Bethel Cemetery: Photogrammetric Field Methods in Burial Excavation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Towards a Standardization of Photogrammetric Methods in Archaeology: A Conversation about 'Best Practices' in An Emerging Methodology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the summer of 2018, cultural resource management professionals, in collaboration with local universities, relocated a nineteenth-century cemetery from an urban setting, as a component of planned infrastructure expansion by the Indianapolis International Airport. Project managers chose to employ SfM photogrammetry to document excavated burials, which provided project researchers tools necessary for bioarchaeological study. Project directors devised a methodology for the digital mapping of human burials prior to fieldwork, however, team members faced unexpected challenges necessitating modification to established procedures and protocols. By the close of fieldwork, the photogrammetry team had digitally recorded and reconstructed 3D models of over three-hundred exhumations and developed a clear understanding of which practices were suitable to the variability in field settings, and those that revealed themselves to be impractical. This paper describes the problems encountered during the 3D mapping of excavations at Bethel cemetery, how the photogrammetry team adapted to variability in field environments for photocapture, and offers photogrammetric protocols recommended for adoption by practitioners and academics as standard practice in the archaeological excavation of human remains.

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• Towards a Standardization of Photogrammetric Methods in Archaeology: A Conversation about 'Best Practices' in An Emerging Methodology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25652