The project started in 2008 with collaboration between the Xi'an Jaotong University and the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced. This collaboration was later extended to the Xi'an Municipal Cultural Relics Conservation and Archaeological Research Institute (China), and the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ITABC).
For this project, researchers digitally documented Western Han Dynasty relics of the Shanxi Province, with two primary purposes, the first being the preservation of some of the most representative artefacts of the Dynasty, which are at risk of destruction owing to urban development. In fact, the city of Xi'an, ancient capital of the Western Han Dynasty (under the name of Chang'an), is experiencing such rapid urban development that every year archaeologists discover hundreds of monuments during emergency surveys on construction sites that they cannot preserve due to lack of economic resources. The second purpose was to disseminate information about the Western Han Dynasty through 3D reproductions and reconstructions of its material past.
The final outcomes of the overall project were two different off-line digital installations placed in two locations: the University of California, Merced and the City University of Hong Kong. Later developments of the project involved the creation of an immersive system for research and analysis of Western Han tombs.
3D replicas of Western Han Dynasty monuments and artefacts were displayed in three different immersive displays: the Powerwall at the University of California, Merced, a 360-degree 3D panoramic space (Advanced Visualisation Interaction Environment – AVIE) at the University of Hong Kong, China , and a 3D real-time environment .
More with references at
http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue44/5/2-2.html
from Theorising 3D Visualisation Systems in Archaeology: Towards more effective design, evaluations and life cycles - Fabrizio Galeazzi and Paola Di Giuseppantonio Di Franco
http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue44/5/
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