Using 3D Computer Models of Inuit Architecture as Visualization Tools ...

Using 3D Computer Models of Inuit Architecture as Visualization Tools in Archaeological Interpretation: Two Case Studies from the Canadian Arctic Peter C. Dawson1 and Richard M. Levy 2

INTRODUCTION Technology has always been a moving target in archaeology. Over the past 20 years, advances in micro computing have allowed archaeologists to visualize their data sets in increasingly sophisticated ways. Computer-aided drafting (CAD), for example, has enabled researchers to plot the spatial distributions of artifacts within cultural features, and has greatly assisted activity area research. However, these approaches are somewhat limiting as they only allow for the analysis of architectural data in a two dimensional space. In reality, cultural features such as houses contain and shape a volume of space into a 3-dimensional pattern where such factors as wall sloping, roof height and the distribution of light and shadow likely play a role in mediating the organization of domestic space. As spatial analysis is an important means of examining social organization in archaeology, a 3-dimensional approach to activity area research is warranted, and can be achieved through the application of computer modeling and virtual reality (VR). Within a virtual environment, archaeological features can be explored from every angle. This has the potential to provide new insights into the structural, social, and even symbolic components of architecture. In this paper, we outline our efforts to construct computer models of two Neoeskimo house forms from the Canadian Arctic. By placing these models in a virtual environment, we show how they can be used to explore construction techniques and the relationship between architecture and culture in circumpolar societies.

THE USE OF COMPUTER MODELING AND VIRTUAL REALITY IN ARCHAEOLOGY. Computer modeling has a surprisingly long history in archaeology, with some of the first attempts dating back to the early 1980’s. Pioneering projects such as John Woodwark’s recreation of the temple precinct of Roman Bath for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) demonstrated that computer reconstructions of archaeological sites were possible, and that they could be used to capture the attention of the general public. Although crude by today’s technological standards, these early models nevertheless proved to be useful tools for visualizing archaeological data in a 3-dimensional context. Today, advances in computing technology allow for the creation of far more sophisticated and realistic models of prehistoric architecture. The level of accuracy that can be attained is currently at the point where the effects of environmental factors such as light, shadow, candle smoke, fog and dust can be simulated, thereby creating a photorealistic image of a building’s interior spaces. Another breakthrough has been the development of virtual reality applications that allow the user to navigate through the model so that it can be explored from different vantage points. While computer modeling holds great promise as a tool for archaeological interpretation, there are caveats. The technical expertise required for computer modeling projects necessitates collaboration between computer specialists and archaeologists. Although many such partnerships have

1. Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary. 2. Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary.

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been fruitful (see all parties need to be aware of the limitations imposed by archaeological data. By way of illustration, archaeologists often use “fuzzy” data sets that can be difficult for computer modelers to deal with. While an archaeologist may have several different ideas about how a roof or wall was constructed, computer modelers require single explanations. If such uncertainties are simply “glossed over” then the result can be an extremely realistic-looking model that conveys authority where none might exist. It is therefore important that researchers either draw the user’s attention to areas of uncertainty within the model, or develop ways of testing the validity of competing architectural hypotheses.

are relatively easy to model using computer graphics. In addition, a critical component of all VR modeling is the availability of data, and a rich database of information on Inuvialuit life exists. Much of this information is derived from archaeological excavations, ethnohistoric sources, and recent oral history projects. From this information, it was possible to ascertain the basic dimensions and locations of the main structural and architectural features of these houses, including major support posts, walls, sleeping platforms and entrances. The exploration of possible design alternatives resulted in a series of models that were created using 3D Studio Viz software. These models were then loaded individually into a virtual reality environment (World UP Sense 8 software) for analysis.

BUILDING COMPUTER MODELS OF TWO TRADITIONAL INUIT HOUSE FORMS. 2. The Thule Whalebone House For the purposes of this project, house forms built by the Inuvialuit of the western Canadian arctic, and Thule culture peoples of the central and eastern Canadian arctic were selected for computer reconstruction.

