Taking excavation to a virtual world: importing archaeological spatial data to Second Life and OpenSim

The benefits of analysing and presenting archaeological spatial data in an interactive 3D environment have been discussed extensively in the literature. This paper reports of a R&D project that explored the possibilities of presenting archaeological information in virtual worlds with a specific focus on presenting and using actual documentation data captured by total stations and laser scanners directly in virtual worlds. Field trials were conducted in Second Life and OpenSim environments. The findings indicated that Second Life was a preferred environment because of the relatively large existing ecology of individual and institutional users. The proprietary nature of the environment and the consequent limitations to data transfer and the control of the world did, however, make the importing, linkage and manipulation of data problematic. OpenSim allowed a total control of the environment, but lacked certain technical features implemented in Second Life together with a comparable, large population of users.