Paper short abstract

An outline of a PhD project currently being run at Kingston University. This project is a technical evaluation of the software available to allow visitors at Fishbourne Palace Museum to interactively explore a virtual representation of the historic buildings. This software is broadly divided into three areas; GIS, 3D Graphics, and Game Engines.

Paper long abstract

3D visualisation of archaeological artefacts, buildings, and monuments, using varied tools such as GIS and graphics software such as 3DSMax, has been used successfully over recent years to both inform and entertain the public. In addition to this, the possibility of using gaming software to do a similar job has generated significant interest in the field. This project will explore these various technologies' abilities to enhance the museum visitor experience, specifically that of Fishbourne Palace Museum.

This project mainly comprises of a technical evaluation of the software available which will allow visitors to interactively explore a virtual representation of the historic buildings as well as their internal and external areas. This software is broadly divided into three areas; GIS, 3D Graphics, and Game Engines.

The outcome will be a package of interactive and non-interactive displays for use at Fishbourne Museum. While it's impossible to say at this stage exactly what this package will contain, it is hoped that these displays will effectively communicate the history of Fishbourne at a variety of scales (Fishbourne's place in the Roman Empire, Roman Britain, local landscape and finally, the buildings themselves). It is also hoped that these displays will also show Fishbourne's development through the passage of time, particularly that of the buildings themselves, showing how rooms have been altered over time.

Paper long abstract

Horta do Jacinto is a IInd millennium site located in the south of Portugal at Beringel in Beja. It was identified in 2007 during the construction of a water pipeline promoted by EDIA SA. These works allowed the identification of two pits containing different kinds of materials, namely a human body and pig, and the relationships of deposition between them. In this poster we aim to present these contexts discussing how these two materials entailed different practices of deposition, and how this was connected with contrasts in the organization of space inside the pits.

Paper long abstract

Vale das Éguas 3 is a IIIrd millennium site located in the south of Portugal at Salvador in Serpa. It was identified in 2009 during the construction of a water pipeline promoted by EDIA SA. These works allowed the identification of six pits containing different kinds of materials, however, there was always a common element between them: sherds. In this poster we aim to present these contexts, discussing how these spaces suggest different practices for the fragmentation of pottery, and how these sherd dynamics relate back to the architectural practice of pit-making itself.

Paper short abstract

In 2010 an analysis and mapping project was undertaken to explore the potential of historic aerial photography to develop understanding of the former Roman town of Isurium Brigantium, located at Aldborough, North Yorkshire. This poster presents summary findings.

Paper long abstract

Since 1928 aerial reconnaissance has targeted the North Yorkshire village of Aldborough for what lies beneath: the Roman civitas capital of Isurium Brigantium. In 2001 an extended period of dry weather produced dramatic parching in the fields in and around Aldborough. This revealed the lines of the town defences and parts of the internal street layout. In 2010 an air photographic analysis and mapping project was undertaken to digitally record the identified features and to explore the full potential of historic aerial photography. The project was completed as part of an English Heritage Professional Placement in Conservation (EPPIC) by Tara-Jane Sutcliffe. Cambridge University are currently undertaking geophysical survey at Aldborough. Collaboration between the two projects will allow future work to target features identified from aerial photography, thereby furthering our understanding of the former Roman town within its landscape setting.

Paper short abstract

The author is currently conducting a Scandinavian-wide comparison of prehistoric rock and portable art, which has not been completed since the mid 19th century. This poster presents background research and current research focusing on the relationship of art, society and environment in Scandinavia from the Mesolithic through to the early Iron Age.

Paper long abstract

Prehistoric Scandinavia from the Mesolithic through to the Bronze Age was a period of change: environmentally, economically and socially. Mesolithic peoples experienced post-glacial isostatic, eustatic and climatic fluctuations that mutated coastlines and transformed lakes to seas. We are now more capable of scientifically reconstructing these environmental changes, and these contemporary data have sparked a new interest in reviewing existing research within more informed environmental contexts.

It is commonly acknowledged that in different maritime communities, rituals and various social actions were performed close to the shore, and there is no doubt that prehistoric peoples inhabiting the coastal areas of Scandinavia had a tangible connection to the sea. The environmental changes that occurred during the Mesolithic of southern Scandinavia would have had a dramatic effect on how the inhabitants perceived their surroundings. This would have influenced their religious, mythological and cosmological beliefs, their social practices and rituals, and central to all of these, their ‘art’. This poster presents research on a group of ornamented artefacts from Mesolithic Denmark, with some later examples of rock art and portable bronze artefacts. It looks at the distribution of ornamented artefacts, their geographical / environmental contexts, and different ways in which humans are known to have interacted with their surroundings. Though changes in cultural material, economy and settlement patterns can be more empirically assessed, aligning cognitive effects and emotional responses with environmental changes requires a separate methodology. It involves several theoretical approaches drawn from different disciplines.

By investigating art in the light of environmental changes, this research proposes that ‘art making’ as a ritual – a complex weave of context, perception and expression – was a social action characterized by the relationship between prehistoric Scandinavians and critical changes in their environment. Thus Lars Larsson (2003/4) asserts that natural phenomena such as iso-eustatic changes would have affected not only the way Mesolithic peoples perceived their landscape but also their 'world view'.