Map generated with CAD (computer assisted design program) showing area surveyed by Archaeos and the VRP during the last season. Click on map inset for an enlarged view of that area with a panorama, photographs of the site, and examples of the types of archaeological features being recorded.

David Gimbel, John Fritz, and Andy Leung selected an area along the south-western end of the North Ridge. Subsequently, teams of workers were hired to clear any dense vegetation from the area that might hinder the surveying process. Gimbel and Leung set up the main traverse while John Fritz and several of his assistants marked as many surface features as possible. The features were marked with a white paint made of white lime that will wash away after one or two rainy seasons, thus avoiding any permanent damage to building features or other cultural artifacts.

After the features to be surveyed were marked, points describing walls, anchor ties, door pivots, lamps, and numerous other cultural features were "shot", or recorded, with a total station. Data from each individual point was automatically recorded in a hand-held computer, a Psion with Prosurv software. For each point, the operator of the total station also entered additional information about each point called a ‘control code’. This information would be used to automatically plot each point in three dimensions relative to other surveyed points in Vector Works, a CAD (Computer Assisted Design) program. Depending on the ‘control code’ chosen, the point would be marked as an individual point, drawn as part of a line, or as part of a closed polygon.

The information about each point was stored in the form of a database. Aside from coordinates in three dimensional space and the way the point should be handled relative to others, recorded information for each point included the category of object being surveyed, the object’s composition and its state of preservation. This was handled through ‘feature codes’ also entered by the total station’s operator. The ‘feature codes’ are individual codes describing designations devised by John Fritz and David Gimbel and then programmed into the data collector as choices in its menu system. For example, an individual point might contain feature code information describing it as a "bedrock mortar" with a "diameter 15cm" and a "circular surround"; or an "anchor hole" whose "contents" are a "stone peg". Upon returning to the camp each day data was downloaded from the Psion onto notebook computers, inspected for errors, then imported into VectorWorks and plotted onto Archaeos’ maps.

Although at first the area which was chosen looked like an abandoned ridge, the mapping process has already begun to yield a very different picture of the North Ridge. Once the new maps are analyzed it becomes immediately clear that this now desolate looking area was in no way marginal, it was, in fact, once an active and thriving part of Vijayanagara’s urban core. The numbers and massings of the architectural and other cultural remains along the surface of the North Ridge indicate dense urban development. The numerous mortars carved into the bedrock and used for processing foods, for instance, would have once been inside domestic structures and are evidence of household activity. Column seatings, anchor holes, and other features are carved into the rock surfaces of the North Ridge — these allow us understand and to map the density of structures in the area. Some of these features, such as the many sockets for door hinges indicate where the entrances of utterly obliterated buildings must have been. Many wall remains are still present; while in many instances the buildings are now gone, where they were originally constructed directly on bedrock the wall seatings are visible. It is even possible in some places to feel the difference in surface texture of the stone where high traffic areas have been worn. Once these many disparate features are mapped, they are more easily understood as the remains of coherent structures and indicators of economic and social activities.

Of particular interest within the surveyed area were several large buildings that were included in the VRP’s earlier 1:400 survey maps. One of these had also been measured and drawn previously using hand held tapes; it is an elite compound whose function is not completely understood. The second major building within the survey area has never been drawn previously and should be classified as a palace as it its ground plan now shows it to be comparable in layout to similar buildings within the area known as the Nobleman’s Quarter — an elite residential district. These, along with the other various remains in the surveyed area suggest that far from being an isolated area, this was a highly populated one with elite inhabitants. With the permission and support of H. T. Talwar, the Deputy Director of Museums and Antiquities of the State of Karnataka, Archaeos’ team was also able to three-dimensionally map an area of the Nobleman’s Quarter for comparison to the palace on the North Ridge.

Over the last 20 years, standing structures and major parts of Vijayanagara have been mapped and drawn, however, areas not previously acknowledged to have archaeological remains still need to be mapped to fill in the incomplete picture we have of the city. As projects like the collaboration between Archaeos and the VRP continue to research and survey at Vijayanagara in future seasons, it becomes possible to reach a better understanding of the layout of the city and its functions.

Click here to see the results of the second field season (2002)