We've been using photogrammetry to record parts of our medieval farm site at Bourton on the Hill. This computer-generated animation of the small room featured in our last blog post was produced using photogrammeric techniques.Photogrammetry is an established archaeological recording technique and uses photographs to create reconstructions of buildings, structures and sites. In traditional photogrammetry fixed 'targets' are used as reference points to 'stitch' the photographs together and 'rectify' them to the correct scale and viewpoint. Increases in computing power have led to computer-based photogrammetric programs that can combine many digital photographs to create 3-D models of the subject without the need for targets. The models can be rectified (scaled and located spatially) so that we can then produce scale 2-D drawings from the 3-D model, these drawings are then used in the post-excavation work and as illustrations in the final published report.
The weather has definitely turned since our Open Day at the medieval building complex at Horse and Groom Inn Bourton-on-the-Hill, but work has carried on. We’ve been concentrating on removing the last of the rubble infill of the rooms and we’re nearly there.
Today Urban Archaeology and LP Archaeology held an open day at our excavations at Bourton on the Hill in the Cotswolds. Despite the weather early on being rather dreich we had a steady flow of visitors who viewed the medieval buildings and a selection of our finds, and could ask questions of the site team. And by the afternoon it was a beautiful autumnal day.
We are still working on the LP Archaeology site at Bourton on the Hill, next to the Horse and Groom Inn. The site contains extensive remains of a series of medieval buildings, well preserved beneath layers of rubble. Gradually we are removing those thick layers of rubble collapse from within and around the medieval buildings. Scorch marks on some walls suggest a possibly catastrophic cause of abandonment, but this may be just from localised burning -it is early days yet and we need to unpick more of the site sequence. It does however seem that the rubble from the abandoned walls may have been sorted through and the best of the stone taken for reuse elsewhere in the village.