Rachel S. Opitz

Address: 22 rue du Funiculaire, 25000 Besançon (France) email: [email protected] telephone: +33(0)645326089 Born: 2/5/1982 in New York City, NY (USA) Nationality: American

Current Position

Post-Doctoral Researcher for the project LIEPPEC CNRS C.N. Ledoux (USR 3124)/MSHE Université de Franche-Comte 25030 Besançon cedex

In this position I am developing new techniques to improve the visibility and recognition of archaeological features in lidar data through statistical and image analyses and visualization protocols. I am working closely with colleagues and research students to help them incorporate the data into their projects, identifying potential sites and features for field-checks -a key part of the projects survey strategy for wooded areas- and working to understand and promote the use of microtopographic data in studies of past landscapes.

Education

2005-2009 Clare Hall, University of Cambridge PhD, Archaeology Thesis Title: Lidar Applications in Archaeology.

PhD Thesis Description

My PhD thesis developed techniques to detect and visualize both small- and large- scale features of archaeological interest using airborne laserscanning (lidar), particularly under forest canopy and in irregular terrain. In my thesis, I experimented with spatial autocorrelation statistics to detect standing structures within forests and focus on detecting small scale changes in the form of the ground through the use of various filtering techniques and the visualization of point cloud data.

2004-2005 Clare Hall, University of Cambridge MPhil, World Archaeology Thesis Title: The local and regional impact of Falerii Novi as expressed through changes in the road Network.

2000-2003 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill B.A. Highest Honors Major: Classical Archaeology Minor: Physics and Astronomy Honors Thesis Title: Modeling Donoratico: GIS and Digital Modeling in Classical Archaeology.

Rachel Opitz

Awards and Grants

2005-2008 Cambridge Overseas Trust ORS Equivalent Grant This award provides the difference between the Home and Overseas Rate of the Cambridge University tuition fees to overseas postgraduate students of outstanding merit and research potential.

2007 NERC ARSF flights. Flight and processing time valued at £150,000. Project GB07/04: The Hayton Remote Sensing Project. Named collaborator. This award covered the cost of flights and data processing to collect Lidar, Eagle, Hawk, and digital aerial photography over the areas of Hayton and Millington Woods in Yorkshire, UK.

Fieldwork Experience

June-July 2010 Chief Topographer University of Michigan excavations at Gabii, Head of the topography team, responsible for all survey and databases for the Gabii Project.

June-July 2009 Topographer University of Michigan excavations at Gabii, Italy Part of the team responsible for all survey and geodatabases for the Gabii Project. Designed and implemented a distributed database system to facilitate real-time geodatabase creation and editing by multiple users in the field. Responsible for the creation of 3D models for all stratigraphic units as part of the geodatabase.

September 2007 and September 2008 Excavations at Capena, , Italy. Trench Supervisor and Surveyor. Responsible for the excavations in two trenches and the total station survey of all features on site.

May 2006 Ground-truthing for the Ager Faliscus Lidar Survey. An independent GPS survey confirming the results of the lidar data analysis.

August 2004 and August 2005 Survey of the standing walls at Falerii Novi, Lazio, Italy. Surveyor. Responsible for using a Total Station to conduct a topographic survey at the town of Falerii Novi.

June-July 2003 and June-July 2004 Logistics Manager (2004), Student Excavator (2003) Excavations at the Torre di Donoratico, Tuscany, Italy

Rachel Opitz

Teaching Experience

2007-2008 Supervisor A01: The History and Scope of Archaeology. Department of Archaeology. University of Cambridge

2006-2007 Supervisor A02: The Practice of Archaeology. Department of Archaeology. University of Cambridge

2007-2009 Demonstrator: GIS in Archaeology. Postgraduate Course. University of Cambridge

Software Competencies ArcGIS, ArcView, ENVI, Erdas Imagine, Access, LasEdit, AutoCAD; TerraScan; GRASS.

Employment

September 2009-Present Post-Doctoral Researcher for the project LIEPPEC (UMR 3124) CNRS C.N. Ledoux/MSHE Université de Franche-Comte 25030 Besançon cedex

January 2006 - February 2009 Assistant, Finds Processing Cambridge Archaeological Unit University of Cambridge Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ

October 2005 – May 2009 Duty Manager ADC Theatre University of Cambridge Park Street, Cambridge, CB5 8AS

Other Experience

Junior Treasurer of the Amateur Dramatic Club, University of Cambridge 2007-2008

In this role I handled an annual operating budget in excess of £150,000 and supervised the finances of 20 productions annually, working closely with producers and designers to set and remain within their budgets while achieving their goals.

Rachel Opitz

Publications

Opitz, R. (2009) Integrating lidar and geophysical surveys at Falerii Novi and Vignale, Falerii Veteres (Viterbo, IT). Papers of the British School at . 77:1-27.

Opitz, R. (2009) The Hayton Lidar Survey in Halkon, P. (2009) Archaeology and Environment in a Changing East Yorkshire Landscape. The Foulness Valley c. 800 BC to c. AD 400. BAR 472 2008.

Cifani G., Opitz R., and Stoddart S.K.F. (2007) Mapping the Ager Faliscus road-system: The contribution of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) survey. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 20:165–176.

Cifani, G., Opitz, R., and Stoddart, S. (2007) LiDAR survey in southern Etruria, Italy: a significant new technique for the study of cultural landscapes. The European Archaeologist, 27:2–4.

Opitz, R. (2006) Prospecting for archaeological features with Ikonos satellite images. A case study around Falerii Novi (VT), Archaeological Computing Newsletter, 64:2–6.

Conference Papers

Opitz, R. and Nuninger, L. (2010) Thinking through Topography. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxford. 25-28 March 2010.

Opitz, R., Nuninger, L., Nouvel, P. And Meyer, C. (2010) Landscape Archaeology Conference. Amsterdam. 26-28 January 2010 (poster presentation)

Opitz, R. (2009) Using lidar to integrate forested areas into landscape studies. Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting 2009, 6-10 January 2009.

Cifani, G., Opitz, R. and Stoddart, S. (2009) Il contributo della fotografia aerea alle ricognizioni dell’ager faliscus. Convengo Nazionale di Archeologia Aerea. "100 Anni di Archeologia Aerea in Italia". Roma, 15-17 Aprile 2009.

Stoddart, S. and Opitz, R. (2007) Problems and prospects for the use of Lidar in a Mediterranean environment: experience from the Agro Falisco. 1st Valle Giulia meeting. Urban Landscape Survey in Italy, 2-3 May 2007.

Opitz, R. (2006) Early results from the lidar survey of the Lower River Valley. AARG Annual Conference, Bath, 11-13 September 2006.

Opitz, R. and Stoddart, S. (2005) Lidar mapping for the Lower Tiber Catchment, Italy. The Annual Conference of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society. Understanding a Changing World, 5-7 September 2005.