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Digital Visualisation Laboratory

 

Our Digital Visualisation Lab supports research, teaching, and commercial activities with a broad variety of digital methods and techniques within the Department of Archaeology, across Durham University, and externally. Our facilities enhance the teaching and learning experience of our students, offering them opportunities for practical experience using specialist equipment and software. They promote interdisciplinary research and reinforce the collaborative and international profiles of our archaeological research. Our facilities also support commercial activities, including consultancies, for heritage-related work, including conservation and interpretation.

For inquiries, please contact the lab or e-mail Alexander Jansen.

 

Alexander Jansen stands in the Digital Visualisation Lab and smiles at the camera.

Alexander Jansen in Digital Visualisation Lab

Student wearing Personal Protective Equipment uses a camera to scan a small object inside a foam-lined box. The student is looking intently at a screen that is out-of-frame.

Student in Digital Visualisation Lab

Student using camera and lightbox to photograph a ceramic jug

Conservation Student in Digital Visualisation Lab

Alexander Jansen stands in a darkened Digital Visualisation Laboratory, using a large camera over an archaeological artefact on the table. There are large lamps on either side of the work surface.

Alexander Jansen working in Digital Visualisation Lab

Two students stand inside the Digital Visualisation lab and look at a screen displaying a photo of a decorated object.

Conservation students in Digital Visualisation Laboratory

Student standing on stepladder above a well-lit worktop with an object inside a dark foam-lined tray. There is a camera attached to a tripod directly above the object.

Digital Visualisation Laboratory

Two people inside a darkened Digital Visualisation Lab, one is wearing gloves and holding a piece of film or paper. The people stand next to a brightly lit worktop that has a camera above it and lamps on either side.

Working in Digital Visualisation Lab

Student faces away from camera. She is smiling and holds a camera pointed towards an object that is not visible in this photo.

Student with camera in Digital Visualisation Lab

A student wears a blue Archaeology hoodie and looks at a screen that faces away from the viewer. She stands next to a brightly lit surface with a camera positioned above an object inside a tray.

Student in Digital Visualisation Lab

 

We also offer digital archaeological services led by our experienced staff. This includes rapid 3D scanning and reconstruction at different resolutions of artefacts, buildings and landscapes, and tailor-made training courses.

 

Alexander Jansen standing on a raised platform inside the Norman Chapel, wearing a hard hat and holding a laser scanner.

Alexander Jansen, Norman Chapel

Alexander Jansen standing between four columns inside the Norman Chapel, holding up a laser scanner.

Alexander Jansen, Norman Chapel 

Closer photo of Alexander Jansen holding a laser scanner up to a column in the Norman Chapel.

Alexander Jansen, Norman Chapel

Samples of our recent commercial projects

A 4D scan (high submillimetric resolution) was taken of the Norman Chapel of Durham Castle, Durham World Heritage Site. Using advanced imaging technology and the latest 3D scanning technologies and custom-built equipment, detailed 3D models and georeferenced maps are being created that offer unprecedented insights into the architecture and history of Durham’s oldest surviving building, the Norman Chapel, dating back to around 1080. The 3D data, consisting of over half a billion points per scan, is being used to monitor the condition of the chapel over time for conservation purposes, and will help preserve the chapel for future generations.

A 3D scan (laser scanning, photogrammetry and drones) was also done of the interior and exterior of the St Mary the Less chapel, on the Bailey at the Durham World Heritage Site.

Tailored and full-day RTI training workshops were also run for the School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK, and ERA Arqueología, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

St Mary the Less chapel scan.

St Mary the Less chapel scan, Alexander Jansen

Group of people in a laboratory discussing RTI capture.

RTI workshop at ERA Arqueología. Photo: Katina Lillios

Research Projects

The Digital Visualisation Lab supports a wide range of national and international projects with 3D scanning technologies working at multiple scales, from minute artefacts to monuments and rock art, buildings and landscapes. Projects also use our RTI and multispectral drone survey support (including infrared).

Some of our research projects include:

