ABSTRACT
The Virtual Archaeology (VA) project seeks to accomplish an innovative virtual environment for researchers to test out (geo) archaeological hypotheses in a true interactive manner. Research of various academic interests, such as line of sight, network analysis, resources availability or site catchment might benefit from using gaming technology and the near-real world modelled environment which computer game engines are able to support. Linking virtual scenes to an underlying database will facilitate direct access to and visualisation of the data in realtime. First results from the project's test case on the temple of the Storm God in Aleppo have successfully maintained accurate, high-quality object geometry stored in universal file formats while substantially reducing file size to support quick rendering. These preliminary tests confirm that a true-to-detail multi-scalar 3D visualisation of the temple compound, interior reliefs and related research area is an achievable goal. Furthermore, storing data in universal formats and applying to engines for public use ensures the transparency of data and work procedures and the applicability to other research projects.
