A Diary of Work at Ani: Part IV

In August 2011, the Istanbul-based documentation company Solvo-Tek, lead by Mr. Bora Sayin, completed phase 1 of work at the Church of the Savior. Work included documenting the structure and its site using digital photography, terrestrial laser scanning, GPS survey, and digital HDR panoramic photography. The team photographed and scanned the standing remains of the church and the fallen wall sections in-situ before their removal to an area adjacent to the church next spring. Panoramic photographs of the general area were also taken to put the site within the general context of the larger site and its relationship to other structures, such as the neighboring cathedral and the surrounding topography.
Fourth Day

Before going to the field we did some post processing of GPS data and calculated the coordinates of newly established stations which we will need during the laser scanning. We also had to let our photographer go back due to a family death. It seems like we will be handling the photography ourselves.

We were in the field by noon; however we couldn’t start immediately due to the weather again. After waiting couple of hours we started the laser scanning work. We were afraid of visitors during the scanning but it went well.

We used permanent three prism-tripod sets on control stations; this way we were able to maintain certain accuracy through the survey. Our laser scanner system is a Z+F 5006i, a phase based scanner with data collection speed of approximately 500,000 points per second.