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Internet Archaeology 8: Visualisation Theme
Title
The title of the publication or report
Title:
Internet Archaeology 8: Visualisation Theme
Series
The series the publication or report is included in
Series:
Internet Archaeology
Volume
Volume number and part
Volume:
8
Licence Type
ADS, CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY 4.0 NC.
Licence Type:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
International Licence
Publication Type
The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book
Publication Type:
Journal
Editor
The editor of the publication or report
Editor:
Judith Winters
Issue Editor
The editor of the volume or issue
Issue Editor:
Steve Dobson
Year of Publication
The year the book, article or report was published
Year of Publication:
2000
Note
Extra information on the publication or report.
Note:
Date Of Issue From:2000
Source
Where the record has come from or which dataset it was orginally included in.
Source:
BIAB (The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
Relations
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Relations:
URI:
http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue8/index.html
Created Date
The date the record of the pubication was first entered
Created Date:
20 Jan 2002
Please click on an Article link to go to the Article Details.
Article Title
Access Type
Author / Editor
Page
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Abstract
3D interpretative modelling of archaeological sites/a computer reconstruction of a medieval timber and earthwork castle
Jeremy W Huggett
Chen Guo-Yuan
This paper looks at aspects of archaeological three-dimensional reconstruction modelling from two perspectives: issues and solutions relating to the modelling process, emphasising a flexible approach developed using standardised components located and structured using basic parameters, and a discussion of a case study involving the reconstruction of a medieval timber castle, incorporating a detailed topographic survey with reconstructed structural elements derived from interpreted excavation evidence. This experimental presentation attempts to combine a traditional linear paper cast in a hypertext framework, with a more dynamic document that responds to the reader's chosen pathway through it. This paper-- or more correctly, these two papers -- have been developed using a number of simple JavaScript functions. It is thought that the success or otherwise of this approach to hypermedia presentation remains to be seen.
Debriefing the land; the use of non-immersive virtual reality technolog...
Brian Larkman
This article discusses ways of perceiving subtle features within landscapes and of transposing them into hypermedia. It sets out to examine the problems encountered when navigating recording, and analysing forms of landscape-related artefacts such as prehistoric `monuments', land art, sculpture parks, and landscaped gardens. In particular, techniques for examining and recording both the local properties -- including texture, form, weathering, and construction techniques -- and the wider properties such as relationship of artefacts to their site, topography, inter-visibility etc., are considered. As a pilot study, Apple Computer's QuickTimeVR technology has been used to record several representative landscapes, including some of the prehistoric carved rock art of Yorkshire and Northumberland, with particular reference to inter-visibility between sites. The recordings are examined with reference to the local and wider properties of the sites and the landscapes that contain them to determine how successfully the technique captures their features for remote viewing.
Review of ArchEd and Stratigraph -excavation recording and analysis software
Mike Rains
This review investigates two software packages developed to assist with the recording and analysis of archaeological excavations. ArchEd from the Max Planck Institut für Informatik at Saarbrücken in Germany (<url> http://www.mpi-</url> sb.mpg.de/~arche/), has been developed for Windows 95/98/NT from the Bonn Seriation program (see also 96/889 & 96/969--70). Version 1.0 is available for free download from http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/~arche/StartPage.html in the form of a 1.1mb self-extracting archive. The user guide (in MS Word format) is available as another 290KB download. Installation, which follows normal Windows conventions, is fast and trouble free. The second, StratiGraf 1.1 for Windows, operates on the following Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98. It is available in English, Spanish and Catalan. Its technical requirements are a Pentium II 266 MHZ processor or higher, 32 Mb RAM, SVGA resolution. StratiGraf is an `advanced documentation and interpretation system for archaeologists' from Proleg DPC of Balaguer, Spain. It is a commercial program priced at 560 Euros for a first licence plus 94 Euros for each additional licence (14 Euros for educational use). A demonstration version limited to thirty stratigraphic units can be downloaded from http://www.proleg.com/index.html. Both provide facilities for the automatic production of Harris matrix style diagrams from stratigraphic relationships. ArchEd limits itself to this single function whilst StratiGraf, incorporates its matrix-drawing capabilities into a full excavation recording database.
Immediate realities; an anthropology of computer visualisation in archa...
