Filling the Void in Archaeological Excavations: 2D Point Clouds to 3D Volumes
Open Archaeology 2021; 7: 589–614 Research Article Gary R. Nobles*, Christopher H. Roosevelt Filling the Void in Archaeological Excavations: 2D Point Clouds to 3D Volumes https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0149 received December 7, 2020; accepted May 31, 2021 Abstract: 3D data captured from archaeological excavations are frequently left to speak for themselves. 3D models of objects are uploaded to online viewing platforms, the tops or bottoms of surfaces are visualised in 2.5D, or both are reduced to 2D representations. Representations of excavation units, in particular, often remain incompletely processed as raw surface outputs, unable to be considered individual entities that represent the individual, volumetric units of excavation. Visualisations of such surfaces, whether as point clouds or meshes, are commonly viewed as an end result in and of themselves, when they could be considered the beginning of a fully volumetric way of recording and understanding the 3D archaeological record. In describing the creation of an archaeologically focused recording routine and a 3D-focused data processing workflow, this article provides the means to fill the void between excavation-unit surfaces, thereby producing an individual volumetric entity that corresponds to each excavation unit. Drawing on datasets from the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) in western Turkey, the article shows the potential for programmatic creation of volumetric contextual units from 2D point cloud datasets, opening a world of possibilities and challenges for the development of a truly 3D archaeological practice. Keywords: Kaymakçı, 3D GIS, 3D visualisation, volumetric analysis, photogrammetry 1 Introduction Recent innovations in 3D recording and the display of archaeological entities have focused primarily on the capture and visualisation of landscapes, excavations, and objects as point clouds and derived textured meshes.
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