Chartered Institute for Archaeologists 2020

16 |  VALUES, BENEF ITS AND LEGACY Visual interpretation, survey and graphics: adding value to archaeology HANNAH KENNEDY PCIfA, HISTORIC ENGLAND Technology is wonderful. Its development makes our lives simpler in all sorts of ways. In the archaeological sector there is no doubt that advancing technologies and their applications have enabled us to reveal far more about our hidden past than the pioneers of the field like Kathleen Kenyon or Gertrude Bell would ever have conceived. We are collecting more data, processing more data, turning it into meaningful, valuable, information that breathes further life into dusty pot sherds and microscopic remains. And once we have discovered their secrets, technology allows us to present that knowledge creatively, and share it more widely and collaboratively. The impact of technology in the specialisms of graphics and survey has been as noticeable as anywhere. Our enormous drawing tables, noisy plotters that take up half the room, plane tables and trusty ‘dumpy’ level are mostly gone. In their place are computers on every desk – dual screens obscuring the earnest faces of the illustrator and surveyor. Global Navigation Satellite Systems and digital total stations have replaced kilometres of measuring tape. Every output is never more than a few simple steps away from the printed (or digital) page. Undoubtedly, advancing technology has added value to the visual interpretation of archaeology. Look at a 30-year-old archaeological publication in contrast to one printed recently. Affordable colour printing and digital publication allow us to show information much more efficiently and clearly through photos and coloured maps and plans, even allowing the viewer to interact and further interrogate the information interactively. Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) allow the illustrator and surveyor to start to build visual interpretation from the data processing stage. The viewer is now able to examine 3D surfaces and objects from their own computer screens. The information we can now share was beyond the reach of the remote scholar even ten years ago. An example of a (reasonably) recent method and technology providing us new information is Multi-light or Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). This method, developed in 2001 by Malzbender and Gelb, uses images captured under multiple specific lighting conditions to record surface details that may not be visible to the naked eye and examine them using virtual lighting. This method was further adapted to suit cultural heritage organisations, using a lower- tech approach at Cultural Heritage Imaging, and has successfully been used to record A rock carving at Roughting Linn, Northumbria shown using standard photography (a) and digitally lit using multi-light imaging (b) (© Sarah Duffy after Historic England, 2018) Grime’s Graves during the Mesolithic (Artist’s reconstruction by Judith Dobie – an interpretation drawn from data captured by archaeologists, archaeobotanists, archaeozoologists, surveyors and archaeogeologists © Historic England)