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Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies

University of Arkansas

Virtual Archeology and Visualization Overview

Home » Research » Archaeology/Historic Preservation » Archaeological Visualization » Center for Heritage Visualization » Virtual Archeology and Visualization Overview

Archeologists have always used creative visualization to reconstruct lifeways from the fragmentary remains of material culture (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; interpretations that directly affect the way archeologists evaluate and understand the past (Tilley 1993). Today prehistoric 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."

Scientific visualization, a standard investigative tool in the physical and natural sciences (Hall 1994), is a methodological approach which uses computer generated representations of data to improve understanding (Visualization Research Group, School of Computer Studies, Leeds University). As Tufte noted in 1992, the human brain processes visual information much more efficiently than textual, numerical or even diagrammatic data. In contrast to maps and diagrams which present what is 'known', the computer graphics and digital models that comprise visualizations provide an environment for creative investigation of data sets and data structure and exploration of alternative interpretations with the goal of gaining insight into the data (Unwin and Fisher Case Studies).

The Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST), University of Arkansas, is developing an Internet accessible central repository/database of virtual archeology resources to promote use, education, communication, and development of a knowledge base of the practice of archeological visualization and virtual archeology. Visualization methods and virtual reality technologies have been underutilized by American archeologists (Niccolucci 2002). This circumstance exists despite the benefits of these techniques, declining cost of computer hardware and software, and advances in the quality of results in recent years.

Our goal is to develop a web site that provides virtual archeology and archeological visualization resources. The site includes content that focuses on visualization for research, teaching, and public presentation. Virtual archeology promotes professional collaboration by more effectively sharing data and detailed models among researchers across the Internet (Roehl 1997). This includes not only passive displays, but also tools for querying the data. It allows classroom students and distance learners to visually explore archeological worlds that traditionally exist only at the level of mental reconstructions (Earnshaw and Wiseman 1992, Brodlie et al. 1993). Visualizations also provide compelling and exciting presentations of scientific data for museums, interpretive centers, and general public consumption.

Content in each application area will examine visualization method and theory with respect to techniques for creating visualizations, meaning and interpretation in visualization, and visualization and art. Development of the web site builds on our experience in production of archeological visualization projects completed in collaboration with the Arkansas Archeological Survey and Arkansas Parks and Tourism and the Center's substantial experience with web applications, photogrammetry and data acquisition, geospatial solutions and IT, applications in archeology and historic preservation.