contribute to the famously rich biodiversity associated with wetland environments.

Views from the top level of the tower – to north (above left) and to east (above right) – clearly show the retreat of lake shore and the nearly birdless environment left behind. These lands have been quickly reclaimed by regional agriculturalists.

A walk out into the desiccated lakebed shows – with view again to north (above left) and to east (above right) – a mud-cracked texture with dark brown muddy depths surfaced with a dried matt of fine lake weed.

Despite the loss of avian populations, tiny frogs and new wetland vegetation reclaim newly available territory, rare remaining representatives of wetland biodiversity.

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!

A New Publication on Earthen Materials from Kaymakçı

Gygaia Projects

We are pleased to announce a new publication on earthen materials from Kaymakçı appearing in the latest issue of Studia Hercynia. See below for details!

Made from Mud: Functional Categorization and Analyses of Bronze Age Earthen Materials from Western Turkey

Jana Mokrišová, Christopher H. Roosevelt, Christina Luke, and Caitilin R. O’Grady

Abstract: This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Middle to Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, located in western Anatolia. It argues that systematic collection and analysis of fragmentary and difficult‐to‐identify earthen materials is challenging, yet crucial. These materials inform on activities of which traces are preserved in the archaeological record but which have been largely under‐researched. Flourishing studies on earthen findings foreground architectural materials, such as mudbrick, and well‐preserved features and objects. However, earthen objects and architectural features were utilized more widely than in building architecture and only a small portion of excavated sites has good preservation. We, therefore, present the different categories of earthen materials discovered at Kaymakçı, specifically architecture, installations, and portable items. Our work demonstrates that by incorporating new knowledge of archaeological remains at the site and re‐studying the earthen assemblage it is possible to gain a better understanding of the morphological, functional, and social aspects of this dataset.

Look forward to more posts from Gygaia Projects soon!