Up-to-date Virtual Archaeology

Εικονική αρχαιολογία και η συμβολή των τρισδιάστατων γραφικών στην αρχαιολογική έρευνα , 2008

The recording of archaeological data and the study and representation of archaeological or historical sites, articles and landscapes by means of computer and threedimensional graphic programs is called “virtual archaeology”.The use of computers and three-dimensional graphics in the field of civilization, being an edge technology, enables the cultural bodies to digitize their material for scientific and public use and, in a successive stage, to study, process and visualize complex data, notions and finds, thus providing a most comprehensible form of the cultural commodity. The article comprises the definition and objective of virtual archaeology, as it has been designated by the international bibliography, as well as the contribution of three-dimensional software graphics and modern techniques of data collection to the reinforcement of archaeological research."

We live in a cyber era: social networks, virtual communities, human avatars, 3D worlds, digital applications, immersive and collaborative games are able to change our perception of the world and, first of all, the capacity to record, share and transmit information. Terabyte, Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte of digital data are constructing the human knowledge of future societies and changing the access to the past. If the human knowledge is rapidly migrating in digital domains and virtual worlds, what happens to the past? Can we imagine the interpretation process of the past as a digital hermeneutic circle (fig. 1)? The idea that a digital simulation process one day could remake the past has stimulated dreams and fantasies of many archaeologists. We know that this is impossible, but new cybernetic ways to approach the interpretation process in archaeology are particularly challenging since they open multiple perspectives of research otherwise not identifiable.

The Past as a Digital Playground Archaeology, Virtual Reality and Video Games, 2022

The Past as Digital Playground: Archaeology, Virtual Reality, and Video Games collects the contributions to a two-day conference which illustrate a digital project developed at the Archaeological and Technological Park of Poggibonsi (Siena, Tuscany), where Virtual Reality and an educational video game are being used to enhance the archaeological content deriving from the excavation of the medieval site. In recent decades, digital technologies have pervaded every aspect of the production of archaeological knowledge, from data collection to analysis and interpretation, to interaction with the public. The increasing convenience of 3D and interactive technologies has led to a proliferation of digital tools (VR, AR, mobile applications) used to communicate the past in a more engaging way, offering the public an experience that takes place largely outside of the traditional channels. Alongside the experience at Poggibonsi, the book also gathers important contributions originating from other Italian and international case studies in the fields of digital technologies applied to archaeological heritage.

Although the Archaeology is strongly connected to the past, this is a modern science and the new technologies are widely used to present and better understand the ancient monuments in our modern world. Sometimes this knowledge is the only chance to preserve the information coming from the past. For example - the destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra due to the savage war in Syria shocked the international community. The only way out seems to be the digital technologies: the NGO CyArk offered emergency 3D scanning of the ancient city before to be totally damaged by the Islamic terrorists. Definitely the new digital techniques are not only an exciting way for entertainment but also a scientific method that helps archaeologists in their work and offers wide range of opportunities to interpreting the past. This project will guide you to the basic method of digital documentation of archaeological evidence. The students involved will have a chance to reconstruct the ancient monuments using 3D digital methods, Interactive interfaces, Holograms etc. In addition we going to visit different archaeological localities, will discover the ancient culture of Thracia (South Bulgara) starting from 5th millennium BC till the picturesque architecture of 18th century. Documenting the past through modern technologies will give you confidence in your future.

Brazilian Journal of Education, Technology and Society (BRAJETS), 2022

This paper seeks to present an overview of the implications of the massive development of computer technologies, especially digital games, on archaeology. For this, I will discuss some considerations about the area called Digital Archaeology-which came to be integrated into the debates around Digital Humanities. This field has been responsible for establishing the theoretical and methodological foundations for the holistic understanding of the use of computer technologies in the development of archaeological research. Afterward, I will briefly present the relationship between digital games and archaeology, from the main concepts and advances of Cyber-archaeology and Archaeogaming, two of the most essential branches of Digital Archaeology to deal with digital games. I will present ways in which Cyber-archaeology seeks to develop three-dimensional interactive applications for the production and communication of archaeological research based on the concepts of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and their fundamental axes (immersion and real-time interactivity); and how Archaeogaming has been established as a fundamental scientific discipline for understanding the representations of different conceptions of culture and society portrayed in game s and simulations through digital archaeological excavations. Finally, I will present some of the pioneer initiatives of cyber-archaeological and Archaeogaming projects developed in Brazil.

