Our technical director, Alistair Carty, will be speaking at the Renfrewshire Local History Forum on Thursday 10th January, 2008 with the snappy titled “Zapped! Scanning sites by Laser” (not our title!). The talk will cover a range of subjects from extremely detailed close-range artefact scanning up to scanning huge Roman forts and castles.The talk is at the YMCA, New Street, Paisley, Scotland at 19:30 on 10th January 2008. More information is available at the RLHF website. 

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In 2003, many new and important Rock Art discoveries at Church Hole, Creswell Crags were announced.

As a result, a conference was held at Creswell in 2004 and the proceedings have been published as “Palaeolithic Cave Art at Creswell Crags in European Context” by Oxford University Press edited by Paul Pettitt, Paul Bahn and Sergio Ripoll.

An article on the use of 3D laser scanning to record some of the carvings within Church Hole has been written by Alistair Carty, Technical Director of Archaeoptics, with several illustrations of the scan results from Church Hole.

More information on the proceedings including a full table of contents and ordering information can be found at the OUP website.

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We have been working closely with heritage reproduction specialists Relicarte on a retail project for the National Museum of Scotland.

The project revolves around the non-contact, high-quality reproduction of several key pieces from the NMS’ collection of Isle of Lewis (or Uig) Chessmen. These reproductions are now available for purchase in the NMS’ shop.

Photograph of the horseman

Render of the horseman

Replica of the horseman

To date, we have produced 4 replica pieces, a king, queen, horseman (pictured) and bishop. A berserker and warder pieces have also been scanned and will be in production shortly.

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In 1798, HMS Colossus, a ship of the line, ran aground on the Isles of Scilly and was lost.

One of the earliest major portions of the ship that was discovered was a carving depicting a male figure in neo-classical dress holding aloft in his left hand what appears to be a laurel wreath. A flag or pennant is carved just to the side of this, directly above a semi-circular window head. This highly decorated window head would have been the stern window of the captain’s lavatory in the port stern gallery.

The figure would originally have been on the upper port side of the stern immediately to the port side of a round-headed window opening. The carving is over 3.30m tall and is carved from several pieces of elm.

HMS Colossus stern figure face close-up

HMS Colossus stern figure face close-up

This figure was raised by Mac Mace and Kevin Camidge and taken to the Mary Rose Trust for conservation.

Recently, in conjunction with on-going recording by Mary Rose Archaeological Services and Kevin Camidge, we have undertaken high-resolution 3D laser scanning of the figure as part of the recording process prior to conservation.

The stern carving is currently undergoing conservation at the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth. Once conservation is completed, the carving will be returned to Scilly and displayed with the Valhalla figurehead collection in the Abbey Gardens, Tresco.

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In 2004, we were commissioned by University College Cork (UCC) to undertake high-resolution 3D laser scanning of their unique collection of 28 Ogam stones and 4 carved stones, including a fine rotary quern and a large
cup-and-ring-marked stone.

Working for the University Heritage Office, we completed the 3D laser scanning of all visible portions of the stones in a mere 5 days.

Laser Scanning Ogam stone 4 at UCC

Flashing forward to 2006, the Ogam & carved stones conservation project is well underway and the stones have been removed from UCC for consolidation and cleaning. During this process, we revisited Cork to acquire data from the backs and bases of the stones previously not visible. All the stones are now back on display in a new layout with new interpretation, fibre-optic lighting and multimedia presentation.

Our work now forms a complete 3-dimensional record of the stones for archival purposes. Future interpretation and display uses are planned also.

Images reproduced courtesy of University College Cork.

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We undertook some 3D laser scanning work at Rosslyn Chapel back in 2001. In around 90 minutes of on-site scanning, we recorded 3 areas of sculpture including two window frame decorations featuring two angels and “Robert the Bruce” plus an area of wall featuring the famous “teardrop” carving plus masons marks.

The Trust’s interest in 3D scanning was piqued regarding the ability to accurately record the sculpture in their current condition and also examine the fine masons’ marks in more detail. Our test was undertaken using our old scanning system (sold in 2002). Our current scanning system would produce even higher quality results than those shown below. Given the current interest in all things Rosslyn, we’ve negotiated with the Rosslyn Chapel Trust to release these images.

Higher resolution images are available for download. Please contact us for more details. A fee will be levied which was be donated to the Rosslyn Chapel Trust.

Robert the Bruce from Rosslyn Chapel

Teardrop and masons’ marks from Rosslyn Chapel

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We have a fully reconditioned and calibrated Trimble/Mensi GS200 3D Laser Scanner available for immediate purchase at a considerable discount from list price. See our Reconditioned Equipment list for more information and to contact us. We only have one of these scanners available, so first come, first served.

In a nutshell, the scanner is capable of 1000 points/second, +/-6mm accuracy at 50m, 3mrad @ 100m resolution and has ranging capability of up to 350m using OverScan. The scanner has a 360×60 degree field of view from a single station.

For examples of work undertaken with this scanner, see Brodick Castle Survey Completed, 3D Laser Scanning at Callanish Stone Circle and National Archaeology Day at Rievaulx Abbey.

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We undertook some survey work for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in Aberdeenshire. Both projects were commissioned to use 3D laser scanning to extract additional information from heavily weathered Ogham inscriptions and, in the process, we also clarified the interpretation of a Pictish symbol.

The two sites in question were the Pictish cross slab located in Fordoun and the Lang Stane of Auquhollie, near Stonehaven.

The slab at Fordoun features an inscription on the top-left corner and also two putative Ogham inscriptions, one down each side. All three inscriptions were scanned at extremely high resolution to help establish their meaning.

The Lang Stane was also completely scanned with extremely high resolution scanning used on the long Ogham inscription down one arris and on a section of the stone thought to feature two Pictish “double-disc” symbols. After visualisation, it was determined that the two symbols were in fact a single lobed “rectangle” symbol.

Fordoun Pictish Cross Slab

Lang Stane of Auquhollie Pictish symbol

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In conjunction with Dept. of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, we undertook high-resolution 3D laser scanning in collaboration with the Bradgate Trust to form part of an initiative to conserve the evolutionary information of Ediacara biota at highly vulnerable but key sites in Leicestershire, UK.

New 3D reconstructions of the type specimens of Charnia, Charniodiscus, Bradgatia and Ivesheadia raise questions about the currently mooted taxonomy, palaeobiology and ecology of these early Ediacaran fossils.

Charnia P80 Fern Fossil

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We recently undertook an exterior survey of Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran. Two days survey were required to scan the entire structure at a resolution of 1cm allowing us to generate elevation drawings, sections and plans with high accuracy.

Brodick Castle Raw 3D Data

Detail of Brodick Castle Western Elevation

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