Welcome to the Archaeo Lab: 2016

New Three Dimensional Models of Ancient Mesoamerican Artifacts Using 2D to 3D Structure from Motion Imaging

My Bio:

When not climbing in the Alps, mountain biking through some jungle, or searching through ruins in Central America, John W. Hessler is the Curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Archaeology and History of the Early Americas and a Specialist in Geographic Information Science at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Formerly of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, his current research focuses on the linguistics and ethnobotany of medicinal plants amongst the ancient Nahau and Maya and on the traditional plant classification schemes in the Amazon. His work has concentrated on the Arawak family of languages including Mawayana, Baniwa, Tariana, Cabiyari and Yucuna, along with language isolates along the Rio Negro. He has participated in archaeological investigations of ancient plant materials, including the recent study of the remains of Mesoamerican agave. Hessler is an avid lepidopterist and is also interested in forensic entomology in archaeological contexts and the biogeography of corpse eating insects. An expert in computer vision and AI applications in archaeology and cartography, he has taught courses in three-dimensional imaging and computer vision at the Kunsthistorisches Institute in Florence, Italy, and is currently using 3D modeling and Gaussian curvature calculations to study the practice of cranial modification in the skulls and ceramics of the ancient Americas. The author of more than one hundred books and articles, including the New York Times selection, MAP: Exploring the World, his work has been featured in many national media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Discover Magazine, WIRED, the Atlantic’s CITYLAB, the BBC, CBS News and most recently on NPR’s All Things Considered. A mountaineer and alpinist, Hessler is also an occasional contributor to Alpinist Magazine, and is finishing up a book called, Collecting for a New World: treasures of the early Americas that will be published in the US and UK in Fall 2019. Hessler gave the 2019 Nancy Brownell Lecture in the History of the Book called A Blue as No Other: the science and philosophy of color in the Mesoamerican Codex and blogs about archaeology and cartography for the Library of Congress Blog and Worlds Revealed.

Welcome to the Archaeo Lab

Monday, August 22, 2016