Top International Delegates attend Digital Archaeology Workshops at Truro College

Some of the World's top specialists in digital archaeology descended on Truro College last week - among them Michael Ashley of the University of California, Berkeley and João Barbosa of the University of Minho in Portugal. Dr Caradoc Peters, head of Truro College's archaeology degree programme, and Adam P. Spring, English Heritage's 3D Heritage Officer, were the workshops' organisers.

The delegates came from the USA, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, Australia, and even the Republic of Georgia on the Black Sea. In fact true to the theme of the workshops, the Australian delegate, Jason Birch of AdamTech presented virtually via a remote desktop for the actual presentation and spoke via a simultaneous live video link. In case the event became too geeky, community archaeologist and Visiting Lecturer, Julian Richards of BBC's Meet The Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings was on hand to ask the questions that others may have been too shy to ask and to assist the digital archaeologists in translating their technologies to the lay audience.

This was at the heart of what the workshop facilitators and presenters were trying to achieve. Many of the technologies though highly complex to come up with are now at the stage when even the technically challenged can have a go. The technologies ranged from simple digital recording of photos, videos and sound through laser scanning to computer modelling and virtual worlds like Second Life and Twinity. Much of what was presented could be learnt in anything from a few minutes to a day. The skill was more in the interpretation, not in the doing. The final imagined barrier to these technologies is often price, but as it turns out many are free to access and free of cost.

This simplicity and cheapness was proved to students attending when Michael Ashley and João Barbosa led a training session prior to the main workshops down at Truro Cathedral. They created 3D images where shadows on the images could be adjusted according to where the cursor is pointed. This was used to pick up details on the crumbling carvings on the surviving wall of the mediaeval parish church which was incorporated into the side of Truro's Victorian cathedral as well as those on a font inside. Fairly simple digital cameras could be used as students learnt from the presenters.

Another technology was demonstrated at the Cathedral by David Southam, a laser-scanning specialist from FARO (a UK company), who created a 3D image of the cathedral's façade with millimetre accuracy within 26 seconds, and later a more detailed image of the magnificent 17th century Robartes memorial inside the North Transept. Although there is an initial expense in purchasing such equipment, the speed and accuracy transform work that would have taken months into just a few days at most, and to a far greater accuracy than could be done by conventional surveying instruments like total stations and theodolites. Once downloaded to a computer, plans, sections and any other type of technical drawing taken at any angle can be produced at the click of a mouse.

On the final day, Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscapes World Heritage Site officers took the delegates on a tour of Botallack and Geevor Mines in West Penwith led by Adam Sharpe of Cornwall's Historic Environment Service. The delegates were impressed by the new museum and facilities at Geevor Mine in particular, and the speed with which our World Heritage Site has stepped up to the mark so soon. The mining sites are a poignant reminder that Cornwall was once one of the leading places in the World for research and innovation in technology, something that was not lost on those who were there.

The workshops sponsored by the South West Lifelong Learning Network (SWLLN) were held at Truro College with students coming from the wider University of Plymouth Colleges network. Truro College's archaeology degree is the University of Plymouth's progression route for archaeology foundation degree students from City College, Plymouth and Strode College, Somerset as well as internal foundation degree students. Truro College's archaeology department has a particular interest in the latest digital technologies. Adam Spring, now also a Visiting Lecturer at the College together with Caradoc Peters, the head of the department, have been busy researching and publishing academic articles on 3D High Definition digital heritage. They came up with the idea of bringing together the key players in the digital field to Cornwall. Both Adam and Caradoc are from the Penryn-Falmouth area, and are an example of the growing academic success of the region.

As for the verdict of the participants, there were extremely positive responses. In fact, Michael Ashley said that it was ‘great to see the enthusiasm' and his highlight was when João Barbosa showed a poorly visible inscription held in a museum in Portugal he had worked on. After he had showed the transformation of the photographs by means of his software and people in the audience ‘could suddenly read the bottom half of the inscription, there were audible gasps.'  As for the organisers, Caradoc Peters was pleased that ‘Truro College and the University of Plymouth were able to be part of the new 3D revolution in archaeology', whilst Adam Spring reflected that ‘it is with a great sense of pride I bring good friends and colleagues into the county who are also the best in the world at what they do."

Internet: www.heritage3d.org