August 11, 1998

BATTELLE USES MILITARY TECHNOLOGY TO INVESTIGATE ANCIENT ARTIFACTS

Battelle has earned a reputation for being an organization of forward-thinkers, more concerned about the future than the past.

However, researchers at Battelle are using an advanced imaging technology, originally developed for Department of Defense programs, to reveal hidden images on Hopewell Indian artifacts some 2,000 years old.

The work is being conducted for Christopher Carr, an archaeology professor at Arizona State University, who is conducting the study, and the Ohio Historical Society, which is supplying the ornamental copper plates and axe heads excavated from Ross County Prehistoric Indian mounds nearly 80 years ago.

Battelle is collaborating with Carr and the Historical Society on the project.

“This technology is more commonly used to view ground target sites,” said Ed Kopala, manager of Battelle’s Advanced Sensors Group. “We’re using optical waves that are outside the normal response of the eye—inside the invisible spectrum. We use ultraviolet and infrared rays to bring it into view on the computer.”

Carr is working to prove a theory that the ornamental plates, placed in and around the bodies of the dead, were painted for ceremonies or denote status within the Hopewell community. The plates Kopala is helping him examine were excavated from Indian mounds west of Chillicothe, Ohio, in the 1920s.

“The Hopewell painted on other items—bone, textiles and bark,“ Carr said. “It’s a logical assumption that they painted on the copper plates, but that’s very difficult to determine with the naked eye.”

Martha Otto, curator of archeology for the Ohio Historical Society, said the copper plates were probably quite colorful in their day, but 2,000 years in the southern Ohio soil did them little good. They are badly corroded and the images mostly gone.

Although the plates have been in the possession of the Historical Society since they were excavated, recent breakthroughs in optical technology now make it possible for Carr to analyze the plates with greater depth and accuracy.

The camera and computer equipment operate in conjunction with each other. The plates are bathed in infrared or ultraviolet light as a multispectral camera makes a digital recording of them. The light enables the camera to capture images that are beyond the capabilities of the human eye.

Once a digital image has been made, the computer can enhance the images on the plates.

“Multispectral scanning gives the images you’re recording a signature,” Kopala explained. “Once you determine the signature reflection of, for example, a white pigment, the computer will always remember and identify that signature. Afterward, it will be able to locate white pigment that is undetectable to the human eye.”

For more information, contact Edward Kopala, Battelle, 505 King Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43201-2693; telephone 614.424.4992; e-mail kopalae@battelle.org; or Chris Carr, Arizona State University, at 602.965.6213.

Battelle serves industry and government by developing, commercializing, and managing technology. With a wide range of scientific and technical capabilities, Battelle puts technology to work for clients in 30 countries.