1. The Inuvialuit Winter House Until the early years of the 20th century, the Inuvialuit of the western Canadian Arctic spent the winter close to beluga hunting areas, or where food was abundant. At these locations, winter dwellings were constructed from materials such as driftwood, sod, and stone. This type of house is an ideal choice for computer reconstruction because the shapes and textures of these materials

The semi-subterranean whalebone house is arguably the most recognizable feature of the “Classic” Phase of Thule Inuit culture (AD.1000-1500). Such dwellings were built across the central and eastern Arctic from sod, stone, and the bones of large baleen whales. The modeling of this house type proved to be a greater challenge than the Inuvialuit house for several reasons. First, comparatively little is known about how these dwellings were constructed because few have been discovered intact. This is due to the fact that whalebone was a building material of critical importance in driftwood-poor regions of the Canadian Arctic. Consequently, abandoned houses were frequently mined for whalebone by later Thule groups, as well as by contemporary Inuit carvers. Second,

Fig. 1. North American Right Whale skeleton (left) and point cloud (right).

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Fig. 2. Computer reconstruction of Inuvialuit house (top) with interior view (bottom).

the complex shapes of whalebone elements make them extremely difficult to duplicate using standard computer modeling techniques. Laser scanning technology presented us with a solution to this problem. Architects and engineers have successfully used laser scanning to capture objects of unusual shape, such as the Statue of Liberty, and the Coliseum in Rome. Laser scanners measure objects using millions of data points spaced millimeters apart. Consequently, we felt that this technique would provide us with precise data that could be used to construct accurate 3D digital models of individual whalebone elements. During the summer of 2003, we used a CYRAX2500 laser scanner to scan an articulated

North Atlantic Right Whale skeleton on display at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. The North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is smaller than the Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) hunted by Thule groups, but it is a suitable analogue because both species share a similar skeletal morphology. Most importantly, the whale skeleton on display at the New England Aquarium was positioned in the main circulation space of the museum, offering line of sight access from the laser scanner to the skeleton from all sides. Using the laser scanner, the size, shape, and surface features of each skeletal element were captured in a cloud of over two million data points accurate to within .5mm (Fig. 1). Individual elements

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were then extracted, converted to simple wire frame models, and scaled to the size of the intact whale elements mapped and measured at an exceptionally well-preserved Thule site3 on Bathurst Island, Nunavut. A detailed model of a Thule whalebone house was then built from an AutoCAD plan of one of the largest and best preserved dwellings at the site (House 8). This house consisted of a pit shaped into two lobes (rooms) of varying size. Although this dwelling is unexcavated, archaeological data from other Thule sites suggests that each lobe would have been furnished with a flagstone floor, a raised sleeping platform (likely in the larger lobe), a cooking area (likely in the smaller lobe), and storage areas (entrance tunnel). A framework constructed from various

whalebone elements would have then been erected over each depression, and covered with hide and a thick layer of turf, moss, and snow.

TESTING POSSIBLE DESIGN SCENARIOS WITHIN A VR E NVIRONMENT One of the strengths of computer modeling in a virtual environment is that it allows the geometric details of the architectural assembly to be observed from different viewpoints. Virtual reality software (Virtools physics package) can also be used to inject lifelike physics such as mass, friction, and elasticity into objects like wood and whalebone so that they behave as they would in the real world.

Fig. 3. Computer reconstruction of Thule whalebone house (top) with interior view (bottom).

