The excavations at Olympia were begun in May 1829 by French archaeologists. The initial finds (metopes from the opisthodomus and parts of the metopes from the pronaos of the Temple of Zeus) were transferred to the Louvre where they are still being exhibited.� When the Greek government was informed of the looting of artefacts, the excavation was stopped.

Excavations were started again 45 years later by German archaeologists. The research continues today by the German Institute of Archaeology in Athens, and the Ephorate of Antiquities in Olympia. The Museum of Olympia associated with the archaeological site houses many of the sculptural and object material that has been recovered from the site. Supplementary material on the archaeological site and its associated Museum can be found on the Hellenic Ministry of Cultures� website. [16]

The bibliography on Olympia runs to hundreds of items, although those dealing strictly with the archaeology of the site can be counted in the mere dozens. The five text volumes of the earliest German series, Olympia. Die Ergebnisse der vom Deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabung (Adler et al. (1892-1897); Adler and Curtius publications) contain incredibly detailed descriptions of buildings and objects, complemented by the hundreds of plans, sections, drawings and reconstructions in the accompanying folio volumes ([17]; [18]; [19]; [20]; [21]). Subsequent important updates have been published by Ashmole, Yalouris and Frantz [22]; Grunauer [23] and [24]; Miller [25]; Mallwitz [26]; Herrmann [27]; Koenigs. [28]

The most important sets of documents for the reconstructions were some of the oldest. It almost goes without saying that any work on Olympia would be nearly impossible without Pausanias� Guide to Greece from the 2^nd AD. [29]

Archaeological and Historical Considerations

The project team decided to attempt to reconstruct Olympia as it had been around 200 BC. Of course, it is actually impossible to pick a single year to reconstruct an ancient site, given the relative coarseness of archaeological chronology. At a site like Olympia, used without interruption for over a thousand years, almost certainly with frequent refurbishment of quite old buildings, it is really only possible to establish the rough date a building was erected. Whether a building was undergoing renovation in a particular year cannot be stated. The length of time it took to complete buildings is also another issue.

The choice of 200 BC was therefore made for mainly practical reasons: the later the date in the site�s history, the more buildings there would be, and the more interesting a virtual tour would be for modern visitors and would more closely correspond with the extant ruins; it was an Olympic year; it was just before the Roman annexation of Greece began. The project team acknowledges that the date was stretched slightly in order to incorporate the entire gymnasium and the krypte entrance to the stadium.

Individual Buildings

The Adler and Curtius publications provided detailed ground plans of most buildings. As well, the elevations were usually calculated, and the extant decorative elements, mainly terracotta simae and akroteria, were associated with each building. Major additions or changes to some buildings were taken from the later publications. The drawings were used directly by the modellers to recreate each building.

An attempt was made to incorporate as much small detail as possible given the limits of time and computing power (both in rendering and delivering the animated tour). For example, the Adler and Curtius volumes contained the differing capitals and columns of the Heraion, and these were included in the model.

Inevitably, there was missing information and the limited timeframe meant that not every known detail could be incorporated. The application of colour, which is now standard in our concept of ancient Greek architecture and art, is still difficult because of the lack of evidence. One particular difficulty in using the early German work is that the colour plate published (Volume II, plate CXII) does not correspond with the text description of colours or placement, even though it is supposed to be the template for the painting of Doric buildings at Olympia. This is partly a factor of colour printing techniques in 1896 and the fact that we had the 1966 reprint, and also due to the difficulty of really knowing what colours such as �mild whitish cobalt blue� or �a strong but at the same time transparent blue� actually were. However, we followed the Adler and Curtius publications as closely as possible in terms of applying colour to the buildings, and the evidence of the terracotta roof decorations excavated at the site was particularly helpful in this regard. Buildings which must have had pedimental sculpture or for which some fragments of sculpture remain, such as the Metroon, were given pale blue pediments, rather than attempting a poor reconstruction. Doors and lattice screens were based on those depicted on black and red figure vases.

Figure 3. Metope X from the Temple of Zeus. The Apples of the Hesperides. Archaeological Museum at Olympia. Photograph Powerhouse Museum. � Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

Figure 4. Colour interpretation Metope X from the Temple of Zeus, The Apples of the Hesperides. Drawing David Loong . � Powerhouse Museum.

Probably the least satisfactory outcome, given the time restrictions on the project, related to addition of statuary to the Altis area of Olympia. Literally hundreds of dedicatory statues and objects would have been placed into the sacred area, but only a handful could be reconstructed, modelled on excavated statue bases and the descriptions in Pausanias.

