DEVELOPMENT OF GEODATABASE FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN BUJANG VALLEY KEDAH

Abstract

In recent years, there has been little adoption of geospatial technology applications towards the archaeological excavation project in Malaysia which yields increasing amount of data on historical assets. Those data however been processed and managed via conventional method of paper form- based and less associated spatial data which is actually can be necessary to improve the finding method of potential archaeological sites. This paper presents the application of Geographical Information System (GIS) towards the archaeology data management by adopting geodatabase for storing archaeology information and visualizing the archaeological monuments via method of 3D Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS). The research area is located within the Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum, Merbok, Kedah which known to locate most of the ancient relics that being preserved over time. The TLS method is used to scan the interior and exterior structures of the monuments due to its capability in representing 3D visualization digitally from point cloud data and close to the accuracy of the actual structure. In addition, the geodatabase can provide the organization a better medium to create large-scale databases for organizing, analyzing and sharing the products of the field research with other users. The GIS capability to capture, integrate, store, edit, analyze and display geospatial data can really help the effort in preserving the archaeological information from lost over time.