Capturing the Senses: Digital Methods for Sensory Archaeologies

Description

This open-access book surveys how digital technology can contribute effectively to improving our understanding of the past, through a sensory engagement based on the evidence of material culture. In particular, it encourages specialists to consider senses and human agency as important factors in studying ancient space, while recognising the role played by digital tools in enhancing a human-centred form of analysis. Significant advances in archaeological computing, digital methods, and sensory approaches have led archaeologists to rethink strategies and methods for creating narratives of the past. Recent progress in data visualisation and implementation, as well as other nascent digital sensory methods, means that it is now easier to explore and experience ancient space from a multiscalar perspective, from the individual body or single building to the wider landscape. The chapters in Capturing the Senses: Digital Methods for Sensory Archaeologies present innovative methods for representing an embodied experience of ancient space, simulating (but not recreating) ancient behaviours and social interaction. Chapters cover topics including the potentials and pitfalls of visualising, recreating, and re-enacting/experiencing the senses in Virtual Reality environments and also digital reconstructions and auralisations of ancient spaces to study sound sensory perception. Overall, the book demonstrates that multisensory approaches can give a new perspective on how ancient spaces were intended to be used by inhabitants to fulfil a series of purposes including conveying messages and regulating movement.  This is an open-access book. Preface Acknowledgements Contents Contributors Introduction: Digital Methods and Experiential Approaches to the Past 1 The Role of GIS-based Visual Studies/Space Syntax Analysis 2 VR-based Applications 3 Where Are We Now? References More than Modal? Exploring Affect, Affordance, Invitation and Solicitation 1 Introduction 2 Houses, Squares and Circles 3 Affect and Affordance 4 Exploring Affective Atmospheres 5 Methodology 5.1 Analysis 1—Catching a Glimpse of the Founder’s House 5.2 Analysis 2—But What is Being Glimpsed? 5.3 Analysis 3—On the Outside, Looking in 5.4 Analysis 4—Being Affected 6 Conclusions References The Senses & the Sacred: A Multisensory and Digital Approach to Examining an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Landscape 1 Introduction 2 Sensory Archaeology and Egyptology 3 The Human Sensorium in Pharaonic Egypt 4 The Egyptian ‘Funerary Landscape’ and Digital Archaeology 5 A Multisensory and Digital Exploration of the Saqqara Funerary Landscape in the New Kingdom 5.1 Funerals 5.2 Elite Mortuary Cults at Saqqara 6 Conclusion References Kinesthetic Archaeologies: Digital Methods and the Reconstruction of Movement 1 Introduction: The Idea of “Retro-Documentation” 2 Digital Capture, Digital Documentation 3 Movement and the Human Record 4 Recording Movement in Print 5 Movement and GIS 6 Textual Approaches 7 Movement: The Medium Suppresses the Message 8 Retro-Documentation and Standards 9 Movement and the Digital 10 Conclusion References Exploring Fragmented Data: Environments, People and the Senses in Virtual Reality 1 Introduction 2 Broken Data and Multivocality 3 Critical Senses 4 Dynamic Cyberspace as Formative Resource 5 Conclusions References Combining 3D Visibility Analysis and Virtual Acoustics Analysis for the Architectural Study of Ancient Theatres 1 Introduction 2 The Roman Theatres in Crete 3 Methodology 3.1 3D Visibility Analysis 3.2 Virtual Acoustics Analysis 4 Case Study and Results 5 Discussion and Conclusion References “Please, Touch the Exhibits”: 3D Archaeology for Experiential Spatialisation 1 Introduction 2 Spatialising Archaeology 3 Digitisation and Virtuality as Heterotopias 4 Digital Databases: Preserving, Validating and Completing the Archaeological Record 4.1 Procedural Facilitation 4.2 The User as a Participant in the Archaeological Record 4.3 Bridging the Gap Between Users and Usability 5 Augmented Reality for Epigraphy and Archaeology, or How to Bring Holograms of Artefacts to the Classroom 5.1 3D Holographic Database 5.2 Reconstituting Physicality Through 3D Printing 6 Conclusion References Sailing Along the Coast of North Etruria: Ancient Perceptions Versus Multidisciplinary Coastal Landscape Studies 1 Research Overview 1.1 North Coastal Etruria: Palaeogeography, Landscapes and Settlements 2 Ancient Perceptions: Strabo (5.2.5, 222C) 3 Ancient Perceptions: Claudius Rutilius Namatianus 3.1 Falesia and Populonia 3.2 Vada Volaterrana 3.3 Pisa, Portus Pisanus and Livorno 4 Portus Pisanus: Archaeological Evidence 4.1 Portus Pisanus: Claudius Rutilius Namatianus versus Palaeogeographic and Archaeological Evidence of the Site 4.2 Satellite Remote Sensing Contribution 4.3 GIS-Based Legacy Data Integration 4.4 Geophysical Prospecting 4.5 Geoarchaeology Contribution 5 From Ancient Perception to Archaeological Interpretation: A Multidisciplinary Investigation References Multisensory Experiences in Archaeological Landscapes—Sound, Vision, and Movement in GIS and Virtual Reality 1 Introduction 2 Research Overview 3 Theoretical Foundations 4 Digital Affordances and Material Culture: GIS and VR 5 Case Study: Ancient Maya 5.1 Perspectives of Sight, Sound, and Movement 5.2 Ancient Maya City of Copán 6 Materials (Data Sources) 6.1 Data Acquisition and Integration 7 Methods 7.1 Soundshed Analysis Toolbox 7.2 Project Specific Environmental Inputs 8 Results and Analysis 8.1 GIS Results and Interpretation 9 Conclusions and Future Direction References Home-Making in 17th Century Amsterdam: A 3D Reconstruction to Investigate Visual Cues in the Entrance Hall of Pieter de Graeff (1638–1707) 1 Introduction 2 At Home at Herengracht 573 3 The Entrance Hall: Sources for a Reconstruction Hypothesis 3.1 Almanacs, Inventory, and Physical Remains 3.2 Visual References for 17th Century Dutch Interiors 4 “Materializing” Household Objects in a 3D Digital Model 5 Discussion References The Embodied City: A Method for Multisensory Mapping 1 Embodied City Mapping 2 Embodied City Map Analysis 3 Possible Application to Past Cities 4 Conclusions References