New tools give archaeologists access to formerly inaccessible parts of the archaeological record. The result is a demonstrably improved model for inquiry to pose, and answer, important research questions. We chronicle a collaborative effort (from 1997 to the present) with Petra Great Temple archaeologists to augment traditional analysis approaches. We introduce new archaeological analysis tools that combine novel visualization and interaction techniques within a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE).

A heretofore unsolved problem of great archaeological importance is the automatic assembly of pots made on a wheel from the hundreds (or thousands) of sherds found at an excavation site. An approach is presented to the automatic estimation of mathematical models of such pots from 3D measurements of sherds. A Bayesian approach is formulated beginning with a description of the complete set of geometric parameters that determine the distribution of the sherd measurement data. Matching of fragments and aligning them geometrically into configurations is based on matching break-curves (curves on a pot surface separating fragments), estimated axis and profile curve pairs for individual fragments and configurations of fragments, and a number of features of groups of break-curves. Pot assembly is a bottom-up maximum likelihood performance-based search. Experiments are illustrated on pots which were broken for the purpose, and on sherds from an archaeological dig located in Petra, Jordan. The performance measure can also be an aposteriori probability, and many other types of information can be included, e.g., pot wall thickness, surface color, patterns on the surface, etc. This can also be viewed as the problem of learning a geometric object from an unorganized set of free-form fragments of the object and of clutter, or as a problem of perceptual grouping.

Once the visitor to the Petra Geat Temple mounts the Propylaea steps from the Colonnaded Street, he is removed from the hustle and bustle of the secular world and enters a precinct where he might sense the divine epiphany of the Great Temple itself. Here the author presents the results of the past ten years of Brown University excavations at the Great Temple and relates how archaeology has refined our knowledge of the various sectors of the Great Temple precinct.

The SHAPE Lab was recently established (1999), with a grant from the United States National Science Foundation, by Brown University Departments of Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and The Centre for Old World Archaeology and Art and Department of Anthropology. It is a significant interdisciplinary effort for scientific research with a direct application to important problems in the analysis of archaeological finds and artefacts. We present the concepts that will underlie a 3D shape language, and an interactive, mixed-initiative system, for the recovery of 3D free-form object and selected scene structure from one or more images and video. This work has impact by providing new practical tools. It also provides an effective testbed for 3D shape reconstruction and recognition, more descriptive local and global models for working with 3D shapes and performing free-form geometric modelling, and for extracting 3D geometry from one or more images and video, as well as associated computational complexity issues. As applied to the field of archaeology, this technology provides, specifically, new ways to analyse and reconstruct pottery, compare objects from different sites and reconstruct sculpture and architecture.

Presents the results of an evaluation of the ARCHAVE (ARCHAeological Virtual Environment) system, an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment for archaeological research. ARCHAVE is implemented in a Cave. The evaluation studied researchers analyzing lamp and coin finds throughout the excavation trenches at the Petra Great Temple site in Jordan. Experienced archaeologists used our system to study excavation data, confirming existing hypotheses and postulating new theories they had not been able to discover without the system. ARCHAVE provided access to the excavation database, and researchers were able to examine the data in the context of a life-size representation of the present-day architectural ruins of the temple. They also had access to a miniature model for site-wide analysis. Because users quickly became comfortable with the interface, they concentrated their efforts on examining the data being retrieved and displayed. The immersive VR visualization of the recovered information gave them the opportunity to explore it in a new and dynamic way and, in several cases, enabled them to make discoveries that opened new lines of investigation about the excavation.

We will present an interactive system to perform archaeological analysis with site features, topography, architecture, artefacts and special finds from the Brown University Excavations at the Great Temple site in Petra, Jordan. The system is significant because it allows a user to interact with three dimensionally referenced excavation data in a CAVE-CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment (Cruz-Neira 1993) (a 3m x 3m room where users are immersed in a virtual environment through stereoscopic projection on three walls and the floor). Through user studies, we will investigate the types of analysis archaeologists can perform in the system and compare it to standard analysis methods using a database and maps of the site and excavation trenches.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsUnderstanding Archaeological Excavation. By Philip Barker.Martha Sharp JoukowskyMartha Sharp Joukowsky Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 92, Number 2April 1988 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/505633 Copyright © 1988 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.