Abstract
Abstract Archaeologists are the mediators between fragmented, and often contested, pasts and the momentary present. To record, organise, interpret, and reconstruct complex narratives of the past and to communicate these to present-day peers and the public, they use a wide range of visualisation methods. As such, visualisation methods form an intrinsic part of the representation of practical and intellectual findings, being crucial to knowledge production in archaeology. The adoption and adaptation of digital visualisation technology changes the way archaeologists shape new knowledge. However, for a discipline that is particularly concerned with how technology had an effect on past societies, for example, the impact of the potter’s wheel on local ceramic production strategies, archaeologists have a remarkably limited awareness of how current (digital) technology has an impact on their own visualisation practice and the subsequent knowledge production. This study presents the conceptual framework “tradition in transition,” which integrates technological and visualisation methodologies, and aims to provide a framework to analyse the underlying processes and mechanisms that shape and change the practice of creating visualisations.
Highlights
Archaeology is predominantly a visual discipline about things (Olsen, 2010; Olsen, Shanks, Webmoor, & Witmore, 2012; Witmore, 2006) that heavily relies on the visualisation of these things
For a discipline equipped with theoretical approaches and methods to assess how technology had an effect on past societies, for example, the impact of the potter’s wheel on ceramic production in the Aegean Bronze Age, archaeologists have surprisingly little awareness of how current technology has an impact on their own visualisation practice and the subsequent knowledge production
I explain the applicability of the chosen theoretical approaches, such as the chaîne opératoire, communities of practice and reflexivity, and how their integration towards a coherent methodology enables the community of archaeological visualisers to further reflect, assess, and document visualisation practice and the process of image making
Summary
Archaeology is predominantly a visual discipline about things (Olsen, 2010; Olsen, Shanks, Webmoor, & Witmore, 2012; Witmore, 2006) that heavily relies on the visualisation of these things. The automation of conventional recording practices with innovative 3D technology and software started in the mid-2000s focusing primarily on automatically generating familiar two-dimensional (2D) technical illustrations of artefacts (Gilboa, Karasik, Sharon, & Smilansky, 2004; Kampel & Sablatnig, 2006; Karasik & Smilansky, 2008; Martínez Carrillo, Ruiz Rodríguez, & Rubio Paramio, 2010; Salvadori, 2003; Smith et al, 2014; Wilczek et al, 2018) This particular technique did not, become widely adopted by archaeologists or illustrators, whereas a decade earlier, a new method for digitalising drawings with Adobe Illustrator did find its way into wider visualisation practices. The framework addresses the pressing need for transparency of data and workflows alike, through the reflexive recording of the decision-making process of the visualising archaeologist
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