The University at Buffalo Virtual Site Museum and the Citadel of Nimrud Digital Project
UB Faculty Involvement:
- Samuel Paley and Thenkurrisi Kesavadas (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) (co-directors).
Sponsoring Institution:
- The University at Buffalo and the UB Virtual Reality Lab; Learning Sites Inc. Williamstown, Massachusetts; VIZIN: The Institute for the Visualization of History.
Funding:
- Learning Site, Incorporated; The University at Buffalo Technology Grants
- Private Foundations; White-Levy Program for Archaeological Publication
Nature of Project:
A virtual reality reconstruction and data bank of the citadel of Nimrud both for PC and supercomputers. This includes the history of excavation at the site, the history of the VR reconstructions and the reasoning behind the reconstructions. The data includes the un- and under-published records of the Polish Centre of Archaeology’s excavations at Nimrud in the 1970s. An expansion of the Virtual Site Museum to Nineveh is underway with colleagues at the University of Rome (Dr. Davide Nadali) and the University of Pennsylvania (Dr. Sarah Scott).
Status:
- The nature of digital records of research is that the web sites are continually under development, subject to funding. Progress can be tracked by reading a recent report in Presence 15.3, 2006, pp. 245-261 and in the publications of the Vienna meetings, Archaeologie und Computer since 2003.
Student participation:
- Graduate Students in the University at Buffalo Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.