The projects mentioned in this paper are realised by the Province of East-Flanders, Belgium, and the Institute for the Archaeological Heritage (Flemish Community).
Virtual Reality and multimedia are central components of the heritage presentation programme at Ename, Belgium. These techniques are designed to help the visitor understand and experience the past as it has been revealed through archaeological and historical research. This presentation will highlight the different approaches used in Ename to bring to life archaeological remains, standing monuments, and elements of the historical landscape, and it will describe the methodology of creating scientifically verifiable Virtual Reality reconstructions. As will be seen, these VR reconstructions are disseminated to the general public through various media, ranging from on-site systems to educational projects, Internet and CD-ROM.
All images, animations and virtual reality movies are © Ename 974, and cannot be copied without explicit permission.
These pages use virtual reality techniques, which can be visualised through QuickTime 3.0 or higher. If this software is not installed already on your system, please dowload it from here.
Ename is located in northwestern Europe, in the Dutch-speaking area of Belgium. It is situated in the Province of East-Flanders, about 50 km west of Brussels, and 20 km south of Ghent, on the eastern bank of the River Scheldt, one of Belgium's two major rivers. The village of Ename is today a district of the city of Oudenaarde. Geographically, it is located in the Flemish Ardennes, a hilly region in southwestern Flanders.
The archaeological site of Ename is situated on the medieval boundary between the French Kingdom and the German Empire. The intensive archaeological and historical research carried out at Ename since 1982 has revealed the exceptional richness of its archaeological heritage. In an almost unique way, Ename's ruins have preserved evidence of the material world of three important classes in medieval Flanders: those who prayed, those who fought, and those who worked. It was therefore decided to develop the site into an open-air archaeological park, to open a museum, and to make the 10th-century Saint Laurentius Church and the nearby "Bos t'Ename" forest preserve accessible to the public, with the goal of presenting Ename's history and heritage to visitors from both Belgium and abroad.
The overall project was named Ename 974 to commemorate the date when the first medieval settlement at Ename was founded. Its major aim is to communicate new insights about archaeology, history, and conservation to the general public with great attention to scholarly accuracy and by means of multimedia technologies. Among the most important of these technologies are on-site virtual reconstructions, museum multimedia and educational projects.
The archaeological site of Ename has been developed into an open-air museum. Among the challenges we have faced in this effort is one shared by archaeological interpreters all over the world; namely, to make complex and poorly preserved archaeological remains comprehensible to the general public. The simple fact is that however impressive or picturesque archaeological remains may be, they are rarely recognizable as specific structures (such as houses, churches, or workshops) and they thus fail to capture the fascination of most visitors.
In the case of Ename, visitors see a labyrinth of partially preserved architectural remains. These are the foundations of the Benedictine abbey that dominated life in Ename from 1063 to 1795. The remains of the early-medieval trade settlement (975-1050) are not visible, since they consisted largely of soil layers and traces of decomposed wood that were removed in the process of excavation. The Ename 974 Project has attempted to avoid the interpretive and ethical problems of physical reconstruction by offering visitors a vivid picture of ancient life at Ename through the use of a Virtual Reality installation on the excavation site itself.
A first prototype system of this new VR technology, called TimeFrame, was opened to the public on September 2, 1997. The TimeFrame system, superimposing a 3-D model of the abbey church over a real-time video shot of the exposed foundations, allows visitors to see the church as it appeared in its original state. An accompanying multimedia presentation offers additional information about the site and the people who lived there. This project was commissioned by the East-Flanders Provincial Government and the Institute for Archaeological Heritage of Flanders was responsible for providing the archaeological data to be used in the computer reconstructions.
On September 11, 1999, a new system, called TimeScope will be inaugurated. This new system is quite different from the TimeFrame system, as it highlights a standing monument, rather than exposed archaeological remains. Its focus will be the early romanesque Saint Laurentius Church, which has remained nearly unchanged since the year 1000, and which is currently undergoing an extensive program of excavation and interior restoration. Since this monument will soon be closed to the public, the TimeScope system will permit visitors to monitor the progress of the excavations and restoration work. An accompanying multimedia presentation will highlight the historical importance of the church and will explain the rationale and stages of the restoration project. The VR reconstructions and multimedia presentation will be visible on the TimeScope system installed outside the church, as well as on the Internet, in formats targeted for different audiences (such as schoolchildren, adults, and scholars).
The Provincial Museum at Ename is exceptional among local museums of its size in the extent of its interactivity and in its use of computer-controlled DVD, multimedia, and virtual reality technologies, in addition to traditional presentation techniques. One of its most innovative systems is the TimeLine which utilizes 3D reconstructions of an area measuring 3 by 3 km over a timespan of 1000 years. This interactive installation is operated setup by a touchscreen and offers panoramic viewing of the selected era. Archaeological artifacts and historical objects exhibited in the museum are visually linked to the TimeLine reconstructions, providing visitors with precise information on the context in which the artifacts were found.
The Ename 974 Project has also established a website for purposes of publicity, public information, and scientific updates. It is used to stimulate visitation to the museum and archaeological park of Ename; to communicate the project achievements to an interested audience all over the world which is not make a physical visit to Ename; and to provide regular announcements about new technologies and archaeological findings of the project.
Among the most important features of the website are TimeLine reconstructions used in an Internet TimeScope setup, which allow the Internet user to explore the site in a virtual way and see reconstructed buildings superimposed upon their foundations. In addition, major parts of "Bos t'Ename" forest preserve, which are only accessible to a limited number of visitors, are shown to the public by means of a virtual walk. This application allows Internet visitors open access to otherwise restricted areas, without the danger of physical damage to a delicate ecological area.
At the present time, CD-ROM adaptations of these VR technologies at Ename are under active development.