Back and Forth through the Contexts: 3D Geographic Information Systems in Support of Field Documentation
Nicolo' Dell'Unto, Giacomo Landeschi, Jan Apel
Abstract The use of three-dimensional (3D) models in support of intra-site investigation activities represents an important novelty in archaeological practice. Unlike interpretative drawings, which provide a schematic and symbolic description of the site, three-dimensional models have the capacity to display the full qualities of a context immediately upon exposure, providing a high qualitative geometric description of the site at any specific time frame of the investigation activity. Among the different workflows of 3D data acquisition that have been presented in literature, a very few case studies actually discussed the impact that this new typology of data has on archaeological practice. Since 2014, archaeological investigation activities have been carried out at the Mesolithic site of Kämpinge (Southern Sweden) by the department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Lund University. The documentation activity performed so far has been completely recorded in three dimensions and managed in the field by a 3D Geographic Information System (3D GIS). In specific, by employing tablet PCs and field laptops, 3D models (as a result of image-based 3D modelling techniques) were georeferenced and used in the trench in aid of the field documentation. The possibility of taking advantage of a 3D real time platform capable of providing a spatio-temporal overview of the sequence of contexts retrieved at different stages of the investigation allowed the achievement of a completely different perception of the site. This paper will present and discuss the results of this experimentation, focusing on how the systematic use of a fully-3D visualization system in support of archaeological practice affects field interpretation, excavation strategies and knowledge production.
