Practice and Research of Digital Archaeology

Jianguo LIU Institute of Archaeology, CASS

jgliu@cass.org.cn liu.jg@sohu.com

Content of Digital Archaeology

SPS － Satellite Positioning System

ETS － Electronic Total Station

RS － Remote Sensing

GIS － Geographic Information System

VR － Virtual Reality

Database

Internet / Intranet

§1 Satellite Positioning SystemSPS and total station could been used for surveying and mapping all phenomena accurately in archaeological site.

§2 Electronic Total Station

4D productions ：DRG ： Digital Raster GraphicDLG ： Digital Line GraphicDOM ： Digital Orthophoto MapDEM ： Digital Elevation Model

§3 Remote Sensingremote sensing could been prospected remains underground and analyzed the relationship between different ancient features.

Soil Mark

Shadow Mark

Corp Mark

Moat

§4 Geographic Information System

GIS could manage all the data about sites and regions, and do many important queries and spatial analysis in archaeological research.

a. Xiangfen Project

b. Qixing River Project

§5 Virtual Reality

Virtual ancient cities,

Virtual archaeology sites,

Virtual museum,

Virtual process of excavation.

Geomantic Omen

§6 Database

Database is very familiar for us, we need to use various database in our research field every day.

All the archaeological data could been stored in different database, cultural resource managers, archaeological researchers and public could get the different information in the database by definite authority on Internet or Intranet.

§7 Internet / Intranet

Internet and intranet become more and more useful in our research, even change the style in our life.

Today, We use HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to describe and transmit all the information such as audio, video, text, photo, picture etc, but the HTML file have fixation and big pages, do not suit for transmit by intranet.

In the near future, we will use Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to transmit key data, terminal client could to model virtual archaeological scene by every scholar’s mind.

Digital archaeology collect all the information, e. g. topography, plan, imagery, text, audio, video from archaeological survey, excavation and research, employ the method of CD store, electronic publish, computer communication, will been used widely in cultural resource management and archaeological research. Digital archaeology will make a standard for collecting and applying archaeological data, impel the development of archaeological research in new era.

Thanks for Your Attention !