Resources
Below are several links to the sites involved with the Mississippi Mounds Trail project
MDAH Mississippi Archaeology Trails: Mounds
"Viewing the mounds, the traveler will come face to face with a rich legacy of American Indian cultural achievement. Many diverse Indian groups, drawn by the bountiful wildlife, warm climate, and fertile soil, made their homes in what is now Mississippi for thousands of years before the first Europeans and Africans arrived. Mounds built of earth are the most prominent remains left on the landscape by these native peoples."
National Park Service: Indian Mounds of Mississippi
"This guide to the publicly owned, visitor-accessible American Indian Mound sites of Mississippi provides a compact source of information on these impressive landmarks of the ancient past . . . This latest National Register of Historic Places Travel itinerary highlights 11 mound sites, which include some of the best-preserved examples in Mississippi. Further information on mound sites in Mississippi and throughout the Lower Mississippi Delta can be found in the NPS's Archeology and Ethnography program's Ancient Architects of the Mississippi website."
Mississippi Mound Trail Archive
"This is a collection of documents pertaining to the Mississippi Mound Trail project."
Below are several links to sites where GIS data can be downloaded.
Mississippi Geospatial Clearinghouse
"The Mississippi Geospatial Clearinghouse (MGC) provides access to a comprehensive spatial information warehouse of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) resources of Mississippi for use by government, academia, and the private sector.
The goal of the MGC is to make the application of spatial information technologies within the State of Mississippi more efficient by reducing the duplication of spatial data production and enhancing distribution through effective cooperation, standardization, communication, and coordination."
Earth Explorer is a system used in order to download many kinds of aerial and satellite imagery through the USGS.
Mississippi Automated Resource Information System
MARIS provides access to the state's GIS.
"Through this site we offer you access to a range of resources, including:
search and retrieval of data descriptions (metadata)
retrieval of Mississippi data sets
posting of news related to GIS developments
announcements of upcoming meetings and events
mapping of data sets
access and retrieval to aerial photography covering Mississippi"
Below are several links to sites and organizations involved in the digital preservation of cultural heritage sites.
"Preserving Cultural Heritage Sites through collecting, archiving and providing open access to data created by laser scanning, digital modeling, and other state-of-the-art technologies.
"Cultural heritage sites are testaments of our history more powerful than any words. Heritage sites are the history of all humanity. These sites are at risk. Cultural heritage sites are endangered due to everyday exposure to the elements, urbanization, poorly managed tourism, catastrophic events, and general neglect. . Cultural heritage sites have never before faced greater challenges to their very existence."
"Learning Sites designs and develops interactive three-dimensional digital models that are based on actual archaeological evidence and that are reconstructed with an accuracy and sensitivity to known details that reflect the highest standards of scholarship. We integrate archaeological data with advanced computer graphics techniques to further education, data analysis, and the preservation of cultural heritage information. Our vision is to create a globally integrated and interactive system of linked virtual worlds that can be used for teaching, research, archaeological fieldwork, museum exhibitions, and even tourism.
"We believe that since the past happened in 3D, we should be using 3D re-creations of the past in order to learn better the events, peoples, and places of the past. We believe that through judicious use of current and emerging technologies we can preserve our cultural heritage not just in two dimensions but in full and accurate three dimensions, so that knowledge of the past can continue to educate, inform, and excite present and future generations."
"Rome Reborn is an international initiative whose goal is the creation of 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome from the first settlement in the late Bronze Age (ca. 1000 B.C.) to the depopulation of the city in the early Middle Ages (ca. A.D. 550). With the advice of an international Scientific Advisory Committee, the leaders of the project decided that A.D. 320 was the best moment in time to begin the work of modeling. At that time, Rome had reached the peak of its population, and major Christian churches were just beginning to be built. After this date, few new civic buildings were built. Much of what survives of the ancient city dates to this period, making reconstruction less speculative than it must, perforce, be for earlier phases. But having started with A.D. 320, the Rome Reborn team intends to move both backwards and forwards in time until the entire span of time foreseen by our mission has been covered."
Below are links to sites and organizations involved in virtual modeling.
"Sketchfab is a web service to publish, share and embed interactive 3D models online in real-time without plugin. The world around us is in 3D, but the web is still in 2D, and we want to change that. We think your 3D models deserve something better than screenshots or "showreel" videos. That's why we created Sketchfab. We understand 3D and bring it to the web. Take a look at our intro video below to learn more."
"The C4 Engine is a comprehensive suite of robustly implemented game programming tools for the Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PS4, and PS3 platforms. Not only is it a powerhouse of a 3D graphics engine, but it also includes integrated support for physics, audio, networking, input devices, resource management, and much more. The C4 Engine is widely regarded as having the cleanest professional source code and one of the best architectures in the industry."
L3DT: Large 3D Terrain Generator
"L3DT is a Windows application for generating terrain maps and textures. It is intended to help game developers and digital artists create vast high-quality 3D worlds."
"Every aspect of the Unreal Engine toolset is designed with ease of content creation and programming in mind, empowering artists and designers to develop assets in a visual environment and giving programmers a highly modular, scalable and extensible framework for shipping games in a wide range of genres."
"SketchUp users are architects, designers, builders, makers and engineers. They are the people who shape the physical world. They are important, and they deserve great tools because great tools produce great work.
Great tools are ones you look forward to using. They do one thing (or maybe two) really, really well. They let you do what you want without having to figure out how. They help with hard or boring tasks so that you can focus on being creative, or productive, or both. And they are, in their own way, beautiful.
At SketchUp, we do our best to make great tools for drawing. For our users, drawing is thinking. They draw to explore ideas, to figure things out, to show other people what they mean. They draw because they love it, and because nothing great was ever built that didn't start with a great drawing."