Creation of an Early-19-Century Siberian Ship 3D Model ' Andrei A. Pushkarev, Olga V. Zaytсeva, Mikhail V. Vavulin, Anna Y. Skorobogatova
Abstract The Northeast Passage played a great role in the colonization of Siberia. However, we know almost nothing about design and specific features of Russian ships of the 17th–19th centuries that sailed through the Northeast Passage and gave rise to the very first Russian settlements on the Ob river. Due to the absence of drawings and the inadequacy of written sources, dependable reconstruction of historic vessels is virtually impossible if no archeological data is used. Archaeological investigation of a 19-century wooden ship was performed in 2015 on the bank of Kiryas, an arm of the Ob river. At the moment, this is the only large wooden ship in Siberia explored using archaeological methods. Another unique feature of the ship is its almost undamaged condition, which will ultimately allow for complete reconstruction. The flat-bottomed ship measures 34 х 7 x 1,7 m. The planks of the bottom and the side slopes are connected with more than 50 frames made of stump wood. In order to save as much information about the unique discovery as possible, a computer reconstruction project was developed. The first stage was launched in September 2015 and included two types of surveying: 1) Digital orthophotography of the ship location. The photos were made using Octocopter UAV Zala 421-22 and Sony RX1 camera. 2) High-precision digital photogrammetry of the wooden ship. Surveying was performed using Nikon D800 digital photo camera. The resulting photos were then processed with Agisoft Photoscan software. The works performed provided for: - An overview ship location 3D model, 10 cm resolution; - A textured ship 3D model, 0,4 cm resolution. In the course of works, the following new techniques were used: - Overlapping of land survey data and UAV images; - Survey of ill-lit areas: - Combining images of individual ship parts into a whole model; - Reconstruction of the missing ship elements using photos from earlier years.
