Digital visual representation of the past.

Archaeology has always used visual means to represent both its supporting data and the interpretations based on those data. Southampton is a centre for research on this public presentation and consumption of the past. Computer graphics play an increasingly significant role in this public portrayal, and also the presentation of developing interpretations to a specialist audience. Understanding the history, stylistic components and impact of such graphical simulations is vital for an understanding of the discipline, and its impact on broader society. In the public sphere computer graphic representations of the past are ubiquitous, from simulations of ancient Rome in Google Earth, through mobile museum guides to multiple Second Life Stonehenges.

Our work in digital visual representation fits into the strong intellectual framework of visual representation at Southampton. Currently we are working in:

• Digital representation at Catalhoyuk: the implications of digital practice within a wider, complex representative history. This forms part of the Catalhoyuk Visualisation Project
• Construction of spatial understandings of Portus, the port of Imperial Rome, with an emphasis in this case on the construction of a visual identity for the port. We are using graphics extensively in our analyses of the port but also critiquing the role of the visual in constructing an identity for the Portus Project and for the port. In this we are focussing on the digital, but also drawing upon extensive research in the long history of visual representations of the site.