engleski

An image-based modeling approach to the documentation of an intact late antiquity tomb at Velić, Croatia

Systematic archaeological excavations at the site Velić near Trilj began in 2013. At this point, the remains of the rectangular ground plan building were documented. Its central structure has a semicircular apse. The whole object can be roughly dated to the period of late antiquity and interpreted as an early Christian memoria that consists of three rooms and an east-west oriented vaulted tomb. The tomb was found open. Nevertheless, the remains of an older adult male were found inside. The excavation was characterized by the extreme poverty of small finds, which means that the precise dating of the site is not possible so far. In the last days of the 2019 excavation campaign, another tomb situated beneath the central structure with an apse was documented. This time it was closed and intact. Anyone who ever worked in archaeology knows how rare these types of situations are and that in practice we usually deal with remains of structures, while in this case, the entire tomb seemed undisturbed since antiquity. After the stone slab was carefully removed, a tomb with a vaulted ceiling and two benches was revealed. The skeletal remains of four individuals were identified: a younger male adult and three children. Although the tomb and its state of preservation were astonishing, the excavation was faced with the daunting task of documenting the buried structure and its content. Since image-based modeling has been used as a practical and detailed documentation tool in the research so far, it was only natural to approach this part of our excavations in the same manner. This paper will present the difficulties and the solutions that came across during the documentation process in this tomb, as well as some of the conclusions and interpretations of the tomb and the larger complex around it.

image-based modeling ; documentation ; late antiquity ; tomb ; Velić

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