The Ashes2Art Project: Digital Models of Fourth‐Century BCE Delphi, Greece

Abstract

Ashes2Art represents an innovative collaboration between Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro that takes the intrinsic, if sometimes problematic, value of digital models and inverts the pedagogical model. Undergraduates create three‐dimensional computer models of ancient monuments based on published excavation reports, build “flythrough” and educational videos, take on‐site digital panoramas and photographs of architectural details, develop interdisciplinary lesson plans, write topical essays, and document their work online with extensive primary and secondary source bibliographies. Beyond the implicit value associated with hands‐on research and faculty–student collaboration, Ashes2Art aims to build a valuable online resource for discipline specialists and the general public. With the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the program currently is reconstructing monuments in the ancient Greek sanctuary at Delphi.

Keywords:

• Digital Models
• Reconstructions
• Digital Humanities
• Delphi
• Greece
• Pedagogy
• Archaeology

Notes

1 David L. Clarke, Models in Archaeology (London: Metheun, 1972), 2.

2 “Monopoly” refers to the popular Parker Brothers board game, which includes small three‐dimensional houses and hotels in wood or plastic.

3 http://www.etc.ucla.edu/neh/ (accessed 17 July 2009). Chris Johanson was the Institute Coordinator.

4 Our thanks to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, and Dr. Elena Partida at the Archaeological Museum at Delphi.

5 Ashes2Art is offered each spring at Coastal Carolina University, and beginning in the 2009/2010 academic year, it will be offered every other spring at Arkansas State University.

6 Members of the Ashes2Art advisory board include Dr. Vernon Burton, Dr. Diane Favro, Dr. Maurizio Forte, Dr. Bernie Frischer, and Dr. James Horn.

7 See any number of published proceedings of the annual conferences for Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA), the Virtual Systems and Multimedia Society (VSMM), Visual Analytics Science and Technology Symposium (VAST), the International Committee for Documentation of Cultural Heritage (CIPA), and other digital humanities conferences.

8 Maurizio Forte and Alberto Siliotti, eds. Virtual Archaeology: Re‐Creating Ancient Worlds (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997); Bernard Frischer and Anastasias Dakouri‐Hild, eds., Beyond Illustration: 2D and 3D Digital Technologies as Tools for Discovery in Archaeology, British Archaeological Reports, International Series S1805 (London: Archaeopress, 2008); also see the Rome Reborn project at the Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities at the University of Virginia (http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/) and projects at University of California, Los Angeles (http://www.etc.ucla.edu/); both sites accessed 20 July 2009.

9 These questions have been raised in various venues, including the SAVE (Serving and Archiving Virtual Environments) panel at the annual meeting of Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Budapest, 2008. See also http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/save/ (accessed 20 July 2009), and in David Johnson’s article, “Testing Geometric Authenticity: Standards, Methods, and Criteria for Evaluating the Accuracy and Completeness of Archaeometric Computer Reconstructions,” in this issue.

10 http://www.reconstructions.org/ (accessed 20 July 2009); F. C. Penrose, An Investigation of the Principles of Athenian Architecture (London: W. Nicol, 1851 and 1888).

11 Diane Favro, “In the Eyes of the Beholder: Virtual Reality Re‐Creations and Academia,” in Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series no. 61, Imaging Ancient Rome: Documentation—Visualization—Imagination. Proceedings of the Third Williams Symposium on Classical Architecture, 2004, ed. Lothar Haselberger and John Humphrey (2006): 325.

12 Such as the reconstruction of the Athenian treasury at Delphi available at: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Athenian_Treasury.html/ (accessed 20 July 2009).

13 Gary Lock, Using Computers in Archeaology: Toward Virtual Pasts (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), 154–55. In an attempt to deal with uncertainty in digital models, Sorin Hermon and Joanna Nikodem have proposed a “reliability index” by assigning numerical tags based on the “weighted importance” and “consistency” of individual components. See the proceedings of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference, Berlin, 2007, on CD: 04-08_hermon_et_al-research_tools.pdf/.

14 Robert Daniels, “The Need for the Solid Modelling of Structure in the Archaeology of Buildings,” Internet Archaeology 2 (1997), section 3, http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue2/daniels_toc.html/ (accessed 20 July 2009).

15 CCU: 10 @ Dell Precision 690 workstations, 2.66 Ghz Quadcore Xeon processors, 8Gb RAM, 2 Quadro FX 4600 video cards, 1.5Tb storage, retrofitted to Windows XP Pro 64bit, 1Kw power supply; closed 1Gb 16 port network switch. ASU: 12 @ Dell Optiplex 740 workstations, 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 4Gb RAM, 256Mb ATI Raedon HD 2400 video card, 160Gb storage.

16 For a brief summary of three‐dimensional modeling, see Lock, Using Computers, 152–54.

17 Collections de l’École française d’Athènes en ligne (http://cefael.efa.gr/); Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/); both accessed 20 July 2009.

18 As is the case with some of the measurements in: J‐P Michaud, Fouilles de Delphes, 2, Topographie et architecture. Le sanctuaire d’Athéna Pronaia, le temple en calcaire (Paris: Éditions E. de Boccard, 1977); and J. Ito, Architectural Measurements of the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia in Delphi 1994–1996 (Kumamoto University, 1997).

19 For more information on lighting, see: “mental ray Architectural and Design Visualization Shader Library” (document version 1.7.6), 2007, http://www.mentalimages.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/arch_and_design.pdf/ (accessed 20 July 2009). Also see Maurizio Rossi, Daniele Marini, and Alessandro Rizzi, “Methods and Applications for Photorealistic Rendering and Lighting of Ancient Buildings,” Journal of Cultural Heritage 5 (2004): 291–300.

20 The perception of color on any model will vary widely depending on the viewer’s monitor or a publisher’s printing processes.

21 William Bell Dinsmoor, The Architecture of Ancient Greece (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1928), 234; A. W. Lawrence, Greek Architecture, 5th ed., rev. R. A. Tomlison (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 184; Florian Seiler, Die griechische Tholos: Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung, Typologie und Funktion kunstmässiger Rundbauten (Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern, 1986). The French school recently published a reconstruction that reinterprets much of our traditional knowledge about the tholos, including a second roof, which they suggest rose only slightly above the first. See J. Bommelaer, ed., Marmaria: Le Sanctuaire d’Athéna à Delphes. Sites et Monuments 16 (Paris: École française d’Athènes/Électricité de France, 1997).

22 See the entry on hinges by James Yates in William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (London: John Murray, 1875), 211.

23 Marilyn Stokstad, Art History, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007), 150, figs. 5‐48 and 5‐49; for Dinsmoor and Lawrence, see note 21; advanced students should access the Fouilles de Delphes.

24 http://luxmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o10/clients/nationalgallery/illusion/05_borromini.m4v (accessed 20 July 2009).

25 Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), as cited in Lock, Using Computers, 12.

26 http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ (accessed 20 July 2009).

27 Posting models of Delphi in Google Earth is particularly problematic because the resolution of that region in Google Earth is quite low. At present, the Ashes2Art Web site and its materials could be linked to Delphi in Google Earth, but placing models there as a layer is not yet feasible.