Photographing Stagg Hall Print Shop Units

Charles County arranged for a drone pilot to take still pictures from the air of the print shop units that have been excavated in front of Stagg Hall.  Once the pictures are taken, the units will be back filled.  Denise and Elsie assisted Esther Doyle Reed, Charles County Archaeologist, in preparing the units for their "screen preview".   (Denise and Elsie are just two of the many CCASM members that were involved in the excavating the units.)

Units Ready for Their Picture to be Taken

On Wednesday November 15 Charles County employees Brent Huber, Video Production Specialist, and Eva Lightfoot, Photographer, assisted Esther Reed in directing the shoot.  And Lt. David Kelly from the Charles County Sheriff's Office piloted the drone.  In addition to the pictures of the units some pictures were taken from a higher elevation to show the location of the units in relation to both Stagg Hall and the village as a whole.

The pictures were downloaded from the drone to Brent's tablet at the end of the shoot, and the county will process them.

After the units are back filled some of the pictures from today's shoot can be used in Stagg Hall to show visitors what the units looked like when they were open.  Also some of the pictures could be used by Esther for presentations to archaeology conferences and by the county in tourism material.

Thanks to Elsie for the information and to Elsie and Denise for the photos.

Drone Anthropology and A Visit to Caracol

Alison DeCamp and Jacob Moschler

At the December 14 CCASM meeting Jacob Moschler and Alison DeCamp recounted their recent travels in Belie including a visit to the remote Caracol archaeological site in Cayo District of Belize.  Caracol was an important regional political center of the Maya Lowlands during the Classic Period.  For those who missed the talk, you can view the slides as well as the video at ter.ps/belize.

Next Jacob talked about his work with drones including a 5-year anthropology project working with anthropologist Dr Sean Downey using small drones to scan 20,000 acres of jungle in the Toledo District of southern Belize, smaller projects with archaeologist Kristin Montaperto in Prince George's County, as well as search and rescue projects.  And of course he told us about the drones and the software.  You can see videos of his recent projects on his twitter account @scallop_shell. Jacob previously had shared a YouTube video related to his work in Belize https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgdeH8HTW98 - note the large bamboo pole he used for the antenna.

Jacob Moschler is an Engineer and Drone Pilot at the University of Maryland Unmanned Aircraft Test Site in California, MD.  To find out more about University of Maryland UAS Test Site check out uas-test.umd.edu/

Attendance: 15