Ironically, in order to reconstruct the human past, archaeology must
destroy that which it seeks to study. As excavation demolishes the
original matrix within which cultural material is found, special care
is taken to record spatial context. The discipline of stratigraphy is
crucial to this work and elaborate schemes have been devised to record
vertical and horizontal relationships.
Although archaeologists still excavate with hand tools, digital
technology, especially in the form of survey equipment, cameras and
Geographical Information Systems (GIS), brings to field archaeology a
range of modern tools that generate enormous amounts of data.
However innovative and useful these new tools may be, none permit a
visual physical representation of the archaeological site – a ‘virtual
site’ through which archaeologists could study the site almost as it
was during excavation and even carry out subsequent quantitative
measurement and analysis. The more recent advances in scientific data
management and visualisation hold much potential for providing a more
accurate and reliable 3D record of excavations and thus bring
archaeologists a step to closer to their ideal.
Database Backed Web Application
The visualisation portal, called 3D Arch,
uses the Ruby on Rails software framework and Asynchronous JavaScript
And XML (AJAX) technologies. The web application backs onto a MySQL or
PostgreSQL database (depending on the data used).
Sean Ulm provided the archaeological data
for this project. The Grinding Groove Cave site in Queensland is a c.
4.5m deep excavation that revealed evidence of Aboriginal occupation
extending from 10,000 years ago. The site was excavated in a series of
147 excavation units within stratigraphic units, each unit 30mm in
depth.
An XML schema was developed to move the data from their original format
to various type of databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
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| Figure 1: Query form for 3D reconstruction tool web interface to the database. |
3D Reconstruction of Archaeological Excavations
Once the user has made the query, an X3D file is generated and the
visualisation is displayed on a web browser.
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| Figure 2: 3D visualisation of an archaeological excavation. |
3D arch is available to a limited number of users for testing.
Future Work
The challenge remains to integrate the digital collection framework
developed for the e-archaeology digital
collection project and 3D Arch and a Google Map based
visualisation tool as well as the implementation
of a user-friendly interface.
For more information visit the e-Archaeology webpage on the Vislab website.
As well as funding from QCIF, this project was the subject of a grant from the University of Queensland, as well as a 2005 Special Research Initiative grant from the Australian Research Council.
Contacts
Nicole Bordes, Oystein PettersenVislab, University of Queensland
Sean Ulm
Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland
Publications
Bordes, N., S. Ulm, O. Pettersen, K. Murphy, D. Gwynne, W. Pagnon, S. Hungerford, P. Hiscock, J. Hall and B. Pailthorpe. Data grid for the management, reconstruction, analysis and visualisation of archaeological data. In S. Ulm and I. Lilley (eds), An Archaeological Life: Papers in Honour of Jay Hall, pp.251-264. Research Report Series 7. Brisbane: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland (2006).Bordes, N., Ulm, S. et al., 2006. "Towards an Australian Archaeological Data Grid". Submitted to Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (2006).