Virtual
Archeology and Visualization Justification
Wide use of 3D visualization and similar computer models
are essential to engage new (particularly younger) segments of the population
and increase understanding and interest in the nation's heritage. U.S.
heritage interpretation dramatically lags behind European efforts in
this arena and a national resource center will provide critically needed
impetus to growth. The Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, in collaboration
with Arkansas Parks and Tourism and the Arkansas Archeological Survey,is
creating a web-based national resource for developers of digital three
dimensional visualizations for prehistoric and historic properties. The
site will include content that focuses on visualization for research,
teaching, and public presentation. The goal is to make these methods
more accessible to heritage professionals, interpreters, and others.
Currently computer visualizations are restricted in their use in large
part because of a lack of education, and access to tools and information.
These resources serve both the professional cultural heritage community
and the public. They promote use, education, and communication among
professionals in technologies that have been underutilized but are in
wide and growing use in Europe (Niccolucci 2002).
Heritage
professionals have always used creative visualization to reconstruct lifeways
from the fragmentary remains of material culture and the historic record
(Kantner 2000). Excavated sites and artifact
assemblages are described in detail in popular accounts of prehistoric
societies as well as technical site reports. Drawings, plans, maps, and
tables are used to supplement the descriptions. One objective of these
reports is to interpret what structures, sites, or settlements might have
looked like while they were in use; visual interpretations that directly
affect the way humans evaluate and understand the past (Tilley
1993). Today cultural landscapes can be virtually brought to life
when the capacity to create and use three dimensional computer reconstructions
is added to traditional archeological methods (Roehl
1997). As Colin Renfrew (1997) noted
in his introduction to Virtual Archaeology Re-Creating Ancient Worlds
"The archaeology of the third millennium will likely be a science
with a strong technological element that will enhance out of all proportion
our ability to explore, to interpret and to classify, bringing with it
a greater and more penetrating ability to reconstruct the past."
The use of computer based visualization in the U.S. lags behind European
efforts and an easy to use set of resources and tutorials accessible via
the WWW will help develop capacity.
Access in the US to tools and skills to develop these third millennium
methods are limited and this project is designed to increase this access.
There is a massive amount of information available on various computerized
3D techniques but it is not organized or structured in a way that is
focused on the needs of the heritage professions. This lack of accessibility
it a key constraint to its wide use. In addition to traditional list
of resources and sources of software, a central element of the project
is to provide detailed tutorials, best-practices, cost evaluations and
user information based on comprehensive example projects.
|
Home