Newport Medieval Ship

The main aims of the Newport Medieval Ship Project are to document, analyse and describe this 15th-century vessel, and its associated artefacts and environmental finds. This archive comprises data gathered on site and during the post-excavation analysis phase. Digital documentation techniques, including contact digitising, laser scanning, digital photography and digital solid modelling have been utilised in order to create a detailed, accurate and versatile data set that lends itself to digital archiving and dissemination. The archive contains primary site records including scans of hand-drawn which have subsequently been digitised, scanned pro-forma records, and scans of pre-digital excavation photographs. During the post-excavation research phase, the hull timbers and artefacts were cleaned, recorded and analysed. The resulting records (timber drawings, solid models, and digital photographs) were used to create digital and physical models of selected hull timbers. Scaled models were then created and used to determine the original hull form of the medieval ship. The innovative use of digital recording and modelling has been held up as an example of best practice for similar nautical archaeology documentation projects throughout Europe. The archive also contains an extensive series of specialist reports, classified by function/artefact group or material type. These reports contain detailed analysis and, where appropriate, a catalogue. Many of the above-mentioned records contain information that has been entered in the comprehensive project database.