  Within anthropology, the use of three-dimensional (3D) imaging has become
increasingly standard and widespread since it broadens the available avenues
for addressing a wide range of key issues. The ease with which 3D models can be
shared has had major impacts for research, cultural heritage, education,
science communication, and public engagement, as well as contributing to the
preservation of the physical specimens and archiving collections in widely
accessible data bases. Current scanning protocols have the ability to create
the required research quality 3D models; however, they tend to be time and
labor intensive and not practical when working with large collections. Here we
describe a streamlined, Batch Artifact Scanning Protocol we have developed to
rapidly create 3D models using a medical CT scanner. Though this method can be
used on a variety of material types, we use a large collection of
experimentally broken ungulate limb bones. Using the Batch Artifact Scanning
Protocol, we were able to efficiently create 3D models of 2,474 bone fragments
at a rate of less than $3$ minutes per specimen, as opposed to an average of 50
minutes per specimen using structured light scanning.
