Digital Documentation of Ancient Ritual Landmarks: Modeling Senses of Place with Photogrammetry, LiDAR, and Virtual Tours.

Summary

Ritual karstscape archaeological research at the pre-Hispanic Maya site of Pacbitun, Belize, by the Pacbitun Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP) has included experimentation with a range of digital recording technologies. The overall goal of these experiments has been to better document ritual landmarks and the archaeological materials within them than has been possible with traditional recordation methods such as hand-drawn maps, photographs, and written descriptions. Our efforts have centered on three-dimensional digital photographic modeling (photogrammetry) in a variety of contexts, including landmark mapping, unit and archaeological feature modeling, and recording a rock art panel. We have also experimented with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for landmark mapping and modeling. In this presentation, we discuss the benefits and the frustrations we experienced using these technologies, discuss avenues for moving forward with them, and offer some preliminary interpretations of the archaeological data we collected with them over the past several field seasons. We will also demonstrate the ease with which cave archaeologists can use some of these technologies, in conjunction with inexpensive immersive three-dimensional digital viewers to convey the grandeur of the places we investigate and make them broadly accessible to interested audiences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Emerging from the Place of Darkness: Subterranean Archaeology in Mesoamerica

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16509