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AbstractThe Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, Mexico, is an outstanding example of Classic Maya architecture erected in the seventh century as the funerary building for ruler K'inich Janab Pakal. For decades, scholars have speculated on its construction sequence and the potential existence of hidden rooms on either side of Pakal's mortuary chamber. This article aims to advance understanding of the Temple's architectural context in light of new 3D data. After reviewing the application of drone-based photogrammetry and terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging in the Maya area, we argue that these techniques are capable of enhancing the architectural analysis of the Temple of the Inscriptions and showing that this structure was part of a larger architectural project, encompassing the adjacent Temple XIII, and the connecting stepped building platform. Our findings demonstrate that the basal platforms for the Temple of the Inscriptions and Temple XIII were erected contemporaneously and that the design of their mortuary chambers follows a tripartite layout we identified in Palenque's elite funerary architecture and associated mortuary practices. We conclude that these three buildings were part of a mausoleum architectural project, the construction of which was initiated by Pakal to reshape Palenque's site-core and enshrine the ruling family's power and ancestors.

In the American West, wildfires and earthquakes are increasingly threatening the archaeological, historical, and tribal resources that define the collective identity and connection with the past for millions of Americans. The loss of said resources diminishes societal understanding of the role cultural heritage plays in shaping our present and future. This paper examines the viability of employing stationary and SLAM-based terrestrial laser scanning, close-range photogrammetry, automated surface change detection, GIS, and WebGL visualization techniques to enhance the preservation of cultural resources in California. Our datafication approach combines multi-temporal remote sensing monitoring of historic features with legacy data and collaborative visualization to document and evaluate how environmental threats affect built heritage. We tested our methodology in response to recent environmental threats from wildfire and earthquakes at Bodie, an iconic Gold Rush-era boom town located on the California and Nevada border. Our multi-scale results show that the proposed approach effectively integrates highly accurate 3D snapshots of Bodie’s historic buildings before/after disturbance, or post-restoration, with surface change detection and online collaborative visualization of 3D geospatial data to monitor and preserve important cultural resources at the site. This study concludes that the proposed workflow enhances the monitoring of at-risk California’s cultural heritage and makes a call to action to employ remote sensing as a pathway to advanced planning.

Abstract The Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, Mexico, is an outstanding example of Classic Maya architecture erected in the seventh century as the funerary building for ruler K'inich Janab Pakal. For decades, scholars have speculated on its construction sequence and the potential existence of hidden rooms on either side of Pakal's mortuary chamber. This article aims to advance understanding of the Temple's architectural context in light of new 3D data. After reviewing the application of drone-based photogrammetry and terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging in the Maya area, we argue that these techniques are capable of enhancing the architectural analysis of the Temple of the Inscriptions and showing that this structure was part of a larger architectural project, encompassing the adjacent Temple XIII, and the connecting stepped building platform. Our findings demonstrate that the basal platforms for the Temple of the Inscriptions and Temple XIII were erected contemporaneously and that the design of their mortuary chambers follows a tripartite layout we identified in Palenque's elite funerary architecture and associated mortuary practices. We conclude that these three buildings were part of a mausoleum architectural project, the construction of which was initiated by Pakal to reshape Palenque's site-core and enshrine the ruling family's power and ancestors.

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is a three-dimensional survey technique proven successful for in-field stratigraphic and site-wide documentation or damage assessment of archaeological heritage. This study explores the potential utility of TLS and the Multiscale Model to Model Cloud Comparison (M3C2) surface change detection method for monitoring and preserving ancient earthen architecture, and for creating comprehensive site monitoring programs in compliance with UNESCO periodic reporting guidelines. The proposed methodology was tested using 3-D TLS datasets spanning a period of six years to assess the decay of mud brick structures at Çatalhöyük, Turkey in order to understand material loss in walls and buildings, identify potential underlying causes, and create a plan for physical interventions. This paper explains how a multi-temporal laser scanning workflow using the M3C2 method can be leveraged successfully to quantify—with millimeter-level accuracy—the decay of large earthen sites and inform future conservation interventions. This approach allows for the identification of the wall features with the most immediate risk of deterioration based on the detection of patterns of change and calculation of its significance as a preventative measure. Results presented in this paper suggest that the proposed method can be used effectively to enhance site monitoring and perform preventative on-site interventions at large earthen sites earthen sites in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

