Customer Reviews

Virtual Archaeology

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are only a handful 'virtual renderings' of the ancient world in this book. And, although written just a few years ago, most of these renderings look plain when compared with any contemporary simple computerized design drawing or even computer games, though the latter don't have to take into account real world physical constraints. Technical information on the virtual images is lacking for the most part.

I see the author foresaw interesting possibilities for computer reconstruction of past cultures, including virtual traveling 'inside' buildings and surveying vast areas from multiple points of view. This could be very interesting not only to the archaeologist but also to many people in other fields, from sociology to architecture, history, decoration and just travelling. But the still images don't convey a convincing picture of the final result.

I had unmet expectations about this book. It's more of a general account of some recent explorations grouped partly on a time basis and partly by region. I felt also an unbalanced mix in the final product, concerning virtual (little of this) and non virtual imagery, and also on the sites selected.

Summarizing: the book appears as a progress report on current archaeology investigations, with some reference to new techniques. The book title is misleading.

Far from being a definitive collection of illustrations of the ancient world as it was, this is a vastly overpriced volume filled with mediocre reconstruction's {some computer created, some not} supported by adequate text. You will find the average National Geographic archaeological article featuring far richer reconstruction's of the past than this work. Only for the most dedicated builder of an archaeological library.

A better title for this book would be, perhaps, "Archaeological Graphical Images". The images of ancient sites are very pleasing and the text informative in describing the sites. Each site was well chosen and the recreations believable. However, there is virtually no mention of how computers were used to do create these. I kept asking, "how were these images done?," "can I do this on my own computer?", and "what hardware and software was used?" There is nothing really to distinguish this book from one that uses manually created images, except the authors' statement that they were done using a computer. What the Authors' seem to have done is create virtual ancient worlds that can be walked though and experienced. I want to be able do to this too. However, the book is a brochure of what they have done, not a description.

Though I read a lot of popular archaeology, I somehow missed seeing this one when it first came out. Thirteen years ago, I imagine it would have been fascinating. Now, computer graphics has advanced so far and so fast, many of the images in this book remind me of nothing so much as the background graphics in DOOM. It was originally published in Italian, but there's plenty of coverage of Egypt, Anatolia, East Asia, and the New World. The text is quite good but the photos of actual models and museum reconstructions are more useful than the "computer reconstruction" (which, of course, are the work of programmers, not the computers themselves). And there aren't nearly as many of those as the title would suggest. I'd like to see a thorough reworking of this project using current technology -- and without the word "virtual" in the title.

I bought this book for my partner who absolutely loved it and said it was the best thing I ever bought for them! I would highly recommend this to users of any 3D modeling program such as Bryce. I build reconstructions on my website and also for an online community site. It is important to have a good resource to use, and this book defintely fit the bill.

This volume is the best and innovative book of the world about these topics (also because is was written in 1996 !), as prof. Colin Renfrew said in the presentation. Moreover it includes new and original contributions from many important international archaeologists; in fact I know that it has a great success in all the european countries.

This volume is the best and innovative book of the world about these topics (also because is was written in 1996 !), as prof. Colin Renfrew said in the presentation. Moreover it includes new and original contributions from many important international archaeologists; in fact I know that it has a great success in all the european countries.