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210 Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook, Second Edition
 Figure 7.3 Rhino wire-frame image of amphora showing how model is built up and various components added. On right the wire frame is rendered.
object was moved so that the three points on the wire frame were placed exactly on the three coordinates calculated by PhotoModeler (Figure 7.3; note there is only one unique solution to this and there is no chance of creating a mirror-image position for the amphora).
As the model developed, the wire-frame objects could be rendered so that they appeared solid (Figure 7.3 right). It was then possible to view the site in perspective, rotate it, and view it at any particular angle. This was an extremely useful way of analyzing the composition of the site and how it had been formed, and it provided far more detailed information then the conventional archaeological site plan.
IV. GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The geographical information systems (GIS) have growing application in archaeological work. Essentially, they allow the display of numerical, text-based, and graphical information in a visual environment. As usual a variety of software packages are available, all doing much the same type of process. There are several GIS programs, ArcView, ArcProject, and TNTMips. ArcView GIS has been used by this author and will be the subject of the following generalized discussion.





























































































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