Terrestrial laser scanning for 3D archaeological documentation. The prehistoric Cave of Sa Miniera de Santu Josi (Sardinia, Italy)

Caves have a great archaeological importance: they were used as a dwelling, as a shelter of animals, as an occasional refuge both for funerary and religious purposes. A cave survey is the first step towards their exploration. This study describes the San Giorgio cave's survey that is the object of an archaeological research that concerns both the area above it and the underground environments. The cave, located in the north-west of Sardinia, has an extension of about 140 meters and has a maximum depth (surveyed) of -15 meters. Sixty-two TLS scans were carried out producing 1.5 milliard points. The Poisson surface reconstruction algorithm [3] is used to produce the 3D Model. A 3D model in low resolution can be adopted for aims of public archaeology; however archaeologists should take advantage of all the information available in the original point cloud.