As a digital archaeologist, it is a common occurrence to face a confused look when giving my job title and describing my company as a “Digital Heritage Consultancy”. Hopefully, by the end of this, what that means will be much more clear. To begin in the most basic terms, digital heritage is any piece of heritage recorded digitally or made digital. Digital archaeology is the application of technology to archaeology.
The combination of technology and the study of heritage is not a new concept. However, terms like “immersive history”, “virtual archaeology “, and “digital heritage” are becoming more and more popular as researchers and museums seek new ways to understand the past and bring that past to their audiences.
Possibilities in technology
As there are too many technologies used within the study of archaeology to list them all here, I will cover those I’m familiar with in my own work. Methods like Structure from Motion (SfM), photogrammetry and drone survey gather data by capturing images which are then laced together with programs like AutoCAD Recap or the free Meshroom by AliceVision to create point clouds and 3D models. Techniques using lasers and lights, such as laser scanning and LiDAR, can create similar outputs of objects, spaces or landscapes. The outputs of these techniques can then be utilized in a multitude of ways, including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), digital games, touchscreen interactives, educational tools, 2D image manipulation, audio modeling, etc.
How technology is bringing the past to life
Some of the ways in which technology is assisting in bringing the past to audiences include accessibility, placing the past into present landscapes, allowing for the visualization of the lost, informing research and creating immersive experiences.
Accessibility:
The Lewis Chess Set at the British Museum, 3D models hosted on SketchFab
The British Museum has a collection of online 3D models of various artefacts from their collection. Hosted on Sketchfab, this digital collection allows the public to view these artefacts from anywhere in the world. It also provides the possibility to rotate and zoom-in on these items, something that is not available when looking at the real thing through a glass case. Furthermore, many items in the digital collection are not even on display for the public at the museum.
Another example of accessibility through technology is at Geevor Tin Mine. where they’ve created a virtual tour of the mines that can be experienced with VR headsets. This allows people, who might otherwise not have had the chance, to experience this historical site. It also allows for tours of spaces that tourists simply cannot go for safety, preservation or other reasons.
Past into present:
Digital technology allows us to place lost or changed pieces of heritage back into the landscape in order to understand the experiences of the past. Our work with Slingsby Castle helped to provide an idea of the impact these structures would have made on the landscape of the village of Slingsby. Another example of this is the Roman Barracks reconstruction at York Minster by Ay-Pe. It is a powerful experience to witness different layers of York’s history evolving throughout time through 4D reconstruction.
Slingsby Castle, by Experience Heritage, placed within the current landscape
Visualization of the lost:
Visualizing changed or incomplete heritage is very important for enticing audiences and helping them to better understand the past. Our Slingsby Castle project developed a 3D model of a never-built version of the manor based on original floor plans. This was the first time this version had ever been visualized beyond the 2D plans.
In our project with Nostell Priory, we were able to create a visualization of the way the hall was originally designed. This version was lost to history because of the death of the designer but can now be experienced via a 2D image on an iPad while visiting the hall in its current state.
Informing research:
Technology provides many ways to better understand the past. For instance, digital modeling can help to study viewsheds (or what is visible from different places), acoustics of a space, and allow better study of small objects through amplification.
In building the model of the lost version of Slingsby Castle and by placing it into the landscape, we were able to discover things about the builders’ intentions that we would never have come to otherwise. For instance, we realized that the main entrance to the manor was on the opposite side of the village to the main road which meant that anyone approaching this version of Slingsby Castle would have to wind their way around the entire property before entering. We believed this was intentional and displayed a desire by the builders to show off the property by giving it a grand approach.
Model of Slingsby Castle over a modern map of the area, by Experience Heritage
Immersion:
Immersion is popular in heritage at the moment. VR experiences like the Viking VR and the Jurassic World VR at the Yorkshire Museum are very popular and draw repeat audiences. AR is an up-and-coming tech in the heritage world with apps like EnglandOriginals for England’s Historic Cities which allows you to overlay different city maps onto any surface as well as interacting with trigger points at different heritage sites to learn more about them.
The Future of Digital Heritage
As mentioned above, there is great potential for AR and Mixed Reality in heritage and this feeds in nicely with the current draw of funding surrounding “digital storytelling”. Groups like XR Stories are investing in “push[ing] forward the potential of immersive and interactive technologies” in many different fields, including heritage.
A particularly interesting future in digital heritage is the use of immersive (VR/XR) games for research. This would take the researched archaeological 3D models and place them within a virtual gamespace allowing for movement through and interaction with these lost spaces. This can then afford understanding of the impact of these lost spaces through movement and immersion. Furthermore, the element of adding 4D (or time) to experience these spaces in multiple timelines and at different phases of their lifespans is an exciting possibility.
As you can see, there is great potential for digital technologies in heritage and archaeology and this potential is only limited by current technology capabilities. As audiences, in more frequency, seek immersive experiences and museums and heritage sites seek to create repeat visitation of their sites, digital heritage has become an ever-growing field with great potential.
