Virtual Vessels was created for a graduate project in the Spring 2015 course Illustrating and Interpreting the Past: Visual Representation in Archaeology at Brown University. The course worked directly with artifacts from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology in order to practice the methods and techniques of illustration and documentation that were discussed during class sessions.
The artifacts modeled as part of the Virtual Vessels project came from the Haffenreffer’s Scheffler Collection, a newly acquired collection of Maya ceramics. Researcher and collector John Scheffler acquired the large and diverse grouping of objects from a dealer in Northern Yucatan while he was there mapping the Maya archaeological site Dzibilchaltun. The artifacts and the collection as a whole are still being researched at the Haffenreffer while they complete the acquisition process.
Course Background
Archaeologists investigate culture using material artifacts as evidence about human behavior in the past, but in order to communicate and compare that evidence, they must turn to technologies of reproduction and representation. All acts of representation involve subjective choices about what to include, what to leave out, and how to clarify and streamline the rendering, yet some choices and techniques are better than others at presenting relevant facts. The course surveyed the development of representation in archaeology through case studies from Old and New World archaeology, familiarizing students with techniques of archaeological illustration through practical experience.
Course Goals
This course acquainted students with problems, advances, and techniques in archaeological representation. It reached that goal in two ways. First, it traced the evolution of archaeological illustration, and its contributions to our knowledge of the past, in the context of technological and intellectual change over time. Second, it familiarized students with the most up-to-date methods of illustration in archaeology—including multispectral photography, three-dimensional scanning, and vector-based line drawing—and explored the current place and future directions of archaeological illustration in the digital humanities. Over the course of the semester, students acquired hands-on experience in traditional and cutting-edge illustration techniques by working with objects from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology is Brown University’s teaching museum. A resource across the university, we inspire creative and critical thinking about culture by fostering interdisciplinary understanding of the material world. We provide opportunities for faculty and students to work with collections and the public, teaching through objects and programs in classrooms in the CultureLab in Manning Hall and at the Collections Research Center in Bristol, RI.
