Spanish rock-art documentation, the ARAM project

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ARAM project

[CAA 2015 – session 3C abstract]

In the latest three years, we have applied our own documentation methodology over 45 rock-art shelters from different regions of Spain. We developed a register system that combines the data acquired by 3D scanning technology, photogrammetry, high-resolution spherical images …

by Jorge ANGAS, Manuel BEA



CAA2015_9043rd International Conference on Computer Applications
and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA 2015)

Session 3C: Computer and rock art studies:
data collection, interpretation and communication

[March 31 2015, Siena] – abstract


Geometric documentation and diffusion
of the rock-art in Spain: ARAM project

Rock-art is one of the field’s works that brings the most difficulties in its documentation, both geometric and graphic. The main difficulty is the importance of the objective register of each painted or engraved motif, as well as its relationship with the geometry of the place and substrate where they were created. This point is very important, because the reliable reproduction of the graphic and metric character allows us to research and explain the semiotics of each rock-art group. In recent years, there have been important results that have enabled the improvement of the quality of graphic documentation of the decorated sites, with very notable progress in 3D documentation of rock-art. This improvement of data acquisition allows the perfect presentation and also a “real” perception of the represented works. Nevertheless, there is not yet a methodological standardization that we can use to document, to research, to spread and to preserve rock-art. On the other hand, the proliferation of new technologies and methodologies for document and spreading of Cultural Heritage in general has been quite relevant, and rock-art in particular, as a constant in the last few years, evolving in time with the available technology.

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ARAM project – click to enlarge

In the latest three years, we have applied our own documentation methodology over 45 rock-art shelters from different regions of Spain: Aragón, Castilla-la Mancha, Extremadura and Murcia, most of them inscribed in the World Heritage List. We developed a register system that combines the data acquired by 3D scanning technology (structured white light, time-of-flight, phase shift), photogrammetry, high-resolution spherical images both terrestrial and aerial and, finally, their organization by metadata.

The principal result of this research has been to contribute in a different concept for the registration, analysis and appreciation of rock-art allowing us a more exhaustive exploitation of the graphic and metric documentation. Additionally, it contributes to the gradual change towards the tridimensional graphic representation by using new digital supports.

By this registration system (combining 3D scanning technology, spherical ground and aerial photography, digital tracings and their organization through out digital access file-data) the obtained information has been processed in order to create new products to improve the impact of the spreading by using a web platform.

ARAM project

ARAM project

The documentation generated has been transformed and uploaded to the RAM Project: Rock-Art and Multimedia Accessibility web page (http://proyectoaram.tecnitop.com/), intending to serve as a link between the Rock Art and Society in general, with special attention to those groups with reduced mobility. The owners of this website want to open a digital platform (with open access archives, for whose inquiry it is not necessary the use of proprietary software or difficult to manage) where a large number of documented rock-art sites (Palaeolithic, Levantine and Schematic), as a nexus between different cultural areas in the Iberian Peninsula, can be exposed..

Jorge ANGAS, Manuel BEA

 


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