The usage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for 3D mapping of archaeological sites

In archaeological sites, mapping, documentation, registration, and visualization of cultural heritage is very important for both cultural heritage's conservation, understanding of the historical importance and to transmit future generations. Traditionally, mapping and documentation studies are carried out through terrestrial measurements performed during excavation or at the end of each workday. Together with the improvements in image acquisition and processing techniques, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become an alternative for many applications including archaeological areas, historic sites, and cultural heritage buildings with accurately and efficiently. The UAVs provide the user low cost, fast data collection even in real-time, and application flexibility for mapping especially of small areas. This study aimed to investigate the usability of UAVs for 3D mapping of archaeological sites. For this puipose, two measurement campaigns were carried out in two different archaeological sites, Alacahoyiik and §apinuva. From the outcome of this study, it is clear that aerial maps and 3D models of the studied sites were produced with UAV measurements within a cm to dm level of accuracy in a fast and cost-effective manner. In general, the results show that UAVs can be used for many archaeological mapping and documentation studies as a strong alternative to high cost and labor conventional terrestrial and photogrammetnc surveying methods.