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The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map : Index >>
General Forum >> Drones Accelerate Archaeological Site Mapping
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Drones Accelerate Archaeological Site Mapping |
bat400
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|  Posted 03-02-2013 at 04:33
Researchers spent a month this summer testing a semi-autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle – basically a semi-autonomous drone – high in the Andes in Peru. The goal: to scan a colonial town from the 1500s that had been built over an Incan settlement, and then abandoned.
It’s a collaboration between Vanderbilt University archaeologist Steven Wernke and engineering professor Julie Adams. Adams tricked out a vehicle from Aurora Flight Sciences to include cameras and algorithms that allow the drone to achieve optimal flight patterns. The resulting detailed 3D map will be much more precise than high-resolution satellite images.
Here’s Steven Wernke: “By our calculations this vehicle will be able to take imagery of an area in about 10-15 minutes that would take two or three entire field seasons using traditional methods.”
The system can fit into a backback. Once the researchers incorporate what they learned, they hope the technology can assist in the rapid cataloguing of a variety of archaeological sites, some of which are already being lost to the ravages of new developments and time.
Thanks to coldrum for this link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast. Also see Vanderbilt University's somewhat longer news release: news.vanderbilt.edu/2012/08/
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| Posted 03-02-2013 at 04:59
Per this story, the modern village of Tuti, Peru is here: Google Maps.
The colonial village, Mawchu Llacta, was one of the Spanish "reducciones" or "reduction" villages and was part of an effort to relocate indigenous populations by Spain to consolidate rule, making it easier to pacify, tax, and convert the Indians. [Reductions were part of the larger reforms of Francisco de Toledo, the fifth viceroy of Peru, beginning in 1567, but appear to have been carried out on a much large scale in other Spanish colonies, particularly Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil.]
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