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Portus Project, Page 5

Plans for resuming joint excavation

I have just been down to Portus today to discuss plans for resuming our joint excavation at the Palazzo Imperiale with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (Ostia Antica) in January. I hope that the results from this coupled with the screening of the BBC1 programme Rome’s Lost Empire on Sunday will remind people of the importance and richness of this unique site. Continue reading →

Rome’s Lost Empire

A documentary called Rome’s Lost Empire featuring our work at Portus funded by the AHRC and the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (Ostia Antica) was broadcast on BBC One in the UK at 8:40 pm on Sunday 9th December 2012. You can watch it now on BBC iPlayer from within the UK. If you are interested in behind the scenes information on the computer graphics on the programme and how it benefits our research read the Reconstructing Portus – Rome’s Lost Empire post. Continue reading →

Funding for multidisciplinary field school at Portus

We have been awarded funding from a Student Centredness fund grant to create a unique field school at Portus that will provide the context for novel learning experiences to students from across the University, including an on-line infrastructure to build a community around a period of archaeological fieldwork in Italy. It will also benefit from a related SC project aimed at providing virtual access to the Portus fieldwork experience. Continue reading →

Photographing Portus

Working underground presents a unique photographic challenge: Here we can see myself and James Miles laser scanning a subterranean corridor in the Imperial Palace. The long exposures required to capture a dimly lit scene mean that light and movement take on the form of blurs and shadows. Photography has been extremely important to the Portus Project. Continue reading →

Laser Scanning at Portus

In the past week myself and Gareth Beale have spent time capturing the subterranean areas of  the Imperial Palace at Portus. We have been trialing the use of the Leica Scan Station C10 for archaeological documentation and the results so far appear very impressive. All archaeological remains are subject to constant deterioration, this is especially true of substantial architectural remains such as the Imperial Palace. Continue reading →

Microsoft Research and UC Berkeley Collaboration – Portus Chronozoom

We have been working with colleagues in Microsoft Research and at UC Berkeley to create Chronozoom timelines that describe Roman archaeology, with a view to populating a timeline for the Roman world in due course. Our first pilot has been at Portus, where we have charted the creation and eventual abandonment of the site. We have only just started to develop the Portus Chronozoom and there is much more multimedia content to add but please do have a look, and at the wider Chronozoom project. Continue reading →

Finds processing at the BSR

The brick with textile embedded in it Jude and I are currently in Rome carrying out finds processing in the laboratory of the British School at Rome. We have been processing for a few days discovering fairly run-of-the-mill stuff in the bags and boxes. For Jude this is brick stamps and for me a lot of nails, rusty and corroded. Today, however, was a good day when pearls came out of the many oysters we have opened. Continue reading →