The most ambitious reconstruction was the interior of the Temple of Zeus. This was based only on Pausanias� descriptions as no evidence remains. It is thought that some coins and Christian icons reflect the seated Zeus figure, once one of the wonders of the ancient world, but they have already passed through the filter of later cultural biases.

More extensive discussion on the archaeological basis for reconstruction is available from the project website. [30]

For technical discussions on the creation of the digital model and 3D display of the work at the Powerhouse Museum (using rear projection from dual projectors and viewed through polarised glasses) - please refer to Kenderdine [31] and the project website. [32]

A Future for the Model

The virtual reconstruction of Olympia was intended for the general public (with limited interactivity) rather than for use as a teaching tool. However, the underlying dataset of the model does allow for scientific use: Some areas for investigation include:

• Modelling sun in relation to temples;

• Modelling the earthquake effect on the Temple of Zeus;

• Model allows for further research sanctuary usage and liturgical practise;

• Choices for colour applications invite responses from the academic community.

Statue of Zeus

One of the most significant sculptures in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens is the statue of Zeus from Artemision (Artemesium), also considered to be perhaps a statue of Poseidon.� This bronze sculpture is slightly larger than life size, and was found in 1926 in the sea off Cape Artemision. It is one of the few surviving examples of Early Classical statuary. The laser scan of the Zeus allowed this object the travel, in a virtual sense, from Athens to Sydney.

For technical discussions on the scanning of the Zeus and the display of the 3D model at the Powerhouse Museum (using shutter glasses)�please refer to Kenderdine [33] and the project website [34].

The Website

Despite the great opportunity to produce these aforementioned interactive Exhibition materials, the sponsors of the project (Intel Corporation) and the Museums� main interest involved the production of a state-of-the-art website. This website was intended to compliment the Exhibition, and to demonstrate the viability of the Internet to supplement and extend materials offered locally in the Museum. The ability to give access to this material to wide audiences and the fact that it will eventually outlive the Exhibition by two years is also the advantage of this medium.

The Museum was given permission by the Greek Hellenic Ministry of Culture extensive access to the archaeological site of Olympia, and to the pedimental sculptures and metopes from the Temple of Zeus, currently housed in the Museum at Olympia. These materials, in addition to extensive archaeological and historical research, and education and programming material associated with the Exhibition itself, formed the basis for the website.

In response to the sponsors� expectations the website was constructed to demonstrate the use of state-of-the-art technologies for the delivery of rich cultural content. The website was contracted with a two-week exclusive period for the Intel Web Outfitter Service in the United States where subscribers have a minimum of a PIII chip and are regularly updated with the latest plugins. From the Museums� perspective the opportunity to design a product with a high degree of sophistication outweighed the concerns over download times and minimum browser specifications (although these concerns were also addressed in the design). The website was ultimately intended for academic, school and researcher markets. It was also translated into Japanese, Korean and Mandarin for the Asia Pacific markets.

Architecture, Design and Programming

The website was scripted as Active Server Pages. A Macromedia Flash based navigation system was used. The 360� panoramas of the Exhibition, the archaeological site and the statuary from the Temple of Zeus were constructed with Live Picture from Reality Studio.

Apart from the standard plugins such as Abode Acrobat Reader the main plugin is the Zoom Viewer by MGISoft. The latter has two main utilities: it allows the high-resolution images to be stored on the server and streamed to the user on demand (thereby reducing bandwidth requirements); and it prevents the users from saving the materials to their hard drives. This last feature is of extreme importance to the Greek Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Museum who wish to protect copyright. As noted, none of the Exhibition artefacts (also displayed on the website) had travelled outside Greece before. With a history of contentious international relations over Greek antiquities it was very important to all those involved that every measure was made to prevent unwanted use of the digital materials. Another important design decision was not to use Virtual Reality Mark-up Language (VRML) for website version of the Olympia reconstruction. In its current form VRML is not considered to be a robust or user-friendly environment for inexperienced users on the Internet (comment made in reference to the digital version of Olympia specifically). However the author notes visualisation in 3D is certainly the way forward for the display of such materials in the future, and major developments continue in this field. Limiting the number of plugins was also an important consideration.

The website is constructed in six sections. These are:

1.       The Exhibition: a series of zoomable panoramas of the Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum (photographed in high resolution using a D1 Nikon camera and stitched together using Live Picture from Reality Studio�) augmented by 3D object movies and high-resolution zoomable images of objects, and supplemented with object information as text.

