How is my mic ?
Hey everyone! I’m Manon Bril, and welcome to "It’s a different story"!
And finally! Bart is back!
He's back!
Technology!
Future!
Yes, I’m going overboard.
In the last few months more than ever, technology was very useful
to do a whole lot of things that we could not do anymore. Especially meeting with each other.
Remotely, sure, but meeting all the same.
Or keep having fun, learning, etc.
At the same time, we increasingly hear about people who want to break free from technology.
To go back to basics, to go offline. And probably quite rightly.
Yet, technology is a tool
and it all depends on how we use it, I'd like to say.
I like to say that with a hammer
one can both build things and break things.
You see?
So deep.
Anyway, technology is a tool without which we could not have done many things.
And not only confinement apéritifs, but first and foremost
well, science, of course!
That’s why today, I invite you to discover many things
that archaeologists would never have found without technology.
If they were still digging using only trowels and pickaxes
and drawing on graph paper
with their little plumb bobs.
Let’s have an overview of those technologies applied to archaeology.
Not very thoroughly, but with a lot of cool examples.
From space to the depths of the Earth.
From the infinitely large to the infinitely small.
Well, infinitely large, infinitely small… it’s a figure of speech, but it sounds cool.
In any case: yes! We’ll start off in space!
Wut? Space, Manon?
But isn’t archaeology about scraping around the ground
to find information and vestiges?
Well, let me tell you, my little chickens, that an important step in archaeology
is prospection.
Really, this position is anything but natural.
And archaeologists got plenty of ways to prospect.
A lil’ cat.
They can comb through an area to try to spot pieces of ceramics on the surface
or fragments of statues laying around.
Thanks to technology, they can also try to get an overview
to discover sites by using satellites.
It’s possible to see ancient human settlements from space
provided that there is little vegetation or urban development.
This method was tested in South America
and made it possible to compare ground surveys with satellite imagery
and even to discover unprecedented high-altitude strongholds.
It is also possible to discover sites in even more surprising ways
in places where you should think twice before going on a stroll.
As is the case in Afghanistan.
Not always easy to walk around and work there as an archaeologist.
Don’t forget that it’s still a zone of conflict.
Yet, satellites have produced wonderful pictures
of caravanserais, underground canals, or outposts.
This changed radically our historical hypotheses on trade
because, prior to these discoveries, researchers thought that sea trading routes
had rapidly made land routes obsolete.
But let’s be honest, the national budget for Arts and Culture doesn’t really allow
to launch space programs just for archaeological purposes.
This means that such data depends on governmental or commercial satellites
that are already orbiting around the Earth.
So, when scientists want to have a look at a very specific location
but can’t afford to launch or hijack a satellite
well, they can resort to planes.
And that’s all thanks to technology!
We’ve been practicing aerial archaeology for ages.
Since Roger Agache in the 60s.
And one thing we know is that it works rather well.
Aerial pictures are taken in spring
because fields will grow and ripen evenly
except on top of vestiges or underground ditches where moisture is trapped.
The differences in colours will reveal where the constructions are
and this way, it’s possible to encompass thousands of hectares all at once.
And it’s all thanks to technology.
Aerial prospection is not as accurate as an actual archaeological operation
but it allows to perceive archaeological structures and density
that are beyond the scope of an excavation.
Residential areas and their necropolises, land plots, roads and access paths, and so on.
This information is highly valuable for the excavation
and study of each site.
[and this data help improve the national archaeological map]
[This map helps public authorities decide whether rescue archeology is needed]
And that’s all thanks to technology!
Technologyyy!
Anyway, a plane is… well technology. Yeah, that’s cool.
It fucks the Earth u-
Yet, we can go even further using LiDAR.
[bad pun with “lit d’art” = art bed And the French pronunciation of “LiDAR”]
Ew, nope.
“What is LiDAR?” you ask me
Well, calm down, I tell you
Simply put, it’s a bit like the sonar systems found on ships
except here, they don’t use a soundwave but a laser
which makes it possible to draw impressively accurate topographic maps.
With it, archaeologists can estimate the locations of buildings, developments
and even discover things they had not spotted beforehand
during the preliminary ground surveys.
And it’s all thanks to technology!
Here is an example:
The abandoned medieval hamlet of Bois des Cestre, in Côte d’Or
studied by Franck Faucher, and where the use of LiDAR
helped uncover a path connecting a house to a water source.
