A Multimedia Archaeological Museum

This paper will present a project, which was first initiated in 1994 as a graduate students seminar and is now being continued as a research project in a cooperation of computer scientists, architects and archaeologists. An ancient roman city (Colonia Ulpia Traiana near todays Xanten in Germany) has been reconstructed, using various levels of abstraction. On the coarsest level, a 3D-model of the whole city was established, distinguishing between different historical periods of the city. The second level picks places of special interest (temples, the forum, the amphitheater, the townbaths etc.) and reconstructs these buildings or groups of buildings. On the finest level important interior parts or functional details like the Hypocaustae in the town-baths are modelled. All reconstructions are oriented as close as possible to results from excavations or other available documents. All levels of the 3D-model have been visualized using photorealistic images and sequences of video animations. The 3D model is integrated into a multimedia environment, augmenting the visualization elements with plans of the city and individual buildings and with text documents. It is intended, that parts of the outlined system will be available at the site of the ancient city, where today a large public archaeological park is located