Towards a virtual environment for the Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa: developing a georeferenced and optimised digital dataset

Michele Smith; Dominic Stratford; Oliver Bimber; Daniel Irurah

doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.10141

Towards a virtual environment for the Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa: developing a georeferenced and optimised digital dataset

Michele Smith
, Dominic Stratford^*
, Oliver Bimber
, Daniel Irurah

^*Corresponding author for this work

Institute of Computer Graphics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Accessibility at the Sterkfontein Caves UNESCO World Heritage Site limits public and scientific engagement. The authors digitally visualised part of the cave using laser scans and photogrammetry, geospatially integrating the digital cave and fossil datasets. This enables broader access for learners, educators and scientists and enhances scientific outreach potential.

Original language	English
Article number	e50
Number of pages	6
Journal	Antiquity
Volume	99
Issue number	407
Early online date	03 Jul 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.10141
Publication status	Published - 01 Oct 2025

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Fields of science

102020 Medical informatics
102003 Image processing
102008 Computer graphics
103021 Optics
102015 Information systems
102 Computer Sciences

JKU Focus areas

Digital Transformation

Access to Document

10.15184/aqy.2025.10141

https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/298FB85847D4D2B4C564C17635252215

Cite this

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title = "Towards a virtual environment for the Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa: developing a georeferenced and optimised digital dataset",

abstract = "Accessibility at the Sterkfontein Caves UNESCO World Heritage Site limits public and scientific engagement. The authors digitally visualised part of the cave using laser scans and photogrammetry, geospatially integrating the digital cave and fossil datasets. This enables broader access for learners, educators and scientists and enhances scientific outreach potential.",

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AU - Smith, Michele

AU - Stratford, Dominic

AU - Bimber, Oliver

AU - Irurah, Daniel

PY - 2025/10/1

Y1 - 2025/10/1

N2 - Accessibility at the Sterkfontein Caves UNESCO World Heritage Site limits public and scientific engagement. The authors digitally visualised part of the cave using laser scans and photogrammetry, geospatially integrating the digital cave and fossil datasets. This enables broader access for learners, educators and scientists and enhances scientific outreach potential.

AB - Accessibility at the Sterkfontein Caves UNESCO World Heritage Site limits public and scientific engagement. The authors digitally visualised part of the cave using laser scans and photogrammetry, geospatially integrating the digital cave and fossil datasets. This enables broader access for learners, educators and scientists and enhances scientific outreach potential.

KW - South Africa

KW - accessibility

KW - augmented reality

KW - caves

KW - science communication

KW - virtual reality

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105009884842

U2 - 10.15184/aqy.2025.10141

DO - 10.15184/aqy.2025.10141

M3 - Article

SN - 0003-598X

VL - 99

JO - Antiquity

JF - Antiquity

IS - 407

M1 - e50

ER -

Towards a virtual environment for the Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa: developing a georeferenced and optimised digital dataset

Abstract

UN SDGs

Fields of science

JKU Focus areas

Access to Document

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Cite this