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Stephen Kay

I’m the Molly Cotton Fellow at the British School at Rome, and at Portus am responsible for the topographical survey and building recording. My main research interest is in landscape survey, which means I work with geophysical survey, unmanned aerial photography, topographical survey and excavation. I have been involved in the work at Portus since 1998 when I was an undergraduate (Durham University) and we undertook the first geophysical survey. I later studied for a Masters in Archaeological Computing (MSc) at University of Southampton and subsequently worked for the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage as well as with the Soprintendenza Comunale of Rome. Since 2005 I have been working at the British School at Rome, a humanities research institute based in Rome. I have managed and been involved in many geophysical surveys and excavations throughout Italy and the Mediterranean, and more recently in Africa. When I am not working at Portus, I am a field director of the “Segni Project”, a 3 year research project between the British School at Rome and the Comune di Segni. Between 2005 and 2012 I also field directed the British School at Rome's excavation of a Roman villa as part of the Falacrinae Research Project which we are now publishing. For more about my research see: http://bsr.academia.edu/StephenKay

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Photogrammetric modelling of the Grandi Magazzini di Settimio Severo

The large brick building known as the ‘Grandi Magazzini di Settimio Severo’ lies at the heart of the port complex at Portus, at the head of the canal that opened into the Trajanic hexagonal harbour. Traditionally identified as a warehouse of the later second-century AD, its central position within the port, as well as its size (190m x 130m x 25m) suggests that it may have had several functions. Continue reading →

Topographical survey at Portus

Teaching students how to use a total station next to the Terrazza di Traiano. Photo: Hembo Pagi Hi, my name is Stephen Kay and I’m responsible for the topographical survey on the Portus Project. I am currently the Molly Cotton Fellow at the British School at Rome (www.bsr.ac.uk), one of the partner institutions for the field school. My research interests are focused on landscape archaeology, in particular on Roman urbanism in central Italy. Continue reading →

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles at Portus

Parrot AR Drone at Portus Since the start of excavations by the Portus Project in 2007, aerial photography has played an important role in the recording, analysis and presentation of the research. The ability for the archaeologist to have a bird’s-eye view of an excavation gives the opportunity to see the plan of structures, their relationships with each and alignments which are not visible at ground level. Continue reading →

Building survey

Ahead of the restoration work, that has now moved to another wall within the excavation area, we undertook further building survey of the standing structures. The focus of today’s work was to plan the top of a long wall (c.8m), ahead of its restoration, that leads into the area of the latrines. Continue reading →

Topographic survey

Following the start of the new season of excavation at the Palazzo Imperiale, being undertaken together with a restoration project, we have started planning all the walls and floor surfaces. A few months back I undertook a photogrammetric survey of all the standing walls that will be restored in the area, and am now fixing these into the site plan. Yesterday we cleaned USM11043 and began a detailed survey of the wall. Continue reading →