During the 2019 field season, Flavia Amato tested the potential of the David 3D scanner recently acquired by the expedition, working on different materials such as pottery, flint, obsidian, animal bones and clay objects both from the Lagodekhi local Museum and from the Georgian-Italian excavations at the Tsiteli Gorebi 5 site (Fig. 18).
The David 3D scanning software and camera assembly is a Structured Light Setup that generates 3D models and meshes that can be exported into well-known file formats and can be imported and processed in most 3D applications, such as the open source system MeshLab, a useful tool for processing and editing 3D triangular meshes and also for preparing models for 3D printing. The 3D scan creates a cloud of points from data from the surface of the objects, and thus allows us to analyse the precise morphology of archaeological finds and makes the identification of features hardly distinguishable by the naked eye much easier. Furthermore, the 3D model, which is very precise in size and shape, can be transformed by the help of a further software in 2D drawings, thus allowing the comparison with traditional drawings.
In the near future, all the 3D models may be inserted into a specific software that could categorise the finds and create hierarchical groups by discerning similarities and differences among them. An automatic classification of the finds will thus be developed, with may be useful for chrono-typological analyses.
In addition to obtaining a 3D image, the scanner also allows to record of the texture and the colour of the objects. This is rather easy to obtain in the case of materials like pottery (Fig. 19).
In other cases, for example when the material of the object is black and reflectant, like in the case of obsidian, this is impossible. In such cases it is necessary to add the photos to the image at a later time, by using a different software, such as MeshLab (Fig. 20).
We have also tried the 3D scan on animal bones and on bones objects (Fig. 21, Fig. 22) with very brilliant results. The 3D models are incredibly accurate, and make all the measurement easier, allowing for a complete analysis of the item and of its geometry.
Finally, the experiments carried out during the 2019 field season allowed us to obtain 3D images of objects which are very difficult to draw by hand, such the clay lion from Lagodekhi Local Museum, which is the symbol of the Georgian Italian Lagodekhi Archaeological Project (Fig. 23).
