Christiane CLADOS
(Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany)
Keywords: 3D character, cultural heritage, simulation, archaeology, ethnography
Abstract:
Hypothetical reconstructions of 3D characters is a segment of the Cultural Heritage field that is seeing strong growth during the last years. As they give a good idea of what ancient people looked like they contribute towards a better understanding of a particular aspect of cultural heritage. Also in the visualization of ancient people in the pre-Columbian Americas 3D technology plays a critical role as a tool to “translate” scientific data to make them accessible to the general public. The conception of such visualizations has various influences and the models are supplied with data from different sources, e.g. archaeology, iconography, ethnohistory and ethnography. On the basis of one simulation the present project aims to show how scientific data of different disciplines are transferred into this type of visualization. The simulation focus on dress and ornaments worn by chiefs in the cultural area of Calima at around AD 600, which more or less coincides with the modern-day upper and middle region of the Calima River in Colombia. The central question is how all this summarized information can be visualized in a 3D model. Another focus of the presentation is on the question whether CH representations can be anchored in a theoretical framework.