The Archaeological Documentation Workflow

▶ The Archaeological Documentation Workflow (~~7 min)

Clip: 06 | Duration: ~7 min | Recording segment: ~26:00 → ~33:30

Prerequisites

From 3D Models to Knowledge: Proxies and the Knowledge Graph

Overview

The full pipeline from excavation to digital reconstruction: field documentation, post-excavation processing, and virtual reconstruction using EM proxies. The hidden cost of post-excavation is addressed, including commercial archaeology contexts and the use of AI-assisted visualisation tools.

Full workflow: excavation → field docs → office processing → EM archive.

Full workflow: excavation → field docs → office processing → EM archive.

Key Concepts

  • Post-excavation is the most time-consuming (and often under-budgeted) phase.

  • EM provides a structured pipeline: raw data → proxy → virtual reconstruction.

  • Commercial archaeology use cases drive EM’s scalability requirements.

  • AI tools (e.g., image generation from proxy volumes) are an experimental extension.

Screenshots

Post-excavation as the 'hidden cost' in archaeological projects.

Post-excavation as the ‘hidden cost’ in archaeological projects.

EM reconstruction pipeline: proxy volume → virtual anastylosis.

EM reconstruction pipeline: proxy volume → virtual anastylosis.

Try It Yourself

Sketch the documentation workflow for a hypothetical excavation using the four EM phases.

Note

A video walkthrough for this tutorial will be available on the Extended Matrix YouTube channel.

See also

Multi-Temporal 3D Visualization Demo