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Archaeological science and computing

Archaeologists discover evidence of prehistoric gold trade route

Archaeologists at the University of Southampton have found evidence of an ancient gold trade route between the south-west of the UK and Ireland. A study suggests people were trading gold between the two countries as far back as the early Bronze Age (2500BC). The research, in collaboration with the University of Bristol, used a new technique to measure the chemical composition of some of the earliest gold artefacts in Ireland. Continue reading →

Ultraviolet RTI

A painted and incised ceramic vessel was used as case study in an attempt to evaluate the efficiency of Reflected UV (UVR) RTI and UV induced visible fluorescence (UVF) RTI. Gnathian skyphos from the University of Southampton Archaeological Collection The Highlight RTI data capture took place at the archaeological imaging laboratory of the University of Southampton, using a UV-VIS-IR modified DSLR camera, adequate filters and lighting. Continue reading →

Hands Across The Globe

A figurative painting of a pig-deer or babirusa and hand stencil from one of the caves in Sulawesi, Indonesia. (Maxime Aubert) Are hand stencils, older than 40,000 years in Sulawesi, the visual relic of Humans’ journey out of Africa? A paper published in Nature today (Aubert et al. 2014) reveals U-Th dates on calcite deposits formed over painted hand stencils and shows the stencils are older than 39,900 years old along with figurative art that is older than 35,400 years old. Continue reading →

Postcards from the field: Studying the Neolithic figurines from Koutroulou Magoula, Greece

Clay Neolithic figurines are some of the most enigmatic archaeological objects, which depict in a miniature form humans, animals, other anthropomorphic or zoomorphic beings, and often hybrid or indeterminate entities. Figurines have excited scholarly and public imagination, and have given rise to diverse interpretations. The assemblage from Koutroulou Magoula, a Middle Neolithic site – 5800-5300 BC – in central Greece (excavated under the co-direction of Prof. Continue reading →

True Gigapixel RTI

The ACRG has always been an integral part within the recent development of RTI. ACRG’s involvement began with the AHRC funded RTISAD project where we piloted the technique on inscribed ancient documents and archaeological artefacts. We likewise raised awareness of RTI in research and public communities in the UK. Continue reading →

Update on the Hoa Hakananai’a Statue

In 2012 ACRG members, James Miles and Hembo Pagi, completed a series of RTI captures and a photogrammetry model of the Easter Island Statue, Hoa Hakananai’a, which is currently housed in the British Museum. Since then, in collaboration with Mike Pitts, we have examined the results of these RTI files and compared them with the photogrammetry model. A brief discussion of this work can be seen in a previous blog post. Continue reading →

Fun and Games at Southampton Archaeology Activities Day

Studying bones at Southampton Archaeology Activities Day (David Wheatley) As part of the British Festival of Archaeology, people of all ages (from 3 to over 70) enjoyed a series of archaeological activities in the department on Saturday! While younger children excavated a coffin ‘burial’ complete with grave goods such as jewellery and Roman ceramics, older children explored the use of virtual reality and CGI within museums and the heritage industry. Continue reading →

Annotating RTI data in 3d and 2d

I’ve been talking to a lot people in recent months about annotation frameworks for RTI and today’s introduction to the #rodeimagingevent (see Hembo’s blog post) has crystalised some of these. I was talking to @kathrynpiquette about annotation and I also tweeted a query to @iipimage about it. @portableant suggested annotorious (something that I know our current MSc student Vassilis Valergas has been examining) and also openCanvas was suggested. Continue reading →