The Stone of the Elephant, the survey of what was not surveyable

Methodology/Approach: In the northern part of Sardinia1, in Italy, there is an unique volcanic stone2: the natural forces worked on it giving to the stone a strange elephant shape; the ancient humans worked on it carving sepulchres for their deaths; in the contemporary age, after centuries when the monument was lost and forgotten, the works for a new road brought to light the stone. This monument it’s a mix of natural and architectonic events and it’s a very interesting case study for any real surveyor because it has a shape almost impossible to survey with traditional measuring solutions. At the same time its strange and original shape gives no guaranties about the health status of this monument: if a small part should get lost it will not be easy to verify the real damage. Moreover the stone is now placed along a road and it’s freely accessible night and day without any kind of surveillance; so, what will happen in case of a car crash or in case of some tourist with a hammer and bad intentions? Results: A complete survey of the shape of the stone was needed3, so our survey laboratory decides to go there to produce a meaningful case study, facing the unsurveyable stone with contemporary laserscan technology and with our research experience. The work required only two days to be completed, producing an accurate laserscan survey integrated by a topographical network4. Here we present the first results of this work, where we define the real shape of this ancient monument in a specific moment, producing an useful archive which defines the definitive shape of the elephant stone at the beginning of the XXI Century, starting from now any transformation can be clearly verified as well any complete study can be developed starting from a very accurate three dimensional model.