Remote Eridu

Remote data acquisition processes for Eridu's archaeological excavation

Dr. Vittorio Lauro

09/12/2015
vittorio.lauro@googlemail.com
 Introduction

Following the presentation of Eridu's mission, directed by prof. D'Agostino and Prof. Ramazzotti,

the preparations have been fervent for me to prepare the equipment and projects for the planning of

the topographical survey of the territory under consideration, in order to create a computerized

territorial network where data that could be obtained from early reconnaissance.

These model approaches to the subject have seen their definitive formulation in the proposal

"Dimpemekug, Enki and Nanna" presented telematically to prof. Ramazzotti on December 17,

2014. Unfortunately, the already obvious difficulties in starting the mission, mainly due to the

tightening of the funds granted, have been aggravated by recent developments in the East's

perception following the Paris attacks of January 7, 2015.

For this reason, the need to develop a study of the geomorphology territory in the remote has been

born immediately, proceeding on two parallel paths: on the one hand collecting and connecting all

the modern typographic material that can be deduced from the satellite collections of the area,

especially the territory occupied by the main "mound", on the other hand develop a

photogrammetric survey of the territory applicable by trigonometrization of collected satellite data.

 The Nasa Archive

Since the advent of Google Earth in 2004, resulting from the purchase by Google Inc. of Keyhole

Inc., topography for research has enriched the ability to capture high resolution satellite images in

free form. This powerful tool, thanks to Google Sponsor and community intervention system. daily

undergoes new updates, always qualifying as the most complete GIS existing and outputting any

other system, paid and free. In parallel to these considerations, it should be noted that there are other

validly updated archives that can provide plants in various parts of the Earth, and which are, in the

context of this project, useful for investigation and study purposes. Among these alternative systems

to Google Earth stands out Nasa World Wind, an interactive and open source GIS database that

bases its acquisition on the extraterrestrial and orbital missions of the US Space Association (the

famous N.A.S.A.). For some specific aspects, this search engine has unknown potential to Google

Earth and sees lesser spread only due to the great weight of the software and the less "user friendly"

interface.

The mission area was then enriched by photos taken in the NASA circuit and the various satellites

made available.

Within the scope of remote 3D dimensional topographic survey, the NASA circuit allows access to

SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission).

 NASA

BLUE MARBLE

The Blue Marble system is a process of analyzing and computing Nasa's satellite data that allows

you to view data on the Earth's surface not in false colors, but in its real colors. In this table we can

observe how vegetation spots, traces left by wadi, rocky highlands and even different orogenetic

conformations are easily recognizable around the area that delineates Mound 1. The sedimentary

and anthropic nature of the altura becomes clear in this table, in which the survey examined stands

out as an obvious foreign body to the process of erosion and overall sedimentation of the area. Very

interesting are also some surfaces that, although homogeneous and extensive, do not fit into the

overall orientation of the slopes and may be grounds for investigation in the reconnaissance phase.
NASA

TERRA
"TERRA" is a NASA satellite that is synchronous with the Sun around our planet, thus collecting

high-altitude photographs with the same illumination. It is, for the admission of the same NASA,

the flagship of the EOS, the permanent observation system of our planet.

The images collected from this satellite show in detail the Tumulus 1. It is possible to distinguish

precisely the traces left by the collapses along the mound surface as well as the shape of some

buildings. Numerous stains and gradations of different color are to be interpreted as cracks and

hills, and where they show regular contours are probably the result of the interaction of atmospheric

agents with architectural structures covered by sediments or partially collapsed.

 Private companies

The 90's saw the entrance of private companies in the aerospace industry. Initially in exclusive

partnership with the governments of reference, then increasingly committed to the creation of an

independent market. These companies, led by Digital Glob, which has the privileged support of

Google Inc., have enriched our heavens on numerous satellites that over the years have captured

more and more detailed images of the planet's surface. These archives become, with the passing of

time and the emergence of new and more detailed acquisition systems, free and available.

