Out of the Shadows: 3D capture technology in Archaeology
Organisers:
Robert Shaw
Discovery Programme, Ireland
Paul Bryan
English Heritage, UK
ABSTRACT
3D laser scanning has developed rapidly from a method perceived as having great potential in archaeology to a proven technology, with an increasing range of cultural heritage applications. However, beyond an awareness that such technology exists, many archaeologists may not realise that the term ‘laser scanner’ applies to a range of instruments that operate on differing principles, in different environments and with different levels of accuracy.
One of the main aims of this session will be to introduce this broad range of laser scanners as well as providing advice and guidance to potential users of both the equipment and resultant datasets. It will discuss how the technology works, the characteristics of the data it produces, and how these data sets can be viewed, interrogated, manipulated and successfully applied within an archaeological context.
Using case studies from professionals both currently practising scanning or applying the datasets within cultural heritage projects, the wide range of instruments and the varied applications in the field of archaeology will be illustrated. These will range from the precise scanning of rock art or artefacts, where sub-mm precisions are often required, right up to the wider landscape surveys made possible thesedays from airborne scanning sensors.
The session will consider some of the ‘unresolved’ issues of scanning, such as how we generate surface models, and address the question of common standards in both sharing and storing all forms of laser scanned data. It will also consider the future direction the technology is likely to follow and the potential impacts these might have within archaeological projects
some very interesting points