Photogrammetry, Excavation Surfaces, and Sediment Packages: Measuring Site Occupational Intensity at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In order to understand changes in the way hominins have used a site through time, it is critical to understand temporal changes in artifact density (i.e., a quantitative measure of the number of artifacts relative to the amount of supporting sediment in a given stratigraphic unit). However, accurately measuring the volume of a sediment package can be very challenging. This paper presents our efforts to develop a protocol to quantify and contextualize artifact density measures within the Middle Paleolithic sequence at Crvena Stijena (Montenegro). We combine 100% flotation, total station proveniencing of larger artifacts, lab recovery of artifacts as small as 1 mm through wet screening, micromorphology, and notably the frequent and systematic documentation of the excavation in 3D using photogrammetry. These 3D “excavation surfaces” capture in high resolution the volume of the excavation at a given moment in time and can be used in novel ways. For example, we are able to more precisely account for the volume of large rocks and boulders (a significant component of rockshelters). This integrated 3D workflow saves time during excavation, provides a substantial amount of additional context to other excavation data, and allows for the calculation of more accurate artifact densities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36699.0