Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour
Encyclopedia
Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour is the title of a computer-generated
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....

 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 that presents a theoretical reconstruction of the ancient Khirbet Qumran site. The film is silent, but is projected together with an oral presentation interpreting the Qumran
Qumran
Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia...

 site's historical significance. The film and presentation were authored by Robert Cargill, a graduate student at UCLA who is an associate of the Qumran Visualization Project (QVP) directed by UCLA bible scholar William Schniedewind
William Schniedewind
William M. Schniedewind, Ph.D., M.A., is the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies, and Professor of Biblical Studies and Northwest Semitic Languages at the University of California, Los Angeles.He has a B.A. in...

. QVP presents itself as "a tool to better illustrate the daily life of the community described within the [Dead Sea] scrolls." The UCLA International Institute, cites Cargill and Schniedewind as saying that their new virtual model resolves long-simmering controversies surrounding the important Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...

 site.

Summary

According to a UCLA press release of June 18, 2007, "while building the world's first three-dimensional computer model" of Qumran, Cargill and Schniedewind concluded that "Qumran was established originally as a fortress, just as the archaeological evidence shows, and ... was later resettled by the Essenes, an early Jewish religious community that came from Jerusalem, bringing with them the scrolls and continuing to copy and compose new scrolls."

Referring to theories that Qumran was a fortress, the home of the Essenes, or a wealthy Jerusalem family's estate, the release states that "Cargill and Schniedewind cut the three competing theories down the middle, contending that none of them hold together without elements from the others," and further quotes Schniedewind as saying: "Once you put all the archaeological evidence into three dimensions, the solution literally jumps out at you."

Production

The computer model
Computer simulation
A computer simulation, a computer model, or a computational model is a computer program, or network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system...

 from which the film was produced, was built over the course of 15 months using MultiGen Creator, a 3D modeling
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

 tool for generating walk-throughs; photos from the site were used to generate textures that were applied to artifacts, wood, pottery and other artifacts. Autodesk Maya was used to add realism to the film.

According to the UCLA Qumran Visualization project website, modeling in a virtual environment allowed the archaeologists to test new ideas and re-constructions. The website asserts that the virtual environment reveals some re-constructions to be architecturally impossible, with the result that the virtual model excludes certain interpretations.

Exhibition

The San Diego Natural History Museum
San Diego Natural History Museum
The San Diego Natural History Museum was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. The present location of the museum in San Diego's Balboa Park was dedicated on January 14, 1933....

 describes the film The Ancient Qumran: A Virtual Reality Tour as "a fully reconstructed, real-time, interactive model of the site at Khirbet Qumran. Ancient Qumran, setting the standard for Qumran archaeology, allows the ancient site to literally emerge from its remains. Every room at Khirbet Qumran is reconstructed and furnished with artifacts. The result is a journey back in time and a glimpse into a world that influenced the birth of modern Judaism and Christianity."

Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

’s Righteous Persons Foundation, provided US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

100,000 funding to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls to San Diego, including specific funding for the virtual presentation. Additional funding came from the San Diego Natural History Museum, who underwrote the production of the film.

News coverage

A Fox News article of July 13, 2007, states that "Using the world's first virtual 3-D reconstruction of the site, historians [Schniedewind and Cargill] recently found evidence of a fortress that was later converted into its more peaceful, pious function." The article quotes Schniedewind as saying that the virtual reconstruction allowed him and Cargill "to 'see' architectural elements invisible to the naked eye."

An article in the Science Daily, asserts that "Like many scholars before them, Cargill and Schniedewind believe the Essenes, who practiced communal ownership, brought all of their possessions to the site, including about 70 percent of the scrolls discovered in the area."
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