Archaeological data visualization in VR: Analysis of lamp finds at the Great Temple of Petra, a case study

We present the results of an evaluation of the ARCHAVE system, an immersive virtual reality environment for archaeological research. ARCHAVE is implemented in a Cave. The evaluation studied researchers analyzing lamp and coin finds throughout the excavation trenches at the Petra Great Temple site in Jordan. Experienced archaeologists used our system to study excavation data, confirming existing hypotheses and postulating new theories they had not been able to discover without the system. ARCHAVE provided access to the excavation database, and researchers were able to examine the data in the context of a life-size representation of the present day architectural ruins of the temple. They also had access to a miniature model for site-wide analysis. Because users quickly became comfortable with the interface, they concentrated their efforts on examining the data being retrieved and displayed. The immersive VR visualization of the recovered information gave them the opportunity to explore it in a new and dynamic way and, in several cases, enabled them to make discoveries that opened new lines of investigation about the excavation.