Ancient Dorset in 3d.
This page contains a significant amount of material resonating with the theme of Ancient Dorset in 3D, identifying with my efforts to digitally resurrect deep history through a fusion of time, place, and technology.
Key existing material includes:
• The Entropic Simulator Concept: This project envisions transforming Microsoft Flight Simulator (or similar platforms) into a chronotopic simulator of West Dorset, allowing users to “fly through time”. It aims to repopulate the landscape with authentic Anglo-Romano, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Medieval structures—including Powerstock’s 10th-century King John hunting lodge—aligned to OS and LiDAR data.
• Site-Specific Reconstructions: I’d also like to use GUI-based geographical tool to reconstruct sites such as the Chisels Roman settlement and Maiden Castle or Eggerdon Iron Age hill fortifications to see Iron Age citadels protected by fierce wooden palisades around their perimeters.
• My Bryce Villa Project: I have a “part started / part finished abandoned Roman Villa project” created years ago in Bryce 3D, which captures the essential rhythm of a villa layout with its central courtyard and elevated main hall. This is currently a digital ruin or personal Pompeii, :-), but, given time (I may not have), I’d love to complete it, even if only to port it into MS Flight Sim as outlined above!
• Technological Methodology: Aside from 3d Drone photography, I’ve pondered using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry, similar to techniques used for mapping statues on Easter Island, to build high-resolution, georeferenced textured meshes for archiving and full VR.
And talking of Drone Photography and 360-Degree Exploration, I’ve started creating “Life in 3D” and “360 pan” views of Dorset prehistory with the idea of letting viewers sit on a virtual bench and hear the sea while looking out from a 3000 year old Iron Age citadel like Abbotsbury Castle or viewing 10th Century Powerstock Castle ruins in all its splendid glory … from their sofa!
• Curator’s Reflection: One fragment summarizes the intent perfectly: “Technology becomes archaeology here. Beach’s scanners resurrect hillforts and fossils, layering new pixels over old soil”.
And who knows? Maybe, one day when the tides steal shingle from the blue lias beneath, I might record the visible remains of Cogden Beach‘s Anglo-Roman villa settlement at low tide.
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