Preliminary Report of the 2004 Season at Tall Jalul
Randall W. Younker, David Merling from Andrews University
and Reem Shqour from the Department of Antiquities of Jordan
Introduction
The goal of the 2004 (May 10-22) season at Tall Jalul (5 km east ofMadaba) was to test a new Geographical Positioning System (GPS) known as “Z-Max.” The Z-Max surveying system is produced by Thales Navigation and is a precision GPS system originally designed for topographic and construction survey. Z-Max is superior to other GPS systems because of ADAPT-RTK—Automatic Decorrelation and Parameter Tuning for Real Time Kinematic positioning (see attachment at end of report for technical description). This new system which has the capability of locating 3 dimensional points (latitude, longitude and elevation) on the surface of the planet within an accuracy of centimeters and even millimeters hadpreviously been shown to be extremely accurate and reliable in plottingthe specific location of individual bones of dinosaurs in a paleontological excavation conducted in the United States in NE Wyoming by Drs Art Chadwick and Larry Turner of Southwest Adventist University (Keene, Texas). One of the characteristics of this new system that make it so attractive to field work is that it is extremely fast. A given locational point can be recorded literally by a click of a button, and the locational point is immediately recorded (by way of illustration, Chadwick and Turner were able to record thousands of locational data points in just two days to create a very accurate, new topographical map of Jalul at 1 meter intervals—below). These data points can be read on a small screen that is attached to the receiver and are immediately recorded by the unit’s computer.
When the locational data from ZMax are downloaded into a computer software called ARCGIS , the locational points that have been recorded by ZMax can be combined with digital images of various features (bones, rocks, etc) to create 3-dimensional images of those features. The software has the capability for compensating for any distortion created by the digital image and maintains the precise spatial relationships of those features. Thus, for example, when several locational datum points (length, width, depth) for each of several individual dinosaur bones are combined with a digital image of those same bones, it is possible to create a three dimensional model of those bones that are in precise spatial relationship to each other. The software can then be manipulated to provide a view of those bones from any desired angle.
To illustrate how Zmax and ARCGIS work together, it is possible to use ZMax to plot the locational points of the length, width and depth of each of the bones of, say, an articulated dinosaur skeleton, enter these points into ARCGIS, combine them with a digital photo (or even several images) and create a three dimensional digital image of that dinosaur skeleton that can be rotated and viewed on a computer from any desired angle. This images can, of course, be printed and used in publications.
The application of this new technology to archaeology is immediately obvious. With ZMax and ARCGIS, any locus point on an archaeological sitecan be quickly and accurately plotted—that would include the parameters of any individual locus or feature (such as a wall or street), as well as the precise location of any find spot of any given artifact.
Results of the 2004 Season
In preparation for the re-plotting and mapping of Jalul, a dozen students and teachers from Andrews Universtiy, along with four workers from Jalul, cleaned the debris from all the previously excavated Fields that had accumulated since the last excavation seasons in 1999 and 2000. During the cleaning process they also removed a dangerously eroded balk in Field B so that no visitors to the site would be endangered. The removal of the balk exposed a few additional pavement stones from the 8th century BC pavement that had been discovered in previous seasons. These new stones were photographed and mapped with the new ZMax system.
Meanwhile, Drs. Art Chadwick and Larry Turner were able to re-plot and map all the architectural features in Fields A, B, C, D and E. From these points they were able to successfully create a 3D view of these architectural features. While aerial photos are of Jalul are not yetavailable (we are making arrangements to take such images), photos of various features were taken from ground level and successful combined with ZMax data to create 3D digital images in ARCGIS—the results were excellentbut preliminary and Chadwick and Turner will refine these images and send them to us later this summer.
Chadwick and Turner were also to create a new and more accurate topomap of Jalul recording several thousand precise location data points.
