Abstract:Benefiting from the fast development of information technology, virtual simulation technology has been widely utilized in the field of archaeology and cultural heritage conservation, and its tremendous potential is acknowledged. As a result, virtual simulation experiments are growing quickly as an innovative approach for the professional training in higher education. Most previous virtual simulation works of archaeological sites exhibit only a frozen moment before/during/after excavation. As a result, the complete excavation process could not be systematically demonstrated in virtual simulation experiments. This is because 3D models are the infrastructure in virtual simulations, but only the surface of objects was digitally reconstructed in the modeling process using earlier common modeling methods. Since ancient sites usually have complicated inner structures consisting of different kinds of accumulations, modeling the entire object, rather than its surface, is crucial in the virtual simulation projects concerning ancient sites. The voxel model, also known as the 3D-raster model, is an advanced modeling technology distinguished by a 3D matrix of voxel elements. Like fine pictures consisting of mass of pixels on two dimensional faces, a 3D model could be constituted by mass of voxels in a three-dimensional space. Thus, a voxel model, which includes both the surface and inner structures, provides much better virtual simulation than other kinds of models. In recent years, the voxel modeling technology has been implemented in some virtual simulation experiments of archaeological excavations as well, and demonstrates obvious advantages. First, a voxel model is a simulation of the entire object including surface and inner structure; thus those complicated objects, such as ancient sites consisting of layers and units, could be well simulated in this way; Second, when a voxel model is an accumulation of a mass of voxels, an ancient site is an accumulation of mass of earth, and some other things, as well. Thus, excavation in an archaeological site, a process of earth moving following scientific rules, could be well-simulated by the movement of voxels in a 3D voxel model. According to these features, a more realistic environment and operating experiences are provided in the virtual simulation experiments of archaeological excavations. Based on the voxel modeling technology and sufficient data from archaeological excavations, an archaeological excavation experiment has been presented by the School of History, Zhengzhou University (ZZU). With elaborated 3D model and operating procedure designs, this experiment provides a high quality virtual simulation of an ancient site with complicated accumulation and a systematic virtual reality training of archaeological working skills. This virtual simulation experiment has been part of the education program of some major fields such as archaeology, cultural heritage conservation, etc. in ZZU and has been proved to be effective while combined with course studies and internship. At the same time, this virtual simulation experiment also provides a new form for public archaeology by offering an on-line service.