{"title":"Online Gaming as Digital Heuristics","authors":"Miriam G. Clinton","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v4i2.30580","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v4i2.30580","url":null,"abstract":"While 3D modeling has only come into widespread archaeological use in recent years, it is hardly a new or untested approach in the study of architecture. Even so, archaeological 3D modeling has largely been limited to use in illustrations, rather than treated as a part of the scientific method. Using the case study of the Minoan House of the Rhyta at Pseira, this article discusses the results of applying 3D modeling as not only a visualization, but also a hypothesis testing tool.\u0000In the summer of 2014, the Minoan Modeling Project undertook a new intensive architectural examination of the Minoan House of the Rhyta at Pseira. The project produced both state and reconstructed 3D models. The 3D reconstruction became the basis of an educational video game designed as a scientific tool to test architectural theories about the use of space. As gamers interact with and circulate through the various rooms in the House of the Rhyta, their movements are tracked and statistically compared with the results of more traditional methods of access and circulation pattern analysis. This article presents preliminary results of this crowdsourced online game study, in addition to discussing strengths and weaknesses of the technique as learned through the process of building the model and game.","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46514646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Structure from Motion and Archaeological Excavation: Experiences of the Via Consolare Project in Pompeii","authors":"Michael A Anderson","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v4i2.27260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v4i2.27260","url":null,"abstract":"The last decade of advances in Image-Based Modeling (IBM) data acquisition based on Structure from Motion (SfM) have made it possible as never before to record excavated archaeological deposits, historical architectural remains, artifacts, and geographical surroundings in the field. Armed only with digital cameras and low-cost or open-source software, researchers can now produce accurate point clouds of millions of points, capturing archaeological information in high-resolution detail. But what changes will IBM really bring to the standards, requirements, and expectations of practical field methodology for projects operating on shoe-string budgets? Since 2010, the Via Consolare Project, a small archaeological research project from a State level University, has employed an entirely open-source and “free for academic use” IBM pipeline to record a variety of archaeological features in Insula VII 6 and the “Villa delle Colonne a mosaico” in Pompeii. Ranging from surviving architecture, to rubble fill layers, to the interiors of inaccessible cisterns and drains, this work has been carried out in preparation for the eventual coordination of these data into a 3D GIS of all recorded stratigraphy. Rarely were sufficient resources available for dedicated equipment or personnel to be devoted to this task. While practical implementation, even in a low-budget excavation environment, has confirmed that this technology can indeed augment archaeological field documentation and provide investigation opportunities that would otherwise be impossible, it failed to replace traditional handdrafted recording techniques and was found to present significant challenges and a number of hidden costs. This emphasizes a need for appropriate and cautious planning in implementation, especially in projects with limited means.","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45028151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human versus computer vision in archaeological recording","authors":"P. Sapirstein","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v4i2.31520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v4i2.31520","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000As 3D scanning and photogrammetry are supplanting traditional illustration techniques with increasing speed, archaeologists and architectural historians have sounded alarms about what stands to be lost if hand drawing is altogether eliminated from fieldwork. This paper argues that the most direct threat is to a particular form of archaeological illustration which does not necessarily share the advantages attributed to other kinds of drawing. Recording by means of “technical drawing” communicates a collectively agreed interpretation of the ancient record, and its primary benefit is not stimulating creative thought but rather enhancing human observation. A review of two cases comparing the illustration of ancient Greek architecture through analogue and digital methods indicates that, in practice, both approaches draw attention away from the ancient subject and focus it on distracting protocols for the great majority of the time spent in the field. Even so, technical drawing requires protracted, in-person scrutiny of the subject, whereas 3D technologies pose a genuine risk of altogether eliminating meaningful human interpretation from the recording process. The greater efficiencies of digital techniques suggest a path forward, as time once allocated to tedious stages of technical drawing might be applied toward more thoughtful interpretive tasks. However, such measures must be deliberately integrated into a digital research program through planning around the very different cadences of the digital process.\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48521324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matthew Notarian, G. Carpentiero, Lucia Michielin, T. Franconi, Candace Rice, Dylan M Bloy, G. Farney