  • 'Belief in the North-East' (National Lottery Heritage Fund). Principal investigator (PI): David Petts.
    • At Blanchland Abbey, we made an HD 3D scan of the organ (Sketchfab). In Mitford church, we recorded and 3D scanned old graffiti, to trace back potentially living relatives of soldiers that never returned after being send off to fight in WWII.
  • 'Lindisfarne: The search for the heart of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria' (2016-2026). PIs: David Petts and DigVentures. 
    • We conducted a multispectral NDVI drone survey of part of the island, using a drone with 6 cameras, each tuned to a different wavelength of light (including infrared). This allows us to calculate vegetation health, allowing for the detection of crop marks that cannot be seen with the naked eye (or normal ‘visible light’ RGB cameras), in order to gain a better understanding of the landscape of Lindisfarne in the past, and to detect underground architectural remains.
    •  A digitisation project of Lindisfarne sculpture, funded by DU Impact seedcorn funding, was conducted by DigVentures and in collaboration with English Heritage 'Etched in Stone' - a large-scale digitisation of Lindisfarne sculpture.'
  • Auckland Castle'. PI: Chris Gerrard.
    • At Auckland Castle, we conducted numerous drone surveys of various archaeological trenches over the years, to record the progress, and to allow us to digitally re-excavate the trenches through their digital twins, even after the real-life trenches were closed up. In the deer park, we conducted a full laser scan of the recently discovered underground ice cellar. At Bishop Auckland, we worked with school children and drones for The Big Dig project.
  • 'Digital Technologies, Acheulean Handaxes and the social landscapes of the Lower Palaeolithic' (AHRC, 2023-2026). PI: Prof. Mark White.
  • 'The Street Museum' (Museum’s Association / UKRI Digital Innovation and Engagement Fund). Co-PI: Kamal Badreshany. Through a series of workshops, a group of community curators worked with Durham University staff and East Durham Creates to select objects from the Oriental Museum, Museum of Archaeology and Durham Castle which helped to tell the village of Blackhall’s, East Durham, unique story. The chosen objects were scanned and using innovative technology; 3D prints were produced which were then displayed in people’s living room windows, and in local businesses and community centres around the village, forming a unique Street Museum for one week over Easter 2022. Find out more about the objects printed here.
  • 'Rock Art, Words and Warriors (RAW) - Hällristningar och maritim interaktion i Atlantiska Europa' (Swedish Research Council, 2019-2023). Co-PI: Marta Díaz-Guardamino.
  • 'Risk and resilience: exploring historic responses to earthquakes in Europe: 1200-1755' (Leverhulme Trust). PI: Chris Gerrard. 
  • 'Sabratha Heritage Protection' (Gerda Henkel Stiftung). PI: Anna Leone. 

Aerial view of Holy Island of Lindisfarne, with a layer showing the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of Lindisfarne.

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of Lindisfarne. Author: Alexander Jansen.

Key publications

 

Teaching

The lab is also connected to our teaching, modules, and regular support to research in teaching.

Modules

  • 'Digital Visualisation: Applications for the Study of Prehistoric Art' (ARCH2221_2022 Advanced Skills in Archaeology).
  • '3D Imaging' (ARCH42315_2022, Practical Research and Study Skills).
  • ARCH43115, 'Data Science Applications in Archaeology and Heritage'.

Student conducting photogrammetry in the lab.
Photo: Alexander Jansen

Example of Undergraduate Dissertation

  • "Methods for interpreting the production of Iberian Late Bronze Age Stelae with particular reference to the stela of Bodonal de la Sierra and the Stela of Cañaveral de Léon: An examination of the intersection of creativity, experimental archaeology, and digital technology", by Amelia Holden. Supervisor: Marta Díaz-Guardamino.

Examples of Postgraduate (Taught) Dissertations

  • "3D Optical Profilometer: A new tool for analyzing peri-mortem trauma and post-mortem breakage", by Eloise Potter. Supervisors: Daniel Gaudio and Marta Díaz-Guardamino.

3-D Topographic Map of a post-mortem fracture on a femur, image: Eloise Potter, 2022.
3-D Topographic Map of a post-mortem fracture on a femur. Image: Eloise Potter, 2022.

  • "Digital Archaeology as a Tool of Engaging Public with Local Heritage: A Case Study of the Hero-Stones in Maharashtra", by Manasi Patil. Supervisor: Marta Díaz-Guardamino.
  • "Beyond the Cutting Edge: A comparative study of imaging techniques on Romano-British decapitation", by Euan Johns. Supervisors: Daniel Gaudio and Kori Lea Filípek
  • "Fingerprints on medieval cockspurs: An interdisciplinary approach to fingerprint analysis". Supervisor: Daniel Gaudio.
  • "Can Virtual spaces create engaging visitor experiences? An analytical approach". Supervisor: Mary Brooks.

PhD Dissertations

  • 2023, “Embodied Markings: Defining the embodied, liminal, and sensory character of the earliest Palaeolithic cave markings”, by Barbara Oosterwijk, supervised by Paul Pettitt, with the application of 3D modelling and decorrelation stretch.

El Castillo cave, small disks on drapery, Pilar Elefante, a 3D model created with decorrelated images
El Castillo cave, small disks on drapery, Pilar Elefante. 3D model created with decorrelated images. Author: Barbara Oosterwijk.

  • 2022, “The Origins of Visual Culture? Psychological Foundations of Upper Palaeolithic Figurative Cave Art in Northern Spain”, by Izzy Wisher, supervised by Paul Pettitt, with the application of 3D modelling and VR.

 

Other activities

Workshops

  • Community archaeology 3D scanning workshops by Alexander Jansen ('Belief in the North-East' project)
  • RTI Workshop by Marta Díaz-Guardamino (MaVis RIG)
  • Photography workshops by Alexander Jansen (for staff and PDRA)
  • Photogrammetry workshops by Alexander Jansen (for staff and PDRA)

Sessions organised at conferences

  • CAA 2023 Amsterdam session 43: 'Synergies in 3D Spatial Analysis', by Alexander Jansen
  • CAA 2022 Oxford session 18: 'Exploring further the possibilities of 3D Spatial Analysis', by Alexander Jansen
  • CAA 2021 Cyprus session 25: 'Exploring the possibilities of 3D Spatial Analysis', by Alexander Jansen
  • EAA 2018, Barcelona, 'Human, Posthuman, Transhuman Digital Archaeologies', by Marta Diaz-Guardamino, Colleen Morgan, and Catherine Frieman

 

Digital Collections

Collections of student projects

For further enquiries contact: archaeology.digvislab@durham.ac.uk