Alessandro Bezzi, Luca Bezzi, Rupert Gietl
(Arc-Team/Italy)
In September 2006 the Institute of Ancient History & Ancient Near Eastern Studies of the University of Innsbruck (A) in cooperation with the University of Jerewan (AM) willundertake the third excavation and survey campaign at the Early Iron Age and Urartian hilltop settlement of Aramus, situated about 15km NE from downtown Yerevan, Armenia. As in the first and second campaigns, the focus will be on the relationship between the fortress on the acropolis and the two terraces running along the foothill, where the corresponding settlements are presumed. For that reason, the trench first opened in 2004 and enlarged in 2005 will again be the centre of attention. A second focus will be the documentation of the fortress wall surrounding the hilltop.
This year,Arc-Team will support the expedition with documentation of the excavation, architectural survey of the fortress wall and immediate processing of the data onsite. As the excavation at Aramusisa field school too, the second endeavour of Arc-Team is to introduce the students to the practice of digital documentation, datarecording,surveying and analysis.
Not only on site but also during an introductory workshop at the University of Innsbruck, we will point out the potentia and multilateral applicability of Free Software in Archaeology in order to give students the skills and ability to use these tools later in their professional lives.
That means being independent, conformable to the law, flexible and openminded… …and that’s exactly what we need for the future of archaeology!
The 2006 campaign of Aramus will be the first international archaeological expedition whose documentation will be completely based on and supported by Free Software