Laser Scanning at Herculaneum

In October of 2005, we sent a DeltaSphere laser scanner to Italy for the use of the Herculaneum Conservation Project (HCP). HCP is a joint project of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompeii, the Packard Humanities Institute and the British School at Rome, which aims to safeguard and conserve, to enhance, and to advance the knowledge, understanding and public appreciation of the ancient site of Herculaneum and its artifacts.  Participants working on the project include the HCP archaeological surveying team from Akhet, an Italian consulting company specializing in survey and 3D modeling.  I went to Italy in November to show project members how to use the instrument, and they continued gathering data after I left.  This web page documents the initial results.  I also made some auxiliary pages with more information about Herculaneum and about the DeltaSphere, as well as some spherical panoramas that I made on site.

Initial Results The early results of this work are documented in the following paper. M. Brizzi, S. Court, A. d’Andrea, A. Lastra and D. Sepio, 3D Laser Scanning as a Tool for Conservation: The Experiences of the Herculaneum Conservation Project, Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2006). To see screenshots of the first 3D models, click here or on the image.

Spherical Panoramas In order to document the spaces, I made some spherical panoramas, mainly of the suburban baths (where we spent most of our scanning time).  The spherical panoramas seems to convey a sense of the space that is much better than the older cylindrical panoramas, especially on large monitors or projectors.  Click here for instructions and to view. The page also includes a link to a file that opens a panorama in Google Earth.  It's a technique I found while surfing the web.

Site Map

• Results
• Spherical panoramas
• About Herculaneum
• The DeltaSphere

Project Members

• HCP surveying team (Akhet): Ascanio d'Andrea, Massimo Brizzi, Daniele Sepio
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Anselmo Lastra, John Thomas
• Herculaneum Conservation Project: Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (HCP Director), Jane Thompson (HCP Project Manager), Sarah Court (HCP Research & Outreach Coordinator)

Thanks to Nic Terrenato for suggesting this collaboration and introducing us.

Support

The laser scanning research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, grant number 0205425.  The conservation work of the HCP is supported by the Packard Humanities Institute.