A Virtual Reality Platform for Analyzing Remote Archaeological Sites

This paper describes a Virtual Reality (VR) prototype developed to help archaeologists and other stakeholders explore and analyse archaeological data in a more immersive context. We describe a VR reconstruction of Pleito Cave, a fragile world class rock-art site with accessibility limitation. Key stakeholders are identified and a prototype is described that provides a VR platform for visualizing and interacting with complex archaeological data (gathered from techniques such as decorrelation stretch and X-ray fluorescence) virtually ‘in situ’, in a way that would not be possible at the real site. The prototype allows multiple remote users to interact with the cave together remotely providing opportunities for collaborative interpretation and analysis of archaeological data. We also present a survey-based evaluation in which both archaeologists and Native American stakeholders indicate positive responses for measures of both engagement and value

An entanglement of people-things: Place-hampi

Drawing upon Interpretive Archaeology, Interpretive Archaeological Systems theory and Symmetrical Archaeology, this discussion examines several philosophical considerations (phenomenology, embodiment, corpothetics and mediation) which form powerful interlocking arguments, whose qualities are prerequisites for building presence and place in virtual heritage landscapes. Through the two interactive display systems (Place and the Advanced Visualization Interactive Environment) a translation of spatial potential is enacted in Place-Hampi where participants are able to transform myths into the drama of a co-evolutionary narrative by their actions within the virtual landscape and through the creation of a virtual heritage embodiment of a real world dynamic

California revisited. 1858-1897.

Thaddeus S. Kenderdine made his way from Philadelphia to Michigan in 1858, staying only a month before he determined to head west. He remained in California for only a year, returning to New York in 1859. This visit is described in A California tramp (1888). California revisited (1898) recounts his second trip to California after an absence of forty years, an 1897 rail trip to a Christian Endeavor meeting in San Francisco with a stop in Salt Lake City. He contrasts his two journeys west as well as the changes in San Francisco and its neighborhood. He also visits Monterey, San José, Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San Pedro; as well as the missions at San Fernando, Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, and San Miguel. His stay in San Francisco coincides with beginning of Klondike gold fever and he revisits old mining camps in the Sacramento Valley before returning via the northern route with a stopover at Yellowstone Park.Title vignette

A California tramp and later footprints; or, Life on the plains and in the Golden state thirty years ago, with miscellaneous sketches in prose and verse ... Illustrated with thirty-nine wood and photo-engravings.

Thaddeus S. Kenderdine made his way from Philadelphia to Michigan in 1858, staying only a month before he determined to head to California. He remained for only a year, returning to New York in 1859. A California tramp (1888) describes Kenderdine's adventures in 1858-1859: his trip west as a driver on a California wagon train, visits to San Francisco and life as tramp and ranch hand in Sonoma County. His memoir closes with his return via Panama in 1859. The last quarter of the book is a miscellany of Kenderdine's prose and poetry. Kenderdine's association with California was renewed almost forty years later when he made a second trip west; see his California revisited (1898).Title vignette

PureLand UNWIRED: New approaches to virtual reality for heritage at risk

The Mogao Grottoes located in Gansu Province of north-western China consist of 492 cells and cave sanctuaries carved into the cliffs above the Dachuan River in Mogao. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, they comprise the largest, most richly endowed, and oldest treasure house of Buddhist art in the world. However, for preservation and conservation reasons most of the caves are now closed to the public. This chapter discusses the range of technologies currently available for the virtual representation of Cave 220, just one of the many caves located at this site. In particular, the chapter focuses on the latest prototype, developed by the authors called Pure Land UNWIRED which uses a virtual reality platform specifically designed for a unique single user full-body immersive virtual reality experience. The discussion includes technical and evaluative analysis of this prototype