![]() That was simply too slow, and so they had to find another way.ĭuring his time on the ecological impact assessment and shipwreck preservation work on an earlier project, Auer had been introduced to the professional 3D scanner Artec Eva by the knowledgeable specialists at Artec Gold Certified reseller KLIB. With 228 timbers waiting to be scanned, this put their time to project completion at over one year. Past experience showed them that even working all day, they would at most be able to scan and fully annotate only 1.5 timbers/day. It’s a long and slow process, and it requires expert technicians for everything to go smoothly. By bringing the scanner in direct contact with the object being scanned, individual points are scanned, converted to solids, and finally into 3D models. They had been using the Faro Arm 3D scanner, a contact scanner. “We took one week to decide exactly how to do the scan, which processes and methods to use, and in precisely which order,” said Auer. (Landesamt für Kultur und Denkmalpflege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)Īuer put together the best team of specialists he could find: he invited 3D recording specialist and maritime archaeologist Thomas Van Damme of Ubi3D, who brought with him a unique workflow for scanning and annotating 3D meshes in Rhino, as explained below, as well as maritime archaeologist Massimiliano Ditta, who was placed in charge of 3D scanning, together with photogrammetry and 3D recording specialist Marie Couwenberg of Belgium, and maritime archaeologist Benjamin Halkier of Denmark. When Auer looked at how they had done 3D scanning and documenting in the past, and with what technology, he realized that there was no way they could clean, scan, process, describe, annotate, and photograph all 228 timbers of the Big Ship in even one year’s time.ģD scanning of the Viking shipwreck. (Landesamt für Kultur und Denkmalpflege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) They had to act fast, to lift the wreck from the harbor floor and quickly begin the process of studying and documenting the surviving timbers with the highest levels of scrutiny.Īrchaeologists’ race against time to study and document the surviving timbers of the Viking shipwreck. ![]() Winter was setting in, and the now-exposed timbers resting below in the silty water would be increasingly vulnerable to damage. The archaeologists’ next step was to fully study and document the shipwreck, both for preserving it as precious cultural heritage, as well as to understand as much as possible about this one-of-a-kind archaeological treasure for modern and future generations of researchers and others.īut it was a race against time. To compare the three shipwrecks in terms of their original construction styles, the first and second ships had been a flat bottom ship and a pointed, Viking-style ship, respectively, while the third ship, referred to as the ‘Big Ship,’ was an extremely strong cargo ship with a square sail, built for transporting heavy loads around the Baltic Sea region. “When we lifted the wreck from the sea, we were amazed at how fresh the pine timbers looked, as if they had just been cut the day before,” said Auer. Jens Auer, maritime archaeologist and project leader, “and it was buried under sand and silt down through the centuries.” He went on, “It was a heavy, load-bearing cargo ship, of Nordic design, built with great care and durability…with overlapping pine planks, clinker-style, with a beautiful curved construction…made during a relatively peaceful period of time, it very likely carried cargoes such as timber, stones, or even heavy shipments of beer.” “It’s a descendent of Viking ships ,” said Dr. (Massimiliano Ditta) Viking Shipwreck Well Preserved It had an estimated crew size of 8-12 men.ĭiagram of Viking shipwreck. 3D scanning would later show that it had been constructed entirely with axes and adzes, and dendrochronology revealed that the ship’s oak and pine timbers were from Western Sweden. Measuring approximately 78.7 feet (24 meters) long by 13 feet (4 meters) wide, the large open-decked ship dates back to 1188 AD. ![]() Perfectly preserved Viking shipwrecks discovered. The Baltic Sea water and silt of the harbor had almost perfectly preserved the wreck’s timbers, due to the harbor’s seafloor environment being anaerobic, with very low alkalinity, almost no bacteria or rot, and no woodworms. One of them, the last to be discovered, was resting in only 9.8 feet (3 meters) of water. During the extension of the seaport of Wismar in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, archaeologists discovered a number of shipwrecks.
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