Western Han Dynasty
Archaeology@Reality
Virtual Masterpieces From Ancient China

April 16-22, 2011
CITRIS Tech Museum
345 Sutardja Dai Hall
University of California, Berkeley

Open: Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm
Calday, April 16, 9am-4pm
Sunday, closed

Event Flyer

Presentation

Background
The Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) was the first unified and powerful empire in Chinese history and one of the greatest of the world history. The extension of its empire was three times larger than the Roman Empire. Still today, around its ancient capital city Chang’An, the modern Xi’an laid the sacred lands of emperors where the landscape is shaped by imperial mounds of the ancient mausoleums.
American and Chinese Institutions are coordinating a multidisciplinary international research project concerning the reconstruction of this period using advanced technologies, such as laser scanning, virtual reality, remote sensing and 3D modeling. The first outcomes of the project are shown in this exhibit, which constitutes an overview of digital applications and virtual simulations: 3D tombs, artifacts, landscape’s reconstructions and architectural models will be interactively accessible for the first time. Two monumental Han tombs no longer accessible after the excavation are scientifically and virtually reconstructed in this exhibit through an immersive and collaborative system.
The final challenge is to ‘play with the past’, studying and comparing archaeological models through virtual representation and interpretations. In that sense the exhibits could be considered an open digital lab where the visitors could simulate and visualize what is impossible in the reality, so that to become avatars of the past.

Exhibit
The exhibit organized by UC Merced, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, in collaboration with CITRIS-UC Berkeley is combined with the international workshop titled “Chang’an 26 BCE” (organized by UC Berkeley). Both the initiatives aim to present an overview of one of the most important periods of the history of China throughout advanced digital methodologies for archaeological and historical research.
More specifically, the exhibit is an experimental technological example of virtual musealization. The final goal is to “musealize the Virtual”, opening cybernetic gates able to transform the visitors in virtual actors and the museum space in a simulation environment.
In fact all the objects and data on display are virtual, 3D and interactive: virtual tombs and artifacts, digital landscapes, virtual cases, 3D prints from object recorded by 3D scanners, 3D hands on experiences animate the exhibit showing a new dimension of the archaeology of the future: totally digital, interactive and cybernetic. The exhibit is very challenging also because it is able to show archaeological artifacts, sites and monuments, not accessible or visible to the public even in China.
Technological installations will include:

1. 3D interactive monumental tombs with wall paintings;
2. Virtual reconstruction of the landscape in the area of  Maoling mausoleum (Xi’an);
3. Teleimmersive experiments of collaborative system for archaeology. For the first time a prototype of virtual collaborative system in archaeology will be displayed in public.
4. Reconstruction of the city of Chang/an in computer graphics;
5. 3D prints of funeral objects of the Western Han tombs;
6. a documentary film on the UC Merced fieldwork and project in China;
7. a 3D interactive platform for visualizing archaeological artifacts reconstructed by 3D laser scanners.
8. Virtual cases showing “real” archaeological artifacts.