A geomatics professor from the Univesitat Politècnica de València has completed a four month skills exchange placement with us as part of 'Stays of professors and senior researchers in foreign centers', an initiative funded by the Spanish Government. The programme aims to immerse academics in international research institutions to build networks and promote the sharing of technical skills.
Dr Pablo Rodríguez-Navarro secured funding under the scheme to work alongside our Geomatics, Photography and Thames Discovery Programme teams under the guidance of Peter Rauxloh, our Chief Digital Officer. His research interests overlap with a core area of expansion in our work: using geometrical processing techniques to generate high resolution 3D models of archaeological artefacts and sites. During his residency, Dr Rodríguez-Navarro contributed mainly to four of our projects:
Spitalfields Charnel House
Our excavations in 1999 revealed a charnel house – a building for storing bones – once part of the Augustinian Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital. The charnel house is one of only four of its kind in England, and was built in the early 1300s. Its foundations are on public display beneath the headquarters of Allen and Overy in Spitalfields. Dr Rodríguez-Navarro helped to create a series of 3D photogrammetry models and 2D elevations, of the foundations in situ, and fragments of the building recovered through excavation. The results will be displayed on an interactive poster funded by Historic England at the site, which will allow passers-by to access the 3D models using QR codes.
