The Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL) studies the history of this region by analyzing its diverse and dynamic landscapes, also called ‘Landscape Archaeology’. Landscape Archaeology engages with the Earth’s entire surface as a cultural landscape, with archaeological sites being just one of the many forms of material remains that compose the long-term history of human-environment interaction. To this end, landscape archaeologists study a wide range of features, including waterworks, transportation systems, agricultural fields, and industrial sites.
Founding Director Tony Wilkinson
CAMEL was founded in 1998 by Tony Wilkinson, a pioneer in landscape archaeology, who offered a new vision in Near Eastern archaeology by embracing critical new developments. As defined in his landmark text, Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East (2003), Wilkinson offered a systematic, multidisciplinary, and multiscalar approach to studying the human past by studying the large-scale distribution of human activity in space—integrating Earth Sciences with archaeological investigation. Formerly the Assistant Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, Wilkinson led projects in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen while collecting newly declassified satellite imagery and building geospatial databases of archaeological surveys. He pioneered the systematic employment of this imagery to collect landscape data, while increasing survey speed and efficiency. A key focus of CAMEL’s early years was to utilize the emerging prominence of Geographic Information Science (GIS) in archaeological research, allowing for the integration of large and diverse datasets, sophisticated modeling, and analysis of large-scale and deep-time archaeological questions. His vision was followed by the next generation of CAMEL directors, who have continued to democratize access to remote sensing data and explore new applications of digital technologies in landscape archaeology.
The second director of CAMEL, Scott Branting (2004-14), oversaw a massive imagery acquisition and systematization campaign, as well as the expansion of CAMEL’s facilities into the current multi-station computer lan. This facility, accessible to the UChicago community, bears the name of William M. Sumner, former professor and director of ISAC, whose vision for embracing digital and computational applications in archaeology made this expansion possible. Emily Hammer (2014-17) continued the democratization of access to CAMEL’s digital archive as part of ISAC’s publicly accessible database and embarked on several new digital projects—these mainly focused on studying and preserving lost and endangered landscapes, using 3D modeling and remote sensing, in Afghanistan. Tony Lauricella (2018-2022) continued to complete the digitization and data integration of the Center’s remote sensing database and oversaw a massive cultural heritage documentation project in Afghanistan, which included the application of Machine Learning to automate country-wide archaeological documentation and monitoring.
CAMEL’s current initiatives continue this remarkable legacy through a variety of activities and projects, including Data Collection and Dissemination of archaeological and remote-sensing data, especially the ease of access and spatial search of historical and archaeological data; Innovation and experimentation in archaeological survey methods, especially the application of machine learning methods for fast and intensive documentation of landscape features; Education, Training, and Research Support, facilitating the application of GIS and digital landscape archaeological methods by students, scholars, and practitioners especially in the Middle East and Central Asia; Geospatial Collaboration with UChicago partners and global community of humanists, social scientists, and cultural heritage practitioners interested in the study of human past through landscape research.
To learn more about future events, contact us (camel@uchicago.edu).