This paper discusses new advances in heritage site monitoring using a geo-spatial method for assessing the state of preservation of earthen architecture overtime as a preventive conservation measure. The proposed method leverages a comprehensive (quantitative-qualitative) approach that gathers multi-temporal data including environmental information collected by means of environmental loggers, qualitative vulnerability assessment of mud-brick walls, and surface change detection information obtained by comparing terrestrial laser scanning point cloud capturing the decay of building’s wall features over time. Producing a detailed spatial understanding of the conservation issues that affect mud-brick walls in large earthen sites, this method can be used by conservators to rapidly identify which buildings require immediate intervention and lay the basis for future evaluation of the conservation actions undertaken. To test the effectiveness of the proposed geospatial model in producing a comprehensive view of the environmental risk and pattern of decay that affect mudbrick structures, this paper presents analyses and results obtained in a six-year study at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Our results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed method and prove that it can be successfully employed to create preventive conservation measures at other earthen sites inside and outside the Near East.

This article presents the results of the Historic Coulterville Digital Preservation Project, an important digital humanities research collaboration which started in the Fall 2015 between the University of California Merced Resource Center for Community Engaged Scholarship, the John Muir Geotourism Center, the Northern Mariposa County History Center, and faculty and graduate students of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Program at UC Merced. Dictated by the needs and goals of the community members of the gold rush town of Coulterville, in the Sierra Foothills of California, who are invested in the preservation of their cultural heritage, the project focused on digital historic preservation in four areas of focus: i) the archives and photographs at the Northern Mariposa County History Center, ii) the Coulterville cemeteries, iii) oral histories of Coulterville, and iv) the digital documentation of Coulterville Main Street Historic District. Combined, these four areas of focus presented a breadth of subject matter through which to test various digital preservation methods in a real-world scenario as well as provided both the students and the community members the opportunity to study subjects in greater depth that were of mutual interest. The project provides an example of the potential for community-university research collaborations to benefit local communities while also providing training and networking opportunities for students, and new scholarship case studies for the scholars.

Advanced data capture techniques, cost-effective data processing, and visualization technologies provide viable solutions for the documentation and curation of archaeological heritage and material culture. Work at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Çatalhöyük has demonstrated that new digital approaches for capturing, processing, analyzing, and curating stratigraphic data in 3D are now feasible. Real-time visualization engines allow us to simulate the stratigraphy of a site, the three-dimensional surfaces of ancient buildings, as well as the ever-changing morphology of cultural landscapes. Nonetheless, more work needs to be done to address methodological questions such as: can three-dimensional models and stratigraphic relationships, based on 3D surfaces and volumes, be used to perform archaeological interpretation? How can a 3D virtual scenario become the interface to cultural data and metadata stored in external online databases? How can we foster a sense of presence and user embodiment in the simulation of ancient cities and archaeological sites? This article aims to provide viable solutions to the methodological challenge of designing a comprehensive digital archaeological workflow from the data acquisition and interpretation in the field to a three-dimensional digital data curation based on interactive visualization, searchable 3D data, and virtual environments. This work describes the results we achieved developing the application Dig@IT, a multi-platform, scalable virtual reality tool able to foster archaeological data analysis, interpretation, and curation in a realistic and highly-interactive virtual environment.

