'Fragmented Heritage' From the Kilometre to the Nanometre: Automated 3D Technology to Revolutionize Landscape, Site, and Artefact Analyses

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This project aims to revolutionize landscape, site, and artefact analyses by bringing new transformative digital recording methods and computed analysis to fields that are traditionally labour intensive. The scale of the resultant technology and capability will generate a paradigm shift in the way that spatial and functional data are studied in heritage sciences.Conventional 'refit analysis' requires an expert to study thousands of individual pieces from prehistoric archaeological sites and try to find pieces that fit together, eventually reconstructing objects, such as stone tool cores. Due to the size and complexity of these sites, it makes them important for understanding past human behaviour, however this also makes them the least understood by archaeologists and the public. The amount of effort this requires increases exponentially with assemblage size and generally entire sites can not be studied. Automation of this process will transform working practices bringing rapid and total surveys in reach of many more projects. The implications of such capability are widespread. At a site and landscape level the addition of digital recording, automated capture and processing to augment landscape survey will enhance the ability to archaeologically record and resolve complex surface scatters in landscapes, this will also allow sites that have previously been too remote and inhospitable to be surveyed. Work can then be done faster and allow areas for targeted survey to be identified easily and safely. At a macro scale, the method will resolve complex associations facilitating interpretation through visualisations and aiding physical reconstruction. The generation of high fidelity digital output will enable closer working of researchers across traditional boundaries and will benefit the specialist and nonspecialist alike. These combined transformative scalable approaches to refit analysis will have broad application to all disciplines working with objects across the arts and humanities - ranging from three-dimensional artists to heritage professionals such as conservators/ restorers and even impacting on other disciplines such as forensic science.Outputs of the project will be highly visual and are tailored to maximise impact with the involvement of a visual artist as an integral part of the project team. The project teams involved in the various work packages involve high profile international co-investigators.