Nazi Motorcycles

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Who knows their motorcycles?   I noticed this on the street in Gythion.  My first thought knowing how proud the Greeks are of their resistance to the German invasion and occupation is that this is a war trophy.  I have seen this before in towns on Crete, BMW motorcycles proudly displayed in front of shops as a monument to their expulsion of the Nazi occupiers.  But that was decades ago and I don't remember the details of the models used by Germany during World War II.
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Does Matterport Matter to Archaeology?

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        As promised, I have conducted my first test of a Matterport camera on on outdoor archaeological site.  We know it is good for tombs and the like but outdoors does pose some problems. I cannot wait to test it some more, but I did learn a few lessons.  Notes for use;

1) I shot the images at about 5:30am a perfect time.  By 6:30 the sun was starting to get strong and it was more difficult for the sensor to align the images.

2) I did it hasty so that means the halfa grass was thick, holes were hidden, and it was a bit treacherous.  When going about a formal non-test case, make sure you do the preliminary work of clearing obstacles and anything you don't want in the model.  Note my police escort appears in various places in the distance.

3) keep your points close, I think 1-2 m intervals.

4) Choose your elevation.  Because it is a large structure I set the tripod at a high level.  If you are more interested in the ground, like a normal excavation unit rather than standing architecture, I would keep it low.  You could try moving it slightly and changing the elevation as well.  I am not sure what it would do if you shot the same point at different camera elevations, but I suspect it would be fine.

That's it. There are too many gaps in the data, mostly those caused by the halfa, to use the diagram as a plan or to use the dollhouse view.  I think that this will be addressed when prepping a site for imaging.

While stumbling through the grass I did think it would be easier if I just had a camera and did the photogrammetry on Meshroom or Agisoft.  That would give you greater control of the .obj files at the end...but this is so fast and easy, if you want to capture a record and get the product out, you can't beat the Matterport system.  I am trying to nudge them to create exports for their data so it could be more readily incorporated into other VR environments like Unreal Engine.  

https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=NBe4pV8XRV3 

I would like our mudbrick conservator to take a look at the damaged corner where we did some conservation many years ago.  I think that the damage was done by human looters or possibly caused by dogs digging shade and undermining the wall.  The collapse may have been a structural failure, but other options seem more consistent with the scatter.  I hope our mudbrick conservator, Dr. Marta Lorenzon, will comment.

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