In the summer of 2022, Tulane University, in collaboration with archaeologists from other institutions, began excavations at the site of Pompeii. The archaeological work was focused on Insula 14 of Region 1, located in the southeastern sector of the site. To overcome the challenges of recording a complex urban excavation, and of working with a collaborative team, we designed and implemented a unique workflow that combines paperless and 3D data-capture methods through the use of GIS technologies. The final product of our documentation workflow was a robust and easy-to-use online geodatabase where archaeologists can revisit, explore, visualize, and analyze each excavated context using virtual tools. We present our workflow for digitally documenting observational and spatial data in the field, and how we made these data available to project archaeologists during and after the field season. First, we describe the development of digital forms in ESRI's Survey123. Then, we explain our procedures for 3D documentation through SfM photogrammetric methods and discuss how we integrated the data and transformed it into an accessible format by using interactive dashboards and online 3D web scenes. Finally, we discuss the components of our workflow that are broadly applicable and that can easily be adapted to other projects.

The military invasion of Ukraine has destroyed and damaged extensive built cultural heritage, including churches, museums and monuments. Based on site visits conducted since the invasion, we outline damage to the eleventh-century sites of Boldyni Hory, Chernihiv, and the church, citadel and graveyard at Oster, Chernihiv Oblast.

Debate surrounds the identity of the Europeans who settled Iceland and Greenland in the early medieval period. Historical sources record settlers travelling from Norway to Iceland and then Greenland, but recent analyses of biological data suggest that some settlers had British and Irish ancestry. Here, the authors test these hypotheses with 3D-shape analyses of human crania from Scandinavia, Britain and Ireland, and one of the Norse colonies in Greenland. Results suggest that some 63 per cent of the ancestry of the Greenlandic individuals can be traced to Britain and Ireland and 37 per cent to Scandinavia. These findings add further weight to the idea that the European settlers who colonised Iceland and later Greenland were of mixed ancestry.

We present a photogrammetric model and new line drawing of Sacul Stela 3 at the ancient Maya site of Sacul 1, Guatemala. Although virtually illegible in person and from photographs, the inscription on the eroded stela can largely be read or reconstructed in the 3D model. Our reading confirms a previous argument that the kingdom based at Sacul 1 was attacked in A.D. 779 by forces from the site of Ucanal. Traveling by night, warriors from Sacul retaliated with a raid at dawn next day on an unidentified site and, months later, followed up with an attack on Ucanal itself. The same narrative appears substantially on a well-known monument, Ixkun Stela 2, but there are differences between the two texts which suggest that Sacul and Ixkun had their own sculptors and record-keepers and which offer insights into the implications of verbs (pul, “to burn” and ch'ak, “to chop”) commonly attested in Classic Maya accounts of war. We then present the results of GIS analysis which suggests that the site area of El Rosario (between Sacul 1 and Ucanal) is an appealing candidate for the unidentified site mentioned in the stela text.

The aim of this contribution is to provide a new methodology regarding the use of photogrammetry and 3D modelling in the classroom. By means of a practicum taught at Complutense University of Madrid and a survey conducted afterwards, we show the different steps of the activity, as well as the reception of the students, who learnt to elaborate 3D figures.

Detailed photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning of rock art, geophysics research and sondage excavations conducted at the Painted Hand Petroglyph Panel, a large rock art site in south-western Colorado, USA, has revealed new information about the cultural situation in the pre-Columbian and historic North American Southwest.

Archaeology is increasingly employing remote sensing techniques such as airborne lidar (light detection and ranging), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), and photogrammetry in tropical environments where dense vegetation hinders to a great extent the ability to understand the scope of ancient landscape modification. These technologies have enabled archaeologists to develop sophisticated analyses that overturn traditional misconceptions of tropical ecologies and the human groups that have inhabited them in the long term. This article presents new data on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia that reveals the extent to which its ancient societies transformed this landscape, which is frequently thought of as pristine. By recursively integrating remote sensing and archaeology, this study contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship examining ancient land use and occupation in densely forested contexts.

In the last decade, archaeologists have been using human-occupied interactive digital built environments to investigate human agency, settlement, and behavior. To document this evidence, we provide here one method of conducting drone-based photogrammetry and GIS mapping from within these digital spaces based on well-established methods conducted in physical landscapes. Mapping is an integral part of archaeology in the natural world, but it has largely eluded researchers in these new, populated digital landscapes. We hope that our proposed method helps to resolve this issue. We argue that employing archaeological methods in digital environments provides a successful methodological framework to investigate human agency in digital spaces for anthropological purposes and has the potential for extrapolating data from human-digital landscape interactions and applying them to their natural analogues.

