Eiman ELGEWELY1 | Willeke WENDRICH2
(1Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt | 2Dep.of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, USA)
Keywords: Virtual Heritage, 3D Reconstruction, 3D modeling, Photogrammetry, Re-contextualization
Abstract:
Furniture is the most personalized component of architectural space. It reflects or even determines the use of space, but also the standard of living, the gender, and age of the user. Heirlooms, furthermore, are retainers of memory and social relationships. The raw materials used and the level of skill and craftsmanship to produce furniture speak to the availability of such items for the community. Import of wood, techniques, or entire pieces of furniture show connectedness with other production centers. Wooden furniture fragments from the ancient Greco-Roman Town of Karanis in the Fayum, Egypt are among the most abundant and versatile of the archaeological finds, from this arid site on the desert edge. Objects include furniture legs, boxes, reading tables, and table tops, etc. The University of Michigan mission which worked on the site for about ten years (1924-1934), had as its main focus the architecture of Karanis. The furnishings of these structure does, however, provide important information and a study of the woodworking and composition of the pieces has now been taken on, together with an attempt to place these remains back in their virtual context. The reconstruction of the Karanis furniture provides a major challenge because the remaining fragments belong to various time periods and combines Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences and tastes. This research is a next phase of the project “Reviving Karanis in 3D”, which we started in 2013. In this research, we aim at using state-of-the-art digital technologies to create multiple interpretations of 3D reconstruction of a selection of furniture pieces based on analysis and photogrammetric models of wood furniture fragments from the Karanis collection of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan.
Relevance conference:
This research is in the field of Virtual heritage as it enables an exploration of how past communities may have perceived and represented their physical and social environments
Relevance session:
This research traces the lost information about ancient Karanis furniture aiming to provide alternatives of interpretations of 3D reconstructions by combining and matching various data resources.
Innovation:
providing new assumptions about the use of many archaeological objects which might change how they were documented and listed for long periods of time, and convey different scenarios and stories.
References:
ELGEWELY, E. / WENDRICH, W.Z. ( 2015): Virtually United in Real Time: Museum Collections and Archaeological Context Explored. Granada, IEEE.
WENDRICH, W.Z. / SIMPSON, B. / ELGEWELY, E. ( 2014): Karanis in 3D: recording, monitoring, re-contextualizing, and the representation of knowledge and conjecture. Near Eastern Archaeology Journal, September.77(no. 3: Cyber-Archaeology).
