The Living Museum of Umm Qais: Sustainable preservation, analysis and virtual reconstruction of Gadara's ancient site and village

乌姆卡伊斯(MKES)位于安曼以北120公里处，毗邻耶尔穆克河和加利利海，在东地中海地区的其他罗马迪加波利斯城市中具有独特的意义。希腊人、罗马人、拜占庭人和奥斯曼人在那里留下了自己的印记。这座城市的遗迹仍然展示着剧院、浴室、拱形商店、坟墓、卡多和纪录片。然而，乌姆盖伊斯物质遗产继续受到一些因素的生存威胁，这些因素影响到它的考古、物理特征和形态变化，并危及其长期存在。其中包括自然和人为的，如环境变化、地震和新的聚落模式，这些模式将该遗址视为更多无关的外来文化入侵遗迹，而不是其祖先的考古遗产。社区和遗产之间的这种敌对关系导致人们对该遗址的历史、考古重要性缺乏了解和欣赏，为了经济利益而试图破坏其要素，以及缺乏对旅游业的经济参与，否则将使数百名贫穷和失业的社区成员受益。这种对立关系也对长期保护计划和发展产生了影响，这需要采取关键的行动，将社区的社会经济福利置于遗址保护和未来发展的核心。国际社会正在努力实施该遗址的可持续保护战略。需要通过实施循证战略和行动计划来记录、记录和分析乌姆盖伊的多层结构，以便利用数字和虚拟激光雷达技术准确地记录其支离破碎的遗迹，并增加社会文化历史、空间和建筑转型的分层次，从而为遗址的可持续保护提供信息。该项目将使用考古和建筑研究、最先进的点云激光扫描、虚拟建模和社会历史众包，以审问建筑遗迹的零碎证据，并对乌姆盖伊人的历史及其作为区域文化和政治路线重要节点的作用进行连贯的叙述。该项目将制作一系列文字、视觉和虚拟产品，包括出版物、展览、数字化重建的历史和该遗址的虚拟参观，以支持约旦博物馆和乌姆盖伊斯博物馆以及国际场馆的公众认识和用户参与。该项目将广泛支持约旦和英国之间的多学科合作。研究团队在提供学术研究成果以及与政府机构、政策制定者和利益攸关方接触方面拥有丰富的经验。这一创新项目将收集关于该遗址的考古历史、其空间布局、重叠结构的新证据，并帮助建立与当地社区的公共参与的新模式，作为约旦保护和发展战略的重要合作伙伴。它的目的是挑战目前该遗址未得到充分利用的状况，并将乌姆·卡伊斯的遗产发展成一种生活体验，专注于游客和用户对历史的解读。该项目将恢复和激活考古遗址和博物馆的社会作用，并与社区合作，建立创建可持续社区资产的论坛。该项目将开发综合虚拟环境，其中包括研究、存档和调查的数据集，以提供由遗址的信息图表、统计数据和数字化考古数据库支持的3D和4D交互虚拟环境。它将试图在定制的遗址ArcGIS模型上生成加达拉空间结构、建筑布局和基础设施的可信布局，覆盖考古和空间数据以及遗址的成像。

Umm Qais (mkes) is located 120km north of Amman, and its vicinity to Yarmouk River and the Sea of Galilee granted the site a unique significance amongst other Roman Decapolis cities on their Eastern Mediterranean region. The Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans left their own marks there. Remains of the city still show theatres, baths, vaulted shops, tombs, cardo and documanus. However, Umm Qais tangible heritage continues to suffer existential threats from a number of factors that affect its archaeological, physical features and morphological transformations and risk its enduring presence on the long-term. These include natural and human-made, such as environmental changes, earthquakes, and new settlement patterns that see the site as more of irrelevant remains of invading foreign cultures than the archaeological heritage of their ancestors. Such antagonizing relationship between community and heritage resulted in lack of knowledge and appreciation of the site's history, archaeological importance, attempts to destroy its elements for economic gains and the lack of economic engagement with tourism that would otherwise benefit hundreds of poor and unemployed community members. Such an antagonist relationship also had its impact on long-term preservation plans and development what requires a critical action of engagement that put the community socio-economic welfare at the heart of the site's preservation and future development. There is an international effort to implement a sustainable conservation strategy of the site. There is a need to document, record and analyse the multi-layered structures of Umm Qais by implementing an evidence-based strategy and action-plan to inform the sustainable preservation of the site using digital and virtual LiDAR technologies to accurately record its fragmented remains adding sub-layers of socio-cultural history, spatial and architectural transformations. The project will use archaeological and architectural research, state-of-the-art point-cloud laser scanning, virtual modelling, and crowdsourcing of social history to interrogate fragmented evidence of architectural remains and produce coherent narratives of the history of Umm Qais and its role as an important node of regional cultural and political routes. The project will produce a series of textual, visual and virtual outputs including publications, exhibitions, digitally - reconstructed history and virtual tours of the site to support public awareness and user engagement at the Jordan Museums and Umm Qais Museum and at international venues. This project will widely support a multidisciplinary collaboration between Jordan and the UK. The research team collectively has extensive experience in delivering scholarly research outputs and engaging with government institutions, policymakers and stakeholders. This innovative project will gather new evidence on the archaeological history of the site, its spatial layout, overlapping structures and help building new modes of public engagement with local communities as essential partners in the preservation and development strategy in Jordan. It is designed to challenge the current underuse of the site and develop the heritage of Umm Qais into a living experience that focuses on visitor and user interpretation of history. The project will revive and activate the social role of the archaeological site and museum and work with communities to establish forums for creating a sustainable community asset. The project will develop Integrated virtual environments that incorporate researched, archived and surveyed datasets to offer 3D & 4D interactive virtual environment supported by infographics, statistical data and Digitised archaeological database of the site. It will attempt to produce a credible layout of the Gadara's spatial structures, buildings' layout and infrastructure overlaying archaeological and spatial data and imaging of the site on a custom-designed ArcGIS model of the site.