Slam Dunk: 3D Imaging in Belizean Cave Sites Using Hovermap System

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mapping is one of the most fundamental and important enterprises for cave archaeologists not only for research but also integral to cave management and heritage preservation. Using traditional cartography techniques is often a tedious and long-term project involving numerous field seasons and thousands of measurements. Capturing 3D spaces using these 2D techniques is clunky and often unsatisfying when recording features or chambers that overlap vertically. Due to the complexity of the spaces, accuracy is often sacrificed in the interest of time and traditionally cave features are “sketched” even in the best-case scenarios when measurements are collected from stations or physical baselines. New technologies allow archaeologists to collect 3D spatial data on these highly complex spaces rapidly at an unprecedented level of accuracy. We illustrate an advancement in methodology using field testing of the Hovermap system employing case studies from Belize. Designed for the mining industry, Hovermap is a turnkey lidar system that combines drones—using SLAM navigation paired with sophisticated autonomy and collision-avoidance capability—with a handheld mode. We were able to rapidly capture data from four caves within a two-week period. Once postprocessed, these data allowed us to create both 3D images for fly-throughs as well as 2D maps.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36729.0