Representing archaeological uncertainty in cultural informatics

This thesis sets out to explore, describe, quantify, and visualise uncertainty in a cultural informatics context, with a focus on archaeological reconstructions. For quite some time, archaeologists and heritage experts have been criticising the often toorealistic appearance of three-dimensional reconstructions. They have been highlighting one of the unique features of archaeology: the information we have on our heritage will always be incomplete. This incompleteness should be reflected in digitised reconstructions of the past. This criticism is the driving force behind this thesis. The research examines archaeological theory and inferential process and provides insight into computer visualisation. It describes how these two areas, of archaeology and computer graphics, have formed a useful, but often tumultuous, relationship through the years. By examining the uncertainty background of disciplines such as GIS, medicine, and law, the thesis postulates that archaeological visualisation, in order to mature, must move towards archaeological knowledge visualisation. Three sequential areas are proposed through this thesis for the initial exploration of archaeological uncertainty: identification, quantification and modelling. The main contributions of the thesis lie in those three areas. Firstly, through the innovative design, distribution, and analysis of a questionnaire, the thesis identifies the importance of uncertainty in archaeological interpretation and discovers potential preferences among different evidence types. Secondly, the thesis uniquely analyses and evaluates, in relation to archaeological uncertainty, three different belief quantification models. The varying ways that these mathematical models work, are also evaluated through simulated experiments. Comparison of results indicates significant convergence between the models. Thirdly, a novel approach to archaeological uncertainty and evidence conflict visualisation is presented, influenced by information visualisation schemes. Lastly, suggestions for future semantic extensions to this research are presented through the design and development of new plugins to a search engine

Virtualizing the uncertainty of digital archaeological reconstructions applications on the Egyptian labyrinth of Hawara

The virtual reconstruction of archaeological sites has been a debatable field of research for decades. Archaeology theorists have questioned whether digitization is a reliable tool for visualizing history and presenting it to the public, and the uncertainty associated with digital reconstructions requires further investigation. The aim of this research is to investigate the viability of using virtual reality to represent the uncertainty of digital archaeological reconstructions to a non-specialist audience by developing and testing a virtual reality experience based on a real archaeological site. Drawing on existing literature on virtual reality as a technology, its applications in the reconstruction of archaeological sites, and an examination of the uncertainty of digital reconstructions of archaeological sites, it develops a theoretical framework for representing the uncertainty of archaeological reconstruction using virtual reality models. The framework is then developed and validated through interviews with experts in the field. The applied outcomes of the study are divided into three parts. In the first, the interviews with the experts were analyzed using Nvivo software in order to understand how they perceive and interpret archaeological data and evidence during the reconstruction process. The second outcome was the creation of a virtual reality experience based on historic reconstructions of the ancient Hawara Pyramid and Labyrinth site at Fayoum, Egypt. The virtual reality experience presents three versions of the site, each based on an historic reconstruction by a different ancient historian, namely Kircher, Lucas, and Canina. The aim in presenting these different interpretations together was to test whether the experience could be used to visualize the uncertainty which arises due to conflicting evidence. The third outcome involved testing the experience with members of the general public in order to gather users’ feedback regarding the use of virtual reality in the field of archaeology and heritage and its effectiveness in conveying the uncertainty within digital archaeological reconstructions. Data was gathered via a survey of users at different locations in Cairo, Egypt. The main thesis contribution to knowledge is generating a novel approach for representing the uncertainty of digital archaeological reconstructions using a virtual reality experience.The methodology and prototype used can be applied on other archaeological sites leading to a theoretical and practical advancement in this field of research

3D visualization of archaeological uncertainty

By uncertainty, we define an archaeological expert's level of confidence in an interpretation deriving from gathered evidence. Archaeologists and computer scientists have urged caution in the use of 3D for archaeological reconstructions because the availability of other possible hypotheses is not always being acknowledged. This poster presents a 3D visualization system of archaeological uncertainty