imaging is more and more becoming an integral part of data acquisition
and analysis in bioarchaeological research. Many new emerging technologies
are now contributing to research dissemination within the field. This
has become and increasingly important aspect of bioarchaeological research
over the past several decades, with community based reporting equal
in importance to academic and more traditional scholarly-based methods.
Reports are moving away from the dry analytical lists of data to more
overviews of results. Further, many communities want to see such dissemination
accessible to education programs for students, and digital media is
one of the ways of enhancing the process.
imaging presents a number of unique advantages. Once captured, the original
object can be returned to its repository for safekeeping and the digital
data can be stored. Digital models can be measured, described, projected
or reproduced in physical form. The ability to store the digital model
means that future researchers can revisit the collection to gather new
measurements or observations that the original researchers did not think
to collect. Thus, 3D modeling facilitates not only research, but also
the ultimate preservation of the objects of study.