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Écrit en 1949 par Frank Addison , l’ouvrage "Jebel Moya" a été publié par l’ "Oxford university press". On découvre ainsi qu’en 1911 Mrs Wellcome et Barret ont mis au point un système photographique pour réaliser sur le site du Djebel Moya "some of the earliest experiments in archaeological air photography" (sic). De nombreuses photos de tombes seront ainsi prises à l’aide de chambres stéréoscopiques. Frank Addison n’a hélas pas retrouvé les comptes-rendus de ces expériences mais donne (en anglais) dans son ouvrage de larges commentaires sur le système.
Voici le passage relatant cette expérience (volume 1, "The wellcome excavations in the Sudan", p. 5 et 6)
" It was about this time (1914) that Mrs Wellcome untituted, and Barret carried out, some of the earliest experiments in archaeological air photography. The development of the aeroplane was then still in its infancy and large kites were used. No written account of these experiments is preserved in the records, but from the photographs it seems that two methods were tried. In the first the camera was lifted directly by the kite, the shutter release being operated by a string from the ground. The photographs taken in this way were those looking directly downwards. The second method was more complicated but enabled angled photographs to be taken and from greater heights. Here the main kite carried into the air a light wire cable, and along this a "kite trolley" carrying the camera was sent, in much the same way as a schoolboy sends a "messenger" along his kite string (....) The sail was held open -presumably against a spring- on the upward journey and was folded up so that the trolley would slide down again by its own weight. To judge from the photograph (....), the trolley carried a mechanism hich would, after it had travelled a predetermined distance upwards along the cable, operate the camera shutter release and immediately afterwards trip the spring which held the sail open, so that the trolley and camera would come down again. (....) Yet the experiments on the whole were successfull and excellent results were at times obtained. (....) " |
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Système photographique à messager utilisé par Wellcome et Barret sur le site du Djebel Moya
(Le système est décrit dans le texte anglais)
A gauche : la nacelle avec un appareil photo stéréo à plaque petit format A droite : le système en cours de montée avec une chambre stéréo de grand format |
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Un des clichés pris au cours d’une fouille en 1914
En attendant d’être dégagés et répertoriés, les squelettes sont recouverts de draps afin d’éviter leur érosion par le vent et le sable. |
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Un article personnel analysant ce travail est paru dans le numéro 100 du Lucane (lien de téléchargement) |
