Aurelia Lureau

We are at a global transition where disciplines from art to computer engineering intersect in the realm of global digital heritage. This has been facilitated by the development of desktop high-speed computing, inexpensive photogrammetry software, and digital photography. These technologies, and the tools to make them useful both in the lab and on the web, require the appropriate integration of technical skill, artistic license, archaeological background knowledge, and architectural realities.

3D Heritage Online Presenter (3DHOP) is a framework for advanced web-based visual presentations of high-resolution 3D content. Developed at the Visual Computing Lab CNR ISTI, 3DHOP was designed to cope with the specific needs of cultural heritage projects, supporting web-based publishing of very high-resolution digitized results and enabling the documentation of complex restoration actions. The present paper highlights, through some case studies (Peltuinum archaeological area, AQ, and Castillo de La Muela in Consuegra), the potentials of 3DHOP’s tools for the management of data from both active (laser scanner) and passive sensors (photogrammetry and aerophotogrammetry). In addition, problems and solutions encountered during the organization and personalization of web pages will be presented. The goal of this operation is to create a three-dimensional hub that can collect and link traditional archaeological documentation to 3D geometry.

The INRAP (French National Institute of Research in Preventive Archaeology) is the leading institution in France for preventive archaeology. Every year, thousands of acres are scientifically excavated and documented by its archaeologists. Our team is operating in the La Courneuve base, North-East of Paris. After several years of producing 3D models of the monitored excavations, we ended up with a lot of 3D data, on a lot of different computers, DVDs or external hard disks. As this filing method was very disorganized, risky and not easily searchable, it seemed to be a good idea to start thinking about a proper way to classify and save the 3D data before losing some of it and to avoid the older to sink into oblivion.

Come negli anni precedenti le indagini dell’équipe francese di Castrum Novum sono state possibili grazie al sostegno della Soprintendenza per i Beni archeologici dell’Etruria meridionale, dei centri di ricerca CRAE (Université de Picardie, UFR des Sciences historiques, artistiques et politiques), HALMA-IPEL (Université de Lille 3) dell’équipe AOROC (ENS-CNRS), dell’ANR CAECINA e del Comune di Santa Marinella. Ne approfittiamo per ringraziare la Soprintendente dott.ssa Alfonsina Russo, l’ispettrice di zona dott.ssa Rossella Zaccagnini, i colleghi Lorenzo Vinciguerra, Christophe Bident, Marie-Domitille Porcheron, Stéphane Verger, Vincent Jolivet et Kathérine Gruel, il sindaco di Santa Marinella Roberto Bacheca et il vice-sindaco arch. Carlo Pisacane, i membri dell’associazione Yacht Club di Santa Marinella, in particolare Claudio e Fiorenza Caneva, i membri dell’Associazione dei Pescatori Sportivi di Santa Marinella, Giovanni Biagioli e Fausto Bachetti per l’aiuto prezioso.
Durante la campagna del settembre 2014, ai lavori condotti nelle zone A e B hanno partecipato : Naouel Amrani, Michel Athanassiadis, Alice Bourgeois, Maxime Brugelli, Solène Chevalier, Arnaud Deigre, Vincent Godon, Anissa Guedda, Marine Leroy, Benjamin Paris, David Vattier. La documentazione grafica è stata curata da Véronique Picard (IRA-USR 3155 del CNRS, Université de Pau et du Pays d’Adour) e la restituzione fotogrammetrica è stata realizzata da Aurelia Lureau, dottoranda presso l’Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Cultural Heritage documentation in cave environnement using low-cost means for archaeologists. Case study of the Larchant caves in the Fontainebleau forest in France.

Aurelia Lureau, Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, aurelia@lureau.eu
Mehdi Belarbi, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives  (INRAP), mehdi.belarbi@inrap.fr
Pascal Raymond, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives  (INRAP), pascal.raymond@inrap.fr

Régis Touquet, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives  (INRAP), regis.touquet@inrap.fr

The "painting cave" of Larchant is located on the ovest edge of the stoneware plateau of the Fontainebleau forest which gives to the forest its peculiar aspect. The cave was discovered in 1959,
partially excavated, then excavated in the '80s and various numerous artifacts were discovered. The datation is from Mesolithic to the Middle-age, with a permanent dwelling since 8.000B.C.
But what makes this cave unique compared to the other prehistoric caves of this part of the
Fontainebleau forest is that there is a prehistoric painting and also numerous engravings dated from the beginning of the human presence to the modern era.
The project was proposed to us with two objectives : to catalog the engravings in 3D, and, if possible, to have 3D models precise enough to be able to use them in scientific ways. The long-term goal of the project is to realise a GIS of the prehistoric caves of the Fontainebleau forest for a public use via mobile app and a website. But our goal was to try and have precise enough 3dD models for the scientific interpretation of the archaeologists.
We only had reflex and bridge cameras and a theodolite, but we attempted the whole 3D model of the cave to create a map for the engravings and the painting, and then tried to georeferenciate all the models and do measurments on the engravings.

Paper in Session Virtual Reconstruction in Archaeology, CAA2014 Paris