2.       Virtual Olympia: this section contains a rich collection of materials separated into 4 sub-sections including:

• Archaeological and geographic maps of Olympia;

• A panoramic tour of the digital reconstruction of Olympia presented as 360� zoomable panoramas (in Live Picture format using Zoom Viewer), viewable at full screen and accompanied with audio files. The option to download individual buildings to compliment scholarly research is also available. Essays are available as PDF files;

• 29 zoomable 360� panoramas of the archaeological site at Olympia taken in March 2000 (viewable at full screen). The original photographs were taken with a medium format camera (and customized 185� fisheye lens) mounted on top of a 25 ft pole. The 4 photograph were then stitched using Reality Studio�. Essays are available as PDF files;

• The statues from the Temple of Zeus shown as a 360� panorama of the main room at the Museum of Olympia, and a series of zoomable object movies. The original photographs were taken using a D1 Nikon digital camera; object movies were made from stitching multiple successive images of each statue together. The metopes are further supplemented by reconstructed line drawings and colour interpretations using archaeological and historical records as the sources for reconstruction (also see Figures 3 & 4 above).

3.       3D Zeus: a web version of the laser scan of the Zeus of Artemision (using the Zoom Viewer plugin), with the option to view as a 3D anaglyph through downloadable anaglyph glasses. The Zeus data was very dense to start with (and was finally reduced to 2 million odd polygons). This model was stitched in 3D Studio Max and an animation was produced. Live Picture was used to make the animation an 'object'. The anaglyph version was made by composting the red and blue images.

4.       Resources�this section contains:

• 14 researched PDF articles (with links to an html glossary page);

• Education programmes;

•  Glossary of terms as a stand alone page or linked from the PDF articles;

• A nodal genealogy of the gods (using Macromedia Flash);

• Supplementary programme of events to compliment the Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum;

•  All audio files are listed.

5.       Image archive: due to the extensive visual components in the website this section offers a quick entry to all the individual panoramas, zoomable images, object movies and jpegs. Selected buildings from the digital reconstruction of Olympia are available here, for research purposes, to download and print.

6.       Timeline: a timeline of events at Olympia over a 1000 years period is organised into:

•  Events specific to the Games at Olympia (events added after 200 bc not included);

• Events relevant to Olympia itself (building programme until end of Hellenistic period only);

•  Events, political, around the Mediterranean world � after 200 bc only events directly relevant to Greece or Olympia included: politics, arts & sciences.

The website also contains extensive project information, help information, plugins and downloads pages.

Analysis

Statistical data has so far been analysed for the four-month period of the Exhibition�from the beginning of August 2000 until the end of November 2000. The author acknowledges the restricted nature of basic statistics to determine true use of the web, however general statistics are presented here to demonstrate several observable trends.

The average number of hits per day over this period totalled 18,500. Other broad general-level statistics include: the average number of visitor sessions of 52, 582, and the average visitor length of 12 minutes. The majority of visitors were from outside Australia (international at 55% and unknown at 29%).

A more thorough examination of the period shows a predictable variation in the data display. The most active day of use was during the Olympic Games period�on September 16, 2000 with 92,352 hits. Weekdays rather than weekends showed a larger number of hits although it was after-hours that numbers were marginally higher. This contradicts our initial expectations that the high bandwidth required to access the site would preclude extensive home use.

What is potentially of more interest is the length of stay by each visitor. 45% of visitors accessed just the first two pages of the website. There was a corresponding drop off as the number of pages increased. However, a relatively high proportion (8% of the visitors) was staying over 20 minutes to access 43% of the total page views. This last statistic would suggest that those visitors who were interested in the site found rich and rewarding content. At one point in the 4 month period over 18% of the visitors were staying over 20 minutes. In web lingo this has been referred to as web �stickiness� (and hopefully not a measure of slow content download!).

The website will be hosted on the Museum server for two years. As is so often the case the overall development time for the entire project was just 4 months�including the Exhibition 3D materials. This prevented extensive usability testing before launch, and represents a classic scenario in many museum projects. During the upcoming period it will be possible to further analyse the website use in schools and tertiary institutions. There have been numerous complimentary emails from such organisations about the quality of the scholastic research, although there have been requests for CD ROM version to allay the heavy bandwidth requirements.

Awards

The overall project has won many awards in the short time since its launch. The most important of these include a Virtual System and Multimedia award for the Best Virtual World Heritage reconstruction; the Best of the Best website from the Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association (AIMIA) awards; the Best Interface Design also at AIMIA; Hitwise Top 10 for Education and Research 2000; and the website was a finalist in the British Association for Film and Television Interactive Entertainment Awards 2000.

