Digital archaeological documentation of the Palace of Ardašīr I at Firūzabad, Iran: A first glimpse

Abstract

Digital documentation of archaeological remains advanced considerably thanks to the development of informatics during the two last decades. Iran, as a country with enormous number of archaeological sites deserves a special attention in this regard. In this article, we present the results of the study and digital documentation realized on the Palace of Ardašīr dated back to the Sassanian era. The main purpose was the digital documentation of the property to prepare some information regarding the preservation state of the monument. In this approach, the Structure from Motion technique was used to document the state of preservation and potential digital reconstruction by creating a georeferenced high-resolution true-colored output, useful for ground plans and 3D modelling, of the palatial complex with the exterior as well as interior parts for monitoring the state of preservation and as basis for planning restauration works. For data processing, the Open Source Software OpenMVG was used. The documentation intent aimed mainly at providing raw data for a 3D model of the structure as basis for the medium-termed monitoring of the building. The processing outreached the expectation as the detail provide an excellent basis also for archaeological research focuses as envisaged in this paper.