In a recently posted Hot News feature entitled Mapping the City of Victory, Apple outlines archaeologist David Nelson Gimbel’s efforts to reconstruct the ground plans of Vijayanagar. It’s a 20 square kilometer complex of medieval ruins located in southern India, once used as the capital of a mighty empire.
The archaeologists collect detailed surveying data using Psion handheld computers, which are then transferred to PowerBooks using CompactFlash cards. The data is manipulated using BBEdit and VectorWorks to help build maps and 3D architectural plans. Gimbel says he has plans to link the maps he and his colleagues are building to a database that will include digital snapshots, video and other data.
Gimbel says that thanks to the Mac-assisted recreations, his team is getting a very different understanding of Vijayanagar than they would have had otherwise.
“The impression you get is very different from the impression you get visually from walking around. With the CAD images, you start to understand that this denuded area was once a populated and active part of the urban core,” said Gimbel.
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