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This provides a useful way of evaluating the structural stability of different roofing designs. Using this approach, the roof frame is assembled using pivots and hinges to simulate the joining of major construction elements. The resulting structure is then ‘loaded’ with mass and friction values in the virtual space. If the structure reaches a state of equilibrium and does not collapse under its own weight, then the most stable (and therefore most likely) roof design has been identified. In the case of the Inuvialuit winter house, the configuration of support posts and beams, rear wall, and roof suggested by the ethnohistoric and archaeological data resulted in several different designs that varied in complexity and stability (Fig. 2). Experiments with the physics package indicated that the simplest design produced the most stable and secure structure, and that this configuration could have been built without the use of lashings or pegs at critical joints. One of the characteristic features of the most structurally stable roofing technique, however, was that it caused the side and back walls to “slope” over the sleeping platform. Viewing the interior in a virtual environment revealed that this would have constrained how different areas of the sleeping platform could have been used (Fig. 2). With the Thule house, it was possible to devise a variety of different roofing designs from the positions of the collapsed whalebone elements recorded in the two-dimensional AutoCAD drawing. Physics experiments in virtual space demonstrated that each roofing solution varied considerably in its structural stability, and produced dramatic changes in the volume of the interior (Fig. 3). In one of our most stable solutions, the premaxillae/maxillae were left connected to the cranium. The broad base of the cranium, coupled with the projecting arch of the fused maxillae, created a natural tripod that could be used to support other elements in the roof framework. These tripods were then used to erect two self-supporting domes of whalebone over each room/lobe. Without a ridgepole running between the apexes of the two domes, the combined weight of sod and snow would have caused the hide covering to sag, potentially destroying the structural integrity of the house. Consequently, a mandible was used as a ridgepole to span the saddle-shaped area between the two lobes. Ribs were then lashed to the roof frame where they acted as structural

braces. Ribs were also used to construct the low roof that enclosed the entrance passage. Experimentation with the Virtools physics package identified this as the most stable design, and one that also maximized the volume of the interior spaces (Fig. 3). As building a whalebone house in a virtual space is analogous to building one in real life, we discovered that it is extremely difficult to erect a stable roof frame of whalebone over a house pit that is of a predetermined size and shape. This problem is exacerbated if whalebones with the capacity to span large areas such as mandibles are in short supply. It seems likely that this was also a problem faced by Thule groups. We were able to address this issue by erecting the roof frame first, and then excavating the house pit to match the dimensions of the enclosed space. In order to accomplish this, the builder experiments with different roof frame designs at the onset of the construction process. Once the most stable design has been determined, the shape of the house pit is then roughed out around the base of the structure. Next, the roof frame is taken apart to allow for the completion of the house pit, and reassembled following the installation of the flagstone floor, kitchen area, and raised sleeping platform. In the absence of ethnographic information on techniques of whalebone house construction, we argue that this is probably how Thule families were able to determine the range of house shapes that were possible from the elements that they would have had on hand.

USING THE VIRTUAL HOUSE AS A VISUALIZATION TOOL IN ACTIVITY AREA RESEARCH The ability to move about inside each of these computer models in virtual reality sensitizes one to the fact that all houses contain and shape a volume of space into a specific pattern. Within this volume of space, people engage in activities that involve sitting, crouching, standing, holding stationary positions, and moving from one location to another. Hence, patterned artifact distributions define both paths of movement and sites of individual and communal activity. What emerges from this perspective is a realization that the spatial organization of activity areas is generated by three dimensional sequences of movement that are influenced by

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room height, the sloping of walls, and the distribution of light and shadow. An awareness of these aspects of architecture is impossible to capture using simple two-dimensional drawings. The recent uses of correspondence analysis and k-means cluster analysis to analyze the spatial structure of floor assemblages from Thule houses has revealed that activities seem to re-occur at specific spatial locations in accordance with gender and the separation of domestic tasks from ritual and gaming activities. If such artifact distributions are projected within a three dimensional model, then the spatial structure of activities is placed into an entirely new context. For example, if visual acuity is an important feature of activities such as sewing, then the distribution of natural and artificial light inside the house may have been critical in determining activity location. Using 3D Studio Viz software, the daily movement of light across the walls and floor of the Inuvialuit sod house model was simulated to assess the relative importance of natural and

