Preservation of this Egyptian hidden past using state-of-the-art methods in 3D digital capture and interactive visualisation will move them "into the laboratory", allowing a larger number of scientists and students in Egyptian universities to explore underwater and marine cultural heritage ion the classroom.
Building on existing collaboration between the University of Nottingham, Ain Shams and Alexandria University, developing archaeology courses with 3D models of heritage sites, this project extends the partnership to establish a 3D virtual reality-based research laboratory that includes specialist expertise in maritime archaeological scanning. The biggest challenges in this type of cultural heritage preservation are accurate data capture and reduction of this data into a manageable format for online visualisation and interactive exploration. Through collaborative research, we expect this project to enhance the capability in the Egyptian partner sites for the 3D capture of maritime sites for use in higher education archaeology teaching and research.
The project is funded by the British Council Newton Fund. The Newton Fund aims to promote the economic development and social welfare of either the partner countries or, through working with the partner country, to address the well being of communities.
A major aim of the project is to develop ways of making marine cultural heritage accessible not only to university researchers but also the wider public.
The SS Thistlegorm in the Red Sea was selected as a test site for trying out new approaches. The wreck is widely known amongst the diving community and regularly appears in the worlds “top ten” dive site lists. But the wreck and its story is hardly known outside of the diving community. Surveying this site allowed is allowing us to virtually bring an iconic Egyptian shipwreck to the surface and tell its story using 3D models and 360 video.
The first results of this work were presented on the 6th October 2017 at www.thethistlegormproject.com garnering extensive national and international media attention.
www.thethistlegormproject.com
Who's involved
Jon Henderson (University of Nottingham)
Dr Wael Akl (Ain Shams University)
Dr Emad Kahlil (Alexandria University)
Dr Sue Cobb (University of Nottingham)
Dr Richard Eastgate (University of Nottingham)
Dr Tamar Elnady (Ain Shams University)
Press
BBC
The Guardian
Daily Mail
Funding
