Writing your own GIS-like software in Processing is pretty easy, but getting the data to line up with the maps printed in publications can occasionally be frustrating. Today was close, but not quite, which cartographers will not abide:
Almost there!
Current state of visualizing the Byzantine-Modern material from the Wadi el Hasa survey:
Wade el Hasa: Byzantine-Islamic Sites from alex brey on Vimeo.
Blue = higher elevation, green = lower elevation, size corresponds to number of sherds found at a site.
We live in a beautiful world where German design studios accidentally help archaeologists figure out how to make contour maps from satellite DEMs using java (ok, Processing, but same thing).
http://www.onformative.com/lab/creating-contour-maps/
I travelled to Jordan last summer for the Bir Madhkur archaeological excavation in Wadi Araba. While I was there I took a lot of pictures, with the intention of assembling them into a 3D model using Microsoft’s free webapp Photosynth, which I first discovered via the extremely useful AnthSpace@PSU blog written by Nathan M. Craig.
To view them, you may need to install Silverlight, which is free but only compatible with certain versions of certain operating systems (it’s a pain, I know, but they’re pretty fantastic).
Check out Qusayr Amra:
And the Basilica of St. Theodore (I think) at Jarash:
You can find all of my photosynths here:
http://photosynth.net/userprofilepage.aspx?user=alexbrey