Reconstructing "Lost" Vessels: Applying Photogrammetric Techniques to Historical Photographs

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in a Digital Age (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This presentation explores a new methodology for retrieving three-dimensional geometry from historical photographs using the iWitness photogrammetry program. Two shipwrecks raised in the early-twentieth century from Lakes Champlain and George (in New York) are examined as case studies for this methodology. As one might expect, there are many complications when applying photogrammetric techniques to historical photographs (such as the lack of information on historical camera lens data, image quality, and evaluating the resulting point cloud's accuracy). This presentation explains how to navigate these obstacles and illustrates how the point clouds for the shipwreck case studies were generated. In addition, it documents how the photogrammetric geometry was scale constrained and, for the first time, used to create ship lines for academic research. Although this current study focuses on recovering geometry from raised shipwrecks, this methodology could find use in the fields of terrestrial archaeology and historic preservation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Historical Archaeology in a Digital Age (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology