Since 1996, the BACH team has employed alternative media techniques. These include Quicktime VR panoramas, video diaries, audio annotations, digital drawing and ‘digi-planning’ and digital asset management of all slides, video and drawings. The 2001 season gave us the opportunity to refine many tried-and-true processes and to develop some new ones as well.

One of the more daunting challenges of digital media is asset management. In a typical season, we shoot over 5,000 pictures, produce over 100 drawings and tape over 50 hours of video. Trying to reconstruct the photo, drawing and video logs post-ex is a nearly impossible task. This year, we used Palm Pilot PDAs (personal data assistants - small handheld computers that hold notes, addresses, calendars and other useful applications) and portable keyboards to enter data directly in the field. This saved us from a huge data backlog. We were able to complete the data entry for almost all of the media we produced this season right in the field.

Adriana Garza and Jason Quinlan enter photo records into Palm devices in the BACH tent.

This 2001 season, we continued to develop our ‘digiplan’ process, increasing both the quality and the usefulness of the documents. We were able to achieve an error of less than 1cm per 1m², less than the error range created by the EDM (electronic distance measurer, typically known as a theodolyte or Total Station). Digital photographs were either taken in the field and then traced in the lab or photos were taken in the field, modified and brought up to the tent to expedite field drawing.

Rectilinear ‘digiplan’ of burial feature

This season, we filled perhaps our greatest documentation gap - aerial photography - through the use of old fashioned ‘big wall’ climbing gear and rope. We are fortunate to work under the protective shelter of the BACH tent, but permanent shelters pose certain challenges for documentation. The tent limits our ability to employ a scaffolding, for example, or an ‘A’ frame ladder rigging, typically used for overhead plan view photography. Our original intentions were to create a second storey, portable ledge system that would allow the photographer to position her/himself over any area in the tent. For a variety of reasons - cost, complexity not the least of which - we realized we would need to come up with a more reasonable solution. Working with many people who specialize in problematic climbing situations, we devised a rigging setup suitable for the tent structure that would provide safety, stability, speed and flexibility. The resulting rope-webbing-ascender solution worked very well and will form the basis for an improved climbing system in the 2002 season.

Michael Ashley López prepares to take a ‘digiplan’ aerial photo of burial feature.

We continued to experiment with Quicktime VR technology, adding 360° cubic panoramas to our repetoire. This new technology allows the viewer to move anywhere in the scene, including all the way to the ceiling or floor. This technique proved very useful for photographing burial pits to provide a sense of context for the burial. We also took high resolution, cylindrical VRs which formed the basis for detailed profile descriptions of burial pits and other hard to document features.

1/2 of a QTVR sphere, new cubic VR technology.

Quicktime VR also proved very useful for documenting finds as object movies. Object movies are essentially frame by frame animations that allow the user to step around an object. We shot high reolution object movies of some of the unique finds, including the remains of a phytolith basket and human hip bone with rope remains.

One frame of an object movie - phytolith basket remains.

All of these techniques are in keeping with our commitment to documenting process as well as product. We are dedicated to trying to capture the experience of archaeological endeavors and knowledge creation. The multimedia techniques employed in the BACH tent are not necessarily new, but they are necessary in order to produce an enriched and thorough accounting of the Çatalhöyük excavation project.

BACH team at work from above.