Application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging to Experimental Archaeology Studies

Abstract

In this work, we present a study on experimental archaeology replicas of 170,000-year-old digging sticks excavated in 2012 in the archaeological site of Poggetti Vecchi (Grosseto, Italy). One of the techniques used for documenting and studying the sticks was the reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) technique, which allows the creation of an interactive image by varying the angle of illumination. A reconstruction of the 3D profile of the surface was also made by applying the technique of photometric stereo imaging to the RTI images.

Keywords

• experimental archaeology
• digging sticks
• Middle Paleolithic
• Neanderthal
• reflectance transformation imaging
• photometric stereo imaging