E
Visualization,
jut 5 000 km in the
itly documented in a
:2.5 to 1: 1 Million.
, tacheometry, GPS
rt about the specific
to be surveyed and
5 000 km? verstreut
rden gegenwärtig in
an Pläne und Karten
)grammetrie, Tachy-
nicht nur ein Bericht
n zur Aufnahme und
gen.
ng been constructed
heir location can be
of the baked roofing
he towers and gates
bout 5 metres above
very similar appea-
he attendant tombs,
Yowever. Many of the
d in good condition,
pieces. The funeral
ibly they have been
nded to open any of
ure.
erors’ mausoleums
NESCO'’s list of World
Since only very few
been documented in
and YAO, 1990), an
d in 1993 to do a
entation. This is car-
int venture between
haeological Institute
jisch- Germanisches
na 1996
Zentralmuseum (Mainz, Germany). The authors of this
paper, both from the Fachbereich Geoinformatik und
Vermessung (Department of Geoinformatics and Sur-
veying) at the Fachhochschule Mainz (Germany), joined
the project being responsible for all geometric und
topographic aspects of the documentation. An average of
about forty plans and maps is necessary for the
documentation of just one single mausoleum. Up to date,
the survey of four of the eighteen mausoleums has been
completed and made available for publication.
2. METHODS OF SURVEYING IN ARCHAEOLOGY
2.1 Commonly Used Methods
Archaeological research covers many different activities.
Here, we shall concentrate on one problem only, that is
the measurement of geometric shapes of objects and
topography, and their representation in graphical form.
The difficult - and thus interesting - aspect of archaeo-
logical surveying projects is caused by the large variety
of possible objects and their sizes.
In many cases we have objects ranging from some milli-
metres to some metres and buildings or excavations
ranging from some metres to some hundred metres.
Hence, the resulting documents will have scales between
about 1:1 to 1:1 000. This kind of documentation is
usually done by the archaeologists themselves. Drawings
are created indirect view of the object with the aid of simple
instrumentation, such as rulers, measuring tapes, and
spirit levels. Photographs, not indended for photogram-
metric treatment, complete this kind of documentation.
For larger areas or topographic surfaces tacheometric
equipment is used occasionally. Close range photo-
grammetry has successfully been used for many
archaeological tasks but still must be considered a rare
technique when set into relation to the large number of
projects accomplished without.
2.2 Possible Methods
In figure 1 possible techniques for surveying are arranged
according to the scale of the final document which in turn
is a function of object size and possible representation of
details. A distinction is made between methods observing
point after point and methods recording a complete area
in a comparatively short time. All these methods are
suitable for archeaological applications. In many cases,
they are not considered, however. A major reason for
neglecting modern methods is the fact that specially
trained personell and costly technical equipment are
needed. Nevertheless, the renunciation of modern sur-
veying possibilities may result in an unnecessary high
consumation of time and money.
Simple measurement methods will most likely not be
sufficent if
- the objects have rather complicated shapes
- time is an important factor on site
- the objects are very small or very large.
In these cases, surveyors and/or photogrammetrists
should join the archaeological teams and put their
knowledge into practice. The Tang project has shown that
a combined approach yields good results for moderate
cost and within a reasonable amount of time.
MAPPING
hse oe e es REMOTE * SENS. SAT. ee
ee oe PHOT. ATRPLANEee eo
eo LOWeALT. ¢ PHOT. oo
OF AREAS ++. «CLOSE* RANGE* PHOT. eee?
eee e s LASER* SCANNERe ee»
MAPPING OF
oo. . e. eo GLOBAL e POS ./9 SYSTEM.
eo oe TACHEOMETRY e060 cc cc cco
SINGLE POINTS ee STMPLE MEASUREMENT See - - - -
SCALE qe x 10 100
1 000 10 000 100.000 1. Mill
OBJECTS + Detail
IN THE
TANG PROJECT
CORRESPONDING S"C U LIP TU RE S; TO P'"OGOmATP Hv
+ Tower Mounds
Complete + +
+ Mounds of tumuli
+ Tunnel Entrance
+ Gate Areas
+ Procession Way
+ Mausoleum
Mausoleum incl. Attendant Tombs +
Group of Mausoleums +
All Mausoleums +
Shaanxi Province +
Figure 1: Surveying methods in archaeology and their applications in the Tang project
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B5. Vienna 1996
