The Virtual Representation of the Past

Citation

Moore, P. (2009), "The Virtual Representation of the Past", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 447-449. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330910998093

The Virtual Representation of the Past is based on papers presented at an Expert Seminar held in Sheffield in 2006, which brought together research practitioners from the fields of archaeology and history. It is Volume 1 of the series Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities, each volume focusing on a particular subject area and identifying the ways in which technology impacts upon it. They are the product of the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) ICT Methods Network whose aims “were to promote, support and develop the use of advanced ICT methods in arts and humanities research”. The list of contributors to this volume is impressive, representing the historical and archaeological academic research community.

The book is divided into four parts: “The virtual representation of text”; “Virtual histories and pre‐histories finding meanings”; “The virtual representation of space and time”; and “The virtual representation of historical objects and events”. Part I (chapters 2, 3 and 4) considers historical documents and manuscripts and includes a fascinating chapter by Meg Twycross on “Virtual restoration and manuscript archaeology”, which describes how ICT has revolutionised manuscript studies: “We can read it; compare it with other texts in other libraries; transcribe it; even, if it is faded or illegible, restore it” (p. 23).

Part II focuses on methods of organising and accessing historical and archaeological information and includes (in chapters 5 and 6) keyword searching, digital searching, data mining, and information structures and context. Chapter 7 examines the use of Computer‐assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) and chapter 8 focuses on the importance of data standards for archaeological recording and publication in the digital age: “Standards are fundamental to cross‐searching and analysis of multiple data sources” (p. 102). Julian Richards and Catherine Hardman of the ADS (Archaeology Data Service) conclude that only recently “an awareness of the need for ontologies, controlled vocabularies and agreed data structures has emerged” (p. 112).

Part III looks at the question of how to tackle the virtual representation of space and time. Manfred Thaller (chapter 9), looks at the virtual representation of “time”, whilst Vincent Gaffney (chapter 10) takes “space”. Ian Gregory's chapter (11) “Using geographical information systems (GIS) to explore space and time in the humanities” discusses the importance of handling space and time in academic research. He points out that a major criticism of GIS has been its problem with the concept of time, but he suggests “that GIS has much to offer to studies of this type, as it can provide a comprehensive description of what happened, where and when” (p.136). Paul Cripps (chapter 12) examines the devices used by archaeologists that create spatial data, such as GPS, Total Stations and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), but also navigation devices, PDAs and mobile phones, which are widely in use by members of the public in the twenty‐first century.

Part IV (chapters 13 and 14) looks at digital artefacts and 3D modelling, the purposes and considerations for digitising cultural heritage objects and the challenges that the digital age has produced for the representation of objects. Chapter 15 looks at a particular example in this area the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, its electronic format “transforms the traditional function of a corpus entirely and adds considerably to the many potential uses for the project” (p. 185).

This is a fast‐moving field, and as stated in the Preface the book “is an important statement of current research at the time of publication … ”, the seminar on which the book is based was held in 2006 and I doubt the technology has stood still since then. In her Conclusion (Chapter 16), Lorna Hughes discusses new research methods, tools and communities of practise, she suggests that the disparate contributions in the book can be regarded “… as a series of benchmarks for assessing the evidence of the value and impact of ICT methods in the arts and humanities” (p. 191). She stresses that the sustainability of the work described is fragile and uncertain and hopes that funding sources will be continued, she points out that it is “difficult to imagine how a large part of the work described in this volume might have been possible had it not been for the support of the AHDS” (p. 201). We are now in an even more uncertain economic situation than when the book was published so it is to be hoped that the excellent work described does not come to an end.

There is a central section of plates from a variety of sources – e.g. facsimiles of manuscripts, digital images of documents, digitally scanned objects, distribution maps – which demonstrate some of the possibilities of the technologies described in the book. There is a very useful glossary of acronyms and terms – very important as acronyms are endemic in the archaeology profession! Footnotes on each page give bibliographical references, URLs for further reference and any textual explanation as required; and there seems to be an adequate index. One small criticism is that I came across a few typos and copy‐editing/grammatical errors but this is “picky” and does not detract from the value of the book.

The book is a comprehensive academic and technical contribution to this specialist subject area by a distinguished team of leading experts. I am sure it will be invaluable to students, researchers and practitioners – it will certainly be a valuable addition to our library.

© Crown copyright: RCAHMW.