Successes and Setbacks in 3D Modeling: Developing lab protocols for Modeling Ground Stone Artifacts

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Digitizing the Past: Studying Ancient Ground Stone Toolkits Using Modern Technology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ground stone artifacts are generally an ignored part of university and archaeological collections. The Hell Gap National Historic Landmark collections include ground stone from the Folsom and Agate Basin levels (~10,800 – 10,600 YA). These artifacts have yet to be fully analyzed. My research will show the utility of using AgiSoft Metashape to construct high quality 3D models of ground stone artifacts. AgiSoft Metashape is a commercial program that uses overlapping photographs to construct robust models. One of the benefits of using this software is that it allows the user to observe and reduce error levels. Using a single ground stone tool (HG 1965 HGI W51_UWI1289) from the Hell Gap National Historic Site in Wyoming. This paper discusses the difficulties and shortcomings of this process including equipment, time constraints, and the need to develop familiarity and competency in using AgiSoft Metashape. Results will provide long term protocol suggestions for the average digital archaeology lab.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Digitizing the Past: Studying Ancient Ground Stone Toolkits Using Modern Technology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51572