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Underwater Wonders

Collection: Virtual ExploratioN of Underwater Sites

For our first exhibit we are entering the depths of the archive to bring to the surface a unique marine collection. Underwater archaeological sites are difficult to experience first hand, but digital recording offers interactive ways to investigate underwater archaeological wonders. These three images are a sample of the wonderful data you can explore in the VENUS collection.
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Orthoimage of the Port-Miou-C wreck in Marseille. The image is derived from stiching many individual photographs together and is essential in reconstructing the ship. The raw data for this orthoimage can be found in the VENUS archive. © VENUS.
Underwater digital photograph of a lost cargo of amphorae now populated by fish. This image, and many more wonderful underwater photographs, can be found in the VENUS archive, alongside the reports and survey data. © VENUS.
Screenshot, from the video of the public demonstrator for exploring the site, available in the archive, alongside virtual reality models, videos and the raw data from the project. © VENUS & SimVis Research Group.

The Virtual ExploratioN of Underwater Sites (VENUS),project is a collection of data created during a project to develop scientific methodologies and deliver technological tools for the virtual exploration of deep underwater archaeology sites. The VENUS consortium was composed of eleven partners bringing together archaeologists with photogrammetry, digital data and virtual reality experts. The ADS was a partner in this project, responsible for the investigation of the project's archiving strategies and as a result developed the Guide to Good Practice on Marine Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry. The site chosen to investigate was a Roman shipwreck, found in October 1998, just 4 km from Port-Miou Calanque and between 90 and 110m deep. It is situated close to rocks that have preserved the site from damage by trawlers and as a result the site and the ship's large cargo of amphorae are excellently preserved.

The archive holds a representative sample of the data collected during the project, chosen to illustrate the techniques and technologies used and the archiving strategy employed. This includes the raw photogrammetric data collected by submarine, and the resultant mosaic picture created to depict the whole underwater site and the raw bathymetric data, from the special type of sonar used to map the seabed, called "Multibeam Echosounder". This survey data helped the archaeologists to understand the size and shape of the site before actually analysing it with the submarine, and was used to clarify the photogrammetry images. The collection also includes videos, the site database, virtual reality models, and reports which help a user understand the data, the methodologies used, and the way in which interpretations were determined.

"It's great to see such amazing artifacts in situ and in context using new and different study techniques and in an environment that I will never get to experience first-hand. It also demonstrates how different ADS collections can be used in conjunction with each other - try playing with the Roman Amphorae search pages to identify the specific types in these images." Jenny O'Brien, ADS Digital Archivist.