'Fragmented Heritage' From the Kilometre to the Nanometre: Automated 3D Technology to Revolutionize Landscape, Site, and Artefact Analyses

This project aims to revolutionize landscape, site, and artefact analyses by bringing new transformative digital recording methods and computed analysis to fields that are traditionally labour intensive. The scale of the resultant technology and capability will generate a paradigm shift in the way that spatial and functional data are studied in heritage sciences.

Conventional 'refit analysis' requires an expert to study thousands of individual pieces from prehistoric archaeological sites and try to find pieces that fit together, eventually reconstructing objects, such as stone tool cores. Due to the size and complexity of these sites, it makes them important for understanding past human behaviour, however this also makes them the least understood by archaeologists and the public. The amount of effort this requires increases exponentially with assemblage size and generally entire sites can not be studied. Automation of this process will transform working practices bringing rapid and total surveys in reach of many more projects. The implications of such capability are widespread. At a site and landscape level the addition of digital recording, automated capture and processing to augment landscape survey will enhance the ability to archaeologically record and resolve complex surface scatters in landscapes, this will also allow sites that have previously been too remote and inhospitable to be surveyed.

Work can then be done faster and allow areas for targeted survey to be identified easily and safely. At a macro scale, the method will resolve complex associations facilitating interpretation through visualisations and aiding physical reconstruction. The generation of high fidelity digital output will enable closer working of researchers across traditional boundaries and will benefit the specialist and nonspecialist alike. These combined transformative scalable approaches to refit analysis will have broad application to all disciplines working with objects across the arts and humanities - ranging from three-dimensional artists to heritage professionals such as conservators/ restorers and even impacting on other disciplines such as forensic science.

Outputs of the project will be highly visual and are tailored to maximise impact with the involvement of a visual artist as an integral part of the project team. The project teams involved in the various work packages involve high profile international co-investigators.

Heritage practitioners and curators will have immediate benefit through hands on learning and knowledge transfer as a result of attending the project workshop. Small bursaries will be offered to increase the range of those able to attend. The workshop combines a series of short lectures and demonstration of equipment and documentation. There will be a better understanding of the potential for the use of all the developed and used advanced methods and the ways to present their data to a broader audience.

The project outputs are aimed at practitioners outside of academia such as curators, object handlers and excavators. The consequence of this will be a better understanding of the value of integrated approaches of analysis across archaeology and refit, microwear and landscape imaging as interpretive tools. This crosses over to a gained understanding of the complexity of site scale and the importance of artefact context and embedded data. This will improve communication between curators, heritage specialists, and researchers about the best practices for conservation and analysis of material to study site activities and function.

The methods developed and under investigation are capable of producing images of high quality that illustrate clusters of tools, how these fit together to understand activity areas and locations of production, and wear from tool use on early prehistoric implements. The effect of visualising this allows data to be communicated to a wide audience. This presents opportunities for museums to display high quality images of tools in a way that is unprecedented and useful for public engagement. The nature of these images means that they can be appreciated as they are. Direct observation of wear is the only current way to adequately showcase its features to the public, this situation changes with the presentation of the high resolution, high depth images produced by laser scanning systems. The surfaces can be visualised as a sort of 3D landscape and displayed in interactive systems, moving beyond a simple digital photograph. The integration of 3D data at multiple scales producing zoomable interactive models and the ability to digitally fit artefacts from across sites together will create a grand experience. This extends to the media whereby the quality of the output from such systems is far more suitable for the needs of print.

The quality of data. High quality data in archaeology leads to high quality interpretations and a better understanding of the archaeological record and, in this case early prehistoric archaeology. The impact to society is that the research forms the basis of good method that has the onward impact of producing a quality interpretation and presentation of heritage, early prehistoric life, and human evolution to the public.

The development of interactive high quality experiences on the web would provide an understanding of the sites and artifacts that can be shared with the public. Crowd sourced high resolution images of fossiliferous deposits would provide a unique opportunity for citizen science. Downloadable files for use with low cost 3D printers, will also provide an innovative pathway to engage with the public and provide a tactile approach to present heritage.