Studio Assignment 2: GIS Practicum (or, Legacy Artifacts and Geospatial Research)

Part 1

It’s often thought that archaeology provides us with a snapshot of daily life in the ancient world, a moment that has been hermetically sealed in time. But, how true is this claim? Can we really take artifacts from the excavations of ancient places, put them back into the spaces in the city, and reach a clear understanding what life was like thousands of years ago? For this assignment, we’re going to focus on Pompeii, a site that has been hailed for centuries as the Roman city par excellence. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will use the artifacts published in the book by Pagano and Prisciandaro (2006) Studio sulle provenienze degli oggetti rinvenuti negli scavi borbonici del regno di Napolito to map the finds from the early excavations of Pompeii. We will use a custom map provided by the Pompeii Bibliography and Mapping Project (PBMP) as our base plan. A previous class of students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst developed a comprehensive database of these finds, examining their varieties and distributions across time. We will build off of their efforts by adding a spatial dimension, not only asking what these artifacts were and when they were identified, but also where they were located in the urban topography.

To do this, students will be assigned an equal share of the objects in the database to place inside the specific locations in the PBMP map. A login to ArcGIS Online will be provided and an introduction to GIS in Archaeology workshop will be led by DH@CC Digital Research Studio Fellow Sarah Osailan in class. The locations, specific buildings or properties, are listed by their address (Region, insula, door number) which can be found in the PBMP map itself and by consulting the excellent Pompeii in Pictures. A point representing the object recovered will be placed inside the building along with its PP number. Placing the objects is Part 1 of the assignment.


Get to the Map:

Go to and login to ArcGIS Online at The Claremont Colleges.

  1. Go to “Groups” tab.
  2. Search for “DGHM150”.
  3. Click on “DGHM150” group.
  4. Click on the “DGHM150_Pompeii” map.
  5. Click “Open in Map Viewer”.
  6. You are logged in and using the group Pompeii map. Explore the map and its functions: turn various layers off and on to see what information they provide

Get to the Data:

  1. Go to the “Objects of the Earliest Excavations” spreadsheet.
  2. Find your assigned objects.

Plot the Objects in the Map:

  1. In the Map, click on the “Add” button and select “Add Map Notes”.
  2. Rename the Map Notes: “SA2_YOUR LAST NAME”.
    - A new panel of tools appears. We’ll deal with these soon.
  3. Switch to the spreadsheet, look at the GIS_ID the for your first object.
  4. Switch back to Map, and navigate to the appropriate Region, insula, then zoom down to find the property labeled w/ that GIS_ID.
  5. Click the Stickpin tool on the panel of tools on the left. Within the boundary of the property, place a Stickpin.
    Avoid large open areas.
    - Avoid features on the floor (in brown).
    - Prefer the front over the back of property, generally.
  6. A dialog box will appear. Add the UNIQUE_ID to the Title field (e.g., PBMPA_0001, PBMPA_0002, etc.).
  7. Close the dialog box.
  8. Continue to navigate around the map and drop pins until all objects you have been assigned have a pin and UNIQUE_ID in the Title field.

Saving the Map:

  1. After the first few pins, it’ll be important to save your map and work. Click on the Save button at the top of your browser. Choose “Save As”
  2. Replace “Copy” with “YOURLASTNAME” and save.

Note: Leave the tab open as long as possible and try to drop and label all your pins in one go.


Saving and Sharing the Data:

  1. When all pins are placed and all data are attached, click on the “...” beside your layer and select “Save Layer”
  2. The Layer name should be correct; add tags so that your layer can be properly grouped: “PBMP”, “Pompeii”, “DHCCStudio”, “SA2”.
  3. Add a summary like, “Points created by [your name] as part of Studio Assignment 2 for DGHM150.”
  4. Upon clicking “Create item”, a new data set is created and stored in you “My Content” folder.
  5. Click on the “Home” menu in the upper left corner and go to “My Content”.
  6. Click on the Yellow and Red Map Feature layer that you just created.
  7. Click on the “Publish” button. This turns the data into a service anyone (with access) can use and share.
  8. Click the “Share” button. Make sure to check off “Everyone(public)” and the “DGHM150” group and click “OK”.
  9. Go to the “Groups” tab at the top of the page. Click on the DGHM150 group. Check to make sure that your layer has been added to the group.
  10. Email Professor Lieberman to tell her that you’ve shared your points.

Downloads:

Part 2

Once all the objects are represented by points in the map, Professor Lieberman and Sarah joined the rest of the information from the database to those points. Now we can learn how to visualize, interpret, and present the results. For Part 2 of this assignment, you will work in teams to interpret patterns in the distribution of certain artifacts and the city in a Story Map. We’ll spend some time in class workshopping and working on our Story Maps. 


Get to the Map:

Go to and login to ArcGIS Online at The Claremont Colleges.

  1. Go to “Groups” tab.
  2. Search for “DGHM150”.
  3. Click on “DGHM150” group.
  4. Click on the “DGHM150_Pompeii_Artifacts” map.
  5. Click “Open in Map Viewer”.
  6. You are logged in and using the group Pompeii Artifacts map. Have you taken the time to explore the map yet? Turn various layers off and on to see what information they provide.

Make a Copy:

  1. Go to Save > Save As. Save a copy of the map as “DHGHM150_Pompeii_Artifacts-YOURNAMES”.
  2. Go to Home > My Content, and start working in the map that you just created.

Visualizations, Patterns, and Trends:

  1. Find the “SA2 Artifacts Combined” layer in the Content panel on the left side of your browser.
  2. Find the Change Style option. Play around with visualization styles to target the data you would like to highlight.
  3. For a refresher on how to change your data visualization, see this tutorial by Dr. Eric Poehler.

Note: Remember to save your work frequently!


Presenting Your Research:

  1. Once you’ve come up with a question and/or pattern you’d like to explore, do a bit of outside research. Pompeii in Pictures and The World of Pompeii are good places to start. If you’d like some help finding additional resources, don’t hesitate to ask Professor Lieberman.
  2. Collect other media (images, video, etc.); write text to accompany your maps and media.
  3. Go to Home > My Content and click on “DGHM150_Pompeii_Artifacts-YOURNAMES” - the map you’ve been working in.
  4. On the right side of your screen, click Create Web App > Using a Template > Build a Story Map. The best templates for this type of project will be Cascade and Journal, but feel free to experiment with some of the other available templates. Add your maps, media, and text to tell a story based on the research you’ve accomplished. If you were to think of the Story Map as a slideshow presentation, you should aim for 5 to 10 slides.

Downloads:

Projects

Bling Ring by Ninu Dev and Jacqueline Siegler

Casa di Meleagro by Jee Yeon Lim, Steven Litvack-Winkler, and Tenny Liu

Graffiti in Pompeii by Malka Kausar and May McDonald

The Seals of Pompeii by Rena Patel and Jack Huang

The Hidden Stories of the Rings of Pompeii by Arianna Maxwell and Chenyu Li