At Tell Yunatsite, a prehistoric settlement mound located in the Upper Thracian plain of Bulgaria, stratigraphic relationships between archaeological deposits are incredibly complex. Such complexity then prompted our exploration into developing a new methodology for the documentation of complex stratigraphic relationships. Here, we present the results of a new photogrammetry-assisted methodology that was developed to compensate for the shortcomings of currently utilized stratigraphic documentation methods, such as the Wheeler-Kenyon box grid and the Harris Matrix. First, using a UAV drone, we produce a high-resolution photogrammetric model of the entire site. Second, with structure from motion photogrammetry, we produce 2.5D models of excavation units in stratigraphic succession. Finally, utilizing GIS and Blender (a 3D computer graphics software application), we digitize the horizontal extents of each archaeological deposit and “fill” the space between their successive surfaces (from top to bottom) until a faithful 3D model of each deposit is generated. These deposit models are then combined and rendered simultaneously to form 3D block models of the excavation units that may, in turn, be cross-sectioned in any direction to view stratigraphic relationships in virtual profile.

Since 1979, when the first cave art was documented in North America, dozens of other examples have come to light. Among these, 19th Unnamed Cave in Alabama contains hundreds of pre-contact Native American mud glyph drawings. In 2017, 3D modelling of the glyphs was initiated, ultimately enabling digital manipulation of the chamber space and revealing images that could not be perceived prior to modelling. Most surprisingly, the cave's ceiling features very large anthropomorphic glyphs that are not apparent in situ due to the tight confines of the cave. We argue that photogrammetry offers untapped potential for not simply the documentation but also the discovery of a variety of archaeological phenomena.

Full-coverage pedestrian survey to record cultural features on unexplored archaeological landscapes is costly in terms of time, money, and personnel. Over the past two decades, researchers have implemented remote sensing and landscape data collection techniques using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to combat some of these burdens, but the initial cost of equipment, software, and processing power has hindered the ubiquitous implementation of UAV technology as an accessible companion tool to traditional archaeological survey. This article presents a free and open-source, technology-independent analytical framework for the collection and processing of UAV images to produce high-resolution digital terrain models limited only by the equipment available to the researcher. Results from the free and open-source protocol are directly compared to those produced using proprietary software to illustrate the capabilities of freely available data processing tools for UAV-collected images. By replicating the methods outlined here, researchers should be able to identify and target areas of interest to increase fieldwork efficiency, decrease costs of implementing this technology, and produce high-resolution digital terrain models to conduct spatial analyses that pursue a deeper understanding of cultural landscapes.

This article shows how to record current events from an archaeological perspective. With a case study from the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway, we provide accessible tools to document broad spatial and behavioral patterns through material culture as they emerge. Stressing the importance of ethical engagement with contemporary subjects, we adapt archaeological field methods—including geolocation, photography, and three-dimensional modeling—to analyze the changing relationships between materiality and human sociality through the crisis. Integrating data from four contributors, we suggest that this workflow may engage broader publics as anthropological data collectors to describe unexpected social phenomena. Contemporary archaeological perspectives, deployed in rapid response, provide alternative readings on the development of current events. In the presented case, we suggest that local ways of coping with the pandemic may be overshadowed by the materiality of large-scale corporate and state response.

El presente artículo presenta una revisión de los hallazgos hechos en el sitio de Tingambato, en el centro sur de Michoacán, México, a la luz de los últimos trabajos realizados en los pasados siete años, haciendo uso de tecnologías recientes. En este trabajo se hace un estudio completo de la arquitectura, los materiales y especialmente los fechamientos que nos permiten finalmente poder establecer la ocupación de este importante sitio arqueológico durante los primeros 900 años de nuestra era. Finalmente se presenta un estudio apoyado en el uso de reconstrucciones virtuales, trabajos fotogramétricos y lidar de los contextos de dos impresionantes tumbas halladas en el sitio arqueológico, que nos permiten entender de mejor manera las costumbres funerarias de los sectores de élite de este grupo.

Data extraction from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery has proved effective in animal surveys and monitoring, but to date has scarcely been used for detailed population analysis and individual animal feature extraction. We assessed the zoometric and feature extraction of the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx) using data acquired from a captive population for comparison with reintroduced populations monitored by UAVs. Highly accurate scaled and geo-rectified imagery derived from UAV surveys allowed precise morphometric measurements of the oryx. The scaled top-view imagery combined with baseline data from known sex, age, weight and pregnancy status of captive individuals were used to develop predictive models. A bracketed index developed from the predictive models showed high accuracy for classifying the age group ≤16 months, animals with a weight >80 kg and pregnancy. The pregnancy classification decision tree model performed with 91.7% accuracy. The polynomial weight predictive model performed well with relatively high accuracy when using the total top-view surface measurement. Photogrammetrically processed UAV-acquired imagery can yield valuable zoometric data, feature extraction and modelling; it is a tool with a practical application for field biologists that can assist in the decision-making process for species conservation management.