This paper aims at introducing and discussing an epistemological model of cyber archaeology in relation to the need to investigate what happens in a immersive environment of virtual archaeology where every user is “embodied” in the cyber space. In particular the ontology of archaeological information, or the cybernetics of archaeology, refers to all the interconnective relationships which the datum produces, the code of transmission, and its transmittability. Because it depends on interrelationships, by its very nature information cannot be neutral with respect to how it is processed and perceived. It follows that the process of knowledge and communication have to be unified and represented by a single vector. 3D information is regarded as the core of the knowledge process, because it creates feedback, then cybernetic difference, among the interactor, the scientist and the ecosystem. It is argued that Virtual Reality (both offline and online) represents a possible ecosystem, which is able to host top‐down and bottom‐up processes of knowledge and communication. In these terms, the past is generated and coded by “a simulation process”. Thus, from the first phases of data acquisition in the field, the technical methodologies and technologies that we use, influence in a decisive way all the subsequent phases of interpretation and communication. In the light of these considerations, what is the relationship between information and representation? How much information does a digital model contain? What sorts of and how many ontologies ought to be chosen to permit an acceptable transmittability? These and many other questions on related topics take on certain urgency because they relate directly to the loss of information from understanding, learning, and the transmittability of culture. Indeed, our ability to transmit culture depends on a model which combines on the same axis processes of understanding and communication. Thus, the questions which we pose in a phase of bottom‐up knowledge (for example, in an archaeological excavation) will influence the top‐down phases of interpretation, or the mental patterns (for example, a comparative analysis and reconstruction of models). From this derives the need to interconnect the top‐down processes with the bottom‐up in accordance with a reciprocal systemic interaction, for example in a virtual space where both sequences can coexist. If we peremptorily separate knowledge and communication, we risk losing information along the way, reducing the relationships that are constructed between acquisition/input and transmission/output. Archaeological communication ought to be understood as a process of validation of the entire cognitive process of understanding and not as a simple addendum to research, or as a dispensable compendium of data. This theoretical discussion will be applied to a presentation of an important case study: the “Virtual Museum of the Ancient Via Flaminia” in Rome, a MUD space where diverse users can interact in the same cyberspace.

2011

Trece años después de la publicación del libro "Arqueología virtual" (Forte, 1996, 97) es el momento de volver a discutir sobre la definición, los conceptos clave y algunas nuevas tendencias y aplicaciones de la arqueología virtual. El presente documento analiza la introducción del término "cyber-arqueología" en relación con el proceso de simulación derivado de la interconexión y la retroalimentación multivocal y entre los usuarios / actores y ecosistemas virtuales. En este nuevo contexto de mundos cibernéticos, es más adecuado hablar de simulación del pasado que de reconstrucción del pasado. La multivocalidad de la simulación abre nuevas perspectivas en el proceso de interpretación, no imponiendo la última reconstrucción, sino sugiriendo, evocando, simulando múltiples resultados, y no "el pasado", sino un potencial pasado.

Digithum, 2004

This article looks at the idea that the virtual archaeological reconstructions seen in museums cannot be considered Virtual Reality (VR) as they are based on an artistic conception of the discipline. The cause is to be found in the origins of Archaeology, which began in the 18 th century and was closely linked to the History of Art. In the era of New Technologies, this concept has become both the cause and the consequence: determining the characteristics of VR from within the discipline, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the virtual reconstructions. To assess the relationship between VR and Archaeology, we must first establish a definition of Virtual Reality. Subsequently, we can take a brief look at the history so as to be able to understand the evolution of Archaeology and museums. This leads us to the analysis of some examples of VR in museums, from which we can gain conclusions on the current use of VR. Finally, we look at the possibilities for VR in terms of publicising Archaeology.

