The Cathedral of St. John the Divine


National Science Foundation Project
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $2 million grant to a group of Columbia University scholars from computer science, earth and environmental sciences, anthropology, historic preservation, classics, and art history and archaeology to create new computational tools for modeling, visualizing, and analyzing historic structures and archaeological sites. The five-year project will focus on Columbia’s new excavation at Amheida in Egypt’s Western Desert as a field center for cross-disciplinary scientific, environmental, cultural, and archaeological research and education in collaboration with Columbia’s Media Center for Art History, Archaeology, and Historic Preservation.
The endeavor will explore and document the historically and culturally complex site using a variety of advanced techniques–including a laser scanning device mounted on a mobile robot and ground-penetrating radar for recording sub-surface structures. This information will be used to construct a three-dimensional, photo-realistic model linked to a database of the entire site. This dynamic model and database will help record and annotate archaeological information and the physical environment; target opportunities for excavation; conserve structures and artifacts and reconstruct their context for an interpretive center for visitors to the site in Egypt; and serve as the basis for distance learning Internet-based college and pre-college level education in science, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities.
There are five major scientific components to this research:

• First, developing new methods of creating complex, three-dimensional, photo-realistic models of large historical and archaeological sites. This includes a mobile robot that can be used as an intelligent sensing device over a large area.
• Second, developing new methods to image below-ground data accurately and efficiently. These methods are especially suited to modeling the wealth of sub-surface information at archaeological sites.
• Third, developing new database technology to catalogue and access a site’s structures, artifacts, objects, and their context. This will significantly improve a user’s ability to query and analyze a site’s information.
• Fourth, developing a system to create a new class of information visualization systems that integrate three-dimensional above- and below-ground models, two-dimensional images, text, and other web-based resources to annotate the physical environment. This system will support scientists in the field, as well as facilitate on-site interpretation and distance learning.
• Fifth, developing an educational interface that will permit teachers and students to access the model and associated information over the Internet and to use it both in the classroom and at home.

The goal is to allow flexible access on a variety of educational levels to a mass of emerging scientific and historic data to show how discovery and change are a part of both scientific and historic dynamic processes.Computer Science Professor Peter K. Allen leads a group that encompasses a wide scope of knowledge and expertise, including Computer Science Professors Steven Feiner and Kenneth Ross, Earth and Environmental Engineering Professor Roelof Versteeg, Art History and Archaeology Professor Stephen Murray, Classics Professor Roger Bagnall, Anthropology Professor Lynn Meskell, and Historic Preservation Professor Pamela Jerome. The project is co-administered with Columbia’s Media Center for Art History, Archaeology, and Historic Preservation by James Conlon , who also serves as Assistant Field Director of the Amheida Excavation, and Lucas Rubin, Coordinator of Projects and Grants. The Media Center was established in 1995 through a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and seeks to develop and link field research and education in cooperation with Columbia faculty members and other scholars and experts. Professor Stephen Murray serves as executive director.

According to Professor Allen, "we could not have put this spectacular group together anywhere else except at Columbia–the mix of experts right here on our own campus is tremendous." Peter Allen is an expert in robotics and computer vision. Roelof Versteeg specializes in below-ground and non-invasive sensing. Kenneth Ross is an expert on databases and new methods of accessing data. Steven Feiner is at the forefront of user interface design and augmented reality research. Lynn Meskell is an authority on Egyptian archaeology serves as Field Director of the Columbia Excavation at Amheida, Egypt. Stephen Murray is a leader in bringing the historic monuments and sites alive through his use of new technology.

Developing new computational tools is a complex project that requires integration efforts between groups of researchers and technologies. As the tools are developed, the team will bring them to Columbia’s excavation at Amheida at the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt. The site is unique in that it is undamaged, previously unexcavated, and of significant size, and thus promises to be one of the most important digs in Egypt. Dakhleh Oasis provides a unique opportunity to confront the central issues of Egyptian settlement archaeology in a site likely to yield a rich assemblage of artifacts. Despite several hundred years of excavation in Egypt, there is not a single archaeological project that involves the excavation of a site with a comparable depth of material and that has been carried out to the highest standards of modern archaeology.

Consequently, the excavations will include full involvement of relevant scientific specialties, including palaeobotany, micromorphology and residue, faunal, and ceramic analyses in addition to the multiple techniques available today for the study of human remains. It will also afford anthropologists and social historians the opportunity to study the peoples and cultures of western Egypt, a substantial lacuna in the field of Egyptian history and anthropology. Columbia’s initiative in Egypt will provide first-hand experience in the field for students and offers newly excavated material for specialists and researchers to work on. This is a five year, multi-dimensional and multi-layered study. The project will begin with the creation of detailed and accurate site models, both above- and below-ground.

As researchers continue to unearth new artifacts and links to other historic research, they can be combined into an interactive, query-capable database that will allow students and researchers access to a wide scope of learning materials related to the site. This database will also serve to direct new modeling efforts and integrate the efforts of all researchers on the team. These new tools will also allow multimedia access to buildings, invisible areas, and artifacts. The outcome is a powerful tool for investigating temporal change of a site as well as discovering new regions and areas of the site to explore. This project will attract students and the public to the study of world heritage; provide an exceptional opportunity for active learning; and develop the capability to explore, analyze, critically evaluate and interpret material culture within historical contexts. Also, it will redefine the relationships among technology, faculty research, and curriculum content.