ShipShape: solid modelling and visualisation of the Newport Medieval Ship from 3D digital record

纽波特号船是近代在英国发现的最坚固的中世纪船。在2002年被发现后，这艘船被拆解，个别木材被找回，用于详细的记录、分析和最终的保护。这艘船的找到反映了当地对其救援和展示的强烈支持，与之相呼应的是广泛的学术兴趣。这艘船在许多层面上都很重要：作为一项重大的考古发现，激发了社区对遗产的持续支持；作为中世纪晚期建造于大西洋海岸的熟料建造的船只的罕见幸存者。自从它被发现以来，组成这艘船的数千根木材已经被使用三维记录臂记录下来，产生了这艘船的结构元素的数字记录。浸水的木材现在需要经过化学处理，以去除铁和硫等污染物，然后积极保存。这些过程将需要一段时间(大约4-6年)，在此期间，需要保持公众的兴趣(纽波特船舶中心的数万名游客证明了这一点)，同时木材更难接近。这是一个临时展览，解决了公众提出的一些最常见的问题(这也是与关键研究目标平行的)，例如，这艘船看起来是什么样子？这艘船有多大？它能运载多少货物？将基于一项研究计划，重点是重建该船的原始船体形状。经过几个世纪的埋葬，这艘船的遗骸已经变形，无法很容易地确定船的原始大小和形状。解决这类研究问题的传统方法包括在卡片等不适合展示的易碎材料中建立规模研究模型。该项目将通过首先建立每个木材的准确虚拟实体模型来实现每个木材的3维数字记录的潜力。然后，将使用一种名为激光烧结的工艺来制造每一件零件的精确1：10比例的物理副本。开发这一工艺是为了允许生产短时间运行的高精度模型，如原型。部件是在热塑性塑料(聚酰胺12)中制造的，可以通过拉伸和/或应用中温弯曲。动态展览将随着时间的推移而发展，因为作为中心部件的比例尺模型将按照船舶的原始建造顺序建造。现有的展板将进行更新，以解释这项研究及其结果，纠正在养护处理期间减少接触船舶木材的问题。研究成果还将包括增强的网站信息、期刊文章和会议论文。公众对展览的反馈将被用来帮助发展展示概念，一旦所有的木材都被展示出来，就可以永久地展示这艘船。展览的创建和支持它的研究将通过发展纽波特博物馆和文物局(纽波特船的保管人)和威尔士大学兰皮特大学之间的现有关系来实现，后者自这艘船被发现以来一直提供考古咨询支持。

The Newport Ship is the most substantial medieval ship found in Britain in modern times. Following its discovery in 2002, the ship was dismantled and the individual timbers recovered for detailed recording, analysis and eventual conservation. The recovery of the ship reflected strong local support for its rescue and display, mirrored by widespread academic interest. The ship is important at a number of levels: as a major archaeological find which has galvanised sustained community support for heritage, and as a rare survival of a clinker-built ship of the late medieval period, constructed on the Atlantic seaboard.Since its recovery, the thousands of timbers making up the find have been recorded using 3-dimensional recording arms to produce a digital record of the ship's structural elements. The waterlogged timbers now need to undergo chemical treatments to remove contaminants such as iron and sulphur and then be actively conserved. These processes will take some time (of the order of 4-6 years) and in the meantime public interest (demonstrated by tens of thousands of visitors to the Newport Ship Centre) needs to be sustained whilst the timbers are less accessible. An interim exhibition which addresses some of the most common questions asked by the public (which also parallel key research objectives) such as 'What did the ship look like?', 'How big was the ship?', 'How much cargo could it carry?' will be based on a programme of research focused on reconstruction of the ship's original hull form. The ship remains had been distorted over centuries of burial and the original size and shape of the vessel cannot be readily determined. Traditional approaches to such research questions have included the construction of scale research models in fragile materials such as card which are not suitable for display. This project will realise the potential of the 3-dimensional digital record of each timber by firstly building an accurate virtual solid model of each timber. A precise 1:10 scale physical copy of each piece will then be manufactured using a process called 'laser sintering'. This process has been developed to allow production of short runs of high precision models such as prototypes. Pieces are manufactured in a thermoplastic (Polyamide 12) which can be bent using tension and/or the application of moderate heat.The dynamic exhibition will evolve over time as the scale model, which will act as the centrepiece, is built following the original construction order of the ship. Existing display panels will be updated to explain the research and its outcomes, redressing reduced access to the ship timbers during their conservation treatment. Research outputs will also include enhanced website information, journal articles and conference papers. Feedback from public audience responses to the exhibition will be used to help develop display concepts for the permanent display of the ship once all the timbers have been displayed.The creation of the exhibition and the research underpinning it will be achieved through development of an existing relationship between Newport Museum and Heritage Service (keeper of the Newport Ship) and the University of Wales Lampeter which has provided archaeological consultancy support since the ship's discovery.