Reconstruction & Visualisation

Wessex Archaeology has a team of professional artists who can supply a wide range of reconstruction materials. These include: more traditional hand drawings and watercolours, digital paintings, animations or full 3D reconstructions and 3D prints.

Bringing archaeology to life

Reconstructions bring archaeology to life, helping a wide audience visualise and understand the archaeological remains. We offer a pioneering service in this area; our artists work closely with our specialists to accurately visualise past communities and landscapes based on the archaeology and environmental evidence we discover on site. 

We place an emphasis on depicting the lives of people in the past and sharing their stories, which is a powerful way of engaging audiences. Our reconstructions show historic activities and how objects were used, giving a real feel for what life was like at that time and enabling audiences to draw parallels with their own lives. Whether your audience is young or old these images are engaging and memorable.

Digital watercolours, by Jennie Anderson

Why use an archaeological reconstruction?

Reconstruction images are very effective in engaging target audiences with a site or topic. If you require a press release our Communications & Marketing team uses these images effectively to help raise a story’s profile and make the story more compelling. 

When engaging with local communities, reconstruction images are invaluable for open days or community events, to go on both display materials and leaflets, as well as to advertise the event. This  kind of imagery really helps people understand what is often a complex message and makes the heritage experience more memorable. 

Reconstruction images also help to deliver a project’s legacy requirement, whether this is a permanent onsite information panel, an academic monograph, a popular booklet or a website. A strong image of an accurate reconstruction can really help; a picture can paint a thousand words.

3D reconstructions are also ideal for interactive displays!

2D reconstructions output from 3D models, by Karen Nichols and Jono Sutton

Heritage digital 3D models and visualisations

As well as traditional hand-crafted artwork, our team has the capability to create photo realistic digital 3D models of scenes, objects and people through the ages. 

Our digital 3D models are carefully crafted to be exact replicas of real archaeological finds and artefacts. Using quality texture maps and advanced lighting techniques, we can create beautiful results. Models are an effective way of viewing a scene, artefact or a building complex from a variety of perspectives. If you require a series of images showing the same scene, 3D reconstruction is ideal.

3D reconstructions are also excellent for creating animations such as fly throughs or fly arounds, to help an audience get a  real understanding of a heritage site. This offers the viewer a unique perspective which they may not be able to have by visiting or viewing a site. Video output from 3D models can be used alone or incorporated into informative and educational video products.