3D recording of ancient wooden boats for scientific and educational purposes

Digital survey techniques are well established in the cultural and archaeological heritage fields and they have been used by us to document, study and promote knowledge on ancient ships and wooden boats. In this paper, we want to show four case studies with different peculiarity on which digital techniques have been applied: (1) 'Comacchio sewn boat', discovered in a land excavation site. (2) 'Ercolano boat', restored and exposed in a museum. (3) 'Trabaccolo Nuovo Trionfo', historical carriage boat of High-Adriatic sea. (4) Wooden scaled model of 'brick Cygne'. These represent a peculiar application, complicated by the specific nature of the material of the boats, due to the structural stability and the shape of the wood that could be compromised in an aerobic environment. The archaeologists have the responsibility to employ a fast documentation, but with the correct precision and accuracy for the nominal scale of the survey; the use of digital imaging and survey techniques supports the researchers, such as video and photograph recording, multi-image photogrammetry and laser scanning, and the subsequent elaboration of a virtual 3D model of the real surveyed artefact. This allows scrupulous study of ancient naval construction from both a scientific and disseminative point of view to take place, permitting to increase the knowledge and perception by the general public of this important archaeological and historical heritage.