Parametric Modeling of Archaeological Heritage in the Age of Digital Reconstruction

Abstract

Although 3D modeling has become standard within archaeology, the process of digitally reconstructing archaeological objects requires clumsy and time-consuming procedures. Typically, these procedures call for careful collaboration, between architectural historians, archaeologists and computer modelers, to produce scientifically correct and artistically pleasing models. This paper proposes the use of shape grammars for digital reconstruction of the archaeological heritage artifacts that were discovered during surveys along the coast of Turkey. Concentrating on ceramic vessels, the archaeologists and divers classified the artifacts based on their dimensions and observations. The classifications are used to infer the rules that will generate the digital model for each artifact. Rhinoceros modeling software with Grasshopper plug-in was used to generate 3D models. The goal of this work is to demonstrate that knowledge generated within a virtual world experience, can inform the evaluation of data derived from textual and archaeological sources, and vice versa.