Novel application of 3D documentation techniques at a submerged Late Pleistocene cave site in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Abstract

The submerged cave site of Hoyo Negro, located along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, contains a diverse fossil assemblage of extinct megafauna as well as a nearly complete human skeleton. The remote nature of the site, and its limited access for researchers, requires the use of specialized documentation techniques in order to fully record the site and all its elements in three dimensions. The Proyecto Arqueologico Subacuatico Hoyo Negro of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) of Mexico in cooperation with the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology (CISA3) at the University of California, San Diego is developing advanced protocols for structure-from-motion documentation and visualization of underwater cultural heritage sites.