Jean-Baptiste Barreau

Virtual reality tools for the west digital conservatory of archaeological heritage

In the continuation of the 3D data production work made by the WDCAH, the use of virtual reality tools allows archaeologists to carry out analysis and understanding research about their sites. In this paper, we focus on the virtual reality services proposed to archaeologists in the WDCAH, through the example of two archaeological sites, the Temple de Mars in Corseul and the Cairn of Carn Island.

Combination of 3D Scanning, Modeling and Analyzing Methods around the Castle of Coatfrec Reconstitution

The castle of Coatfrec is a medieval castle in Brittany constituting merely a few remaining ruins currently in the process of restoration. Beyond its great archeological interest, it has become, over the course of the last few years, the subject of experimentation in digital archeology. Methods of 3D scanning were implored in order to gauge comparisons between the remaining structures and their absent hypothetical ones, resulting in the first quantitative results of its kind. This paper seeks to introduce the methods which carried out said research, as well as to present the subsequent results obtained using these new digital tools.

Large-scale immersive reconstitution of a Neolithic corbel dome

We propose a workflow of tools and procedures to reconstruct an existing archaeological site as a virtual 3D reconstitution in a large scale immersive system. This interdisciplinary endeavor, gathering archaeologists and virtual reality computer scientists, is the first step of a joint research project with three objectives: (i) propose a common workflow to reconstruct archaeological sites as 3D models in fully immersive systems, (ii) provide archaeologists with tools and interaction metaphors to exploit immersive reconstitutions, and (iii) develop the use and access of immersive systems to archaeologists. In this context, we present results from the immersive reconstitution of Carns monument central chamber, in Finistere, France, a site currently studied by the Creaah archaeology laboratory. The results rely on a detailed workflow we propose, which uses efficient solutions to enable archaeologists to work with immersive systems. In particular, we proposed a procedure to model the central chamber of the Carn monument, and compare several softwares to deploy it in an imersive structure. We then proposed two immersive implementations of the central chamber, with simple interaction tools, and finally describe the European project Visionair which provides access to high level visualization facilities.

Another brick in the wall: fifth millennium BC earthen-walled architecture on the Channel shores

Abstract The west European Neolithic is famed for its funerary and ceremonial monuments, but the evidence for houses is sparse. Can this be explained by the materials of which they were built? On the northern coast of Brittany, the site of Lillemer rises from the surrounding marshes and presents abundant evidence of Middle Neolithic occupation, contemporary with the passage graves of the region. Surprisingly, their evidence includes the remains of collapsed earthen-walled structures, providing the northernmost example of this type of architecture in a Neolithic context and a possible explanation for the invisibility of much Neolithic domestic architecture.

Photogrammetry Based Study of Ceramics Fragments

Reconstitution of whole ceramics from fragments is a true priesthood for ceramographers. This activity remains mainly handled by manual sketching and can be very time consuming. However, more and more tools and workflows provide digital solutions, based on 3D technologies, to assist such tasks. In this paper, we present an application of photogrammetry on ceramic fragments from two excavation sites located in Brittany, France. This study was required by two ceramics specialists and conducted in CReAAH, a French research center in archaeology, archaeosciences and history. The 3D restitution by photogrammetry of these different fragments allowed reconstructions of the original shapes of the potteries or at least to get to as close as possible. We furthermore used the resulting 3D models of the ceramics to compute various metrics required by the ceramographers. In collaboration with IRISA, a French research center in computer science, we designed and generated a presentation support using a 3D printer. This ...

ALERT mobile: Managing coastal archaeological heritage in Western France

Present climatic change and anthropogenic pressure increasingly affect the coastal zone. Hundreds of archaeological sites are currently threatened along the European Atlantic coasts by the accelerated relative rise in sea level, erosion, and various anthropogenic modifications to the environment. Since 2006, the ALERT (Archeologie, Littoral et Rechauffement Terrestre) project has brought together researchers involved in coastal archaeology. This group quickly moved toward developing an interdisciplinary approach aiming at the construction of a vulnerability model for coastal heritage, developing assessment and monitoring maps, and assessing the strategies for research and action adapted to the local and regional scales. As a result of this, a dedicated tool for the vulnerability assessment of coastal archaeological heritage was developed: the Vulnerability Evaluation Form (VEF). Further improvements on the field data collection and on the post-processing procedures have led us to develop the ALERT Mobile App. It allows the user to type and upload all the relevant information contained in the VEF, as well as additional contents, to a secure server. The application, which is ergonomic for mobile use, has been developed thanks to the jQueryMobile framework, compatible with many smartphones and language based on HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. The production of dynamic secure web pages, via a dedicated web server, has been programmed in PHP. The display of the interactive maps based on Open Street Map was made using the plugin osmLeaflet.jQuery. There is also a classic web version for administering users and adding administrative information requiring desk based research. ALERT Mobile has drastically reduced the time of data collection in the field, has improved its quality (e.g. providing a greater degree of homogeneity) and

Digital and Handcrafting Processes Applied to Sound-Studies of Archaeological Bone Flutes

Bone flutes make use of a naturally hollow raw-material. As nature does not produce duplicates, each bone has its own inner cavity, and thus its own sound-potential. This morphological variation implies acoustical specificities, thus making it impossible to handcraft a true and exact sound-replica in another bone. This phenomenon has been observed in a handcrafting context and has led us to conduct two series of experiments (the first-one using handcrafting process, the second-one using 3D process) in order to investigate its exact influence on acoustics as well as on sound-interpretation based on replicas. The comparison of the results has shed light upon epistemological and methodological issues that have yet to be fully understood.