Introducing CVR, a Content Managment System for Digital Archaeological Interpretation

Summary

With a wide range of digital tools now being successfully utilized for capturing and modeling archaeological data, public archaeologists have realized how entertainment software (aka video games) can be repurposed to create compelling visualizations and interactive experiences to share our research on the people, landscapes, places, and objects of the past.

Archaeology Southwest, with support from the National Science Foundation, recently began an effort to develop one such interactive visualization to share the story of the ancient Chaco Phenomenon in northwestern New Mexico. However, a fortunate set of design choices resulted in the creation of both a digital touch screen exhibit called "Chaco's Legacy" and a flexible, database driven tool, built within the Unity 3D game engine, which we are calling Chronological Virtual Reality or CVR.

The CVR system represents an open source tool that can be used to compile platform-independent digital exhibits featuring three-dimensional models of landscapes, sites and artifacts. The system uses a node-based tour system, utilizing multiple languages to share virtual archaeology with descriptive text, maps, audio and alternate viewpoints, through multiple time periods. We at Archaeology Southwest are pleased to celebrate the release of the CVR system at this annual meeting.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Practice in Digital Public & Community Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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