Constructed places: Roman architecture and the mind’s eye. A thesis on the application of spatial theories and computer visualisation to experience an Egyptian Red Sea port around AD 120
Constructed places: Roman architecture and the mind’s eye. A thesis on the application of spatial theories and computer visualisation to experience an Egyptian Red Sea port around AD 120
This thesis examines the development, current application, consumption and potential of three-dimensional computing reconstruction technologies within archaeology, from the specific example of a particular phase of a single archaeological project. It is structured around four broad areas, each with an attendant question. First, what is the value of three-dimensional computer modelling to archaeology? Second, how can the approaches of computer experts be informed by those of other writers, artists and archaeologists, dealing with the ‘reconstructions’ in terms of text, or pencil, or paint? How are our archaeological data mediated and represented graphically and textually, with imaginations, through visual perception and in context? Third, if there is value to these approaches combined, what are the problems which must be addressed? Finally, can a set of computational methodologies overcome or indeed approach these problems and offer value to the archaeologist? Taking as its starting points an archaeological project and the genesis of computer architectural reconstruction, the thesis proceeds to examine the relationship between representational methodologies and critiques, and seeks to demonstrate the failings of existing methodologies, leading finally to suggestions for, and tentative application of , a new combined, theorised approach.
Through a case study drawn from the field of Roman archaeology - specifically the urban and architecture of Myos Hormos (a Roman port on the Red Sea coast of Egypt) - the reconstruction and representative process is followed through, allowing for a critique of reconstruction and of the crucial potential of contingent (i.e. related to archaeological data) and reflexive (i.e. unfixed) computer models. Moving from a textual reconstruction of the site through issues of perceiving and creating visual space, issues of the theorising and representation of sight, sound, touch and smell through computation and other visualisation media are addressed. This is an attempt to approach an holistic representation of these specific constructed Roman and other more general pasts, stimulating thesis and counter thesis within specialist archaeological and other audiences. The descriptive textual and visual reconstructions are critiqued and the future of reconstruction modelling outlined.
University of Southampton
Earl, Graeme Peter
3866bb14-a95b-44ab-838e-5ec4e7c252ce
2002
Earl, Graeme Peter
3866bb14-a95b-44ab-838e-5ec4e7c252ce
Earl, Graeme Peter
(2002)
Constructed places: Roman architecture and the mind’s eye. A thesis on the application of spatial theories and computer visualisation to experience an Egyptian Red Sea port around AD 120.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This thesis examines the development, current application, consumption and potential of three-dimensional computing reconstruction technologies within archaeology, from the specific example of a particular phase of a single archaeological project. It is structured around four broad areas, each with an attendant question. First, what is the value of three-dimensional computer modelling to archaeology? Second, how can the approaches of computer experts be informed by those of other writers, artists and archaeologists, dealing with the ‘reconstructions’ in terms of text, or pencil, or paint? How are our archaeological data mediated and represented graphically and textually, with imaginations, through visual perception and in context? Third, if there is value to these approaches combined, what are the problems which must be addressed? Finally, can a set of computational methodologies overcome or indeed approach these problems and offer value to the archaeologist? Taking as its starting points an archaeological project and the genesis of computer architectural reconstruction, the thesis proceeds to examine the relationship between representational methodologies and critiques, and seeks to demonstrate the failings of existing methodologies, leading finally to suggestions for, and tentative application of , a new combined, theorised approach.
Through a case study drawn from the field of Roman archaeology - specifically the urban and architecture of Myos Hormos (a Roman port on the Red Sea coast of Egypt) - the reconstruction and representative process is followed through, allowing for a critique of reconstruction and of the crucial potential of contingent (i.e. related to archaeological data) and reflexive (i.e. unfixed) computer models. Moving from a textual reconstruction of the site through issues of perceiving and creating visual space, issues of the theorising and representation of sight, sound, touch and smell through computation and other visualisation media are addressed. This is an attempt to approach an holistic representation of these specific constructed Roman and other more general pasts, stimulating thesis and counter thesis within specialist archaeological and other audiences. The descriptive textual and visual reconstructions are critiqued and the future of reconstruction modelling outlined.
Text
930216.pdf
- Version of Record
More information
Published date: 2002
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 465222
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/465222
PURE UUID: 19bc607f-8ec1-4d32-90f7-862f1bb4d606
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 00:29
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 20:02
Export record
Contributors
Author:
Graeme Peter Earl
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics