This is where University of Rochester<\/a> students and faculty have conducted the Digital Heritage of West African Monuments Field School each of the last three summers. They have focused primarily on analyzing the architecture and materials of two of those structures\u2014Elmina Castle, the oldest, built in 1482 but still largely intact, and Fort Amsterdam, the first English fort built on the Gold Coast in 1631, now badly deteriorated.<\/p>\n IN THE FIELD |<\/strong> Field school participants at Fort Amsterdam in 2018. (Digital Heritage of West African Monuments Field School photo)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Jarvis, working with Josh Romphf and Blair Tinker in the River Campus Library\u2019s Digital Scholarship Lab, has created a website for the field school. Though still in progress, it includes:<\/p>\n Visit digitalelmina.org<\/a>\n<\/div>\n The students use a drone, a laser scanner, and surveying tools to carefully document the dimensions of every room, vault, and courtyard. They use photogrammetry and CAD software to create detailed 3D models. And, when they return to Rochester, they apply finite element analysis to those digital models to better understand how the damage at Fort Amsterdam occurred, and how similar damage can be prevented at Elmina.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot study the healthy body if you don\u2019t study the diseased body as well,\u201d says Renato Perucchio<\/a>, who launched the field school in collaboration with the University of Ghana and with permission from the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board<\/a> (GMMB).<\/p>\n But the field school involves more than just taking measurements and creating models. Perucchio, a professor and chair of mechanical engineering and director of the Archaeology, Technology and Historical Structures (ATHS) program<\/a>, designed the field school as an interdisciplinary endeavor\u2014one that would also immerse students in the historical and cultural context of the structures they study.<\/p>\n Marcos dos Santos \u201920 is a mechanical engineering major whose Brazilian ancestral roots extend to West Africa. He says participation in the field school the last two summers has allowed him \u201cto speak to my past, to be connected to those in my ancestry\u2014and to the ancestors of my friends\u2014who suffered at the hands of others.\u201d<\/p>\n BACK IN THE LAB |<\/strong> Marcos dos Santos \u201920 of mechanical engineering has participated in the field school each of the last two summers. He has been spending 7 to 10 hours each week this fall analyzing data gathered from the field school for a paper he is co-authoring with four other students. The software and modeling skills he has used during the field school will serve him well as he pursues a career in aeropace engineering, he says. He also appreciates the lessons he\u2019s learned about the importance of working as part of a team to solve problems. (University of Rochester photo \/ Bob Marcotte)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Twenty-five students\u2014six of whom returned a second year\u2014have participated so far. Most are mechanical engineering and ATHS majors. However, students majoring in political science, digital media studies, and anthropology have also participated, including an art and art history major from the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n During their five weeks in Ghana, the students are kept busy not only with field work but a tightly packed schedule of lectures, guided trips to national parks and historical sites, and opportunities to meet with Ghanaians.<\/p>\n Gaia Saetermoe-Howard \u201920, a dual ATHS and Eastman School of Music oboe performance major, says those conversations during the field school last summer gave her a deeper understanding of the legacy of colonialism in West Africa. Ghana was a British colony during much of the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries.<\/p>\n \u201cI went with this very theoretical understanding about what colonialism feels like, or what these dynamics are actually going to look like in reality,\u201d she says. \u201cBut when I got there, I realized it was a lot more complex than I thought it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n HANDS ON |<\/strong> One of the trips during the field school last summer was to a bead factory. \u201cI\u2019ve learned in my archaeology classes about the cultural importance of beads in Akan society, but it was spectacular to view this process in person,\u201d Gaia\u00a0Saetermoe-Howard \u201920 says. Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, says the field school is an excellent example of a faculty-led program that offers undergraduates both hands-on research and a global experience that helps them understand a different culture. (Digital Heritage of West African Monuments Field School photo)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Renato Perucchio, professor and chair of mechanical engineering, and director of the Archaeology, Technology, and Historical Structures program, will give two talks on the Digital Heritage of West African Monuments Field School, which he co-directs.<\/p>\n \u201cEarly Europeans in West Africa: Ghana\u2019s Elmina Castle and Fort Amsterdam,\u201d<\/strong> Nancy S. and Peter O. Brown Guest Lectureship in the Art and Architecture of Ancient Civilizations. 2 p.m. December 15, Memorial Art Gallery. Included in museum admission, free to AIA members. Learn more.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cStructural Engineering to the Rescue of Cultural Heritage,\u201d<\/strong> Phelps Colloquium series. 