'Virtual Dig' grants students experience without expense

As the home of ENIAC -- the first general purpose electronic computer -- and one of the foremost Anthropology departments in the world, the University hosted a symposium exploring how computers are changing archaeology at the University Museum Saturday. The day-long event -- entitled "The Virtual Dig" -- featured presentations by archaeological and technical experts, a hands-on technology fair and a reception allowing speakers to go into further detail about their projects. Harold Dibble, an Anthropology professor and curator of the Museum's European Archaeology section, explained that computers have the ability to bring "the experience of archaeology to people who can't experience it in the field. "That's where we're going to see the difference," he said. "That's what computers, in this case, are all about." In a lecture on "Cultural Simulations," Carl Loeffler, research director for SIMLAB, presented a virtual reality reconstruction of Pompeii. Working with a team of visual artists, archaeologists and designers, his program visually re-creates the city's ruined landmarks, including the famed "Temple of Isis." The program allows the viewer to "travel" through the landmarks and view them from several different angles. Loeffler called his effort "pioneering" in the smoothness and detail of its image. During a presentation entitled "The Virtual Dig: Excavating a Paleolithic Site with a Computer," Dibble demonstrated his computer application, "The Virtual Dig." He explained that the program is an academic tool allowing anthropology students to participate in a mock dig. The program teaches students about planning and preparing for a dig by essentially "re-digging" a site based on stored information about previous efforts. Using the program, the student picks a site, selects tools and determines accommodations and a budget. Dibble noted that this method is logistically more feasible and less costly than on-site teaching. In a presentation on "Modern Mapping in Ancient Corinth," representatives from the University Museum's Corinth Computer Project illustrated their technological enterprise in archaeology. Started ten years ago and initially only including the Forum building, the project currently surveys the whole region of Corinthia in Greece -- "one of the most important cities of the ancient world," according to David Romano, keeper of the Museum's Mediterranean section. Romano added that no comparable project has delved so thoroughly into the history of one site. Under the direction of Romano, more than 30 University students and graduates have collected research about the city planning, agriculture and landscape of the region.