{"title":"Digital Vacone","authors":"Matthew Notarian, G. Carpentiero, Lucia Michielin, T. Franconi, Candace Rice, Dylan M Bloy, G. Farney","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v4i2.31052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v4i2.31052","url":null,"abstract":"Between 2016 and 2018, excavations at the Roman villa of Vacone, carried out by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project, transitioned to completely digital recording practices. The methodological shift was accompanied by a three-year campaign of backfill removal and cleaning, which allowed most of the villa’s extant architecture and décor uncovered since 2012 to be digitized. Moreover, a new documentation protocol was established that employs photogrammetry in lieu of scale drawing to model the three-dimensional spatial characteristics of every archaeological context. Notable artifacts were also modeled to facilitate off-site study. The excavation’s experiences with this conversion offer valuable lessons for other long-term archaeological projects contemplating a similar shift amid active fieldwork. The project’s digital recording team developed a methodology for layer-by-layer modeling that ensures precise alignment between stratigraphic contexts using fixed markers. From these, standard 2D products (orthomosaic plans and digital elevation models [DEMs]) were produced. A similar technique was used for generating 2D orthomosaics of vertical features (such as walls and stratigraphic sections) without the need to take numerous measurements on the vertical surface (e.g., with a prismless total station). Similarly, the generated data can create 2D sections along any arbitrary line even after the strata have been removed. Beyond simply replicating traditional two-dimensional records, the 3D data have proven essential for visualizing the interrelation of above and below ground spaces, and for analyzing a terraced structure built on several levels. Composite 3D models, hosted online, are also an effective tool for public outreach with stakeholders in the local community, as well as the general public.","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43362023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to the Special Issue on 3D Methodologies in Mediterranean Archaeology","authors":"Matthew Notarian","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v4i2.32095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v4i2.32095","url":null,"abstract":"This issue brings together several papers originally presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in a panel entitled, “Three-Dimensional Archaeology Comes of Age.” This collection takes stock of a decade’s worth of groundbreaking transformation in archaeological practices with a focus on the ancient Mediterranean. Over this time, a subtle transition has occurred in which contentious debates over the value and practicality of 3D tools, such as photogrammetry, 3D scanning, 3D reconstruction, and virtual reality (VR), have given way to an emergent consensus that these constitute a new and important class of recording and heuristic instruments. Rather than seek to cover this fundamental shift in a comprehensive matter, this issue presents a characteristic cross-section of current archaeological research-based on three-dimensional computational methodologies. The content cuts across some 3,000 years of Mediterranean archaeology, from the Aegean Bronze Age to the later Roman Empire, underlining the discipline-wide impact of this methodological revolution. It seeks to shed light on how digital tools are transforming not just the ways we record data, but the very questions archaeologists ask of this information and how this will shape methodological and analytical trends in the next decade and beyond.","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49422948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Best Practices for 3D Digital Recording and Global Sharing of Catacombs from Late Roman Sicily","authors":"D. Tanasi, Ilenia Gradante, S. Hassam","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25290","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000During the most recent excavations at the Catacombs of St. Lucy at Siracusa, carried out between 2013 and 2015, an array of 3D technologies were employed to record excavation data and provide new interpretative models for the site. The research focused on some very problematic parts of the Region C of the complex. Thisarea most effectively documents the long life of the Christian hypogeum, which incorporated previous structures and artefacts related to the Greek and Early Roman Imperial periods and continued to beused until the Middle Ages. During the exploration 3D digital techniques were used for the daily recording of the archaeological units, but also to create high-resolution virtual replicas of certain districts of the catacombs. Furthermore, the same techniques were applied to support the study of certain classes of materials, such as frescoes and marble architectural elementsthat couldnot otherwise be studieddue to the dark environment of the catacombs. The virtual archaeology research undertaken at the Catacombs of St. Lucy represents the first systematic application of 3D digital technologies tothe study of such a specialarchaeological context in Sicily, culminating in a work-plan for digital global