4-5:30 p.m. February 26, 2020, Feldman Ballroom, Douglass Commons, River Campus. Register here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many of the students\u2019 experiences have been chronicled in a blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n For example, after attending an Akwasidae ceremony in a Ghanaian palace, the students were invited to visit a local chief. \u201cWe were all a bit nervous to be visiting the home of a chief,\u201d wrote Naomi Rutagarama \u201918, a political science major. The chief greeted the students warmly and at one point \u201cstood in the center of the room to demonstrate the game-winning penalty kick he delivered at a college soccer game.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rochester faculty who conduct the field school include co-director Perucchio, an expert in the engineering practices of classical antiquity who previously led a special University of Rochester summer program abroad on Roman Structures in Arezzo and Rome. He has studied structural damage and vault collapse at historical sites from Italy to Peru.<\/p>\n Chris Muir<\/a>, also a professor of mechanical engineering, is a former principal engineer at Kodak and an expert in solid modeling of surveyed structures. He helps students, particularly those without an engineering background, learn enough about advanced surveying tools and modeling software to \u201ctake the shortest path to a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Jarvis<\/a>, an associate professor of history, previously directed an archaeology field school on Smith\u2019s Island in Bermuda. He shares not only 30 years of archaeological experience, but also guides the students in the techniques of \u201cdigital capture from reality\u201d using photogrammetry, laser scanning, and drone aerial footage. He is also the field school\u2019s primary historian, providing insights into the slave trade, but also how Elmina functioned as a community and interacted with the town. \u201cWhen students arrive, rather than just treat the castle as an inanimate object to study, I want them to understand the human dramas that played out there, from multiple perspectives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Faculty from the University of Ghana\u2019s Archaeology and Heritage Studies Program\u2014including field school co-director Kodzo Gavua<\/a>, William Gblerkpor,<\/a> and David Abrampah\u2014<\/a>provide additional historical and cultural context.<\/p>\n Two summers ago, the project expanded when Christopher DeCorse<\/a>, a professor of anthropology at Syracuse University, joined the team. He returned this past summer with two graduate students. DeCorse began his pioneering archaeological studies of Elmina in the mid 1980s, and later expanded his research all along the coast. His multiple books include An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast<\/em>.<\/p>\n He also contributes local knowledge accumulated during more than 40 years of research in sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0So, when the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board made an urgent request, literally the day before the 2019 field school began, \u201cwe were there with exactly the appropriate technical expertise at the moment in which (the board) desperately needed it,\u201d Perucchio says.<\/p>\n URGENT ARCHAEOLOGY |<\/strong> Fort Amsterdam, where field school participants carried out an engineering analysis this past summer at the request of the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board. (Digital Heritage of West African Monuments Field School photo \/ Samantha Turley)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The request was for an engineering analysis of Fort Amsterdam, to be completed in four weeks. The analysis would help determine the feasibility of a proposal to redevelop the fort as a museum and as a school to train hospitality workers.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly this meant rearranging our program,\u201d Perucchio says. \u201cOur focus was turned 100 percent on Fort Amsterdam.\u201d<\/p>\n First, the chief of the local village of Abandze was invited to the site. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do any archaeological work until the chief, and the elders, and the traditional priest came by and poured libations,\u201d Perucchio says.\u00a0 The chief\u2019s representatives were regularly apprised of the work that followed.<\/p>\n Six trenches were dug to examine the fort\u2019s foundations. Walls and vaults were visually inspected for evidence of fractures, which were then photographed.<\/p>\n The engineering and ATHS students, many doing archaeological digs for the first time, pitched in alongside DeCorse\u2019s students. They were initially excited when it appeared that they were uncovering historic artifacts for the first time. Then a mechanical pencil was unearthed, and a piece of plastic. Some of the soil, it turns out, had been previously dug up and then replaced as part of restoration projects in the 1950s and, again, in the 1970s.<\/p>\n GETTING TO WORK |<\/strong> Field school participants lay out the units for archaeological digs at Fort Amsterdam this past summer. (Digital Heritage of West African Monuments Field School photo \/ Christopher DeCorse)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Six students participated<\/strong> last summer in the San Martino Archaeological Field School Torano di Borgorose, Italy. The program is designed to teach students about archaeological field and laboratory methods and the archaeology of ancient Italy. Led by Elizabeth Colantoni, associate professor of classic. Learn more here.<\/a><\/p>\n Four students participated<\/strong> in Project Fioretta: An Ethnographic Study of Disaster Recovery and Resilience in a Dolomite Village in Veneto, Italy, studying the aftermath of a severe storm that caused landslides and flooding in 2018. Led by Nancy Chin, associate professor of public health sciences and the Center for Community Health and Prevention. <\/p>\n Chin also leads a project<\/strong> in Ladakh, Kashmir, in the Himalayas, assessing mental stress in relation to climate change. Eight students have participated during the past two years. Contact Chin to learn more about both projects.