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| A researcher scans the face of a life size statue, the dimensions of which will then be used to create a highly accurate 3D image of the object. |
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A ground-breaking project could usher in a new way of documenting and presenting artworks and archaeological artefacts. Researchers are attempting to capture sculptures and other ancient objects in a three-dimensional (3D) format that is as real as the original masterpieces themselves.
The main aim of the project is to develop effective methods of 3D documentation of objects of cultural heritage, and to establish a European Virtual Centre of Competence in 3D digitisation. Trials have commenced at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and at Petworth House in West Sussex. At present, the experiments are being conducted primarily on sculptures, although over the next three years monuments and other artefacts will also be recorded. Various methods are used to produce the 3D scans, including digital photogrammetry (a type of remote sensing technology) and laser-scanning tools. To gain the high level of detail on smaller artefacts, the item is placed in a portable dome and then photographed under controlled lighting. However, not all objects give easy access to 3D imaging. Items with polished, reflective surfaces, such as jewellery, are especially difficult to capture. Part of the research will therefore focus on these problems and seek to improve existing methods.
Although the project is still in its developmental stage, the technology could provide significant cultural and commercial advantages. Rather then members of the public or academic researchers planning visits to museum collections to fit in with specific dates and opening hours, the new technology would allow the world of art and culture to be accessed online. Viewers could also rotate objects in every possible direction and zoom on to details which might remain hidden in a museum showcase.
Professor David Arnold, who leads the project from the University of Brighton, has stressed that while significant progress has already been made in the field of 3D documentation, the day when computer users can expect to discover the world’s treasures at the click of a mouse is still far away. The task of recording and cataloguing the countless numbers of artefacts and works of art held in the world’s museums and private collections would require a Herculean effort, although as the scanning technology becomes more affordable and widely available, members of the public might in future also be able to contribute by uploading their own records. Nevertheless, such a process would undoubtedly take many decades to complete.
The advantages the project would bring are, however, worth the struggle. According to Professor Arnold, ‘What you see at any given time in a museum is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more things in storage than on display and all these could be recorded and made available for 3D viewing… And if you miss an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, then the items may not be on view again for another 35 years. This is where digital access comes into its own. Everything a museum holds could be available and accessible at almost any time.’ |
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| An underwater archaeologist carries out a survey of the wreck site off Cape Greco, south-east Cyprus. Photo: courtesy of the Republic of Cyprus, Ministry of Communications and Works, Department of Antiquities. |
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The results of an underwater survey undertaken off Cape Greco on the south-east coast of Cyprus were announced by the Department of Antiquities last October. The project, which was sponsored by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University and received financial assistance from the University of Pennsylvania and RPM Nautical Foundation, took place in summer 2009 at a wreck site that had originally been identified in 2007.
Although no trace of the ship was visible on the seabed, the wreck site was clearly marked by more than 130 amphorae, the pottery containers used in the transport of liquids and foodstuffs around the ancient Mediterranean. Although cargo was sometimes jettisoned by the crew during storms in order to lighten the ship and allow it to better ride out heavy weather, the scatter of so many amphorae, as well as finds of non-cargo items which appear to come from the ship’s galley, leave little doubt that they originated from a shipwreck.
The amphorae surveyed at the wreck site were types commonly in use during the early years of the 2nd century AD. This was the territorial high-water mark of the Roman Empire when Trajan (r. AD 98-117) extended the borders of the Empire across the Danube into Dacia (modern Romania) and eastwards as far as the head of the Persian Gulf. However, the final two years of Trajan’s reign would see the eastern Mediterranean erupt into the Kitos Wars as Jewish communities revolted against Roman rule. According to the historian Dio Cassius, writing a century after the event, on Cyprus alone, 240,000 Greek and Roman inhabitants were massacred by Cypriot Jewish insurgents.
