Virtually There: Offsite georectified photogrammetric processing as onsite strategic excavation resource

Giles SPENCE MORROW ¹ / Paul R. DUFFY¹ / Lauren TOSTI²
(¹University of Toronto, Toronto / ²Quinnipiac University, Canada)

Keywords: Photogrammetry, cloud computing, burial excavation techniques,

Abstract:
With photogrammetric software becoming increasingly available and applicable to the archaeological research community, the three dimensional output produced by these programs has the potential to extend beyond a merely documentary role to serve as a fundamental and ongoing aspect of excavation methodology. As a technique limited only by the computing power at hand in the field, photogrammetric processing of photographs is most often an aspect of post-excavation data management, and as such, it is seldom exploited as an integral component of excavation strategy. By combining daily onsite photography and geospatial mapping of fragile cremation urns and inhumations at a Middle Bronze Age cemetery in the Körös Basin in eastern Hungary with offsite photogrammetric processing and georectification, the method and workflow presented in this paper demonstrates the potential of photogrammetry to serve as a powerful resource during the process of excavation of archaeological contexts. Advances in cloud computing and automatic processing will no doubt make this method of near to realtime photogrammetric documentation an independent process reliant on mobile devices in the near future, and a series of suggestions will be put forward in the present paper in light of the successes and challenges that came about during the experimental collaborative system developed.