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OS and Google map images side by side.. a dream!
http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm
Free Ordnance Survey Mapping side by side with Google Aerial Imagery for UK Outdoor Pursuits.
1:25000s and also out of copyright 1940s OS with a googlemap on the split screen. - yum! even gives you precise coords in OS and latitude format... mark up the map and download as a kmz OR gpx format.
This has got to be a must have tool for archaeology - locate, relocate, compare... track... then ground truth! Excellent locational device... how often have you cursed that Googlemaps did not match with OS NGRs! or you could not work out why the woodland on teh map was not there on the ground... etc... hundreds of applications,!
(Ground Truthing is my fave word of the moment.)
This spanking new resource was highlighted by a very kind detectorist... so thanks for sharing.
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This is fecking incredible!
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Erm...is it just me who can't get google earth to play without lots of blocking warnings?
I admit that it is going to be a huge help, but you can't beat basic, good map reading skills.
What is in front of you is the ground truth, and it ain't going to change because the computer may say something different (cast your mind back to stories of GPS taking numpties in 44ft articulated lorries through the pretty little (narrow) villages in Devon and the Costwolds)
...eyes first, then technology to inform...
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
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Ah map reading skills or rather the lack of (there's another topic)
Does anyone actually teach archaeology students to read OS maps?
How many of you know what all the symbols on every series of OS mapping mean?:face-stir:
You would be surprised at the number of people who do not look at the map key or even know there is one.
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15th June 2010, 09:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 15th June 2010, 09:36 PM by deadlylampshade.)
Or simple intervisibilty...or which way up the "hill/valley" is LOL!! (If people did know this perhaps they could work out why their mobile phones don't work and wifi is a no-no!!)
Do I assume, then Wax, that the prismatic compass and the calculating of Magnetic north is also a thing of mystical wisdom??
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
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Long time since I have done it but I at least know what you are talking about.
I have recently been very depressed by the lack of understanding some arcahologists have of maps and how to use them. All the fancy gizmos in the world will not help on a moor when the mist comes down and your batteries run out.
Still there are lots of keen walkers out here who have the knowledge, it is a shame that some of the basics do not appear to be part of university courses in archaeology (I may be wrong there, please tell me I am)
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Wax Wrote:All the fancy gizmos in the world will not help on a moor when the mist comes down and your batteries run out.
Still there are lots of keen walkers out here who have the knowledge, it is a shame that some of the basics do not appear to be part of university courses in archaeology (I may be wrong there, please tell me I am)
How right you are. It isn't exactly a very difficult skill to learn and it is easy to practice...
Bit like aerial photography after a good dry spell...you don't really need a satellite!
This is not to knock the huge step forward in what "Where's the Path" is and it's undoubted use. But is should be seen as another tool in the box to be used to assist queries, not replace common sense.
(Right, off to the bar...I sound distressingly like an Old Fogey...hope there is some Laphroaig left!)
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
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Lots there... and true you can't beat reading a map... indeed I will be teaching it at a fieldschool in August.. this has uses.. adn as deadly says it is a tool.. another tool in an array. but like the comments about using supper accurate GPS for survey... you have to know the basis first!
I am using it to create routes for me. out on the lammermuir hills.. all heather and hard to get your bearings exactly.. this takes me right to the site.
Ground truth is whats there though.. quite agree.. now.. for me... its a glass of the red please..
oh.... make that two!
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deadlylampshade Wrote:Or simple intervisibilty...or which way up the "hill/valley" is LOL!! (If people did know this perhaps they could work out why their mobile phones don't work and wifi is a no-no!!)
Hmm, there's a bone army signals acronym/mnemonic for that: SUD - Siting, 'Up' antennae, Direct line of sight.
As a cartographic aside, am I the only person who bemoans the dumbing down of Landranger maps by the replacement of the old letter labels with icons (e.g. a pint pot for the earlier 'PH')
D. Vader
Senior Consultant
Vader Maull & Palpatine
Archaeological Consultants
A tremor in the Force. The last time I felt it was in the presence of Tony Robinson.
