PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
June 2014
493
CHRIS BEGLEY
I N T E R V I E W
Associate Professor of Anthropology; Program
Director, Transylvania University.
“Research is not something I do that is ‘extra.’
This ought to be fundamental to what we do as
faculty. This is what creates opportunities for
my students. If you are in the midst of it, then
you present it in a totally different way. While
teaching is the central thing we do, it’s not
enough.”
Every kid who watched even one of the Indiana Jones
films dreamed of becoming an archeologist. The excite-
ment, the adventure, ok, maybe not the snakes…what
fueled your passion to pursue Archeology?
Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould inspired me to become
a scientist, but it was Jacques Cousteau who made me
want to be a field scientist, exploring questions by going
out into the world, into remote areas. Indiana Jones cer-
tainly romanticized archaeology, but I was lucky enough
to meet some real archaeologists in Kentucky, my home
state, who introduced me to the discipline and who were
great teachers and mentors. I loved the combination of the
academic and the physical, and there are two (or more)
very different sides to the discipline. That really defines
it for me. Now, I spent part of the year in the classroom,
library, or writing, and the other part spending weeks in
the jungle, or on an underwater archaeological project.
About the time you have had enough of one, the other
starts.
One other thing about archaeology that I love is the fact
that you are exploring questions, sometimes mysteries,
that can not be explored by other means. Humanity did
not write anything down for over 95% of it’s history, and
even then, much was excluded, from mundane, everyday
life to marginalized people. Archaeology is the only way we
have to access the bulk of the human experience.
You’ve never been one to sit-by and let other research-
ers have all the fun at archaeological digs. You’ve
always believed that the research conducted at dig sites
is a fundamental part of education. Your most recent
research consisted of developing a tool to be used to
assist researchers while out on expeditions. Can you tell
us about this tool and why it was needed?
Recently, I’ve been working with Dr. Laurence Hassebrook
from the University of Kentucky on 3D imaging systems
that are inexpensive and rugged, useful for researchers
like me who work in remote areas that are inhospitable to
technology, such as the rainforest or underwater. This par-
ticular 3D system uses structured light, where a pattern is
projected over an object, then moved over it. The ways in
which the pattern distorts is analyzed, giving us very high
resolution 3D data. This system uses regular light from
an LED projector or flashlight, rather than something like
lasers, and has great potential, for a couple of reasons.
First, you must understand that archaeological work can
be destructive - it can’t be repeated. You can’t put some-
thing back once you excavate it. Any tool that allows us to
do our work while having zero impact on the archaeologi-
cal site helps us in our ethical obligation as professionals
to preserve as much as possible, and to have the least
possible impact on the archaeological resources. This
system simply projects light and captures it on video, with
no impact on the resources other than shining light on
it. Secondly, this system is very inexpensive and rugged,
making it accessible to nearly every researcher and insti-
tution, regardless of their level of funding. The apparatus
for collecting data uses a light source (sometimes a diving
flashlight, sometimes a small LED projector), a series of
optics, and an HD video camera. We are currently using
GoPro cameras, which are very inexpensive. This would
allow a researcher or an institution to purchase the system
without a great deal of up front cost. There is more labor
and expense in processing the data, but this comes later,
is often not time sensitive, and is still much cheaper than
almost all of the other systems out there.
How have new technologies been instrumental in
locating the site in the Honduran rainforest?
For most of the two decades I worked in the rainforest in
the Mosquito Coast of Honduras, I had no high tech help
at all. We spent weeks walking through the jungle, visiting
places known to local residents (as almost everything is)
and conducting exhaustive, and exhausting, methodical
searches. Recently, some people have used LIDAR technol-
ogy that clearly shows the sites through the tree canopy.