This helped understand a bit more the daily life
of the people who lived 300 metres from the well.
It was their water supply.
That’s the benefit of LiDAR.
It can map the ground without being hindered by vegetation
which gives a more realistic overview of the area.
Another example that got much more media attention and that you’ve probably heard of
was the use of LiDAR to uncover about 60,000 Maya infrastructures.
This had a huge impact on the way we viewed this civilisation
but to learn more on that topic, on that specific example, you can watch the video
by Léa Belot on “Zeste de Science”, the channel of the French National Centre for Scientific Research,
featuring Clotilde from “Passé Sauvage” who is also an archaeologist.
So, the emergence of LiDAR was a real game-changer
because before scientists started to use it
only 5-to-10% of the structures were identified from ground surveys.
Finally, last method to get a bird’s-eye view
in case you’re not Elon Musk or the proud owner of an aircraft equipped with LiDAR technology.
I’m not.
Actually, I’m not even an archaeologist, I don’t know what the hell I would do with it.
You can climb up a very tall ladder.
Convenient.
(it's a joke)
As drones are becoming more and more widespread, they are increasingly used on excavation sites.
And more particularly, on very large sites.
Obviously, drones, just like aircrafts or satellites
can be used to do aerial prospection
and scientists fly them over areas where they suspect that sites might be buried.
And if the site is huge…
For instance, the Maya site was 2,100km² (810 square miles).
It’s ok.
In that case, we can’t get a good overview of the site from the ground.
The drone, on the other hand, can get close enough to scan the area with more accuracy.
As always, in archaeology
you just need to take the tools that best meet your need
and it’s…
All thanks to technology!
You’re so done with this sentence.
On top of that, we can say that drones
are the best device to take on-site pictures or videos
without stepping on what you have just cleaned up to get nice images.
It's true.
To illustrate this, let’s have a look at the pictures taken by the INRAP
the French National Institute for Rescue Archeology
with which we are collaborating for this video.
We thank them, we’re very happy.
Images taken, more particularly, in Puy-de-Dôme
on a megalithic site that covers 16,000m² (19,135 square yards).
Can you imagine how time-saving that is?
To use a drone to take some pictures
instead of having to move all your stuff to gain some height and take pictures
just to climb down and do it all over again 10 metres away.
And it’s all thanks to technology!
Technology!
The advantage is that, on top of striking a good balance
between getting an overview of the vestiges and the precision of the details
when you’re at ground-level, it can be hard to understand the chronology of a site
or the different stages of construction if you can’t sketch the whole on a plan.
The principle of rescue archaeology is to search a site within a limited time
before infrastructures, parking lots, highways, etc. are built.
And above all, to do it well.
We know how to search well. But searching within limited times…
Well, quite frankly, when you have a drone that can get the job done in two hours
it comes in rather handy.
Let’s be honest here.
No, no. No dishonesty between us.
No, no, no.
Another advantage of drones is that by taking pictures and videos of an area in a very short time
the light is going to be similar on all of the pictures of the site.
First, no shadow will have moved, which won’t difficult our comprehension of the structures.
And we also get good-quality pictures with which we can play around
but we’ll come back to that once we’ve left the field.
So, if you’re a bit scared of flying like I am.
Yes. It happens. Even to the best of us.
Well, rest assured, we’ll now go back down to that good ol’ ground.
More precisely, we’ll go underground.
As, you know, excavation techniques have greatly benefited from technology!
Did you get that it was the topic of the video?
Those technologies and techniques are used by one of the INRAP research units
which is responsible for excavating deep archaeological sites.
By deep, I mean everything that is below the surface.
This implies specific search conditions where light
construction props, and water seepage will be major concerns.
Or even just having enough space to turn around.
Can’t move.
Small tunnels.
For instance, some statues were found a few metres under the surface at the well of Trémuson.
To understand how they got there, archaeologists must use saws
and be able to understand the stratigraphy.
By using metallic props, ropes, and some speleology techniques
the team that studied the well were able to understand better
how those statues ended up at the bottom of the well.
Maybe you’re thinking:
“By the way, why do they bother studying wells?
“Isn’t it enough that know that kids from the area came there to get water?”
Well, if we just wanted to know where they got water: yes, it’s enough.
In fact, wells are valuable archives.
