Archaeologists and engineers from the University of Southampton are
collaborating with the British Museum to examine buried Roman coins
using the latest X-ray imaging technology.
Originally designed for the analysis of substantial engineering
parts, such as jet turbine blades, the powerful scanning equipment at
Southampton’s ยต-VIS Centre for Computed Tomography is being used to
examine Roman coins buried in three archaeological artefacts from three
UK hoards.
The centre’s equipment can scan inside objects – rotating 360 degrees
whilst taking thousands of 2D images, which are then used to build
detailed 3D images. In the case of the coins, the exceptionally high
energy/high resolution combination of the Southampton facilities allows
them to be examined in intricate detail without the need for physical
excavation or cleaning. For those recently scanned at Southampton, it
has been possible to use 3D computer visualisation capabilities to read
inscriptions and identify depictions of emperors on the faces of the
coins – for example on some, the heads of Claudius II and Tetricus I
have been revealed.
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