DOCUMENTATION OF STONE AGE ARTIFACTS 
W. Boehler 3 ,K. Boehm 3 , G. Heinz a,b , A. Justus b , Ch. Schwarz 3 , M. Siebold 3 
3 i3mainz, Institute for Spatial Information and Surveying Technology, FH Mainz, Holzstrasse 36, 55116 Mainz, Germany, 
i3mainz@geoinform.fh-mainz.de 
b Roemisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Ernst-Ludwigs-Platz 2, 55116 Mainz, Germany 
justus.coelodonta@t-online.de 
Working Group 6 
KEY WORDS: Archaeological Heritage Conservation, Close Range, 3D Scanning, Databases, Visualization, Stone Age Artifacts. 
ABSTRACT: 
In certain areas, such as the Middle Rhine Region in Germany, stone age artifacts can be found in large quantities on top soils of 
farmland. Since more than 40 years amateur archaeologists, in cooperation with the Bodendenkmalpflege (curators for archaeological 
monuments) in Mainz, are collecting these objects and store them, after registration, in their homes. In a joint research project, 
archaeologists and engineers have developed a procedure to document these artifacts and make them available in a virtual collection. 
A GOM ATOS II close range scanner, operating on a light pattern triangulation principle, is used to record a complete 3D point 
cloud representation of the stones’ surfaces. Considerable effort has been taken to increase the speed of the recording process which 
involves the execution and combination of up to a dozen of scans from different aspects. Subseqently, the single scans have to be 
merged using two-dimensional and three-dimensional reference points. Following a 3D meshing procedure, the surface points are 
thinned. The 3D virtual object can be linked with a database containing further information such as material, usage, weight, place of 
present storage, etc. Coordinates for the locations where the objects were collected are also stored in order to create a GIS. Certain 
geometric properties such as size and volume can be derived from the virtual object and introduced into the database. This policy 
makes the artifacts of the private collectors available to archaeological science and allows objective studies and comparisons. 
Interactive 3D visualization can be used to inspect and evaluate the artifacts when the data are distributed on digital data storage 
media. A special interactive viewer was designed for use in the Internet. Additional features such as visualization tools for local 
curvature and an automatic derivation of outlines for 2D drawings were developed in order to supply objective tools for inspection 
and publication. 
1. MOTIVATION 
The Middle Rhine Valley between Bingen and Koblenz has 
recently been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List of 
cultural landscapes. The Neuwied Basin north of Koblenz is a 
rich archaeological area. Evidence of human settlement is present 
very early in this region. Since the 1960s systematic excavations 
have been undertaken here on different sites. Miesenheim I 
(494.000 B.P.) and Kaerlich Seeufer (about 350.000 B.P.) gave 
us new information about subsistence strategies of lower 
Paleolithic man. Middle Paleolithic hunting strategies and 
behavior could be studied on sites like Schweinskopf/Karme- 
lenberg, Wannen, Toenchesberg 2 and Plaidter Hummerich. Our 
knowledge about Upper Paleolithic living conditions, site 
organization, technical abilities and art has been enriched by 
sites like Andernach and Goennersdorf. South of Bingen we 
have to mention the Middle Paleolithic site of Wallertheim and 
the Gravettien sites Mainz-Linsenberg and Sprendlingen. All 
these excavations are well documented. The area between the 
Neuwied Basin in the north and Wallertheim in the south has 
not been under regular archaeological investigation for a long 
time, however. 
Besides artifacts that are recovered by systematic excavations, 
many objects can be found scattered over large areas, especially 
on the various fossil gravel terraces of the rivers Rhine and 
Nahe. Usually they are brought to the surface on fields that have 
been repeatedly ploughed over many years. Since more than 40 
years amateur collectors, in cooperation with the Bodendenk 
malpflege (curators for archaeological monuments) in Mainz, 
are working on this surface sites. A scientific evaluation of 
these objects has not yet been possible because archaeologists 
do not have the resources to collect and examine all these 
findings. For that reason the research project “Paleolithic Land 
Use in Rheinhessen” was initiated. The principle aim of this 
project is to get an overview over these, in some cases, huge 
private collections. 
Up to now material from more than 50 different localities has 
been treated. During this work it turned out that different collec 
tors were working on the same sites, without knowing from 
each other. These collections have to be brought together again 
in a way that a scientific evaluation of the whole material 
becomes possible and manageable. A related problem that 
appears during studying the different collections is how to make 
the large inventories available to other archaeologists and other 
persons with an interest in stone age archaeology. Because the 
amateur collectors picked up huge amounts of material, with an 
emphasis on tools and retouched items, the traditional way of 
drawing all these artifacts is nearly impossible. 
Archaeologists and engineers started a joint project to develop a 
method to make these artifacts available to scientific evaluation 
without removing them from the private collections. This was a 
prerequisite to assure the collector’s co-operation. The docu 
mentation procedure developed relies on 3D scanning. The scan 
results are visualized in different ways and can be linked to a 
database and a geographic information system (GIS) which may 
include information where the objects were picked up and 
where their materials originally came from. The methods, 
described below, proved very promising and can be used for 
any archaeological artifacts and localities.