As they are designed as water tanks
they stay very humid even once they are abandoned
and can preserve many items that are useful to understand the surface world
So, you can find wood, pollen, animal remains, etc.
For example, the INRAP looked into wells in Brittany
and were able to extract more than 10,000 samples to study.
This way, we know what types of plants and animals lived on the territory
and we can paint a picture of what the lifestyle, environment and landscape were like at that time.
And it’s all thanks to technology!
It’s also possible to go underground, deeper than wells
to sometimes hard-to-reach mines and quarries
and there is a particular type of deep site archaeology
developed specifically for the study of those areas.
To uncover those vestiges, archaeologists use the same technology as speleologists
but their methods have been adapted to this special underground environment.
Thanks to miniaturisation.
Mi-nia-tu-ri-sa-tion. Right kiddo, not an easy word to say.
Thanks to the miniaturisation and increased autonomy of strong lightning systems
the quality of the excavations was increased, and the safety and comfort of archaeologists was ensured.
Now, let’s stay a bit longer on the field to explore even further.
And, one advice:
Put your swimsuit on!
(splash)
Yes, in the air or underground, it’s alright, you’re on dry land.
And you can breathe.
But when looking for shipwrecks
or ancient human settlements covered by water…
Well… you can't.
Easy as that.
Since 2007, the DRASSM has been working on the topic.
It stands for “Department for Underwater and Subaquatic Archaeological Research”.
The name speaks for itself.
In the last ten years, they have made considerable progress.
From the small Speedy, an underwater drone that can grab things with its three-fingered hand.
Like E.T.
E.T.’s got three fingers.
To the atmospheric diving suit which can go up to 300 metres deep.
And it’s all thanks to technology!
Thanks to all those small improvements, we’re slowly pushing back the limits on the field
but don’t forget that in archaeology, there is as much fieldwork as lab work.
Yes, let’s now have a look at what happens after excavation works.
Let’s go to the lab.
Remember when I said that drones and speleology techniques
could be useful for many things?
Well, we’re coming back to it now.
Let’s talk photogrammetry.
What is it?
Same as ever. I’ll explain it.
I’ll tell you everything.
Simply put, you take a lot of pictures on a site.
Pictures of an object, of a structure…
Throw them all in the right software.
Hop, shaky shaky
And poof!
No sponsored products.
And poof!
You get a 3D model with which you can play around, take measurements
highlight some things
and compare it with all the models made for other sites.
And it’s all thanks to technology.
Well done, Bart!
It’s all thanks to technology.
Alright, put like that, it sounds easy because it’s not very hard to make a 3D model
but making a scientifically correct model, it's a different story.
Let’s have a look back at the mines we talked about earlier.
The goal of that study was to check the reliability of this technique
by comparing it to hand-made surveys
and to test shooting methods
in underground situations where there is no natural light.
First, this method helps understand how the mine was built
because the 3D model makes it possible to study each modelized gallery from every angle
and this showed that the accuracy photogrammetry
is similar to that of hand-drawn maps.
Another great and fundamental thing with photogrammetry
is that it’s possible to artificially light a model.
This way, it’s possible to move shadows around to identify relief or woodwork
Such as...
Beams!
And wellheads
that are not always easy to spot when you’re facing a wall.
So, data on underground structures is obtained from pictures taken by archaeologists
and sometimes by robots.
But remember, on the surface
archaeologists can simply use pictures taken by drones.
The models obtained from those pictures are superimposed on the hand-made surveys
with a very small margin of error.
Depending on the quality of the pictures, it’s possible to zoom in on the models
or to use 3D rendering to test out hypotheses
and simulate how the local living environment and landscape were.
And it’s all thanks to technology.
And of course, when talking about archaeology
the discovery of tombs or necropolises is a common topic
to which photogrammetry benefitted a lot as well.
One of the big questions about death rites
that archaeologists studying tombs try to answer is:
“How do the living honour the deceased during the burial process?”
So, they look at how the deceased were treated.
We talked a bit about that in the last video on sexism and archaeology.
Were they buried? If so, in a casket? In a simple burial shroud?
With furniture? Offerings? Etc.
Many elements that will impact the position of the bodies.
When they decompose, the bones will move and indicate the type of burial
and the first position of the deceased.
Insane, isn't it?
It’s a tad more complicated than that, but you got the idea.
Well, thanks to photogrammetry, it’s possible to better study
the burial context when excavating the tomb.
