Lincolnshire's archaeology - now in 3D...

When it comes to movies, I confess I'm not a big fan of 3D.  Paying extra for the right to wear uncomfortable and silly glasses isn't something the effect is worth, for me.  But archaeology in 3D?  Well that's a different story.

3D scanning of collections is taking off in in a big way across the museum world, and I'm pleased to say that the project my own museum is working on puts us right there on the cutting edge.  The project is actually a result of us winning the prestigious Contemporary Art Society prize - leading to us being able to purchase a top quality 3D scanner and employ an intern to spend some intensive time using it to digitize selected items from our collections.  The focus of the project is contemporary art - a German artist called Oliver Laric will be using the scans to produce a new artwork for the collections - but the spin off benefits for the collections involved are worth highlighting.

The website developed especially for the project can be found here, and from there you can download the proper stl files for each scan and play with it fully in a 3D environment.  The images on the website and presented here are simple gifs rotating on one axis, but its only when you import them into some 3D software (such as the great free Meshlab app for iPhone) that they really come to life.  People are even starting to use the scans to create new artworks, and these can be seen in the growing 'gallery' section.  

Its the implications for enabling greater digital engagement with archaeological objects that excites me most, however, as the technology has two main benefits - firstly that people not able to visit the museum can access an entire object in one file and play with it to their heart's content and secondly that the scanning process can actually make the objects easier to understand.  As the scans are greyscale, they remove colour differences from corrosion and weathering which can trick the eye, and can make small details such as text and carving on stone much clearer.  The gifs below show some of the archaeological items scanned so far and hopefully demonstrate what I mean.  

There is a third benefit too, actually.  If you look at the medieval font scan below, you'll see its nicely placed on its stand.  The font and stand are two separate objects and this digital trickery is the first time I've been able to see them together as their physical reconstruction is a weighty problem to overcome.  The potential to reconstruct objects in a digital environment is something we've only just begun to experiment with.

Its early days and there's still a lot of experimenting to do with the technology and how we present it, such as issues with authenticity when the reverse of an object can't be scanned.  Otherwise, enjoy the spinniest post ever made on this blog! Weeeeeeeeee!

Roman milestone from Lincoln

Cast of Roman altar from Bordeaux

Anglo Saxon cross base from Digby, Lincs

Medieval font from Lincolnshire

Tombstone of Gaius Valerius (IX Legion), Lincoln

Medieval grave cover from the Malandry, Lincoln

Roman carving (column base?) from Newland, Lincoln

Roman Tyche pilaster from Lincoln

Roman stone torso from Ancaster, Lincs

Roman tombstone from lincoln

Tombstone of Flavius Helius, Lincoln

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Travels with Li Dongni - Haarlem, Netherlands (June 2013)

Whilst on our trip to Amsterdam, we decided to venture out of the city for a day to see a nearby town.  Despite initially planning to go to Delft, we decided that the train tickets were just a little too costly for a day trip and so went to nearby Haarlem instead.  It turned out to be a very good decision indeed, for though I'm sure Delft is very nice, Haarlem turned out to be a lovely place to explore, even in the rain we had to put up with.  Incidentally, it is eternally connected with the artist Frans Hals, but although it gets good reviews, we declined the opportunity to pay to see the gallery of his works.

Grote kerk

The Grote kerk (literally 'great church') at Haarlem is hard to miss as it dominates the city's main square.  Consecrated as a protestant cathedral in 1559, it is dedicated to St Bavo and although the exterior is striking, it is the interior that really shines - particularly the organ and the timber ceiling.

One part of the church that particularly caught my eye was the wonderfully carved and painted choir gate, resplendent with lions, griffons, heraldic shields and even some characters biting the scenery!

Haarlem Archaeological Museum

This small museum goes down as the biggest surprise of the entire trip, as I don't think it appears on any tourism material at all - guidebooks, city maps etc just don't acknowledge it exists.  So to stumble across it while exploring the market stalls in the main square was a wonderful moment, especially considering that it is free!

The museum itself has only been in existence since 1991 and is run by an amateur archaeological society.  The museum seemed very keen to promote the importance of studying and recording archaeology, and it left me with the distinct impression that in a country that promotes its artworks to the highest pedestal, archaeology isn't seen in the same light that it is in the UK.  Although the displays didn't cover a vast range of time, they were neat and well presented, and there was a real focus on archaeological technique and hands on activities for kids.  A good few of them were in there getting involved during our visit.

