EUROGRAPHICS ’0x / N.N. and N.N. Short Presentations VISAGE: An Integrated Environment for Visualization and Study of Archaeological Data Generated by Industrial Computer Tomography DI Dr Leonid I. Dimitrov 1 , DI Emanuel Wenger 1 ,Dr Miloš Šrámek, Mag Dr Elisabeth Trinkl 2 and Dr Claudia Lang-Auinger 2 1 Commission for Scientific Visualization, Austrian Academy of Sciences 2 Institute for Studies of Ancient Culture, Austrian Academy of Sciences Abstract Archaeology studies the past using its material remains such as, objects and artefacts found in excavations. Some of them are in a bad shape, broken, damaged, with missing or changed parts, surfaces, colors, textures etc. Others are well-preserved but so valuable that they cannot be easily studied through traditional invasive investigation methods. That’s why, active measurements are often impossible by conventional means. Furthermore, the acquisi- tion of information must be non-destructive and with as less physical contact as possible. Scientific visualization in general and volume rendering in special develop non-invasive methods for acquiring data from and studying various material objects by representing them visually and extracting useful information about them. Especially interesting are volumetric data sets which contain information about the whole object, not just its surface. Such volumetric data can be acquired from archaeological objects by means of computed tomography (CT). That’s why, based on the above ideas and considerations, we started work on a project, in which we want to develop new and employ already-known visualization and evaluation methods for volumetric data sets, implement them in a user-friendly integrated system for archaeologists allowing them to load CT-scanned data sets pertaining to their study objects, analyze them and extract useful object information from the data. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3 [Picture/Image Generation]: Digitizing and scanning J.2 [Archaeology]: 1. Introduction Archaeology studies the past using its material remains such as, for example, objects and artefacts found in excavations. Some (most) of them are in a bad shape, broken, damaged, with missing or changed parts, surfaces, colors, textures etc. Others are well-preserved but so valuable that they cannot be easily studied through traditional invasive investigation methods. And yet, all of them need to be thoroughly recon- structed and researched in order for them to reveal all the information they carry. In former times archaeological objects got their value out of aesthetic considerations. So, the collectors and the intel- lectual elite were most interested in statues of marble and bronze. However, since the 18th century, they have been also engaged in collecting ancient pottery, above all ceramic ves- sels of the archaic and classical period. Date and provenience of the vases were often misunderstood at that time though. Nowadays, due to the greater number of excavated vessels (often embedded in undisturbed contexts) and research goals that reach beyond aesthetical considerations, the ceramic vessels of Greek and Roman times are a well-analyzed group among the various groups of archaeological artefacts. An especially detailed framework of artists (vase painters and potters) exists for the Archaic and Classical Greek ceram- ics [Car89], and for the fine ware of Roman times, the so called Terra Sigillata [ea90]. c  The Eurographics Association 2006.