Video-recording as part of the critical archaeological process

In Karlsruhe, a MultiMedia Studio has been established, where CD-ROM productions, InterNet-programmes, Virtual Film festivals, simultaneous projections, Virtual Museums, multi-functional Data banks, Net and super-cable systems, etc., are being developed. A number of interdisciplinary projects arose of these connections and the CHAMP - The Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Multimedia Project, - as we call it - is one of them. One of the major concerns of projects like this is innovative work grounding on serious and scientific questions, focussing mainly on content and a useful presentation thereof rather than merely on technology or commercial application. To stimulate the development and use of multimedia information content, it is not necessary to develop new tools, one has to make use of content resources and context.

Archaeology is one very useful field for such work. On the basis of a concept of the German Museum of Architecture Frankfurt to visualise historic architectural ensembles with scale models, the first three dimensional interactive virtual computer animations were produced by the ZKM since 1992. CHAMP was then developed by the film-department at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG) and is now encouraged by the European Commission within the Programm INFO2000.

Other partners in Baden-Wurttemberg amoung the ZKM and the HfG are the European Institute of Cinema EIKK, the Universitat Karlsruhe (Inst. fur Rechnerentwurf und Fehlertoleranz), the Fachhochschule Karlsruhe (dep. of Geoinformationswesen) and the University of Tubingen (Archaeological Institute). Non-Baden-Wurttemberg partners of the Karlsruher media-complex are Zabern-publishing Mainz (together with Thames and Hudson, London), the University of Cambridge and the Multimedia-developer Altair4 / Rome, Italy.

The objective of CHAMP is to link video and 'virtual' computer reconstructions and archaeological data for the first time in an integrated database that will enhance (a) scientific understanding of archaeological sites and (b) presentation of cultural heritage sites to a wider audience and (c) the development of new forms of long-term documentation in the context of new media and the 'virtual museum'. The multifunctional CHAMP database will provide a common resource of reusable digitised content. There's a great need of new types of publishing both from the scientist and a wider audience.

For the first time at an archaeological site, the Karlsruhe team started the complete documentation of excavation and analysis in Catalhoyuk in the central Anatolian highland in 1995. Catalhoyuk is a site of immense international significance, providing the first art of complex settled life. A wide range of archaeological materials (ceramics, faunal remains, houses etc) provide a direct window into neolithic life. Some of the spectacular sculptures and paintings are 9000 years old.

To visualize what we are doing, I prepared a short film showing the work of students and teachers of the HfG in Turkey, Cambridge and Karlsruhe.

A number of german students took turns in collecting the audiovisual information of the excavation from the first day on for the entire duration of the excavation One of the tasks is to capture the work done and the progresses made at Catalhoyuk, day by day. The documentation team has to be on the alert all the time recording on request or selecting for example scenes from the daily work routine that might be of interest for scientists or an interested public. Amoung the regular work on the site any events that seem to be important have to be captured, for example interesting finds as the first complete human skeleton. Video recording and multimedia technologies can to a certain extent preserve what is lost after archaeological excavation of a site;

A number of short sequences have to be edited daily into small clips on a computer in the laboratory on the site and have already been transferred to the database on Catalhoyuk.

Group discussions repeatedly held to assess the course of excavation and special problems or questions that have surfaced are also of major interest since one of the database's main function is to give future generations a detailed account on how the dig proceeded and what methods have been used. Interviews with the various scientists, given at various stages of their work and researches are recorded, too.

After the end of the season all the data has to be integrated into the CHAMP database in Karlsruhe. I can show you only some scenes out of a preliminary version, in a low technical resolution and not in the final design. The next step will be a CD-version, hopefully ready this summer. The work of the student group supervised by our computer colleague Burkhard Detzler is still in progress, but I hope that nevertheless one is able to understand the idea of the project.

The database is going to work on the base of 3dimensional reconstructions, it will be possible to walk around in the virtual site. >From special objects and persons, links are provided to further levels, like the life history of the excavator of the site.

Information is also been given about the history of the site, construction details and the excavation history.

In the virtual room one can not only move around in 3 dimensions, one can also change the time - if you want so, a 4dimensional database. Each time the observer's position and the period may be changed.

In the next version we are also planning little virtual walks from one room to another, the user then does not have to jump from one possible spot to the next.

Even in the CD-version the user can pick up objects at the place they were originally found, turn them around and examine them for details. Access is also given to all data wich was collected to this find, for example descriptions, videos, discussions, scientific lectures and so on. An index will be available and overviews for example about all mother godnesses of Anatolia.

A CHAMP-database should be useable in various medias (Internet, CD, realtime machine) and with various levels of knowledge. This is easy to see at the Internet-pages wich already have been set up. (http://www.catalhoyuk.com/catal.html) >From any position in the world an Internet user may call up information on the excavation. In one special section all scientific data are available so the project assistants from all over the world can work directly with the computer in Cambridge. Without special access, a wealth of information is available, which one may simply leaf through or look into more specifically by using a table of contents.

In the discussion room of the virtual museum of the ZKM - also on the WorldWideWeb - it will be possible to 'chat' or talk with other virtual visitors or to join an online lecture about Catal Hoyuk in the near future.

The resultant data base of Catalhoyuk, containing text as well as audio, video and 'virtual' information, will provide a rich resource for scientific and public use, both in terms of understanding the site itself, and in terms of providing a model for other archaeological and cultural heritage projects.

In order to build up a database which might include material of all important archaeological projects from throughout the world and - as a first step - of the important excavations in Europe, the Karlsruhe team has begun documentation at the important Etruscan site of Castellina/Italy. The funds of the european commission for CHAMP are helping to further develop the experience gained at Catal Hoyuk whereby its adaptability can also be testeted. The excavation project "Castellina del Maragone" is a German-French-Italian cooperation, the University of Tubingen holds the excavation license. With the help of three-dimensional reconstruction the archaeologists' ideas of infrastructure, as water and traffic systems, can be evaluated. In contrast to the microstructure of the urban area at Catal Hoyuk, in Etruria the economic macrostructure of the district - ties between port, city and the ore mines in the landscape - is of central interest. The inclusion of visualization of the development over time is a very important factor in the presentation. Another CHAMP-partner is Altair 4 with the program "Pompeii Open", a program of both cultural heritage and location-based entertainment. The inclusion of rich audio visual material from Italy in the application project using the experience with classical urban ensembles highlights an emphasis on art and infrastructures. All possible details and interrelations of these results were incorporated, and considerable attention was given to scientific precision in relation to demanding graphic standards.

Archaeology as a discipline is marked by its high cultural values and a huge popularity for a generally interested wide public. The participating publishing companies are established in the book market and enjoy a tested cooperation with a solid group of customers. That should garantee the use of CHAMP by a wide public, both trough "classical" publications like print with CD and new forms like the virtual museum of the ZKM.