Recording and analysing in 3D
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 14/09/2017

The Swash Channel Wreck is the remains of a very large, high-status north-west European armed merchant ship of Dutch construction, c.1630. Bournemouth University undertook a rescue excavation of the site funded by Historic England, culminating in the raising of an array of structural elements and the rudder.
Again funded by Historic England, the assemblage underwent the most extensive documentation of a timber assemblage from an underwater site in the UK. The process utilised 3D documentation techniques developed on other projects that are now becoming dominant in timber recording across maritime archaeology. The talk is a walkthrough and discussion of the techniques and findings of the project, demonstrating how much can be gained from the application of these techniques. It examines how the increasing use of these techniques is demonstrating positive communication across maritime archaeology, developing a high global standard in post-excavation recording and how the data can be utilised to develop an understanding of the value of ships timbers by making them accessible in the modern world.

Grant Bettinson, Bournemouth University