Amsterdamse poort gateway

A short walk away from the city centre (for Haarlem is not the largest place) led us to discover the 15th Century 'Amsterdamse poort' gateway, one of the original gateways into the city.  Apparently it survived a number of 19th Century attempts to demolish it and underwent renovation in 1985.  Although located next to a fairly busy road junction and some rather derelict buildings, and the grass around it clearly being a popular spot for dog 'walking', the tower itself is still quite pretty.

Windmill de Adriaan

The final stop on our wandering tour was to head out to the de Adriaan windmill, built in 1779 but rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1932.  It is a smock mill, built on the site of a Medieval defensive tower and on the banks of the river Spaarne.  Sadly, we didn't get to go inside to see the mechanisms and museum as it was closed for a private function.

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York - Roman baths and contemporary art with an archaeological twist

While on a trip to York yesterday (to celebrate my mum's birthday no less), I managed as always to get some heritage sightseeing in.

The first place was the Roman Baths museum, underneath a pub of the same name. I've been to York more times than I could possibly count, and have known about the existence of the Roman remains under this pub for many years but for some reason never gone in. I think it's because I'd always assumed it was a case of a few low walls and the odd bit of hypocaust in a bar amid the daytime drinkers, who you'd have to move aside to be able to see anything. Happily, I discovered that the remains are actually separate from the pub, in a little independent museum in the basement.

The museum consists of the remains of the baths (mainly the semicircular outline of the caldarium with numerous pilae) and a variety of scattered displays about the Roman army and some ceramic finds from the baths. Without wishing to be unkind, the museum displays are rather disjointed and not put together with a high budget or any great overarching interpretational strategy, however it is clearly a labour of love and deserves praise for that alone.

The panels attempt to put the bath's remains into the topographical context of Eboracum, and also into the wider social system of Roman bathing. Some elements of the display are rather incongruous though. Although admittedly a legionary bathhouse, this is taken to extremes in the amount of display taken over with replica military equipment - there are no less than five complete suits of lorica segmentata in the museum! Granted, the ability to try some on will definitely go down well with many visitors though.

A bit of the display also inexplicably refers to the worship of Mithras, which I'm pretty sure has no connection to the baths as the known Mithraeum in York is on Micklegate. The label was too far away for me to read though, so I might be mistaken...

Although again I'm not entirely sure why it was relevant to the remains, the little mock shrine (complete with 30p votive candles) was cute.  The Goddess the shrine was dedicated to was interesting though.  Named as 'Uberitas, Goddess of Plenty', I confess this is a deity I've never heard of.  Surely Ops, Pomona or Abundantia would be better Goddesses of plenty and abundance?  I'd be delighted to hear if anyone can enlighten me!

My second cultural adventure of the day was at St Mary's Church - a lovely venue now successfully used as a contemporary art gallery. Their new exhibition is called 'The Matter of Life and Death', and consists of ceramics created by artist Julian Stair alongside archaeological ceramics from the Yorkshire Museum collections. The overall theme is of death, and in particular the containers that people's earthly remains have been placed in, from the Bronze Age, Roman, Anglo Saxon and Medieval periods as well as ancient Egypt juxtaposed with Stair's own modern ceramics.

The exhibition is of particular interest to me as my own museum has recently had a contemporary art exhibition which has involved archaeological objects from the collections I curate.

Of course, my interest is in the historic objects more than the contemporary ones, but Stair's ceramics were of good quality, interesting form and juxtaposed well with the archaeological material, all of which was cleanly displayed and wonderfully not behind glass.  It was a risky approach, but one that has paid off as the connection that a visitor can get from an object without 8mm of safety glass in the way is extraordinary.

I was particularly interested to see that a group of Roman cremation urns still had cremated remains within them.  During our aforementioned exhibition in Lincoln, one visitor commented that they felt it was disrespectful for us to display cremated human remains as they are in storage - in sealed plastic tubs.  I would be very interested to know, in all seriousness, if that same visitor felt that displaying them within the urns they were discovered in increased the respectfulness - bearing in mind that they were on open display, and could have been touched (and, heaven forbid, even had bits removed) had a nefarious visitor so wished.

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