Martina POLIG
(Lund University, Lund, Sweden)
Keywords: 3D reconstruction, 3D GIS, FEM, 3D Hop, Romanesque architecture
Abstract:
The Holy Cross Church in Dalby (Sweden) dates back to the 11th century, making it one of the oldest stone churches all across Scandinavia. The appearance of the original church has been discussed by the research community for about a century. The main aim of this study is to determine which of the many hypotheses regarding the first phase of the church is the most likely, what might have been the reason for its major alteration in the 12th century, and how digital methods – particularly 3D – can improve and aid building archaeology. The study consists of four parts. In the first one, excavation trenches close to the church are reconstructed from drawings in 3D-GIS and put in relation to a 3D model of the church derived from a laser scan acquisition of the entire building that was performed in 2013. It is an innovative way to assess and revisit old excavation material by recomposing vertical and horizontal 2D documentation accurately. Based on the results of the first part, other archaeological documentation, measurements from the 3D scan and literature, 3D reconstructions of the three most important hypotheses are created in the second part and are compared to the 3D scan of the church in order to validate them geometrically. An interactive reliability map of the reconstructions was created and made available online. The last two steps comprised the spatial exploration of the reconstructions and an examination of the potential of structural analysis through FEM (Finite Element Modelling) for building archaeology. It was possible to determine which hypothesis is the most likely, and that the alteration of the church in the 12th century might have been due to structural reasons. The study clearly shows that 3D methods can considerably enhance building archaeological investigations, and that FEM is a very promising method.