Articles

The article reports the photogrammetry work undertaken during the recent Northumberland and Durham Rock-Art Project (NADRAP) aiming at creating a georeferenced index of around 1500 known rock art panels located in the north-east of England.

Three-dimensional documentation of heritage buildings and objects is important for conservation, restoration, visualization, education and preservation. When it comes to complex architectural structures such as castles, no single modeling technique is capable of yielding cost-effective, highly detailed and accurate photo-realistic 3D results. Therefore the integration of all the actual surveying techniques is leading to the best 3D modeling results.

A multi-resolution multi-sensor approach was employed for the 3D modeling of the entire Roman Forum in Pompeii, Italy. The archaeological area, approximately 150 x 80 m, contains more than 350 finds spread all over the Forum as well as larger mural structures of previous buildings and temples. The interdisciplinary 3D modeling work consists of a multi-scale image- and range-based digital documentation method developed to fulfill all the surveying and archaeological needs and exploit all the potentialities of the actual 3D modeling techniques. Data’s resolution spans from few centimeters down to few millimeters, both in geometry and texture.

In 1860, Bishop Michael Flannery launched a plan to upgrade Nenagh Castle, a fine specimen of Norman architecture located on the patch of land he’d just purchased in Tipperary, Northern Ireland. For funding, he relied on donors from North America, among other sources. Naturally, when the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861, the flow of funds dried up, and the bishop was forced to halt construction. Flannery did manage to leave his mark on the castle in the form of a series of battlements with windows. Little did the bishop know his crowning legacy would help solve a surveyor’s dilemma one-and-ahalf centuries later.