As you may recall, the Jebel Barkal Archaeological Project was the subject of a 2023 National Geographic episode of “Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin“.
One of the many great things about being a part of this project was that the Nat Geo team collected a great deal of data that we are still analyzing, even more than two years later.
Our team member Pawel Wolf had worked with the data of the Ground Penetrating Radar that we carried out (together with the company Eastern Atlas from Berlin) and has presented several reports and conference lectures over the last years. They show especially how the ancient city of Napata grew up right around the temple and palace area.
Test excavations which Pawel conducted 2023 in this area have essentially confirmed the correctness of the radar measurements and our hypotheses about the early city.
Now, with the support of a generous gift from U-M alumnus Steven Klinsky, Pawel has been working with LiDAR data. LiDAR is a highly accurate laser-based method of mapping landscapes that is more often used in archaeology for example for mapping ancient cities that are obscured by jungles.
Now he has taken the point cloud of LiDAR data and draped drone photography of the entire area (also taken by Nat Geo in 2023) to make a new map of the site. It looks at first glance like a satellite image, but it is 3D with much higher resolution than any satellite imagery and aerial photography. We expect this map with its precise topographical details and the elevation models generated from it will be the basis for new discoveries at the site.
As you can imagine, we’re *incredibly* pleased to have Pawel as part of the JBAP team; his expertise of both field archaeology and the application of technology – not to mention his 33 years’ experience in Sudan! – are unmatched, and we can’t wait to see the results of this next period of work.
