Archaeology is the systematic
collection, cataloging and interpretation of physical remains left behind by
human actions at some time in the past. Evidence from the archaeological record
in the form of physical remains yields clues as to the nature and behaviors of
the people who produced them. The nature and quality of our collections,
categorizations and resulting interpretations often depends upon coaxing as
much information as possible out of the precious few clues time has left us.
The use of computer technology has enabled us to make the most out of what
evidence we have by allowing us to freely manipulate that data into any
configurations we wish to help us see relationships.
We can model the data we have established to recreate plausible ancient environments and to fill in gaps between the data we have gathered and that which remains missing. Archaeology, before the advent of the computer, attempted to do these same things but was constrained by the difficulty of representing complex data visually or temporally. Data had to be laboriously graphed and mapped and only by viewing one layer at a time could the archeologist mentally grapple with the enormous task of trying to assimilate the relationships of all the spatial elements within a sequence of time. Computer aided graphic techniques can store thousands of individual elements and allow a researcher to place those elements into a cohesive, visually realistic, interactive and dynamic presentation. The researcher can introduce elements both from data and from inference to allow a realistic perspective from any vantage point to recreate the scene and to reconstruct to past as it may have been given available data.
Image Courtesy of Dennis Holloway, Architect: http://www.taosnet.com/architectVRe/