The Reconstruction of Urartu Buildings of Altıntepe in Virtual Environment

Abstract

In Altıntepe region of Erzincan, Turkey, a temple complex, religious buildings, Apadana, city walls, a drainage system, and many more functionally unidentified architectural remains were unearthed during the excavations which took place between 1960 and 2014.

One of the most remarkable of these buildings is the temple complex. The temple, only the foundation of which has survived today, was virtually reconstructed in 2013, in the light of the archaeological data. The reconstruction was based on the imagery of the temple with towers, found on Urartian stone and bronze plates. The visualization process of the temple consisted of a number of different stages.

In the first stage, the buildings in the Urartu citadel, and the latest data on the architectural plans and the debates of these were evaluated. Previous trials of 3D reconstruction of the buildings contributed greatly to our project. The details on the reliefs of Urartian, Assyrian, and other contemporary cultures, and the publications on these were evaluated and utilized.

In the second stage, the obtained data was transferred to virtual environment. The temple was 3D-modeled with the help of the software 3D Max, AutoCAD and V-Ray.

Then the model was textured and rendered, and the reconstruction was finalized. As a result, the architectural data obtained from the Urartian and Assyrian reliefs, and the archaeological data obtained from the field were combined, which led to a better understanding of the Urartian temple architecture.

Besides, this project yielded technical data and suggestions about the reconstruction of the existing remains. In the end, the visualization of the virtual city is posted public in YouTube “Urartu Kentleri Canlanıyor”. (Serap Kuşu Urartu Kentleri Canlanıyor, https://youtu.be/geuSAGZdDuE (2014) )