Structure from Motion for Systematic Single Surface Documentation of Archaeological Excavations (original) (raw)

Requiring archaeological standard equipment (measurement unit and camera) only, Structure from Motion approaches offer an affordable, easy to use and accurate documentation method for stratigraphic excavations. Photo-realistic three-dimensional models generated with this method can be looked upon as virtual replicas of stratification units and thereby allow a comprehensible documentation of archaeological remains, making the models an excellent basis for interpretation purposes. However, on most excavations, Structure from Motion is still not applied in a frequent and systematic way. During excavations within the exceptionally well preserved Copper Age settlement Meidling im Thale/Kleiner Anzingerberg/ in Lower Austria, Structure from Motion and Multi View Stereo has been used intensively for single surface documentation. The commercial software Agisoft PhotoScan was deployed for a fully automated calculation of intrinsic and extrinsic camera calibration parameters, for the creation...