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Archive for December 18, 2006

Postcard from Second Life

December 18, 2006 Shawn Leave a comment


ROMA (SPQR) has a sim in Second life, at 185,54,26

(Here is Rome by night, decked out for Saturnalia)

Categories: ROMA SPQR, Rome, SLURL, simulation

Egyptian Temples in SL

December 18, 2006 Shawn Leave a comment


Right. Here’s the slurl to those temples. The teleport takes you into the main temple; the colonized (by the skin merchants) temple structures are down the pathway a wee bit.

That’s me in the picture. Or rather, it’s Canadensis Yellowjacket.

Categories: second life

Who I am, what this blog’ll be about… perhaps.

December 18, 2006 Shawn Leave a comment

It is my intention here to keep track of my explorations in Second Life and other worlds: archaeologists are about material culture, but how many of us are interested in virtual material culture, or the possibilities of these worlds for teaching and research?

I freelance a bit, and am working right now with a new online liberal arts university called Robert Welch University. I’m developing some archaeology classes for them, and eventually I would like to use SL to teach excavation methods. That could be very difficult….

Right now, I’d be interested in finding out what accurate(-ish) reconstructions of ancient structures people have come across in SL? Traditional archaeological reconstructions are all very well, but I think experiencing the structures, of how movement creates a reading of the building, would be a great way to start incorporating SL into my classes – a 21st century virtual reconstruction of the 18th century Grand Tour. Class projects would be to reconstruct from excavation reports, perhaps.

I came across today what seemed to be a great reconstruction of some Egyptian temples (can see them in pathfinder linden’s flickr), but when I went there, it seems that some merchants had moved in with the usual sex paraphernalia. Not exactly the experience I’d want for this class.