Dynamically documenting archaeological excavations based on 3D modeling: a case study of the excavation of the #3 fossil of hominin cranium from Yunxian, Hubei, China

Abstract Documenting tangible cultural heritage using 3D modeling techniques is gradually becoming an indispensable component of archaeological practice. The 3D modeling techniques based on photogrammetry and LiDAR scanning enable high-accuracy and high-realistic reconstruction of sites and ruins, and have been proven a powerful tool for documenting archaeological excavations. However, dynamically documenting an ongoing excavation using these techniques is still considered tedious, time-consuming, expensive, and dependent on expertise. In these senses, documenting the archaeological excavation at the \emph{Yunxian Man} site (located in Hubei, China) is an invaluable opportunity for exploration and practice. Archaeologists determined to conduct dynamically documenting at the beginning of the 6th excavation project for the site, and established a rotation system to reconcile physical excavation with digital preservation. Through repeated practice and communication, we proposed a workflow and pursued several new methods to enhance the feasibility of dynamically documenting, and obtained multi-temporal 3D models of the ongoing archaeological excavations. In 2022, the \emph{Yunxian Man} site unearthed the most intact fossil of hominin cranium from about one million years ago in the Eurasian continent, preserving important and scarce anatomical features of early humans in Asia. As the original taphonomic context of the fossil corroded away during physical excavations, the digital documentation consisting of multi-temporal 3D models serves as permanent original data source in subsequent archaeological research. Moreover, we obtained cross-scale 3D models from geographical environment to archaeological site, excavation area, and cultural remains, and all of these 3D models are in an actual, unified coordinate framework. Thus, we can contribute to multidisciplinary cross-collaborative research through data sharing. Considering that digital documentations serve a great value in archaeological research, this paper focuses on sharing the workflow and methods to facilitate digital preservation for more archaeological projects.