The visualization theme

The electronic media has a lot of power today, and we are used to grasp information in many different ways. Photographs, graphics, video and computer animations play an increasingly important part because they help us to realise even complex associations. By the help of new methods, the visualization of archaeological themes becomes easier and more many-sided at museums and their exhibitions. Pieces of times past can now be made visible and therefore alive.

The visualization of North-European shipwreck sites in the MoSS Project offers a good example: These wrecks are a part of our cultural heritage and together with their natural surroundings they form a whole and stationary source of information that tells us about the history of seafaring, trade and even warfare. One of the aims of the Department for Preservation of Archaeological Sites and Monuments (in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany) is to develop strategies to preserve these findings on the spot, which means under water, for later generations (Safeguarding). The fact that wrecks are located at the bottom of seas, lakes or rivers often means that they are hardly open to the public. That is why the visualization of wrecks by means of modern technology is very important. It gives us the possibility to inform the general public about the wrecks and their history and to make people see how important it is to preserve them.

In the MoSS Project, different methods of visualization will be used and adapted to the differing requirements of each of the wrecks. The visualization will be done by systematic evaluation of aerial photographs, by the use of geophysical survey methods, by documentation by the help of photography, graphics, photogrammetry, and videotaping, and by reconstructing wrecks and building models or replica of them.