Kay Kohlmeyer

An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Stone Quarrying Techniques in Historical Anuradhapura

Ancient rock quarries in the surroundings of the ancient city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka provide evidence of quarrying by splitting stone blocks. Bedrock outcrops with natural foliations or weathering fractures were preferred starting points for stone quarrying. Additionally, fractures were created artificially, removing bedrock material by channeling or heating the bedrock surface and imposing pressure on the rock through percussion. These quarrying techniques are mainly based on a series of chiselled holes set along the part of the block to be separated. These holes frequently appear as half holes in the separated rock fragments. This investigation explores the working procedure related to the chiselled holes and wedge quarrying technique, and aims to identify the tools used and to estimate the time necessary for the splitting. Investigations are based on observations of a stone craftsman still applying traditional techniques of quarrying.

3D Acquisition, Processing and Visualization of Archaeological Artifacts

In the past decade there has been a steady increase in research projects dealing with the three-dimensional documentation of cultural heritage. While 3D-scanners and photogrammetry are widely used for documenting historical monuments and archaeological excavations, the application of this technology within museums has not yet been established within the daily work routine. Even though the benefits of 3D-documentation are quite manifold, usually only outstanding artifacts are being recorded in this manner due to the complex workflows for deriving datasets, which can be used for further research and knowledge transfer. The interdisciplinary research project MOSYS-3D has been dealing with the entire workflow ranging from data acquisition, pre- and postprocessing steps as well as testing different forms of visualizations.

Interacting with Simulated Archaeological Assets

Digital and 3D data are common components in current archaeological work, and expectations regarding their utilization in contextualizing archaeological knowledge are steadily on the rise. The rapid progress in real-time rendering software and more accessible computational power enables integrated data-sets to (re)gain relevance in the process of interpreting archaeological contexts. Retaining high level of details and correct geometric relations of a complex scene while reconciling inherent variations in the scale, format, and resolution of input data (including 2D legacy data and 3D field recordings) has been already successfully achieved in the simulation of the Temple of the Storm God of Aleppo, realized by an interdisciplinary working group in the HTW Berlin. The current paper addresses the modification of virtual and immersive environments within the field of cultural heritage, and evaluating their potential as tools in interpretative archaeological processes. Based on widely available game technology, two applications are presented, supporting real-time interaction and collaborative work within a single modeled space.

Ancient Colonization of Marginal Habitats

The present contribution deals with the concepts of marginal habitats in selected regions of the ancient world, ranging from modern Spain to the Jordanian desert and from Turkey to the Ethiopian highlands. Central to this research is the hypothesis that the occupation of areas beyond the ‘normal’ settlement patterns corresponds to colonization processes which reflect specific social strategies and may have stimulated the development of new technological skills. A review of ‘marginality’ research in various disciplines indicates that there is no comprehensive definition of the concept, which can be approached from a multitude of perspectives and with manifold objectives. A survey of the eight case studies and two more in-depth discussions of the sites of Musawwarat (Sudan) and Ayamonte (Spain) highlight the potentials as well as the limits of the archaeological investigation into past marginalities. Patterns of spatial marginalization are the easiest to detect. The studies also show that we must not limit our analysis to the adverse factors connected to different kinds of marginalities. Instead, our analyses suggest that spatially marginal areas were deliberately chosen for settlement – an integration with core-periphery approaches may help us to understand these scenarios, which have received little attention in ‘marginality’ research in archaeology or elsewhere so far.