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VirtualArch: Making Archaeological Heritage Visible

Jiří Unger, Christiane Hemker, Christoph Lobinger and Mařík Jan

Cite this as: Unger, J. et al. 2020 VirtualArch: Making Archaeological Heritage Visible, Internet Archaeology 54. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.54.2

Summary

Rapid technological development in recent years means that virtual reconstructions have evolved from an illustrative complement of archaeological presentation to becoming a standard part of the interpretative process of archaeological data. VirtualArch has been employed to develop the use of virtual reconstructions as an innovative visualisation tool. Ten partners from eight countries have come together in an EU-funded project (Interreg Central Europe), running from 2017 to 2020. The partnership comprises regional and national archaeological institutes and heritage offices, two universities/research institutions and also two local communities. Eight pilot sites have been selected across Central Europe with three main types; urban areas, mines and underwater sites. All have one thing in common; none are publicly accessible or visible. The aim of the project has been to make all of these sites accessible and comprehensible through the use of virtual and augmented reality. This article summarises the project and its outcomes.

Reconstruction of Iron Age grave in Lovosice (Czech Republic) based on multiple photogrammetry
Reconstruction of Iron Age grave in Lovosice (Czech Republic) based on multiple photogrammetry
  • Google Scholar
  • Keywords: archaeology, visualisation, virtual model, heritage, reconstruction, Interreg Central Europe project
  • Accepted: 1 November 2019. Published: 28 February 2020
  • The publication of this article is funded by the European Archaeological Council.
Full text

Figure 1: The Devil's Adit game – medieval silver mining site Buchberg (Utín) in 1269

Figure 2: Reconstruction of an archaeological site in Bříza (Czech Republic) based on aerial photographs

Figure 3: Reconstruction of Iron Age grave in Lovosice (Czech Republic) based on multiple photogrammetry

Video 1: A model of the Bronze Age mine at Hallstatt was reconstructed and visualized for museum visitors. Credit: Interreg Project Partners

Video 2: A model of the Roman port of Babir was developed to show the site in its moden setting as well as in Roman times. Credit: Interreg Project Partners

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