Virtual Archaeological Sites Modelling Through Low-Cost Methodology

AbstractThe recording and 3D virtual modelling of large and complex cultural heritage sites is currently receiving much attention due to the emergence of a wide array of new technologies which greatly support the efficient generation, administration and analysis of such models. Nevertheless, continues to be a problem the huge effort and costs that have to be invested to obtain realistic models. Besides onsite measurements, much time is often spent in manually rebuilding the whole site with a CAD package or a 3D-modelling tool.In this paper a low-cost and flexible system has been developed for virtual archaeological sites modeling, starting from the acquisition system and ending with the generation of a virtual model in three dimensions. Various efforts have been made to increase the level of automation without losing accuracy and reliability. Finally, in order to demonstrate its capabilities some examples applied in archaeological sites are reported.