Stories

Fieldwork Techniques: a virtual excavation

Visiting an archaeological site can be dangerous and confusing. Students are confronted with simple questions like: Where should I go? What am I looking at? The virtual reality (VR) application Fieldwork Techniques (built for Oculus Go) allows students to get familiar with an excavation site before visiting. In this way, we aim for students to become aware of relevant risks and possibilities that are present on site and recognise what is going on when they go to their first real excavation. Together with Jasper de Bruin (Assistant Professor at Leiden University’s faculty of Archaeology) and Ivo van Wijk (Archaeologists at Archol) we captured a real time excavation using 360°. This forms the basis of the interactive application Fieldwork Techniques that prepares students for the real deal.