Macro photogrammetry & surface features extraction for paleolithic portable art documentation

Abstract

In this article, we propose a methodology for the archaeological documentation of limestone plaquettes decorated with faint paintings and fine engravings. The plaquette number 16330 is presented, belonging to the portable art collection in Cova del Parpalló (Gandía, Spain), one of the most important Paleolithic sites in the UNESCO’s Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Macro photogrammetry is used to generate a 3D model and basic treatments on raster images. The resulting 3D model has a spatial resolution of tens of microns and was used to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) and orthorectified macro photographs for documenting the engravings and paintings. All stages of the workflow are detailed in-depth, specifying the data collection parameters and the configuration used in the subsequent processing with HyperCube and DStretch software. The resulting documentation is accurate, reproducible, and objective and allows the reinterpretation of the available graphic documentation started in the 1990s.