And here too, the advantage is that it saves a tremendous amount of time.
So, photogrammetry is halfway between
treatment on the field and analysis in the lab.
But now, let’s dive even deeper
in the post-excavation world.
Speaking about excavating tombs and using new technologies
let’s talk about the ancient cat mummy
kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes.
And this time, it was studied by using tomography.
“What is tomography, Manon?”
Well, it’s X-ray scanning each layer of an object
depending on the density of the different elements making up those layers.
The results were astounding because the analysis revealed
the absence of a skull, vertebrae, and ribs
and the presence of bones belonging to several cats.
For example, there were 5 hind legs, 3 nearly complete cat tails…
So, this cat mummy was actually a mummy made of various spare parts.
- A sort of puzzle-cat?
Yeah, a puzzle-cat or a…
Frankencat.
Yes, it was a real Frankenstein mummy.
There are many hypotheses concerning
the motives of this mummification.
But it’s only through the development of such studies
that we’ll know if this practice was an exception
or if it was a common occurrence among pet embalmers.
Simply put, with today’s technology, it’s nearly possible to perform autopsies
on bodies found on archaeological sites.
And it’s all thanks to technology!
Now, let’s leave the macabre realm of the dead.
Pleonasm.
To look at the furniture present in the tombs.
Alright, it’s still the world of the dead.
Among many famous French tombs
the tomb in Lavaux was investigated not long ago.
In it, archaeologists found very-high-quality furniture
on which they performed a great number of lab tests.
They even showed that the torque, a sort of Celtic necklace
and the bracelets worn by the deceased in the tomb
were polished in some places due to the friction with the skin and/or clothes.
Talk about insane details.
It shows that, the deceased was buried
wearing jewels that they had worn in their daily life.
Metal items are also carefully studied
to identify the proportions of each metal in the alloys
and the crafting techniques: smelting or hammering, for example.
In 2017, the CRAHAM
the French Centre for Medieval and Ancient Archaeological Research
invited an INRAP team to study ceramics
from the early High Middle Ages in Île-de-France.
After a visual identification of various types of ceramics
associated with more than 250 surveyed sites
it was possible to measure the chemical elements
contained in the terracotta to identify
where the clay used to craft these ceramics came from.
And it’s all thanks to technology.
You know the drill by now.
Each clay has its own chemical composition
so, when two ceramics share the same chemical composition
it can be concluded that the clay used to craft them
came from the same area.
Therefore, researchers have tried to link the production sites
to the diffusion areas, where those potteries were sold
by measuring their petrographical composition.
That’s how it’s called.
I don’t know if I told you.
“Petrographical composition”. I don’t think I did, but now you know.
So, those were many, many, many, many, many, many, many things
that archaeologists would not have discovered without technology.
It’s all thanks to technology.
You too, during these strange times, as it’s not easy to drive around
and find open cultural places or events
thanks to technology, you’ll be able to discover a lot of things.
What a clever transition.
Because this year, the European Archaeology Days,
that, each year, allow you to discover archaeological sites and work
will be mostly held online.
They will be held on June 19, 20, and 21 2020, so, next weekend, then.
During those three days, it will be possible to discover archaeological sites
through online tours, or 3D rendering
talk with archaeologists livestreaming on Facebook
follow the work routine of researchers on Twitter
and listen to podcasts, watch movies, virtual exhibits…
And that’s all thanks to technology!
And also, in places where hygiene measures allow it
and if you’re close enough, you can visit a site
or an archaeological monument, a museum that displays archaeological collections…
Friday will be dedicated to classes and children
who will enjoy many pedagogical and fun activities.
You can find all the info on the site of the European Archaeological Days.
Everything is in the description, as usual.
We made this video in collaboration with the INRAP which organises those European Days.
We thank them very much, we’re very happy!
And as for you, my lil’ Wut-ists…
W-
Wut…
Find a name for the community, I trust you guys.
Well, many thanks for watching this video, thanks again for being here.
A huge thanks to our tippers which allow us to remain autonomous
to pay the cameraman when he gets out of confinement.
As you know, those who donate on Tipeee or join the Youtube channel
will be able to enjoy the animated episodes before everybody else.
Remember, I told you we were taking a break for the summer.
We’ll come back in September, actually probably in October.
Anyway, in the meantime, take care!
Here, we’re going to relax, but we send you…
Lots of kisses.
See you next time. Kiss kiss.