Jari PAKKANEN
(Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Classics, United Kingdom)
The Kalaureia Archaeological Program – the Sea, the City and the God is a multi-disciplinary project hosted by the Swedish Archaeological Institute at Athens and funded by the National Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (2007–2012). In the recording of the progress of the excavations and architectural features special emphasis has been placed on the use of current digital technologies. At the conception of the programme three-dimensional site scanning was ruled out due to high costs and it has been largely replaced by extensive use of up to three total stations. Due to the detailed measurements of the archaeological features it is e.g. possible to present a detailed 3D digital elevation models (DEM) of the various states of the excavations. It is also possibly to add further details to the 3D models by draping actual photographs over the DEM. In the recording of architecture the total stations are used to directly ‘draw’ the features with laser. Effective use of the laser requires frequent changes in the position of the instrument which is made possible by an extensive network of fixed points over the large site. Recording the architecture principally as lines has the added benefit of making the production of site plans and 3D reconstructions clearly quicker. The terrain models and recorded ancient features can be integrated with the reconstructions to display what is the basis of the architectural interpretations.