Photogrammetric reconstruction of adobe architecture at Túcume, Peru

Abstract

In northern Peru, near the city of Chiclayo, a unique complex of adobe architecture exists, built since about 3000 years ago until it was finished during the Sican period in the 13 century A.D. The archaeological investigations of the adobe buildings have not been completed until now, therefore, there is an interest concerning a photorealistic 3D model of the complex in the archaeological community involved into scientific research at Tucume. As the adobe buildings are heavily affected by wind erosion, the architecture should be modelled as good as possible in an unaffected state. For this reason, aerial imagery from the years 1949 and 1983 were acquired from the Peruvian SAN (Servicio Aerofotografico Nacional, Lima), which show the adobe complex in two different states. As no control points existed for the 1949 images, two maps and the 1983 imagery had to be used for their orientation. The orientation of the 1983 images was accomplished on an analytical plotter WILD S9, while for the orientation of the 1949 images both, the analytical plotter and a digital photogrammetric workstation Virtuozo 3.1, were used. The photogrammetric products derived from the oriented 1949 images are a manually measured DTM, an automatically generated DSM, an orthomosaic and a photorealistic 3D model produced using two different visualization software packages, Skyline Terra Builder / Explorer Pro and ERDAS Imagine Virtual GIS. The 3D model now can serve archaeologists and other scientists as a means for documentation, analysis and presentation of the cultural heritage site of Tucume in a state of preservation as in 1949.