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technology

Axes and ancient boat building skills

CMA masters students spent most of the long bank holiday weekend at Buckler’s Hard in the New Forest learning ancient boat and ship building skills. The backdrop of the River Beaulieu, the intermittent sunshine and occasional ice cream belie the serious labour (both physical and intellectual) involved in learning to work with adzes and axes. Using a range of replica tools students worked with chunks of oak to recreate boat building technologies from the Bronze Age to the Post Medieval period. Continue reading →

Data mining and image processing experiments on photographs from Portus

As large-scale data processing becomes easier and more affordable to everyone, so too increases the temptation to try and use new technologies and methods to reduce the amount of manual labor that usually comes with classifying and categorising big data collections. With textual data, the techniques of extracting useful information from unstructured data have already been more or less established. Continue reading →

Photogrammetry

During the 2013 excavation season whilst completing a series of laser scan models of the site I also completed a number of photogrammetry captures of specific artefacts. The following are a few examples of the work completed and allows for a virtual record that can be used by archaeologists off site within their analysis of these artefacts. The Roman architectural fragments illustrated here are currently being studied by Dottssa Eleonora Gasparini through this process. Continue reading →

Reconstructing Portus – Rome’s Lost Empire

Why produce computer models? We have been producing computer graphic representations as part of our work at Portus since 2007. These are used for a number of purposes. Firstly, they help us to bring together all the many forms of digital data gathered on site, through survey, geophysics, photogrammetry, laser scanning and other tools. For example, we are combining three-dimensional geophysics with laser scans and excavated sections to understand the development of the Building 5. 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 →

3D Imaging for Archaeology using Structure Light Technology: Dr. Chris Begley: April 25th, 10:30am

The Centre for Maritime Archaeology Research Seminar series continues on April 25 at 10:30 in the Burgess Building, Avenue Campus, University of Southampton:   ’3D Imaging for Archaeology using Structured Light Technology: Developments in Systems for Remote Areas, Hostile Environments, and Maritime Archaeology’ Christopher Begley, Ph.D. Continue reading →