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Are you sure? How to present 3D reconstructions with a clear conscience

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2018

Abstract

Virtual reconstructions of archaeological sites and finds have already proved to be an important tool for both professionals and public. The professional audience is used to mentally fill in the missing pieces and focuses more on the way the archaeological data was mined for clues for the reconstruction.

On the other hand, the general public tends to see the reconstruction as a fact and it is therefore very important to give them the opportunity to see what are the source data and how probabilistic the result really is. This paper will present the case study of the Samnite sanctuary at San Giovanni in Galdo which was examined as a part of the Landscapes of Early Roman Colonization project.

The sanctuary was virtually reconstructed on the base of excavation data and local analogies, probability scale and maps were created to visualise the uncertainty of the result and the whole model with several switchable variants of the structures was imported to the Unity engine and made interactive. This final product demonstrates one possible way of presenting such highly uncertain images to the public responsibly.