ABSTRACT Airborne laser scanning (ALS), commonly known as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), is a remote sensing technique that enables transformative archaeological research by providing high‐density 3D representations of landscapes and sites covered by vegetation whose analysis reveals hidden features and structures. ALS can detect targets under trees and grasslands, making it an ideal archaeological survey and mapping tool. ALS instruments are usually mounted on piloted aircraft. However, since the mid‐2010s, smaller laser scanners can be mounted on uncrewed aerial vehicles or drones. In this article, we examined the viability of drone‐based ALS for archaeological applications by utilizing a RIEGL VUX‐UAV22 sensor to capture point clouds with high spatial resolution at the archaeological site of Heloros in Southeastern Sicily, founded by the Greeks in the late eighth century bce. Using this laser scanner, we surveyed over 1.6 km2 of the archaeological landscape, producing datasets that outperformed noncommercial airborne ALS data for the region made available by the Italian government. We produced derivative imagery free of vegetation, which we visualized in GIS using a modified Local Relief Model technique to aid our archaeological analyses. Our findings demonstrate that drone‐based ALS can penetrate the dense Mediterranean canopy of coastal Sicily with sufficient point density to enable more efficient mapping of underlying archaeological features such as stone quarries, cart tracks, defensive towers and fortification walls. Our study proved that drone‐based ALS sensors can be easily transported to remote locations and that in‐house lab staff can safely operate them, which enables multiple on‐demand surveys and opportunistic collections to be conducted on the fly when environmental conditions are ideal. We conclude that these capabilities further increase the benefits of utilizing ALS for surveying the archaeological landscape under the Mediterranean canopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent current events have dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of the world's material cultural heritage. The 3-D Digital Preservation of At-Risk Global Cultural Heritage project, led by Thomas Levy at UC San Diego, catalyzes a collaborative research effort by four University of California campuses (San Diego, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Merced) to use cyberarchaeology and computer graphics for cultural heritage to document and safeguard virtually some of the most at-risk heritage objects and places. Faculty and students involved in this project are conducting path-breaking archaeological research - covering more than 10,000 years of culture and architecture - in Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and the United States. This project uses the 3-D archaeological data collected in numerous at-risk heritage places to study, forecast, and model the effects of human conflict, climate change, natural disasters and technological and cultural changes on these sites and landscapes. The greater challenge undertaken by this project is to integrate archaeological heritage data and digital heritage data using the recently-announced Pacific Research Platform (PRP) and its 10-100Gb/s network as well as virtual reality kiosks installed in each participating UC campus. Our aim is to link UC San Diego and the San Diego Supercomputer Center to other labs, libraries and museums at the other UC campuses to form a highly-networked collaborative platform for curation, analysis, and visualization of 3D archaeological heritage data.

Excavations atC¸ atalh¨oy¨uk have been ongoingfor over 20 years and have involvedmulti-national teams, a diverse range ofarchaeological specialists and a vast archiveof records. The task of marshalling this dataso that it can be useful not only at thepost-excavation stage, but also while makingdecisions in the field, is challenging. Here,members of the team reflect on the useof digital technology on-site to promote areflexive engagement with the archaeology.They explore how digital data in a fieldworkcontext can break down communicationbarriers between specialists, foster an inclusiveapproach to the excavation process andfacilitate reflexive engagement with recording and interpretation.

The project “3D-Digging at Çatalhöyük” began in 2010 thanks to collaboration between Stanford University (Archaeological Center) and the University of California Merced with the scope to record, document (with different digital technologies) and visualize in virtual reality all the phases of archaeological excavation. Phase I (2010excavation season) of the project was mainly oriented to test different technologies during the excavation (time of flight and optical laser scanners). In phase II (2011 excavation season) the UCMerced team initiated the excavation of a Neolithic house (building 89), recording all the layers by time phase-shift scanners andcomputer vision techniques. The recording of the excavation process through the use of digital technologies gave the team the ability to generate 3D models of layers and micro-stratigraphies in stereovision during the excavation (using stereo projectors), so as to stimulate a new digital hermeneutics in archaeology. At the end of the fieldworkall the 3D models are accessible through a Teleimmersive system created by UC Merced and UC Berkeley.