System Concept

An international team of multimedia content creators, led by Brunel University and with support from the European Union, is developing and using 3D Multimedia tools to measure, reconstruct and visualise archaeological ruins in virtual reality using as a test case the ancient city of Sagalassos in Turkey.

The 3D-Murale system consists of the Recording, Reconstruction, Database and Visualisation components. Recording tools will be developed for measuring terrain, stratigraphy, buildings, building blocks, pottery, pottery sherds and statues on the archaeological site. The results of these measurements will be stored in the 3D-Murale database system. Reconstruction systems will use a 3D graphics tool to combine the individual measured components and reconstruct building elements and buildings from building blocks, pottery from pottery sherds, statues from statue elements and stratigraphy from all finds within the excavation.

Any missing elements will be added later through archaeological hypothesis using 3D graphics tools and custom-built software. An integrated model will be built of the landscape, buildings, and artefacts for different eras, showing reconstructions of these periods or the current state. The model will be processed to prepare it for high quality stereoscopic visualisation and for lower quality Internet visualisation. The visual experience will also include the display of the stratigraphy. Any individual artefact (building element, building, pottery sherd, complete pottery, stones or statues) may be queried on the database and the outcome of the query visualised individually. Queries may be formed and remotely visualised over the Internet.