Assisted Archaeological Line Drawing

Published by the IEEE Computer Society 0018-9162/11/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE TRADITIONAL LINE DRAWING Archaeologists use several approaches to manually render line drawings of objects and scenes, including the grid method, as Figure 1b shows.2 The draftsman determines a coordinate system, measures the positions of convex and concave feature points using rulers, and records these measurements on millimeter paper at a specific scale. The final step is to connect the recorded feature points to form a smooth line drawing. Measuring and drafting is time consuming and, because archaeological reports often require multiple drawings for a given site, can necessitate much fieldwork. Low accuracy is another drawback of manual line drawing: the limitations of human vision can cause significant measurement errors, especially for large-scale scenes. The draftsman’s experience and qualifications also greatly influence the quality of drawings. In addition, due to erosion or weathering, many carved objects have a mottled texture that obscures their original appearance.