Maritime Bus

Last week the Maritime Bus came to the Avenue Campus on a University Open Day to provide an insight into maritime archaeology for prospective undergraduate students, and to give current postgraduate students training and experience in outreach activities. The Maritime Bus is the only archaeology-themed exhibition of its kind in the UK. It was originally part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Engaging New Audiences project, which ran from 2009 to 2012, and has since then continued to bring maritime archaeology to thousands all over the country.

The Bus itself is filled with information boards, a collection of artefacts for handling, touch-screen computers, a microscope corner, books, mini-ROVS, mini-Airlifts, and lots of other activities. At the end of the day, everything packs away into the back of the bus – the roof folds down and the stage folds up – making it incredibly mobile.

I got involved with the Maritime Archaeology Trust, and then the Maritime Bus, several years ago after MAT staff visited my college for a talk about maritime archaeology, and after the talk I asked to be involved.  A few months later I was invited to be part of the Maritime Bus Crew, and I spent the next three years  volunteering on it whenever I could. The Maritime Bus went all over the country, and even abroad to France, the Netherlands and Belgium, to a range of schools, clubs, events and shows.

I now work for the Maritime Archaeology Trust, and the Maritime Bus is still one of my favourite parts of the job. Not only is it fun and unique, but it gives people the chance to really engage with maritime heritage in a very hands-on way. When I tell someone they’re holding a 16,000 year old handaxe, the reaction is one you simply don’t get if they were looking at it in a glass case in a museum. That’s part of what makes the Maritime Bus so special: the barriers are removed and with the help of staff and an enthusiastic cohort of volunteers, visitors are treated to an experience that is not quickly forgotten.

If you’re interested in volunteering with the Maritime Archaeology Trust – on the Maritime Bus, in education and outreach,  research, fieldwork or diving – please email Caroline at cbs@maritimearchaeologytrust.org.

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The Portus Project has been surveying, excavating, simulating and presenting the Roman port of Portus (Fiumicino) for more than a decade. Portus was the maritime port of ancient Rome and, together with the neighbouring river port at Ostia, was the focus of a network of ports serving Imperial Rome between the mid-1st century AD and the 6th century AD.  It was established by the Emperor Claudius in the mid-1st century AD, enlarged by Trajan, and subsequently modified during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.

The Portus Project has employed a wide range of digital technologies to assist in the fieldwork, to develop new interpretations and to communicate its findings to a wide audience. The great extent and complexity of the site and surrounding landscape of Portus requires a multi-faceted approach to their study. For example, we use a wide range of methods to explore the archaeology laying both above, and below, the ground. Processes such as photogrammetry, laser scanning and reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) allow researchers to examine, record and present the surface layers of the site and its artefacts in extraordinary detail. Other technologies, such as ground-penetrating radar, sidescan sonar, and magnetometry give archaeologists the capacity to see into the earth and chart future excavations.

Taking near-IR photographs at Portus

Computation has been at the heart of attempts to integrate data and interpretation, and to communicate the complexities of the site to a wide audience. For example, the Portus Project is employing computer graphics for four separate purposes.  Firstly, these tools are being used as mechanisms to integrate the diverse spatial data gathered via our research.  For example, we are combining three-dimensional geophysics with laser scans and excavated sections to understand the development of the Building 5. Secondly, computer graphics provide a means for developing interpretations of the data.  At the corner of the surviving cistern complex (Palazzo Imperiale II) such simulation has helped us to understand how water may have been moved between the harbour buildings. Thirdly, they are being applied towards formal analysis of the site, for instance in terms of structural analysis, studies of lighting, and assessment of the use of space at the port. Finally, still, animated and interactive computer graphics are enabling the project to communicate its interpretations widely.  In addition to creating these visuals, we are researching the role that visuals have played and continue to play in the representation of the site.

You can learn more about the Portus Project at www.portusproject.org

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