Web-based visualization of virtual archaeological sites

We present a web-based visualization tool for archaeological sites that has been developed within the 3D Murale project. The problem of structuring the scene prior to visualization is addressed by an extension to the 3D modeling and animation package MayaTM which enables communication with the common data pool of 3D Murale. Texture data is prepared for visualization by encoding it using the JPEG 2000 standard, which is based on wavelet technology and allows easy access to encoded images at different resolutions. Finally, we provide an ActiveX plugin for the Microsoft Internet Explorer to enable convenient exploration of the archaeological scene in a web environment. Our approaches are demonstrated using a model of a frieze of dancing girls (Sagalassos, southwest Turkey). The discussion of our methods is supported by performance data and screen shots.