Shedding New Light on the Past: The Potential for Short Wave Ultraviolet Photography in Archaeology

Summary

Recent advances technology allow digital cameras to be modified to record monochrome ultraviolet light at a high level of sensitivity. The ability to collect imagery on archaeological targets in short wave ultraviolet (wavelengths of 280 nanometers or less) reveals information previously hidden from view. Advances in camera technology, lens & filter types, and specialized lighting equipment needed to taking short wave ultraviolet images are discussed along with methodologies for collecting high quality data. Comparisons between cameras, lenses, and filter types show the variation in image quality and information gathered at the different wavelengths of ultraviolet light.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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