Temporal Terrestrial Laser Scanning to Visualize the Archaeological Excavation Process

Abstract

Archaeology is a destructive science. Photographs and videos preserve some aspects of the sequence of events inherent within the archaeological excavation process, but cannot replicate the spatiality and detail of the downward progression of the digging entailed through excavation. Time lapse sequences of properly adapted and employed terrestrial laser scanning to create a temporal sequence of point clouds of the archaeological methodologies can, however, serve as an innovative step towards accurate documentation of crucial data for future archaeologists interested in the site. Over the course of the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship funded Sediment Intervals and Site Deformation Processes: Exploring Time Lapse Laser Scanning Capabilities and Methodologies for Archaeology, temporal scanning was tested on the beaches of San Diego to establish a baseline capability for data capture. Subsequently, the methodologies for data collection were utilized as a part of the excavation workflow at the University of California, San Diego's Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeological Project's excavation of a Roman era section of tell Khirbat Faynan in southern Jordan. With the data collected from the excavation as the impetus for new system development, original visualization processing designed with the archaeological problems and end-goals in mind is being created at the University of California, San Diego Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology in order to meaningful display the shifting data sets in real time and exhibit not just the archaeological data, but the archaeological process.