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Into the Labyrinth: The Minos Project
James Devine , Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, ScotlandSession: 3D Archaeology
The Minos Project is a digital media experiment to present a virtual tour of the Minoan Palace complex at Knossos, Crete, employing Apple's Quick Time Virtual Reality software technology. An expedition team made up of staff and students from the Hunterian Museum and the Department of Computing Science went out to Crete during the 1998 Easter vacation, hosted by the British School at Athen's field station at the Villa Ariadne in Knossos.
The great volume of visitors to Knossos presents critical conservation issues for the Greek Archaeological Service. In many cases the pressure placed on the structural remains has led to large areas of the archaeological site being closed to the public. The creation of a virtual tour of the site including these closed areas is aimed at providing the on-line as well as the on-site visitor with an interactive multi-node tour of this important site, incorporating those areas which they would otherwise be unable to see.
The resulting imagebase will also serve as a conservation tool for the Greek Archaeological Service. It is envisaged that the material will be made available on-line to form a valuable educational resource for scholars at all levels, from school pupils and their teachers, to academic researchers in the fields of archaeology, art history, and cultural heritage management.
The Minos Project is a collaborative venture incorporating: The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery and the Department of Computing Science, under the auspices of the REVELATION project at the University of Glasgow; The British School at Athens; and the Greek Ministry of Culture's Archaeological Service.