Research Phase

Today, two projects were my focus. First of all, using my chart of walls, I went systematically through the site reviewing and noting the interrelationships of the walls. This work is essential as I build the final report on sequencing.

Secondly, and more visually exciting, I began the scanning of the church complex. Had a little trouble with heat shutting down the iPad, but I am quite happy with the result:

As one zooms in, the detail is quite excellent. The cloud still requires some cleaning and geo-referencing. But the initial product provides the hoped-for basic data..

I returned to Sussita to refine the scanning techniques. When dealing with large spaces, I am discovering that the scans must be closer together. The software could not auto-register the scans; but I was able to be much more successful manually. The results:

Back to the field tomorrow. This is exactly the kind of data I was hoping to gather.

Today, I did trial scanning in the field. I went up to Sussita early to avoid the harsh sunlight, but there were no protective clouds. The scanning was easy. But the iPad had trouble registering the third scan. I did a total of sixteen scans around the perimeter of the main excavation area and in major spaces.

Back at my room on the kibbutz, I loaded the scans onto the laptop and had the same problem with auto-registration. Above is the output of my first attempt at manual registration. The cloud is quite messy and not well aligned. So, I have read up more on registration and am working on a second attempt. Weekends are helpful.

It took a week, but today we finished the cleaning of the NIP.

What has once been full of weeds and brush is now visible.

This weekend we will test our scanning processes. After some wall analysis on Sunday, the detailed scans will start on Monday. We look forward to the results.

Yes, again we spent the day pulling weeks and cutting bushes. The weather was the clearest I can recall for July. Whenever, I got tired, all I had to do was look up…

As I cleaned the area west of the atrium, I ran across a broken lintel stone. Facing up and having been washed clean by the rain were three crosses.

Perhaps it was from one of the entrances of the church, or from some other part of the compound. The form is quite simple, attesting to the poverty of the community. Such pieces make the weed pulling worthwhile.

I offer one additional photo, because the day was so beautiful… the CSP logo flying over the dig site. Yes, we are at Sussita again.