A Browser-Based 3D Scientific Visualisation of the Keros Excavations

Abstract

During 2007-2008 and again in 2016-2018 the McDonald Institute of the University of Cambridge, and in collaboration with The Cyprus Institute during the later campaign, has been conducting excavation on the small islet of Dhaskalio, just off the west coast of the Cycladic island of Keros in Greece. Today inhabited, the island was the site of the world’s earliest maritime sanctuary (ca. 2750-2300 BC). Recent excavations are highlighting the remarkable monumentality of the proto-urban settlement adjacent to the sanctuary, which shows precocious evidence for metalworking and agricultural intensification. The comprehensive paper-free digital recording strategy (to be described in full elsewhere) includes an iPad-based recording system (iDig) used in the field and in the laboratory, producing a single excavation database. Spatially, individual contexts are recorded using photogrammetry. Additionally, each excavation trench is 3D documented by means of a terrestrial laser – scanner. The latter aspect of the work is reported in detail here.