Conclusion

Any project of this nature is concerned with how to balance �realism� with �reality�. The decisions made in the creation of the digital reconstruction were further constrained by the goals of the project, the intended audience, the desired product, the quality of archaeological information, and technological capabilities. In the construction of the website further caveat on design decisions included the use of state-of-the-art technologies, which must demonstrate impressive content development and display for a sophisticated web user demographic. This questioned the Museum role as a provider of �access for all�, but at the same time allowed for the Museum to push limits in Internet design and technology using rich cultural content.

The Olympia model and content from the website are being re-purposed for CD ROM/DVD ROM which will be distributed free of charge to all schools in the State of New South Wales, Australia; and in limited numbers for other markets. The 3D version of the digital reconstruction of Olympia is being negotiated for sale to three international Olympic museums; and it is to be used in university teaching.

The versatility of use for the Olympia and Zeus models, and the rich website content demonstrate that rigorous scholarship is a worthwhile investment and can command a significant audience. The repurposing of the underlying content has enabled the works to be developed for different platforms and delivery mechanisms. The challenge lies in providing users with the ability to alter input data to test their own hypotheses. The development of VRML worlds on the Internet (that are robust in implementation) will hold much value for museum web developments.

References

[1] 1000 Years of the Olympic Games: Treasures of Ancient Greece, website (2000). Last accessed 15 January 2001 <http://www.phm.gov.au/ancient_greek_olympics>. [return]

[2] 1000 Years of the Olympic Games: Treasures of Ancient Greece, website (2000). Last accessed 15 January 2001 <http://www.phm.gov.au/ancient_greek_olympics>. [return]

[3] Sections of this paper have been included in the project information available on the website <http://www.phm.gov.au/greek/4/pdf/Grecian2000weba.pdf> With regard to these documents the author would like to acknowledge co-authors - Kate Da Costa, Cliff Ogleby and John Ristevski. [return]

[17] Adler, F., Curtius, E., D�rpfeld, W., Graef, P., Partsch, J. & Weil, R. (1897). Olympia I: Topographie und Geschichte, 1897/1966, Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam. [return]

[18] Adler, R., Borrmann, R., D�rpfeld, W., Graeber, F. & Graef, P. (1892). Olympia II: Die Baudenkm�ler von Olympia, 1892/1966, Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam. [return]

[19] Dittenberger, W. & Purgold, K. (1896). Olympia V: Die Inschriften von Olympia, 1896/1966, Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam. [return]

[20] Treu, G. (1897). Olympia III: Die Bildwerke von Olympia in Stein und Ton, 1897/1966, Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam. [return]

[21] Furtw�ngler, A. (1897). Olympia IV: Die Bronzen und die �brigen kleineren Funde von Olympia, 1897/1966, Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam. [return]

[22] Ashmole, B., Yalouris, N. & Frantz, A. (1967). Olympia: The Sculptures of the Temple of Zeus. Phaidon Press, London. [return]

[23] Grunauer, P. (1971). Der Zeustempel in Olympia � Neue Aspekte, Bonner Jahrbuch, 171, pp. 114-131. [return]

[24] Grunauer, P. (1981). Zur Ostansicht des Zeus Tempels.� X. Olympische Bericht, pp. 256-301. [return]

[25] Miller, S. (1971). The Prytaneion at Olympia, Ath. Mitt (AM), 86, pp. 79-107. [return]

[26] Mallwitz, A. (1972). Olympia und seine Bauten,� Prestel-Verlag, Munich. [return]

[27] Herrmann, H. V. (1972). Olympia: Heiligtum und Wettkampfst�tte, Hirmer Verlag, Munich. [return]

[28] Koenigs, W. (1984). Olympische Forschungen XIV: Die Echohalle, Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co/DAI, Berlin. [return]

[29] Pausanias, (2^nd C AD). Guide to Greece vol 2: Southern Greece (trans. P. Levi). Penguin Classics, London, 1979. [return]

[30] Sections of this paper have been included in the project information available on the website <http://www.phm.gov.au/greek/4/pdf/archaeological_basis.pdf>. With regard to these documents the author would like to acknowledge co-authors - Kate Da Costa, Cliff Ogleby and John Ristevski. [return]

[31] Sections of this paper have been included in the project information available on the website <http://www.phm.gov.au/greek/4/pdf/Grecian2000weba.pdf> With regard to these documents the author would like to acknowledge co-authors - Kate Da Costa, Cliff Ogleby and John Ristevski. [return]

[32] Kenderdine, S. (2001). �1000 years of the Olympic Games: treasures from ancient Greece. Digital reconstruction at the home of the gods�. Museums and the Web, Seattle, March 2001. [return]