Despite their limited outreach, traditional archaeological collections have been successfully employed in the past for supporting archaeological studies, for dating contexts and sites and for training archaeologists operating everyday in the field. Is it possible to create 3D collections capable of extensively supporting the community of researchers in the same efficient way?
By using state of the art 3D web visualization technology, and by studying the way researchers and students use and interact with archaeological objects, this project aims at defining novel 3D web archives capable of fostering large scale knowledge production and data reuse. The development of such project will revolutionize the way specialists interact with archaeological material promoting best practice and quality in heritage and material studies.
Dynamic Collections
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Archaeological collections are crucial in heritage studies and are used every day for training archaeologists and cultural heritage specialists. The recent development of 3D acquisition and visualization technology has contributed to the rapid emergence of a large number of 3D collections, whose production is often justified as the democratization of data and knowledge production. Despite the fact that several 3D datasets are now available online, it is not always clear how the data—once stored—is used by archaeological students to produce new knowledge.
The goal of the Dynamic Collections project at Lund University is to develop a novel 3D web infrastructure designed to support higher education and research in archaeology. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, all teaching at Lund University moved online, reinforcing the urgency for such an infrastructure.