artificial light in illuminating the interior (Fig. 4). After running the simulation, it was apparent that the movement of the light path was entirely restricted to the walls of the dwelling. At no time did the light path move across the floor of the house. Similar analysis of light paths in a virtual model of a pithouse from the Keatley Creek site in British Columbia have revealed that activities requiring visual acuity such as biface retouching occurred more frequently in floor areas lit by the midday sun. Our simulation suggests that natural light in Inuvialuit houses would not have played as critical a role in mediating the location of activities requiring visual acuity. This would have made the positioning of artificial light sources (oil lamps) within the dwelling even more critical. Hide processing and clothing manufacture are activities that require visual acuity, and have an almost universal association with women in historic Inuit societies. Because these activities use readily identifiable tools such as awls, needles, thimbles, needle cases, and scrapers, archaeologists have

Fig. 4. Simulation of path of sun in Inuvialuit house for month of September: Top: 10:00, 11:00, 12:00; Middle: 13:00, 14:00, 15:00. Bottom: 16:00, 17:00, 18:00.

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Fig. 5. Inverted whale crania (left) and Thule house in profile (right).

used them to identify female work areas. It has recently been suggested that gendered space use in Thule houses was symbolically related to social power, with men’s activities linked to sleeping platforms and women’s activities linked to house kitchens and floors. However, the high degree of visual acuity required by these activities suggests that their optimal location may have also been influenced by the patterns of illumination produced by the positioning of light sources. This hypothesis could be tested by simulating the effects of different lighting patterns inside the virtual model of an excavated house, and then projecting the artifact distributions across the floor of the model to look for correspondences.

EXPLORING IDEOLOGY THROUGH THE MANIPULATION OF VISUAL PERCEPTION Virtual reality can also be used to examine the ideological dimensions of Neoeskimo architecture. Given the significance afforded whaling in Thule culture by Arctic archaeologists, it seems logical to assume that Thule architecture should be drenched in metaphor and symbolism. It is interesting to note, for example, that the three whale skulls in House 8 were intentionally placed along one side of the dwelling (Fig. 3). In addition, one cranium had been positioned directly over top of the entrance passage. The unique placements of crania and mandibles on opposing sides of the house pit give

the roof structure more than a passing resemblance to the mouth of a Bowhead whale. In fact, if we take the scanned image of the Bowhead cranium, orient it so that the mouth points up, and pull the proximal ends of each mandible out from the skull, we end up with a structure that appears very similar to the roof framework hypothesized for House 8 (Fig. 5). Susan Preston-Bleir has developed a useful classification system for examining how metaphor and symbolism convey important cultural ideas and themes through architecture. Among these categories is silhouetting, in which an object acquires symbolic meaning through its distinctive profile, as in the circular shape of a house representing the earth. In a similar way, we suggest that House 8 may have acquired meaning through its distinctive profile that evokes the image of a whale’s head and mouth. In Inupiat mythology, whales are also frequently equated with houses. In a myth that Sheppard has identified as being sufficiently widespread to suggest its origin in a common Thule base, a young woman is abducted by a whale who makes a house for her out of his own bones at the bottom of the sea. In another story, Raven flies into the jaws of a surfacing whale. Inside he finds a brightly lit iglu where a young woman sits on a sleeping platform tending a lamp. In both stories, houses and whales are synonymous with one another. In virtual reality, we can compare the view seen from inside the mouth of the whale cranium to that seen from the perspective of an individual lying on the sleeping

