Related Projects

Here is a list of links to other projects that employ 3D and GIS technologies to document, research, and educate about the ancient Maya.

  • Electronic Atlas on Ancient Maya Sites (EAAMS) The project has a GIS database with almost 6000 sites that can provide data about settlement patterns, political structure or even maps of settlement hierarchies. A downloadable feature is an extension to Google Earth that gives the position of over 6000 Maya sites.
  • Mesoamerican Three-Dimensional Imaging Database is a data collection with 3-dimensional mesoamerican artifacts and features from collections around the world. While searching the user-friendly database, you can expect to find spectacular three-dimensional images and video of artifacts and features from a number of different Mesoamerican sites, as well as photos and line drawings, accompanied by detailed information about these artifacts.
  • CyArk With the mission to help preserving cultural heritage sites, CyArk recorded monuments from 17 heritage sites worldwide including the ancient Maya sites of Tikal and Chichen Itza and the Zapotec site of Monte Alban. The site provides access to 3D models in Google Earth, multimedia, point clouds (raw data), and GIS maps.
  • Unaahil B’aak: The Temples of Palenque Focusing on the ancient Maya site of Palenque, this site provides a wide array of information on Maya and especially Palenque history, architecture and inscriptions (both with image galleries), Mayan mythology and rituals. It also has an interactive part that offers three different ways of visually exploring Palenque.
  • The Maya Skies Archive is a source for archaeological data from the Maya site Chichen Itza. The website is a great resource for people with little to no experience in working with 3D imaging data. You will find open source software tools and learning resources such as step-by-step tutorials to help you transform 3D data into visualizations.
  • Maya3d: The Ancient Mesoamerican World Reconstructed specializes in 3D animations to create digital reconstructions of Maya buildings. Their technique is to combine old archaeological plans and drawings, photos, and imagination for coloring facades. They have reconstructed some temples at the sites of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Palenque, Tikal, and El Mirador and are now developing Time Tour Apps for mobile devices.
  • Project La Blanca is an archaeological project in Peten, Guatemala, working since 2011 with laser scan, photogrametry and 3D modelling techniques for the registration and scientific study of the ruins of La Blanca.

Projects concerned with connecting 3D models to archaeological knowledge

  • ITN-DCH: The “Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage” is an international and multi-disciplinary Marie Curie fellowship project, in which 14 full and 8 associate partners from academia, research institutions, and industry will train 20 research fellows in the digital documentation and preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. It is funded by the European Union's FP7 PEOPLE research framework.
  • Palaces and Parks in Former East Prussia: This project "examines the process of computer-based 3D reconstruction of lost architecture and interior decoration. The project is funded by the Leibniz Association from 2013 to 2016. The preliminary results are based on the digital reconstruction of ruins of two baroque palaces: Schlodien, or Gładysze, now in Poland, and Friedrichstein, or Каменка, now in the Russian Federation. The results are concerned with indexing of sources, documentation, semantic modelling, and visualization of 3D data sets using WebGL-technology."