The Central Palace Area, Nimrud
Learning Sites is preparing material for a virtual
reality re-creation of the building phases from this location on the citadel
of Nimrud, Assyria (Iraq). The bulk of the material for this all-digital
excavation report will be the unpublished Polish Center of Mediterranean
Archaeology's explorations at the site in the 1970s. Our virtual
reality-based report will feature interactive links across multiple datasets,
including virtual worlds, animations, photographs, drawings, and text,
most of which have never before been made public.
Al-Meragh: research and publication
material
We are re-creating this ancient Nubian settlement (in northern Sudan) as
the excavations continue to bring in new data. Eventually the entire site
will become a virtual reality model, with links to excavation evidence
and to information about the other sites along the old trade route.
We have a unique double house modeled, as well as miscellaneous walls from
other potential houses.
Tsoungiza, Ancient Nemea:
All-Digital Excavation Report
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The Java-enabled search engine for the artifact database continues to get
new features, such as (a) the ability to see all the database fields for
each artifact retrieved from a search (this, in addition to being able
to link to photographs, drawings, excavation notebook pages, and virtual
worlds directly from the results list); and (b) the ability to print out
each of the various results screens. We are also adding special fields
for user input into the database search, so that researchers can search
for objects in specific grid squares or trenches.
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Regarding the virtual worlds of the trenches and selected buildings, we
are writing programs that will allow users to turn on or off virtual scales
of each artifact, so that parts of the objects can be measured in virtual
reality. This Learning Sites innovation will grant archaeologists
unparalleled interaction for studying features, objects, and parts of objects
closely and in millimeter detail--as if they held them in their hands,
calipers at the ready.
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The user interfaces for the three versions (student, general public, professional)
are under revision.
The Northwest Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal
II, Nimrud, Assyria: Research Resource
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We continue to model more of the entire building; rendering and digital
re-placement of the reliefs is moving beyond the Throne Room suite to other
interior spaces.
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We are researching which color paint would have been used for the sculpture
of the site, with the aid of new chemical analyses of the existing paint.
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Our study of the various plans of the complex that have been created over
the years has brought to light some discrepancies in the dimensions of
certain areas. New plans are being prepared with the aid of the latest
excavation measurements, taken by the Polish team in the 1980s.
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The current model of the Palace has been mounted on an ImmersaDeskTM 3D stereo viewing system and a 1-wall CAVE at the University at Buffalo SUNY, Center for Computational Research supercomputing lab. Together we will be conducting tests regarding distance education, interactive 3D characters, and database links.
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