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platform and looking up to the apex of the roof structure. This latter view may have been one that was familiar to the wives of umialit (singular umialiq), who were required to lie motionless on the sleeping platforms of their houses during whaling expeditions. Fig. 6 reveals that these two views are strikingly similar, suggesting that the sensory experience of living in a whalebone house would have paralleled the concept of whale as iglu portrayed in myths such as the “Raven and the Whale”. Among Alaskan whaling societies, roof and tunnel entrances were also sometimes seen as symbolizing the spouts of water ejected from the breathing holes of whales. It is therefore interesting that one of the three crania in House 8 is positioned in such a way that the entrance tunnel aligns with where its blowhole would have been located (Fig. 3). Thus, to an individual seated on the sleeping platform, the sensory experience evoked by the crania is one in which a person emerging from the tunnel is seen as entering the whale-iglu through its blowhole. Finally, light is an important component of how environments are perceived by their occupants. Different lighting arrangements have been found to affect the performance of tasks, as well as create impressions of interior spaciousness, privacy, relaxation, and order. The stone lamps used by many Inuit and Eskimo groups literally “created” culture by transforming raw into cooked, dark into light, and cold into heat. The height and intensity of the flames produced by these oil burning lamps was adjusted through constant poking and prodding with a stick or soapstone rod. The character of the flame was also influenced by air quality within the house, and changed from white to yellow as carbon monoxide levels increased. Architects occasionally use light to produce false impressions of interior and exterior spaces. These types of optical illusions in architecture have been documented archaeologically at such sites as Chich’en Itza where tricks of light and shadow produce images of serpents that appear to move down the central stair case of a huge radial pyramid on the equinoxes. Meg Conkey has also suggested that the flickering of torchlight in Upper Paleolithic caves may have been used to create the illusion of movement in rock art images of animals (Conkey 2004; pers.com). Similarly, our

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experiments in lighting the interior of House 8 reveals that a flickering lamp flame causes the whalebone roof rafters to cast moving shadows throughout the house. These shadows create an illusion that the whalebone elements themselves are moving. Alaskan Inupiat myths and stories seem to portray houses as inanimate objects that were brought to life during the whale hunt by the activities of women who were said to animate their dead whale iglus. The re-animation of bones is a re-occurring theme in Inupiat shamanism, where the parts of dead animals would be gathered together and used to create fantastic creatures called tupitkaq. Among the Inupiat, the whalebones used to make the entrance tunnels of their dwellings represented ready-made tupitkaq creatures, and there are several stories that involve the animation of sharpened jawbones for use as traps. Thus, the moving shadows of whale elements, generated by the flickering flames of sea mammal lamps in Thule winter houses, might have been used to create the illusion that the house was, indeed, animate and alive. An individual could have increased the flickering of a lamp flame by simply waving a flat object such as hide or bone spatula above it. It is plausible that the wives of umialit could have used this simple illusion during the whale hunt to reinforce the idea that they were bringing their dead whale-iglus to life.

CONCLUSIONS The computer reconstructions of the Inuvialuit winter house and the Thule whalebone house offer a new and exiting way of visualizing arctic archaeology. Unlike a set of two-dimensional drawings, the ability to manipulate individual elements in a three-dimensional virtual space provides the researcher with a laboratory for testing possible design scenarios. Furthermore, if artifact distributions are projected inside these models, then archaeologists can begin to examine how architectural features such as light and shadow, wall sloping, and roof height, mediate the location of activities that spatially re-occur. Computer models also offer archaeologists a method for exploring the role played by sight and sound in human-environment relationships. For example, our research sug-

Fig. 6. View seen from inside the mouth of the whale cranium (left), and from the sleeping platform looking up to the apex of the roof structure of the Thule house (right).

gests that Thule groups may have used whalebone architecture to communicate and enhance important ideological concepts associated with whalingrelated ritual. Projects such as this demonstrate that computer modeling constitutes a powerful research tool for aiding in the interpretation of archaeological sites. However, while the construction of models has been a part of archaeological interpretation since the Renaissance, it is important that researchers learn to balance the desire to create realistic reconstructions against the limitations of archaeological data.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was made possible through a Learning Commons Grant from the University of Calgary. Thanks to Dr. Charles Arnold, Director of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center, Yellowknife, NWT, for his participation and assistance with development of the Inuvialuit Sod House Model. The authors would also like to thank the Right Whale Research Group and staff at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts for their cooperation. Any mistakes or errors are the fault of the authors.

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