Pictish boat carving, Wemyss Caves

sketchfab

A weathered representation of a boat pecks its way into the wall of a cave perched precariously on Scotland's Fife coast near Wemyss. This ancient carvings may very well be part of the Pictish rock art tradition, making it the earliest known depiction of a vessel in Scottish history. Although deceptively simple, this carving appears to showcase all of the primary components of an early medieval boat, minus a mast. The model is bathed in warm, golden light as it's viewed within the caves, illuminated by flickering torchlight. The Wemyss caves have already been meticulously recorded by SWACS experts and numerous additional carvings are digitally available on the Wemyss4D website, featuring laser and RTI modeling techniques. I had the privilege of visiting the site alongside them and SCAPE archaeologists in October 2019. Extremely pleased with how this turned out considering it was a quick photo shoot using only my phone camera. The phone flash was utilized for each image, and processing was done on Metashape software. A stripped-back model is available for further examination of the carving's intricate details.