The use of terrestrial laser scanning in archaeology. Evaluation of a Swedish project, with two examples

Abstract

The terrestrial laser scanning technique is attracting more and more attention as a useful merhod in severa1 areas of surveying and documentation, slowly finding its place even in the field of archaeology and the cultural heritage. It offers a fast and precise way of documenting both !arge areas and single small objects, and the resulting 3-dimensional digital models can be used in various ways, e.g. for spatial analyses, archaeological interpretation and public display. During the years 2003-2005, a collaborative project evolved between archaeologists ar Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis (SAU) in Uppsala and surveyors at the GIS Institute and 3D Focus in Gävle. The original overall aim of rhe project was to try our rhe laser scanning method in an archaeological environment and investigating its potential as an alternative, fast and cosr-effective means of documentation. The results were quite satisfactory and made archaeologists realize the great potential of the method, bur also pointed to some technical !imitations and obstacles. Several archaeological sites have been scanned over the last few years and this article discusses the documentation of two excavations
of different kinds, carried out in 2003 and 2004 respectively.