Jonathan Bateman
This article assesses computer visualisations in the light of a range of anthropological, art historical, and cultural critiques to place them and their production squarely within the broader spectrum of the discipline's output. Moving from identifying the shortcomings in the methods and scope of existing critiques of archaeological illustrations, a comprehensive approach to understanding the visual culture of archaeology is outlined. This approach is specifically applied to computer visualisations, and identifies both the sociology of their production, and the technological nature of their creation and reproduction as key elements influencing their readings as communicators of archaeological ideas. In order to develop useful understandings of how visual languages act within the discourse of the discipline, critiques of those languages must be inclusive. The cultural products of archaeology as a discipline should be treated with the same sophistication as the examination of the products of other cultures (past and present), or it is thought archaeologists will struggle to use them to their full potential.
The compelling computer image ; a double-edged sword
Harrison I Eiteljorg
Scholars can present more compelling and believable images than ever before and need few artistic skills to do so. On the other hand, the images can be so compelling that even rather sophisticated viewers may accept uncritically the information presented. Thus, if the power of the technology is used without taking great care, archaeology may find it is done a disservice, because certainty may be implied where it cannot exist and agreement where it does not exist. Whilst it is considered probably too early in the history of archaeological computing to determine answers, the paper aims to begin a process of trying to ask some of the right questions.
Virtual 3-D Facial Reconstruction
Martin P Evison
Proceeds from the standpoint that facial reconstructions in archaeology allow empathy with people who lived in the past and enjoy considerable popularity with the public. It is stated that there is a common misconception that facial reconstruction will produce an exact likeness when in fact a resemblance is the best that can be hoped for. Research from Sheffield University into the development of a computer system for facial reconstruction that will be accurate rapid, repeatable, accessible and flexible is described and prototypical 3-D facial reconstructions are presented. Interpolation models simulating obesity, ageing and ethnic affiliation are also described. Some strengths and weaknesses in the models, and their potential for application in archaeology are discussed.
The world in a spin; representing the Neolithic landscapes of South Uis...
Vicki Cummings
Archaeologists have recently become interested in exploring the importance of the landscape in the past, particularly in relation to Neolithic monuments. As the interest in landscape archaeology has grown over the past decade, however, problems of representation have also begun to emerge. This article highlights a few of these issues and presents a case study which illustrates how computing and the Internet may offer assistance in the presentation and understanding of prehistoric landscapes.
Editorial
Judith Winters
Steve Dobson
Editorial for Issue 8, on computer visualisation and the Internet
The antler finds at Bilzingsleben, excavations 1969-1993
Jurgen Vollbrecht
2820 antler remains from the Lower Palaeolithic site of Bilzingsleben, Thuringia, Germany (excavations 1969-1993) were the subject of detailed investigations. The two major goals were:the consideration of taphonomic aspectsthe critical evaluation of suggestions about artificial modifications to the antler materialA detailed morphological description of the antler material provided the basis for the investigation. A prerequisite was the transfer of provenance data onto an x-y coordinate grid.Taphonomic aspects considered in this work include the relative frequencies of antler elements, estimates regarding the minimum number of individual deer, their age structure and seasonality, and, insofar as the condition of the antlers allowed, the classification of surface preservation, size classes and spatial distribution of the finds.The assemblage of antler finds, the majority of which seems to have come from red deer, is dominated by small fragments, mostly of tines. About one quarter of the finds are larger than 150 mm. Lower beams are more abundant than upper beams (e.g. crowns). Detailed counting, substantiated by systematic reconstruction, shows that in general the antlers are incomplete.After reconstruction of unshed antlers, it was possible to assess the minimum number of heads at 150 animals. Preliminary counting of postcranial and cranial (non antler) cervid material points to about 70 cervids. Intentional accumulation of antlers by hominids can only be accepted as the reason for these disproportionate figures if other site formation processes can be ruled out. In fact, the correlation between sediment thickness and maximum antler densities, at least for finds smaller than 120mm, suggests that fluvial accumulation has to be taken into account as a probable element of the site formation history. Further, the mixture of unifacially abraded finds together with finds that exhibit bifacial abrasion points to a succession of changing fluvial environments in the area of accumulation. More investigation is needed to help the understanding of site formation processes, without which head counts and evaluations of age structures and seasonality of the antler material are of little use for examining hominid contribution to the antler accumulation.
Review of Yanomamö Interactive: The Ax Fight
Marcus Banks
Review of Yanomamö Interactive: The Ax Fight. Peter Biella, Napoleon A. Chagnon and Gary Seaman. Harcourt Brace and Company, 1997 [ISBN 0-15-507653-1] [CD-ROM], an interactive ethnographic study of an event in the Venezuelan Amazon.