Application of Handheld Laser Rangefinders in Archaeological Research
During the drafting of planar and sectional drawings of tombs, the length, width and height of each tomb must be measured and recorded for scaled mapping. Take a vertical earthen pit tomb with identical top and bottom dimensions as an example. To measure the chamber width, set the handheld laser rangefinder (Hilti PD42) to measure from the base of the device. Place the bottom of the instrument firmly against the tomb wall, keep it horizontal and press the measurement key; the tomb width will be displayed instantly on the screen. Length measurement follows the same method. For depth measurement, readings can be taken vertically downward from the tomb opening, or a target plate can be placed at the opening for upward measurement from the bottom, with identical results. For tombs with inconsistent top and bottom sizes, extension rods and delayed measurement mode may be used to eliminate interference from sloped wall surfaces.
Measurement of burial mounds. Switch the handheld laser rangefinder to triangular measurement mode. Taking the instrument as the vertex, preferably at the same horizontal level as the mound base, measure the distances to the bottom and top of the mound respectively. The device will automatically calculate and display the mound height. This function is highly practical for fieldwork. In the investigation of the Great Wall cultural heritage, it enables height measurement of inaccessible or unclimbable beacon towers. It is also widely applied during the Third National
Cultural Relics Survey to measure hard-to-reach ancient buildings, stone carvings and other heritage sites.
Area and volume measurement are also extensively applied in archaeology, including the area of exploration units, tomb opening area, city site coverage, and earthwork volume of exploration pits and tombs. Simply switch the rangefinder to the corresponding functional mode and collect two to three sets of dimensional data to obtain accurate area and volume results. The layout setting-out function of handheld laser rangefinders is not elaborated here, as total stations and GPS‑RTK systems deliver far more powerful performance in this regard.