<\/p>\n Contact Chin<\/a> to learn more about both projects.\n<\/div>\n Nonetheless, some exciting discoveries were made in a trench dug on the fort\u2019s north side, providing evidence of early English trade. \u201cOne of the coolest artifacts,\u201d DeCorse says, was a European-made clay tobacco pipe stem\u2014 inserted into a locally made tobacco pipe bowl. \u201cYou often talk about cultural intersections and exchanges, but it\u2019s rare that you get a single artifact that combines this entangled path,\u201d DeCorse says.<\/p>\n Completing the report was \u201ca gigantic effort,\u201d Perucchio says. \u201cBut it moved us in a direction we had always wanted to go in, providing the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board with information it needed to have.\u201d<\/p>\n The report<\/a> concluded that \u201cthe existing masonry structures of Fort Amsterdam present an extensive\u2014possibly critical\u2014state of damage characterized by fractures, wall misalignments, and soil erosion.\u201d This \u201cclearly indicates the urgent necessity of a conservation process before any type of reconstruction can be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n After completing work at Amsterdam, students shifted to Elmina to do additional archaeological digs\u2014the first undertaken inside of Elmina castle\u2014under Jarvis\u2019 supervision.<\/p>\n One team, which included Jarvis, Saetermoe-Howard, and two other students, uncovered \u201ca solid layer of 16th<\/sup> century ceramics, including Iberian glazed tiles,\u201d Jarvis says. They were excavating in an out-of-the-way part of the castle that was \u201calmost pitch black, so we had to rig up lights, which were hot, and it was already 90 degrees, so it was like being in a sauna, but we were finding amazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the change in plans, this year\u2019s field school achieved its goals, Perucchio says. \u201cFrom the point of view of engineering we did everything we wanted to,\u201d Perucchio says. \u201cAnd from the point of archaeology we went way beyond anything that we had planned. \u201c<\/p>\n This fall, students have been engaged in the next phase, analyzing the data they collected and testing the models they\u2019ve created.<\/p>\n For her final ATHS project, Saetemoe-Howard will compare Elmina with three other Portuguese colonial forts in India, Kenya, and Brazil, which have been documented to varying degrees. She will try to connect the engineering of the forts, and the subsequent changes made to them, with the reasons they were built and the impact they had on the local people.<\/p>\n \u201cI am trying with my project to not just blindly say \u2018Let\u2019s look at how beautiful this architecture is,\u2019 because there\u2019s this history [of European interference] that comes along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n MODELING STRUCTURES |<\/strong> Gaia Saetermoe-Howard \u201820, a dual ATHS and Eastman School of Music oboe performance major, says her experience during the field school last summer gave her confidence using modeling software, which will be useful in finishing her ATHS final project.\u00a0 \u201cI had never done any type of CAD (computer aided design) before I went to Ghana,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I modeled at least 10 rooms, so that was amazing.\u201d (University of Rochester photo \/ Bob Marcotte)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dos Santos is coauthoring a paper with field school participants Louisa Anderson \u201820, Katherine Korslund \u201920, Sabastian Abelezele \u201820, and Robert Cecil, \u201920. They hope to present it at the next international Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions.<\/a><\/p>\n The paper will examine changes in the structural stability of the west curtain wall at Elmina resulting from modifications made over the centuries. It will also examine the possibility that a second defensive tower, in addition to one that still stands, was built by the Portuguese but later collapsed, perhaps during an earthquake in 1615.<\/p>\n Why does this matter? \u201cThe lessons we learn from one monument can help preserve other monuments,\u201d dos Santos says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s important to be able to tell a more accurate story about Elmina\u2019s past.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re pioneers in that regard, and I\u2019m proud to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"group](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/ghana-field-school-fort-amsterdam-2018.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDigital Elmina<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nVisiting a chief<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"colorful](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/ghana-field-school-bead-factory.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUpcoming talks about the field school<\/h3>\n
![\"Fort](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/ghana-field-school-fort-amsterdam.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u2018A critical state of damage\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"students](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/ghana-field-school-decorse.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOther University field schools<\/h3>\n
An ongoing quest<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"students](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/ghana-field-school-saetermoe-howard.jpg\")
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\n<\/div>\n![\"group](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/ghana-field-school-elmina.jpg\")
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