Three Cardiff University undergraduate students have begun to work on GIS projects using Digital Saqqara data. This work is being undertaken for their GIS module assessment. Whilst the GIS project work will provide new data for Digital Saqqara, it will also enable the students to gain new experience in GIS techniques and working within a GIS environment as part of a larger project.

A brief outline of the three projects are as follows:

TIN analysis

In order to better understand the variation of surface elevation in a digital landscape model when specific intervals of contour data are included or excluded, a number of TINs will be created in order to determine the outcome that a reduced level of detail will have on the landscape model. This will aid in postulating the influence that reduced levels of detail may have over interpretation of results from investigating such digital terrains.

Map regression analysis

There are various archaeological cartographies in existence for the North Saqqara necropolis and this project will collate and georeference a number of these maps in order to compare them to the most recent cartography available from the University of Pisa study of 2003, and geophysical data from the Scottish Geophysical Survey Project with an aim to locate and identify archaeological features.

Contour adjustments to remove modern interference

A contour map with elevations of the Saqqara necropolis derived from the modern MHR1978 map of the area has already been created. An extant problem is that excavations of Saqqara, up until the map was produced, have affected changes to the terrain which are included on the map (i.e. archaeological spoil heaps). An alternative version of the contour data will be constructed with the modern spoil dumps removed.