Virtual recovery of excavated relics

Bringing computer graphics and virtual reality technologies to traditional archaeology raises surprising possibilities. First, it permits exploring, assembling, and visualizing relics without disturbing their physical location or damaging specimens. Second, it brings a "what if" scenario to the task of reassembling fragments, which would otherwise involve applying permanent adhesives, rendering mistakes irrevocable. Virtual recovery affords an opportunity to previsualize alternatives and to repeat processes, reducing the possibility for such errors and adding new flexibility. Third, virtual artifacts can be shared across a network and/or delivered in the context of multimedia presentations. Although clearly no substitute for the painstaking process of uncovering and working with originals, recovering "virtual relics" facilitates a different type of examination-one that complements traditional recovery and presentation techniques.