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although this by no means implies that they are completely defunct, and it would not be surprising to see them reemerge.
It is apparent that the increasingly accessible prices of hardware and the development of more user-friendly software have greatly promoted the use of computers by archaeologists to address all sorts of issues. It is owing to this availability that we have witnessed a dramatic adoption in the application of computer graphics and virtual reality (VR) techniques for the display and analysis of archaeological data. Computers have long offered obvious advantages to archaeological documentation in the recording of excavation plans, artifact illustration, and the processing and presentation of results from scientific analysis, and these advantages are augmented by the ability to apply computer-generated graphics in reconstructive models of archaeological sites and structures. In this field, VR has had a considerable impact on how archaeological data is displayed.
Reconstruction of a man’s face from the skull using digital technology
(Gamma)
The basic components of VR have been developed since the early 1960s, but the limitations of the available hardware at that time made its use prohibitive, except for those institutions that could afford it, like the military. Nonetheless, the ongoing developments of computer technology and decreasing prices have allowed a more widespread access to this technique. However, the embracement of VR has not been an easy process. The complexity of the graphics needed to reproduce the real world hindered its full acceptance for some time. The first attempts at VR renderings ended up being a disappointing imitation of reality, and the initial hype it created soon simmered down. As a response to this early rejection, current VR systems are more likely to attempt to “simulate” rather than imitate reality, which means that VR graphics will represent models of reality, not reality itself. There is a qualitative difference in this conception since simulated objects are ideal mathematical constructs that are displayed outside reality; consequently, the need for fully immersive systems is removed.
Another initial problem of VR graphics was that performance was dependent on the type of computer platform being used and the level of technical expertise of the user. To cope with these limitations, more-accessible programming languages have been developed since the mid 1990s—such as Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and Quick Time Virtual Reality (QTVR)—which are intended to become the standard languages for interactive simulations on the worldwide web.
Despite the simplification of the programming language, the production of computer-generated graphics is still a complex process comprising two stages: the modeling and the rendering. In the former, the geometric characteristics of the objects to be created are specified. In the latter, the model created is converted into pictures of the objects, which are then displayed from different perspectives. Simple objects can be created using “primitives,” simple predefined geometric shapes, e.g., cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. More-complex objects like landscapes or complex buildings cannot be properly modeled with primitives, and in these cases, the simplest building block used is a face of a polygon, and thousands of individual faces may be required.
The results thus obtained can indeed be impressive,
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