Ecab-Boca Iglesias, Mexico
| General Attributes |
DOI| 10.34946/D66W2C | |
| Project Name | Ecab-Boca Iglesias |
| Country | Mexico |
| Status | Published |
| Download |
| Spatial Data | Download (Links to all available data types will be emailed) |
| Data Type |
Size |
Device Name |
Device Type |
| Photogrammetry - Terrestrial | 36 GB | Canon PowerShot s100 | DSLR |
| LiDAR - Terrestrial | 13 GB | Faro Focus 3D x130 | Time of Flight Scanner |
| Photogrammetry - Aerial | 0.075 GB | Nikon D7100 | DSLR |
| Thermography | Not available | Flir A615 | Thermal Camera |
| Background |
| Site Description | In 1517, conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba came ashore on the Yucatan Peninsula and gazed upon the first Maya community to be encountered by a Spanish landing party. He called it “Gran Cairo.” This is the ancient site of Ecab, which was later partially razed to build what is thought to be among the earliest churches in Mexico. The site is also known as Boca Iglesias, and is located south of Cabo Catoche in northeastern-most Quintana Roo. Ecab became of one of the most remote encomiendas in colonial Mexico and was the site of a number of interesting historical events in the region, including an attack by the French pirate Pierre Sanfroy in 1571. Abandoned in 1644, the church and the casa cural (curate’s house) lie mostly in ruins today in a remote and empty corner of the Yucatan Peninsula and can only be reached by boat. The structures have managed to survive centuries of hurricanes, but are fast approaching a more precarious state of decay. Centro INAH Quintana Roo, under the direction of Adriana Velázquez Morlet, has partnered with CHEI to conduct advanced diagnostic imaging of these historically significant buildings. The collaborative structural health assessment of the church and the casa cural will inform a conservation strategy for these vestiges of Mexico’s patrimony. | |
| Project Description | "The case study presented here is work performed at the site
of Ecab located at the northeastern tip of the Yucatan peninsula
in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The site has a rich history and
contains what is believed to be the first church of Mexico
which was built in the mid-16th century and serves as an
important part of Mexican cultural heritage. The site also
contains the church caretaker's house, also referred to as Casa
Cural. Both the church and Casa Cural are in a dangerous state
of decay having endured centuries of hurricanes, erosion, and
encroachment of vegetation which have all contributed to
structural damages. More detail on the description of the site
as well as the techniques utilized on the short expedition can be
found in [8], [21]. The work was performed by the Center of
Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and
Archaeology (CISA3) in collaboration with the National
Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) which is the
government entity that oversees the documentation and
preservation of cultural heritage sites in Mexico. INAH is
working to develop a conservation plan for the site because of
the structures' state of health and the site's vulnerability to
hurricanes on the isolated coastline. The team from CISA3
traveled to the remote site to acquire data that will inform
preservation decisions and serve as an accurate historical
record of the site's current state of health. Time on site was
limited to two short days because of the two hour boat ride
required to get to and from the site. The difficulty of accessing
the site serves as an example that highlights the benefit of
comprehensive digital documentation records which can be
used off-site in order to make preservation decisions. "
From article:
M. Hess, V. Petrovic, D. Meyer, D. Rissolo and F. Kuester, "Fusion of multimodal three-dimensional data for comprehensive digital documentation of cultural heritage sites," 2015 Digital Heritage, Granada, Spain, 2015, pp. 595-602, doi: 10.1109/DigitalHeritage.2015.7419578.
| |
| Collection Date | 2014-03-29 to 2014-03-29 |
| Publication Date | 2026-02-01 |
| License Type | CC BY-NC |
| Model Information |
| Reuse Score | B - High-Quality Model without Georeferencing |
| Curator Notes | The exact location is not made public - Scott McAvoy OH3D |
| Citation |
| Michael Hess, Dominique Meyer, Aliya Hoff, Dominique Rissolo, Jeffrey Glover, Falko Kuester, Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3), Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) 2026: Ecab-Boca Iglesias - Photogrammetry - Terrestrial, LiDAR - Terrestrial, Photogrammetry - Aerial, Thermography. Distributed by Open Heritage 3D. https://doi.org/10.34946/D66W2C |
Go Back