Digital Documentation of a Byzantine Rock-Carved Structure in Konya: Kiriakon Monastery, Sille

Abstract

Digital documentation methods enable the acquisition of viable data to preserve cultural heritage and its accurate transfer to future generations. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) equipment are technical tools that have essential functions in the three-dimensional (3D) modeling of structures of historical importance. In the geographic referencing and visualization of historical structures with their surroundings, UAVs are often used, and for the visualization of the interior spaces of structures as a whole, TLS is popular. The Kiriakon Monastery, a rock-carved, cross-in-square, four-supports simple provincial type of church, and several different structures around it within the borders of Sille in Konya Province are investigated in this study. As one of the essential rock-carved monasteries in the Lycaonia region, the Kiriakon Monastery, which was designed around a courtyard and features spaces carved into the rock, is one of the most important Middle Byzantine period structures that have survived to the present day in Sille. Although both time and external factors have damaged the church section of the monastery, it reveals the richness of Byzantine period rock-carved church decoration designs with rich relief decorations. The Kiriakon Monastery, which is being increasingly damaged with time, does not have smooth geometric surfaces and consists of rock-carved spaces, and so documentation studies cannot be performed reliably with classical measurement methods. Instead, the Kiriakon Monastery can be evaluated as an important part of the historical cultural heritage of Anatolia, mainly containing rock-carved spaces from the Byzantine period, through documentation based on measurements obtained with the help of technological methods that are subsequently transferred to a digital environment. In this study, the digital documentation of Sille’s Kiriakon Monastery was georeferenced using UAV technology. Interior 3D models of the structure were created from TLS data and then integrated with the interior and exterior surface data.