When the Roman legion VIII Claudia finally regained control of Cyprus, the Jewish population was banished from the island, but the breakdown in the Pax Romana may have led to an upsurge in piracy in the waters off Cyprus. Vessels in the region of the Cape Greco headland attempting to round the promontory would have made little headway, and therefore represented easy prey for pirates, and the sinking of the ship by seaborne marauders lurking here is certainly one explanation as to how the ship and its cargo ended up on the seabed (see Minerva, May/June 2009, p.24). However, despite the troubled political environment of the time, it is probable that the vessel foundered as a result of stormy conditions encountered off Cape Greco.
While some of the large numbers of amphorae charted during the survey possibly contained olive oil, or other items such as the popular fish sauce garum, it appears likely that most originally held wine. Although the majority of the amphorae surveyed are of types commonly used for transporting commodities in parts of the Roman Empire regions close to Cyprus, some of the containers came from the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis on what is today the south coast of France. The fact that wine amphorae from southern Gaul had travelled across much of the Mediterranean certainly emphasises the sophisticated long-distance mechanisms of trade and transport that bound together far-flung provinces of the Roman Empire.
In an effort to alleviate growing food shortages in Rome and other cities across the Empire, in AD 92, just a few years before the ship sank off Cape Greco, Domitian passed an edict preventing the creation of new vineyards across the Empire while ordering many established ones to be turned over to other forms of agriculture. Historians have generally believed that the edict would have had a negative impact on the long distance wine trade, with vineyards only producing for the local market. However, the discovery of Gallic wine amphorae off Cyprus indicates the need for a re-evaluation in the scale of the long-distance wine trade in the 188 years in which Domitian’s edict was in effect.
It is, however, highly unlikely that the ship which sank off Cape Greco had carried the amphorae direct from the north-west Mediterranean to Cyprus. Instead, the cargo of Gallic wine had almost certainly been transported on a number of previous vessels before it reached the eastern Mediterranean and its watery grave off Cyprus. The ship at the wreck site was also likely to have been too small to conduct trade across the length and breadth of the Mediterranean. The relatively limited number of amphorae on the seabed and the wreck’s location in the shallow waters off Cape Greco indicate it was not a large vessel. |
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| An archaeologists records the stone footings of the octagonal shaped building that contained the plunge bath.Photo: courtesy of Kent Archaeological Field School. |
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Excavations undertaken at Bax Farm in Kent during the summer of 2009 saw 82 students, drawn from many of the leading universities in Britain, gathered for three weeks of archaeological investigation at the site. By the time the excavation drew to its close, the archaeologists had exposed a unique and magnificent late Roman octagonal building containing a huge central plunge bath, probably constructed at the time of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome (r. AD 306-312).
An evaluation trench dug in 2006 had uncovered the concrete base of a large Roman corn mill, while geophysical surveys had also revealed a huge ‘hollow-way’ road leading down from other Roman buildings to a possible harbour. Earlier Iron Age ditches and later Anglo-Saxon buildings all added to the rich archaeological tapestry of the site.
However, the jewel in the archaeological crown of the site is the unusual Roman octagonal bath-house, which is unique in south-east Britain. The structure is about 14m across and has arcaded columns surrounding a central octagonal pool, 4m in width. The walls of the building were originally covered with painted plaster, while small tesserae, cut from black, yellow, red and blue stones and tile, were set into the floor. The blue painted floor of the plunge bath had also survived, as had the Roman lead piping which supplied the bath with water.
Octagonal buildings of this type have previously only been found in south-west Britain, at sites like Lufton and Holcombe. The motivation for the construction of these elaborate and exotic buildings in Britain has generated many theories, but most experts tend to assume that the astonishing octagonal frigidarium at the centre of the building was used for Christian baptism or even Jewish baptismal bathing. Similar structures in Ravenna and Rome certainly appear to have functioned as early Christian baptisteries. This scenario is further reinforced at the Bax Farm site by the discovery of a Roman lead seal, probably a ‘redemption of the first born’ medal, depicting a special kind of five-branched menorah used in the ceremony of baptism.
