Tom Dawson

University of St Andrews/The SCAPE Trust

Coastal Heritage At Risk: Combining Digital Technologies with Community Action

@coastarchwww.scharp.co.uk

What is at risk?

Coastal Surveys

12,500 sites recorded

Prioritising Action

Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk Project

www.scharp.co.uk

Moving from this…

…to this

ShoreUPDATE

Coastal Zone Assessment SurveysCoastal Zone Assessment Surveys

• 849849 surveys submitted

• + 1600 + 1600 site photographs submitted

• c. c. 250 250 volunteers involved in ShoreUPDATE

• 833 833 volunteers involved in the project:

37% new audiences23% young people

• ++4000 4000 additional face to face reach through walks, talks and other events

SCHARP at 2 years: some numbers

SCHARP activity map to date

ShoreDig

@coastarchwww.scharp.co.uk

Moving from this…

…to this

•Community-led

•12 projects around the Scottish coast– Interpretation…

–Survey…–Excavation…

–Creative…–Experimental…

ProjectsProjects

Wemyss Caves

www.4dwemysscaves.orgwww.4dwemysscaves.org

@CoastArch

Jonathans Cave boat

George Deas 1926

Animal representations: Jonathan’s Cave (now destroyed)

Andrew Gibb, 1867

John Patrick 1902

1987

National Museum of Scotland staff taking casts of carvings in Jonathans Cave, 1991

Project aims

• Create 3D record of the Wemyss Caves and their carvings

• Record surrounding landscape • Create an exciting, realistic virtual

experience of the caves and carvings• Make data freely available on the

internet• Involve the local community in

everything

Landscape and cave •Structure from motion (at landscape scale using mikrokopter)•Phased based laser scanner (Leica HDS6200; data captured at c. 1mm accuracy but processed to c. 3mm accuracy to reduce mesh size)Individual carvings (Sub-millimetre meshes required for analysis of rock art)•Phased based laser scanner (c. 1mm accuracy)•Structure from motion (typically 0.5 mm accuracy)•Structured light scanning (typically 0.25-0.2 mm accuracy)•RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging)

Techniques

• Staged survey using all techniques • Basic data processing done on-site • Minor adjustments to the survey

methodology to ensure the highest possible accuracy and data coverage

• Follow-up visit to provide clarification and new data.

Methodology

http://culturalheritageimaging.org/

Interviews

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• Surrounding landscape and cave recorded with two different techniques.

• Individual carvings recorded with four different techniques; including two detailed meshes (SfM and SLS).

• The advantage of multiple meshes is that any artefactual objects in the data (which could have been caused by tiny variations in the process) can be checked on other meshes, preventing misinterpretation (for example as a new carving)… if the thing is visible in more than one mesh, it is probably real.

Results

The interface is effectively a Beta version. We need to work on providing:•Full screen display•Access to an enhanced mesh of the cave walls (although we are constrained by internet speeds)•More data download options (for example, high resolution meshes)•More use of animation and sound to make the experience more realistic .

For phase II

Decision makersDecision makers

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, David Torrance, MSP

Political engagement

Meaningful local inclusion

Impact of Wemyss Caves 4D

A better future for the caves? (We’ll see)

Highly commended in the British Archaeology Awards 2014

Local confidence and capacity building

UK-wide recognition

http://www.4dwemysscaves.org/

http://www.scharp.co.uk/