It should also be considered that if the level of satellites is improving, what actually prevents an

acquisition below 60cm is not a technical obstacle as you might think, but of a regulatory nature.

For security reasons, data may not be released below a precision date threshold. Such a limit exists

for tables that can be found free of charge, if you know where to look, as well as the ones paid.
World View 03
Launched in June 2014, the World View 03 is the latest purchase of the Digital Globe constellation.

The technical data of this satellite is still unknown, but it certainly offers a pancromatic acquisition

of more than 4 cm, and the possibility of a multispectral focus of more than eight colors (thanks to

comparison with the previous generation of the same model). The first table shown is a Tumulus 2

acquisition. Thanks to the potential of the satellite, it is quite possible to recognize the structure of

the structures located on the top of the mound. Considering the available data and the quotas that

can be derived from the other data presented below, you can already project a virtual envelope in

the virtual environment and proceed to the reconstructive process based on the plan and

bibliographic comparisons.

The second image from the World View 03 shows the area of Tumulus 6. The whole area has

interesting aspects in the interpretation field, and, with a trained eye, this first image shows, at some

points, the presence of regular trends and perpendicular to each other, a clear sign of the presence of

existing structures or imprints of ancient structures. Such an indication can be guided by

reconnaissance.
 GeoEye 01

Launched in September 2008, GeoEye01 is an indispensable tool for studying the topography of the

Eridu area for the images it has returned. Thanks to a 41mm panchromatic resolution and a 1.65m

multispectral acquisition capability, the satellite has returned wonderful images of the Mound 1

area. False colors, the result of the greater spectrum of capture, enhance the differences in

dimensions, hiking trails, north and south, to reach the Mound. Even collapse lines and some details

of the main board edge are easily distinguishable in this table as in the following, all collected from

the same satellite.

 Possible Structures Not Reported

This board always comes from the archives of GeoEye 01 and focuses on the WGS84 (World

Geodetic System) coordinates 30 ° 48'51.05 "N // 45 ° 58'59.13" E. Thanks to the exaltation of false

colors and to the treatment of post-production light can be seen in the central area and then, in a

reduced form, even in other peripheral areas of the table, the signs of those that seem to be

fingerprints but which do not appear in the official documentation of the previous data. In the light

of this, such observations are taken into account when the area is reconsidered.
 Remote Relief

One of the main challenges of this project is the idea of creating a topographic photogrammetric

survey starting from satellite photos by applying a proportional average compensation method

between various surveys of crawled satellite photos from different perspectives belonging to the

same groups. By comparing this way with the reliefs, a three-dimensional model of the territory is

obtained, which does not, of course, substitute the relief on the field, but enriches the

documentation of the mission prior to reconnaissance as such speeding up and improving work on

the territory. These photos were compared to what was collected by Prof. Ramazzotti during his

reconnaissance. Photographs, taken not with a detection end, were processed, adapted and prepared

for photogrammetric reconstruction. First, the archives of Digital Globe, Google Inc. and NASA

were analyzed in order to find a coherent map set. These are indexed and oriented to have a color

mapping available by the various color recognition software.

But apart from the detail, plants and photos had to have a principle of mutual coherence that would

not cause excessive distortions. The first positive response to this has come from data provided by

one of NASA's archives. The product model responds to photogrammetric projection characters,

and while still experimental and perfected, it turned out to be an excellent starting point.

Once you've got a three-dimensional topographic plan, you've come back to the photo collection of

prof. Ramazzotti and three types of usable photos were found: one for the Mound, one for the object

viewed from the Mound (later shown as Image 03) and one centered on the plain in the direction of

the Mound (Figure 02 in the next diagram) .

At present, the first group is still in the process of being processed, as they are certainly the most

interesting point of view, and this is what one deserves more attention. The other two groups have

already been processed by returning photogrammetric reconstructions of the territory that is shown

in it.
Although work is still under way, it has already been possible to make a first positioning that

anticipates the mosaic work to which this project aims, so that it can obtain a high definition of

Eridu territory directly from remote data processing.