The corpus of excavated pottery and coins suggests that the octagonal Roman building at Bax Farm was built during the reign of Constantine and can be associated with his time in Britain; the province where he was proclaimed Augustus following the death of his father at York (Eboracum) in AD 306. It therefore appears likely that this type of sophisticated and unusual structure was introduced to Britain and the Western Roman Empire so that large numbers of people could be baptised into the new state-sanctioned religion of Christianity.
Some of the rooms at Bax Farm had underfloor heating as well as alcoves containing hot plunge baths. Of particular interest is the discovery of an apse set beyond the south-west perimeter of the octagonal building, which enclosed a hot room heated by a hypocaust. Archaeologists also uncovered the masonry base of a large cold water basin or labrum. Fragments of a stucco ceiling indicate that above the central pool and its fountain was a large dome set on pendentives, which would have echoed and reflected the sound of cascading water. Ceilings such as these would have been possible with the columns or arcading bearing the vertical pressure while the ground floor walls provided a buttressing effect, counteracting the outward thrust of the heavy dome. Such highly sophisticated engineering is generally associated with the Eastern Roman Empire. Why such complex architectural structures were being erected in Britain, an outpost of the Empire well removed from its Mediterranean heartlands, is a question that will continue to prompt much discussion over coming years. |
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| The cameo vase features an upper and lower frieze, both of which are carved with consummate skill by a master engraver, probably working during the Julio-Claudian period. Photo: courtesy of Bonhams. |
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Bonhams announced in October 2009 that a glass vase that had been undergoing specialist study in the firm’s London auction house, is an extremely rare 2000-year-old Roman cameo glass vessel. The vase was originally presented to delegates at the 18th Congress of the International Association for the History of Glass, held at Thessaloniki, northern Greece, last September. Its unveiling caused considerable excitement among the scholars in attendance – understandably, given that only 15 other Roman cameo glass pieces are known to have survived from antiquity. In addition to being extremely rare, ancient cameo glass antiquities also provide an unrivalled insight into the technical skills mastered by ancient glassworkers.
Roman cameo glasswork was formed by blowing two layers of glass together, a cobalt blue base layer and a second layer of white glass. Once the piece had cooled, the topmost layer of white glass was carefully cut away by a skilled engraver who painstakingly shaped intricate cameo-style representations of figures and other subjects while revealing the second layer of glass underneath, which formed a translucent blue background. The skill, time and effort required to produce such a vase was enormous, and the cost of a piece produced in this fashion would have limited it to the wealthiest and most distinguished of Roman families.
It is believed that the production of cameo glass was extremely short-lived during antiquity, and the technique appears to have been focused on the Julio-Claudian period (27 BC – AD 68), though there was a very brief revival of the technique in the 4th century. While cameo glass was produced by Islamic craftsman during the medieval period, in the West the process was lost until the 18th century, while it became especially popular during the Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.
The piece currently undergoing study at Bonhams is not only joining an exceptionally small and artistically important collection, but is of a quality that makes it one of the most significant of all the surviving examples of the Roman engravers art.
At 33.5cm, it is almost 10cm higher than the famous Portland Vase held in the British Museum. The recently unveiled piece is also in a better state of preservation than the Portland Vase, retaining its base and lower register, upon which is etched a battle scene featuring six mounted figures, while five slain warriors lie beneath the horses hooves. Above, on the upper frieze of the vase, a Dionysiac scene is featured in which the skill of the engraver is clearly demonstrated in the berry-laden wreaths crowing the heads of the maenads, and the well defined musculature of the male figures. It is, however, the imploring facial expression of a woman, kneeling at the feet of a soldier, which most clearly emphasises the care, delicate touch, and keen eyesight required to carve such figures using only hand tools and working without any magnifying aids.
It is therefore little wonder that Chantelle Rountree, head of antiquities at Bonhams, has stressed the significance of the vase: ‘It is of major importance. Academically and artistically it is priceless. Scholars will be evaluating this find for decades.’
While experts continue to carry out detailed research into the iconography on the vase and attempt to trace the history of its recent ownership, should it become available on the international art market the piece would probably command prices that would make it the most valuable glass object ever to come to auction. |
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