University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute Explores Ancient Routing

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on a new project a my alma mater’s Oriental Institute.

The project, called the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes or CAMEL, uses geographical information systems (GIS), the same mapping technology as Google Earth, to pinpoint details of ancient sites and even date their origins. That’s possible because GIS encompasses data and trends analysis, and the ability to look at the results on two- and three-dimensional maps.

Among the questions to explore:

the mysteries of how people lived, traveled and built civilizations. The results could reveal findings as diverse as an ancient Egyptian settlement flooded by a dam, the routes explorers took to settle in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, and why Iraq is considered the cradle of civilization.

The routing part sounds particularly interesting:

[Project lead] Branting intends for the Oriental Institute to become a data center for NASA, to partner with satellite companies to get the latest aerial images, and to create a pedestrian simulator to figure out how people traveled through ancient lands.

I’m always pleased to GIS/geography pop up at the Univerisity of Chicago, which shut down its geography department in 1986, the year I graduated.