Life Histories of Theban Tombs

This project represents a collaboration with the Departement für Altertumswissenschaften, Ägyptologie of University Basel and the Engineering Geology group of the Geological Institute, ETH Zurich. The main goal of the projects is obtaining a better understanding of the evolution of the tomb complexes in Sheikh Abd’el-Qurnah South. The contributions of the Geosensors and Engineering Geodesy group range from the generation of 3D Models of individual tombs as well as of the whole tomb complex to the photorealistic visualizations and digital reconstruction of individual findings (e.g. toe prosthesis). Because of the different dimensions and aspired precision and resolution of the models, the point clouds used for 3D models of the tomb complexes were acquired using terrestrial laser scanning whereas the geometry and texture of the individual findings were acquired using the structured light hand scanner. On the one hand, the biggest challenge in evaluating the laser scan data was how to deal with the large quantities of the data, which had to be evaluated using the standard software packages. On the other hand, new approaches based on the established photogrammetry methods (e.g. template matching) had to be developed to handle reconstruction of the ruined objects.

In the course of four measurement campaigns, which took place between 2015 and 2018, several hundred terrestrial laser scans were carried out and the geometric and radiometric data of more than 100 objects, which were discovered during excavation, were captured. Using these data, a digital surface model of the surrounding of the tomb complexes TT95 and TT94 was derived. Furthermore, high resolution and partially textured models of individual tomb complexes were generated. The results summarizing the project, together with the challenges and possible approaches for documenting the archeological sites with a combination of terrestrial laser scans and photogrammetry, was presented at the FIG congress 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey.