Photomapping

Photomapping involves the process of drawing a map from a photographic base. “In all likelihood, computer map making, including analogue processing, will have replaced manual map making for well over 90 per cent of all maps"Robinson et al. (1977:16)] .

Principles and Definitions

Photomapping is the process of making a map with “cartographic enhancements”Petrie (1977: 50)] that have been drawn from a photomosaicPetrie (1977: 49)] that is a “a composite photographic image of the ground” or more precisely as a controlled photomosaic where “individual photographs are rectified for tilt and brought to a common scale (at least at certain control points).”

Rectification of imagery is generally achieved by "fitting the projected images of each photograph to a set of four control points whose positions have been derived from an existing map or from ground measurements. When these rectified, scaled photographs are positioned on a grid of control points, a good correspondence can be achieved between them through skillful trimming and fitting and the use of the areas around the principal point where the relief displacements (which cannot be removed) are at a minimum.”Petrie (1977:50)]

“It is quite reasonable to conclude that some form of photomap will become the standard general map of the future.” Robinson et al. (1977:10)] go on to suggest that, “photomapping would appear to be the only way to take reasonable advantage” of future data sources like high altitude aircraft and satellite imagery.

Photomapping in Archaeology

Demonstrating the link between orthophotomapping and archaeology Estes et al. (1977)] , historic airphotos photos were used to aid in developing a reconstruction of the Ventura mission that guided excavations of the structure's walls.

Overhead photography has been widely applied for mapping surface remains and excavation exposures at archaeological sites. Suggested platforms for capturing these photographs has included: War Balloons from World War 1 Capper (1907)] ; rubber meteorological balloons Guy (1932)] ; kites Guy (1932)] Bascom (1941)] ; wooden platforms, metal frameworks, constructed over an excavation exposureGuy (1932)] ; ladders both alone and held together with poles or planks; three legged ladders; single and multi-section polesSchwartz (1964)] Wiltshire (1967)] ; bipodsKriegler (1928)] Hampl (1957)] Whittlesey (1966)] Fant and Loy (1972)] ; tripodsStraffin (1971)] ; tetrapodsSimpson and Cooke (1967)] Hume (1969)] aerial bucket trucks ("cherry pickers')Sterud and Pratt (1975)] , and light weight individuals dangling from the limb of a nearby tree.

Hand held near nadir over head digital photographs have been used with geographic information systems (GIS) to record excavation exposuresCraig (2000)] Craig (2002)] Craig and Aldenderfer (2003)] Craig (2005)] Craig et al. (2006)] .

External links

* [http://www.1370th.org/ US Military Aerial Photomapping]
* [http://www.archaeo.info/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Archaeological%20Photomapping The ArcSat Approach to Archaeological Photomapping]

Notes

References

*Harvard reference
year=1936
title=Archaeological Photography
periodical=Antiquity
volume=10
issue=
pages=486-490
*Harvard reference
author=Bascom, W. R.
year=1941
title=Possible Applications of Kite Photography to Archaeology and Ethnology
periodical=Illinois State Academy of Science, Transactions
volume=34
issue=
pages=62-63
*Harvard reference
author=Capper, J. E.
year=1907
title=Photographs of Stonehenge as Seen from a War Balloon
periodical=Archaeologia
volume=60
issue=
pages=571-572
*Harvard reference
last=Craig
first=Nathan
year=2005
title=The Formation of Early Settled Villages and the Emergence of Leadership: A Test of Three Theoretical Models in the Rio Ilave, Lake Titicaca Basin, Southern Peru
place=
publisher=Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California Santa Barbara
edition=
volume=
id=
url=http://archaeo.info/craig/modules/Downloads/docs/craig2005_dissertation_jiska.pdf
access-date=09 February 2007
*Harvard reference
last= Craig
first= Nathan
authorlink=
year= 2002
title= Recording Large-Scale Archaeological Excavations with GIS: Jiskairumoko--Near Peru's Lake Titicaca
periodical= ESRI ArcNews
volume= Spring
url= http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring02articles/recordinglarge.html
access-date= 09 Feb, 2007
*Harvard reference
last=Craig
first=Nathan
authorlink=
year=2000
title=Real Time GIS Construction and Digital Data Recording of the Jiskairumoko, Excavation Perú
periodical=Society for American Archaeology Buletin
volume=18
issue=1
url=http://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/18-1/saa18.html
access-date=09 February 2007
*Harvard reference
surname1=Craig
given1=Nathan
surname2=Adenderfer
given2=Mark
year=2003
title=Preliminary Stages in the Development of a Real-Time Digital Data Recording System for Archaeological Excavation Using ArcView GIS 3.1
periodical=Journal of GIS in Archaeology
volume=1
issue=
pages=1-22
url=http://www.esri.com/library/journals/archaeology/volume_1/realtime_recording.pdf
access-date=09 Feb 2007
*Harvard reference
author=Craig, N., Aldenderfer, M. & Moyes, H.
year=2006
title=Multivariate Visualization and Analysis of Photomapped Artifact Scatters
periodical=Journal of Archaeological Science
volume=33
issue=
pages=1617-1627
url=http://archaeo.info/craig/modules/Downloads/docs/craig_et_al2006_photomapping.pdf
*Harvard reference
author=Estes, J. E., Jensen, J. R. & Tinney, L. R.
year=1977
title=The Use of Historical Photography for Mapping Archaeological Sites
periodical=Journal of Field Archaeology
volume=4
issue=
pages=441-447
*Harvard reference
author=Fant, J. E. & Loy, W. G.
year=1972
chapter=Surveying and Mapping
editor=Eds
title=The Minnesota Messenia Expedition
*Harvard reference
author=Guy, P. L. O.
year=1932
title=Balloon Photography and Archaeological Excavation
periodical=Antiquity
volume=6
issue=
pages=148-155
*Harvard reference
author=Hampl, F.
year=1957
title=Archäologische Feldphotographie
periodical=Archaeologia Austriaca
volume=22
issue=
pages=54-64
*Harvard reference
author=Hume, I. N.
year=1969
title=Historical Archaeology
place=New York
*Harvard reference
author=Kriegler, K.
year=1929
title=Über Photographische Aufnahmen Prähistorischer Gräber
periodical=Mittheliungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien
volume=58
issue=
pages=113-116
*Harvard reference
author=Petrie, G.
year=1977
title=Orthophotomaps
periodical=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
volume=2
issue=
pages=49-70
*Harvard reference
author=Robinson, A. H., Morrison, J. L. & Meuehrcke, P. C.
year=1977
title=Cartography 1950-2000
periodical=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
volume=2
issue=
pages=3-18
*Harvard reference
author=Schwartz, G. T.
year=1964
title=Stereoscopic Views Taken with an Ordinary Single Camera--A New Technique for Archaeologists
periodical=Archaeometry
issue=
pages=36-42
*Harvard reference
author=Simpson, D. D. A. & Booke, F. M. B.
year=1967
title=Photogrammetric Planning at Grantully Perthshire
periodical=Antiquity
volume=41
issue=
pages=220-221
*Harvard reference
author=Straffin, D.
year=1971
title=A Device for Vertial Archaeological Photography
periodical=Plains Anthropologist
volume=16
issue=
pages=232-234
*Harvard reference
author=Wiltshire, J. R.
year=1967
title=A Pole for High Viewpoint Photography
periodical=Industrial Commercial Photography
issue=
pages=53-56