Founded in Sicily by the Corinthians in 733 BC, Siracusa was the birthplace of poets and thinkers as Epicharmus and Archimedes, visited by many prominent figures of Greek culture as Pindar, Aeschylus and Plato, and over centuries it became one of the most prominent cities of the Greek Mediterranean. Nonetheless, regardless the historical background and the imposing visible remains of that past emerging everywhere in the actual urban area, Siracusa, since 2005 World Heritage site, has never played the role of quintessential archetype of Greek city in the mainstream. Against this scenario a proper action of historical revisionism over all the media should be undertake for recovering the neglected heritage of ancient Siracusa in order to restitute to this once splendid archetype of Greek culture the deserved role of key-site. This paper elucidates a virtual archaeology project, undertaken by a team of scholars of the IBAM-CNR and The Arcadia University - TCGS, aimed to the digital reconstruction of Ortigia, the core district of the Greek Syracuse. The main goal of this exercise has been the production of the 3D documentary ‘Siracusa 3D reborn’, that represents an original advance in the knowledge of the Greek background of the city. In this perspective, the choice of providing ‘passive’ cognitive tools embedded with communicational and emotional components did not affected the scientific accuracy with which the reconstructive process has been carried out. Main monuments of Ortigia are described and analyzed in the context of a full 3D stereoscopic representation employing techniques of modern cinema industry for elucidating and explaining its historical and archaeological characteristics. The reconstructive workflow followed a meticulous methodological plan based on the published data and aimed to define a previously unavailable topographic profile of the city, portrayed in two main chronological phases, Archaic and Late Classical.

2010

This paper attempts to analyse the effectiveness of 3d modelling in archaeological research by exploring the diverse methods available to us for executing reconstructions of archaeological evidence. Starting with the simple subdivisions of com puter graphics, as pre-calculated sequences of animation with a photo-realistic rendering, and virtual reality, as inter activity in real-time, it will be possible to highlight the differences between the two methods of display, which, since they are ex perienced in highly dissimilar ways, will also have a bearing on the goals achieved. The re-examination of the case study of Grave 7 in Romito Cave, and the subsequent improvements to the research, have furnished us with the means to focus our attention on those processes which exploit in a more effective and comprehensive way the uses of 3D for archaeological purposes.

Virtual reality at Work in the 21st Century. …, 2005

Three dimensional (3D) modelling and virtual reconstruction (VR) of archaeological features are common tools of communicating Cultural Heritage, especially for the wide public; archaeological parks, museums or websites dedicated to Cultural Heritage often display virtual 3D artefacts, structures or landscapes, enhancing the visitors' comprehension of the past. However, the potential contribution of 3D and VR to the archaeological research is commonly neglected by the archaeological community, which often views the process of building a 3D model as a stage apart from the common research pipeline, a stage designated for merely presenting to the public in a fashionably, attractive way, the archaeological results. One of the more common critics raised by archaeologists is that 3D models are a closed box, with no possibility of evaluation and often without a particular aim, the emphasis being on computer graphics and artistic aspects, rather than on the wish to solve a particular archaeological scientific problem. The article discusses this trend, subsequently suggesting to integrate 3D modelling into the archaeological research methodology, and finally offering some scientific tools to validate the 3D model, by enabling its de-construction and evaluation.

2005

Three dimensional (3D) modelling and virtual reconstruction (VR) of archaeological features are common tools of communicating Cultural Heritage, especially for the wide public; archaeological parks, museums or websites dedicated to Cultural Heritage often display virtual 3D artefacts, structures or landscapes, enhancing the visitors’ comprehension of the past. However, the potential contribution of 3D and VR to the archaeological research is commonly neglected by the archaeological community, which often views the process of building a 3D model as a stage apart from the common research pipeline, a stage designated for merely presenting to the public in a fashionably, attractive way, the archaeological results. One of the more common critics raised by archaeologists is that 3D models are a closed box, with no possibility of evaluation and often without a particular aim, the emphasis being on computer graphics and artistic aspects, rather than on the wish to solve a particular archaeological scientific problem. The article discusses this trend, subsequently suggesting to integrate 3D modelling into the archaeological research methodology, and finally offering some scientific tools to validate the 3D model, by enabling its de-construction and evaluation.

The archeological knowledge is extracted basically from investigations to reconstruct the events of history. Documentation and records of the archeological data is always a challenge for the archeologists, as the data may be from a small piece of artifact to a big city of the past. With the advancement of technology and use of computers, virtual archeology has been established to assist the archeologists not only to maintain the record but to simulate historical environment. This paper reviews different methods used by researchers for virtual completion of buildings and artifacts excavated at different archeological sites. The author has reviewed three studies from Germany, US and Italy. The first study is a regeneration of a historical building in the form of 3D virtual model where inadequate information was available to the archeologists. Second study is a virtual completion of vessels and ceramic shards excavated from a renowned site. Third study is related to a large site with three well preserved temples of Greek and Roman Period. Author found that virtually reconstructing 3D models of these sites can be used not only for documentation, education and visual presentation but also for scientific analysis and understanding.