3D recording of ancient wooden boats for scientific and educational purposes

Abstract

Digital survey techniques are well-established in the fields of cultural and archaeological heritage and they have been used to document,
study and promote knowledge of ancient ships and wooden boats. They represent a peculiar exercise, complicated by the specific nature
of the material of the boats. As a matter of fact, the structural stability and the shape of the wood could be compromised in an aerobic
environment, hence archaeologists have the responsibility to keep the boat in wet and anaerobic conditions until the restoration and the
preservation of wood can take place. These problems are overcome through the use of digital imaging and survey techniques, such as
video and photograph recording, multi-image photogrammetry and laser scanning, which allow a fast and accurate documentation, and
the subsequent elaboration of a virtual three-dimensional model of the real artefact surveyed. This allows scrupulous study of ancient
naval construction from both a scientific and a disseminative point of view, allowing to increase the knowledge and perception by the
general public of this important archaeological and historical heritage. These digital techniques have been applied to four case studies
with different peculiarity: - Comacchio sewn boat, discovered in a land excavation site. - Ercolano boat, restored and exposed in a
museum. - Trabaccolo Nuovo Trionfo, historical cargo boat of Alto Adriatico. - Wooden scaled model of brick Cygne.