In recent years, researchers have focused on the applications of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in environmental remote sensing tasks. However, studies on glacier monitoring using UAV technology are relatively scarce, especially for high mountain glacier monitoring. To explore the feasibility of UAV technology for high mountain glaciers, four UAV surveys were deployed on two glaciers of the central Tibetan Plateau. Based on the images retrieved by UAV in 2017 and 2019, orthomosaics and digital elevation models were produced to quantify the length, area and elevation changes in the ablation zone of these two glaciers at different times. Additionally, we utilized several Landsat scenes to derive glacier changes over the last 30 years and combined these with the UAV data to assess the advantages and disadvantages of UAV technology in mountain glacier monitoring.

The Maldives Heritage Survey was established to document cultural heritage vulnerable to human and environmental threats in the Maldives. An open-access online database is being produced to inform academic studies, support heritage-management plans and create a permanent archive of digital heritage resources.

The three-dimensional (3D) revolution promised to transform archaeological practice. Of the technologies that contribute to the proliferation of 3D data, photogrammetry facilitates the rapid and inexpensive digitization of complex subjects in both field and lab settings. It finds additional use as a tool for public outreach, where it engages audiences ranging from source communities to artifact collectors. But what has photogrammetry's function been in advancing archaeological analysis? Drawing on our previous work, we review recent applications to understand the role of photogrammetry for contemporary archaeologists. Although photogrammetry is widely used as a visual aid, its analytical potential remains underdeveloped. Considering various scales of inquiry—graduating from objects to landscapes—we address how the technology fits within and expands existing documentation and data visualization routines, while evaluating the opportunity it presents for addressing archaeological questions and problems in innovative ways. We advance an agenda advocating that archaeologists move from proof-of-concept papers toward greater integration of photogrammetry with research.

Archaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms. This can be done through hypermedia and deep mapping as approaches to public archaeology. In twenty-first-century archaeology, scholars can rely on vastly improved technologies to aid them in these efforts toward public engagement, including digital photography, geographic information systems, and three-dimensional models. These technologies, even when collected for analysis or documentation, can be valuable tools for educating and involving the public with archaeological methods and how these methods help archaeologists learn about the past. Ultimately, academic storytelling can benefit from making archaeological results and methods accessible and engaging for stakeholders and the general public. ArcGIS StoryMaps is an effective tool for integrating digital datasets into an accessible framework that is suitable for interactive public engagement. This article describes the benefits of using ArcGIS StoryMaps for hypermedia and deep mapping–based public engagement using the story of copper production in Iron Age Faynan, Jordan, as a case study.

In this article, we present a unique case study in Indianapolis, Indiana, where cultural resource management (CRM) archaeologists, alongside various university archaeologists, tested the use of SfM photogrammetry to effectively replace traditional archaeological methods of mapping and documentation during the excavation of over 500 historic burials. This project was designed with the intention of using SfM photogrammetry for 3D mapping and documentation from its inception, implementing formal procedures and protocols for data collection creating a standard workflow. To our knowledge, this is the first integrated use of SfM at this scale on an archaeological project in Indiana. By the close of fieldwork, over 300 burials had been digitally recorded, and measurable 3D models were generated. We found that the standard photogrammetry workflow implemented for single context excavation was largely successful. First, we outline the data collection process for 3D mapping of single-context excavations at Bethel Cemetery. This is followed by a description of the problems encountered during data collection and the ways the photogrammetry team adapted to variability in field environments for photocapture. Finally, we recommend the adoption of these methods by practitioners/academics as standard practice in the archaeological excavation of human remains.

In the past decade, archaeologists have increasingly made use of photogrammetry, the process of creating 3D models from photographs, in a variety of field and lab settings. We argue that we must, as a discipline, develop a consistent methodology to ensure that 3D models are held to a consistent standard, including not only photographic protocol but also the documentation of model accuracy using an agreed-upon measure. To help develop this discussion, we present our system for incorporating photogrammetry into the documentation of architecture. This technique was developed at the site of Nim Li Punit, Belize, in 2018. Excavating architecture involves documenting the pre-excavated building, liberating overburden, documenting all in situ construction (including wall fall, fill stones, and standing architecture), drawing consolidated architecture, and documenting the final state of the post-excavated buildings. The generation of 3D models greatly assisted in all facets of the excavation, documentation, analysis, and consolidation processes. To ensure that our models were accurate, we documented the reprojection error and final model horizontal distortion to assess the quality of the model. We suggest that documenting both forms of error should become standard practice in any discussion of archaeological applications of photogrammetry.