dissemination. \u0000","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45381215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Communicating in Three Dimensions","authors":"Adam N. Rabinowitz","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25386","url":null,"abstract":"After excavating the Praedia of Iulia Felix at Pompeii in 1755, architect Karl Weber published the building with an axionometric illustration that showed the remains in three-dimensional perspective. In doing so, Weber communicated additional information about the form of the building in a manner that was both visually accessible to a lay audience and sufficiently “scientific” for a scholarly one. By contrast, digital 3D documentation methods in current archaeological practice can reinforce a division between “scientific” models intended for internal consumption by the project that produces them, and external communication in the form of lower-quality online digital displays. Using recent fieldwork at the Greek colonial site of Histria in Romania as a case-study, this paper explores the space between high-resolution contextualized 3D documentation used only by an internal audience and down-scaled, decontextualized 3D content designed for public consumption. In particular, it explores whether measurable 3D models derived from photogrammetrical capture are useful in communicating excavation results to non-specialists – and if so, in what ways. It presents several scenarios for the role of high-quality 3D documentation in both formal and informal scholarly communication, and discusses the potential for the reuse of such documentation to answer new research questions.","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48609187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Heritage as Collaborative Process","authors":"Katherine Cook, Genevieve Hill","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25297","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the importance of the process of collaboration and community engagement in developing and applying digital heritage resources. It draws on case studies from the authors’ experiences building partnerships between a university’s anthropology undergraduate program and a provincial museum to teach community-engaged applied digital heritage. The process of creating and using digital technologies in heritage environments were transformative for not only students but also professional archaeologists and communities, highlighting the meaningful engagement and understandings that are developed through collaborative making. However, it also highlighted the challenges facing these types of collaborations, including academic and heritage structures, digital preservation/management, and ethics and inclusivity in digitization projects.","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45888056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Reconstruction of the Akhenaten Torso in the Brooklyn Museum","authors":"M. T. Tichindelean","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v3i1.27179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v3i1.27179","url":null,"abstract":"The Torso of Akhenaten in the Brooklyn Museum is an excellent example of Amarna style sculpture—an artistic technique employed during the reign of the “heretic” pharaoh Akhenaten. This study uses photogrammetry to render an accurate 3D state model and a subsequent reconstruction model intended to help address questions regarding the nature of worship centered on the Aten. The reconstruction is based on theological and royal iconography specific to the Amarna period. It sheds light on the religious reorganization of the New Solar Theology and aims to facilitate a better understanding of the role of royal statuary in the context of an Egyptian temple.","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46093620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Role for Immersive Visualization Experiences in Teaching Archaeology","authors":"Kevin Garstki, Christopher E. Larkee, J. Ladisa","doi":"10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v3i1.25145","url":null,"abstract":"As archaeologists continue to utilize digital 3D visualization technologies, instruction can also benefit from purpose-driven uses of these data. This paper outlines a pilot project that used previously captured 3D data in a large-scale immersive environment to supplement the instruction of basic archaeological concepts to an undergraduate introductory anthropology class. The flexibility of the platform allowed excavation trenches to be investigated in three-dimensions, enhancing the understanding of excavation methods and providing additional insight in the choices of the excavators. Additionally, virtual investigation of the artifacts provided a way for students to interact with objects on the other side of the world in a more complete way. Instructor-led immersive virtual experiences have significant potential to widen the interest in archaeology and enhance the instruction of archaeological concepts. They allow students to interact with the content, guided by an expert, and in the presence of each other. While the facilities are not available at every university at the current time, the cost effectiveness and ability to deliver these experiences via head-mounted displays represents an exciting potential extension for complementary self-paced, yet guided, exploration. ","PeriodicalId":52934,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Digital Heritage","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46450918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}