Abstract: Ancient tombs are precious heritage of the development of human civilization, and they are usually with extremely high historical, cultural and artistic values. Affected by various natural and man-made factors, ancient tombs are often destroyed to some extent, therefore, the digital protection of ancient tombs are urgently needed. It is usually difficult to collect the underground data by traditional tools such as total station and RTK given that ancient tombs are generally hidden underground. To this end, this paper uses the Trimble X12 3D laser scanner to realize the accurate collection of point cloud data of ancient tombs. Then, the internal and external real scenes of the ancient tombs are truly restored through 3D modeling, and on this basis, the digital protection application of the ancient tombs is studied. The research results show that this technology can provide a solid data foundation for the restoration and protection of ancient tombs.

Key words: 3D laser scanning, Trimble X12, 3D modeling, ancient tomb restoration, digital protection