ABSTRACT: The Historic Materials Database is an interactive database of construction materials used in antiquity. This is the first step of my larger PhD project that will enable a wider audience to create 3D and virtual reality (VR) models of historic structures. By helping a user build accurate models, my project will provide new perspectives of historic buildings and cities to historians, archaeologists, and others who study the past.
TEAM MEMBERS AND ROLES:
Project director: Becca Napolitano, graduate student at Princeton in Civil Engineering ([email protected])
Project manager: Becca Napolitano
Technical lead: Becca Napolitano
CDH Technical Consultant: Benjamin Hicks, CDH staff
Researchers (primary sources of archeological records):
Abigail Rettew, 2nd year undergraduate at Princeton in Computer Science
Catherine Jennings, 2nd year undergraduate at Princeton in Archaeology
Previous researchers:
Hannah Smagh, 3rd year graduate student at Princeton in Archaeology
Sophia Feist, 4th year undergraduate studnet at Princeton in Archaeology
Solmaz Jumakuliyeva, 3rd year undergraduate student at Princeton in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Grace Sommers, 2nd year undergraduate student at Princeton in Physics and Classics
Associated Faculty:
Branko Glisic, professor at Princeton in Civil Engineering
Michael Koortbojian, department chair at Princeton in Civil Engineering
PROJECT NARRATIVE
Current methods for viewing and analyzing historic structures are mainly 2D. Scholars such as archaeologists, civil engineers, and historians each have their own focused skill set. They often do not have all the knowledge necessary to create a model which is both structurally and historically accurate. Our project works to address this knowledge gap. We are writing a program that enables a non-technical scholar to easily reconstruct buildings from the past. The structures created will be stable and contain only historically accurate materials. The Historic Materials Database--an interactive database of historic construction materials--is the first step in this project.
By July 2018, we will have created the materials database and developed a web-based front-end. This front-end will allow a user to interact with a map of non-provincial Rome. Through the map they can discover what types of stones and timber builders used from 30BC to 284CE.
FUNDING
This project is due to the support of many different organizations. Most importantly, the Center for Digital Humanties at Princeton helped this project both monetarily and throughout development stages--it would not be possible with out them. Also, thank you to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Princeton, Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Dean's Fund for Innovation at Princeton University, the Sollenberger Family Grant, and the National Science Foundation.
DISCLAIMER:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE-1656466. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."