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Time Team America & The Science of Archaeology

 

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Oregon Public Broadcasting enlisted two specialists from CAST to document a significant prehistoric rock art panel in southeast Utah as part of their television series Time Team America. The team employed laser scanning and photogrammetric methods to document the panel as well as its environmental context. Photogrammetry and a technique called Highlight Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) were employed using the Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera. Photogrammetry provided a high resolution 3D model of the rock art inscriptions while RTI produced an exceedingly higher resolution 2D dataset that allowed for investigation of minute surface details using artificial raking light with appropriate software. A Leica Scanstation C10 was employed for mid-range, sub-centimeter resolution scanning of the surrounding cliff face and surroundings of the panel.

film crew is set-up to watch Katie and Adam photography the rock art.

Comparison of photographs of the Rock Art in Crow Canyou with scans of the Rock Art.

Additionally, two survey specialists from CAST worked to record an archaeological dig site in the plains of Oklahoma near the town Woodward. Instruments used to survey the site included two 3D laser scanners, survey grade Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and a towable 55ft lift boom for elevating the scanners (and the occasional camera man). This work was focused around a Paleo-Indian bison kill site known as Badger Hole, which is believed to be ca. 10,500 years old and contains multiple bison bone beds. The Leica ScanStation C10 was used to scan the extent of the actual dig site, including the gulches over which groups of ancient hunters would stampede the buffaloes. The Z+F 5006i was mounted in an inverted position to the lift boom and situated directly over the open excavation pit on site. Targets were placed throughout the scanned areas and will be used to accurately position the scan data. Three target positions were surveyed with GPS and will enable the entire scan area to be georeferenced, allowing for real-world coordinates and measurements to be taken and used for research and documentation.

These datasets were utilized by the program’s host and archaeologists to investigate research questions regarding the relative sequence of the panel’s elements that could perhaps illuminate relationships between multiple prehistoric groups.

Badger Hole Buffalo Kill site in Oklahoma, US