Three-dimensional Visualization Of Archaeological Strata And Applied Research

Archaeological stratigraphy is the basic theory and method in the field archaeology. Currently, the study on archaeological strata emphasizes much on its spatial location and relations between the locations. Therefore, it is very important to observe, to record and to correctly interpret the strata structure, the distribution situation, and the strata information in the excavation procedure.Archaeological strata pile up and stacks sequentially in the order of time, the earlier stratum located lower, whereas, the stratum in later period located higher, the spatial relationship in which can be divided into two kinds," stack " and " break ". In the traditional exploration procedure, archaeologists record the sequences of archaeological strata by section graphs or digital photos generally, or by using "Harris Matrix" diagrams to record the time sequence of the strata. However, all of which are unable to make a comprehensive, intuitionistic and quantitative description of archaeological strata. Because the archaeological strata distribute in 3D space, the 3D visualization technology can offer an effective method for the purpose that the 3D reconstruction of the archaeological strata. Through constructing the surface model and the volumetric model of strata, as well as interacting with which dynamically in the browsing scene, it can show the spatial pattern and relationship of the archaeological strata.Based on the theory called "Scientific Computing in Visualization", the research realized 3D model of archaeological strata in IDL programming language, and constructed an integrated visual system including interactive scene under the .NET platform. By which, we can realize spatial entities cutting along the section of the strata so as to observe the spatial relationship within the body of strata conveniently.Main achievements and innovations in this paper are as follows:I It summed up the methods that suitable for the 3D visualization of archaeological strata, and constructed a real 3D strata model; In the process of visual system development, the interoperability between .NET platform and IDL has been initiatively explored and practiced.II With the 3D visualization system of archaeological strata, this paper measured the average thickness of each stratum accurately in space, and displayed its horizontal distribution pattern. It also predicted the spatial distribution tendency of the stratum in the 3D view, restored the primitive appearance of the pile-up strata, and seized the spatial relationship between the strata sequences on the whole.