Roman Baths (Archaeology) Research Papers (original) (raw)

In the last few years 3D laser scanning techniques have been used more frequently as a means for recording archaeological evidence. This is especially due to the reliability of the 3D Laser Scanner. Archaeologists are recognising its extraordinary accuracy, hardly ever paralleled with that other instruments, Total Stations included. Furthermore, 3D point clouds representing the real world can always be stored for future applications, correctly preserving all the historic information. On the other hand, 3D reconstructions of the cultural heritage remains, more often than not, serve purely educational purposes, disregarding their efficiency for a scientific analysis of the past. A combination of the two approaches supports this likely transition of the virtual reproductions, extending them to the interest of varied categories of users.
This paper puts an emphasis on the process of reconstructing the Roman Baths of Llíria, Valencia, the ancient iberian Edeta. Recently, the archaeological site has been deeply excavated and a well-preserved area is currently being converted into a permanent public exhibition. The work carried out has involved two separate tasks. Firstly, the 3D laser scanning of the entire site, with respect to the masonry as well as the other archaeological remains, such as: rests of columns, cornices and so on. Secondly, a subsequent 3D hypothesis of the baths built from scratch and supported by the useful information recovered from the 3D point clouds of the objects scanned.
Most of the experts in this field know how difficult it is handling high resolution 3D point clouds. At the same time, optimizing it frequently means loss of details. Previous researches have shown difficulties arising from the generation of large 3D models using directly optimised meshes, created from multiple 3D point clouds. By contrast, others studies mainly focused on the restoration of small objects, with high resolution results.
Unfortunately, currently 3D virtual digital reconstructions of broad sites still need a relatively low number of vertices; in order to be easily managed, rendered or, sometimes, animated. In particular, when the aim is the generation of high resolution visualisations, including, for example, real world lighting, texturing or atmospheric variations of the rendered environment.
Therefore, this project shows capabilities of the 3D Laser scanning approach to identify the different locations of the feature during the past, using accurate digital data of the real evidence. Vectorial redrawing of the meshes to intensely minimise the information of the 3D point clouds and to create simple solids, easily manageable in 3D modelling software. Additionally, the final mix of the low polygons 3D model hypothesis with 3D textured original meshes to improve the analysis of the site and, eventually, to extend the general public’s knowledge of the cultural heritage through highly realistic reproductions.