By
Beau Murphy (contents author)
Summary
The Atacama Desert has been historically an area with a very low density of human settlement, basically due to its extreme environmental conditions (aridity, altitude). But these environmental conditions have also permitted an extraordinary degree of both preservation and visibility of the ancient constructions in the landscape. Taking advantage of that, the use of aerial images for archaeological prospection is here even more fruitful than in temperate or tropical regions. And this includes the ability to create accurate 3D models of large and complex sites that can be used to analyse them in different ways. In this paper we will present the process of creation of a highly detailed 3D model of the site of Turi, the largest Prehispanic settlement in the Atacama, based on low altitude aerial images taken with a UAV. We will describe the processes of data capture and processing to achieve a final result, as well as some preliminary results of the analytical approaches to the site that the 3D model is making possible.
Keywords
Atacama. Prehispanic. Settlement.