The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, December 3, 1985-- Page 5 COMPUTERS Fron Richmond, Va. (AP) - Ar- chaeologists are turning to Space Age technology to help them unlock Stone Age secrets. Microcomputers are being used to store notes, pinpoint sites and even take pictures of historic treasures as their smaller sizes and price tags make them a practical tool for ar- chaeologists. MICROCOMPUTERS have revolutionized the work ar- chaeologists do," said Sylvia Gaines, associate anthropology professor at Arizona State University in Tempe. Virginia's Department of Highways and Transportation uses a computer to store data about sites on or eligible O for the National Register of Historic 1 Places, said Lyle Browning, senior archaeologist. "Then if we're going to run a high- way over that location, we ask the computer to tell us what's there," he said. ARCHAEOLOGISTS also use comput- ers as electronic draftsman, creating maps from coordinates fed into the machine, according to Marley Brown, director of archaeological excavation at Colonial Williamsburg. digs to databases Archaeologists turn more to computers Some archaeologists share infor- mation by trading disks, but only on a regional basis. The technology exists to operate a nationwide data network, according to Gaines, but a method to safeguard the sensitive information has to be devised before one can be used. HACKERS who top into the systems "could sell the information to pot hun- ters who go to a site and dig up pots, ornaments and jewelry, and then sell them for megabucks," she said. Computer archaeology is not limited to the United States. Archaeologists from five countries working at Carthage in Tunis used computers to reduce the confusion of communicating in five languages, Gaines said. COMPUTERS were also used to examine the relation of Britain's Stonehenge to celestial events, to studey Neolithic houses along the Danube River and to explore sites in Mexico. Archaeologists' increased use of computers prompted Gaines to create "Advances in Computer Technology," a semiannual publication that circulates in 21 coun- tries. Archaeology students are taking courses in word processing and programming, Ms. Gaines said, and the Society of American Archaeology offers seminars on computers to professionals. AT VIRGINIA Commonwealth University in Richmond, ar- chaeological research lab director Dan Mouer links a video camera to a computer to record pictures of ar- tifacts at excavation sites. Mouer said he can send the digitized gray-scale images, similar to photocopies, to other ar- chaeologists for consultation. Computers also cut the tedium of some chores, the scientists say. Ar- chaeologists who use them as word processors say it enables them to transcribe notes for reports in half the usual time. Mouer uses a portable computer as an electronic notebook in the field. ELSEWHERE in Virginia, ar- chaeologists at sites in Weyanoke and Claremont Manor are writing their own computer program because they found commercial ones were designed primarily for business use. Archaeologist Paul Peebles said the program will allow him to make a finer and more efficient analysis of the three-quarters of a million ar- tifacts collected from the two exten- sive sites. "But the computer is still just a tool," he said, "it can't do the final analysis." "The computer is letting us do. things that no one ever even con- sidered doing before because it took too much time." 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' .'..',{ 1.:,:4" :.rr.:" . :..................... _ .......... ...___.._.......r...... .........._.......,..._..........,.,.......n.r........}r..........:,h.....,:,.,,.......,.:..}...:.:::r..r...?:..x. :.f.x. ..r:.$r:nrr.at?.:?:":....r............,::h.:.kr:."rrisr.":.:,.,.r..}:,'"}}x?.}..:.".".":.,".":,}' . :'....,a $ " 'r' .#.,.}}#.i3.c"...,....' 4 ..r..r s*a;:.h4t Chips shirink Christmas gadgets By the Associated Press Santa Claus may think small electronically when it comes to stocking stuffers this year, because replacing the standard fare of fruit and candy could be a miniature stereo system or a phone-answering machine the size of a paperback book. Electronic microchips, increasingly more powerful in terms of expanded function, have led microcircuitry to a new level of smallness, notes Mark Kernowski, a digital design engineer who works with telephone-answering machines. TECHNOLOGY is progressing so rapidly, he says that within five years answering devices could become smaller than today's models, some of which measure about 41-by-6 inches. "For this to happen, semiconductor memory would have to be employed, meaning that a chip would replace the tape in recording the infor- mation," according to Karnowski, of Phone-Mate in Torrance, Calif. Industry marketing sources report sales of audio electronics relatively constant in recent years, although the answering machine has had to fight for acceptance. But with the development in the art of miniaturization also has come a shift toward simplicity, and the machine is now less in- timidating. "The buying public is becoming more and more receptive to the answering machine," says Bob Jaeger, vice president of merchandising for Macy's, San Francisco. "The machines are much more consumer-oriented than say, 10 years ago. 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