“3-D Rendering and Animation at Tell Mozan/Urkesh,”
in G. Buccellati and M. Kelly-Buccellati (eds),
Urkesh and the Hurrians,
Urkesh/Mozan Studies 3 = Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 26,
Malibu: Undena Publications, pp. 51-62.
Technology turned to be one of the best ‘friends’ (or ally) of an archaeologist: recent scientific (hard-scientific) techniques (such as, e.g., CAD [Computer-Aided Drafting] or XRF [X-Ray Fluorescence]) reveal very helpful in reconstructing ancient buildings or in analysing organic or non-organic samples.
This paper (chapter 4 in UMS 3; see here the link to the full volume) applies the 3D-rendering and animation techniques at Tell Mozan, specifically on the Royal Palace.
After an introduction, describing the archaeological fieldwork as both ‘stratigraphic’ and ‘typological’, the author offers the background of the incorporation of graphics at Urkesh, delineating some main steps, summarized below:
1) 1982: introduction of the first computers (Tandy 100) and of a one-pen plotter; these technologies allowed the archaeologists to use CAD for the representation “of stratigraphy from sets of coordinates” (p. 52), developing 3D reconstruction avoiding an ‘aesthetic correction’;
2) 1996: adoption of a high-end flatbed scanner and PhotoShop 4.0, enabling “to enhance and study either photographs that we had taken in the field of the stratigraphy, or photographs that we had taken of objects in the laboratory” (pp. 52-53);
3) 1997: moving from the digital images to digital illustrations, using Freehand 7.0.
The following paragraphs describe how the Mozan team applied 3D technologies to develop 3D renderings of the Royal Palace, to create digital animations of the structures, allowing a better and easy-fitting sight on the buildings (i.e., the viewer or ‘reader’ of the building can translate, move, rotate and zoom the model to reach a better observation).
The last paragraph offers some illustrations exposing renderings (mostly regarding the royal building AK) developed with the aforementioned technologies.