23 september 2025
VR environment for the course "Archaeological Materials in Context"
This is a 3D model of a pottery lab created for the Bachelor course "Archaeological Materials in Context". The model was created by the 4D Research Lab of the University of Amsterdam for the project 'Virtual Past Places' in collaboration with course teacher Jill Hilditch. The 3D model contains a fictional archaeology laboratory environment for technical ceramics study. Students use microscopes to look at thin sections, relate to different types of present rocks, and pottery. Around the sorting table they can discuss the ceramic objects and sort them into chronological/functional/technical groups. This model is accessible as a VR room using Hubs Cloud software (virtualplaces-uva.eu). For reproducability and reuse, consult the manual at https://doi.org/10.21942/uva.30490373 and follow the instructions to set up your own Hubs Cloud instance. For the relevant dataset, please use the link to the Zenodo deposition. Funding and context Virtual Past Places has been made possible by a grant, the 'Stimuleringsregeling Online Onderwijs' from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, OCW), coordinated by SURF, the cooperative association of Dutch educational and research institutions. Virtual Past Places includes open access publication of all developed teaching materials as Open Educational Resources, the development of training materials, and the organisation of inspiration and counselling sessions for peers. In case you're interested in the results of this research project, and/or participate in it, please contact J.Waagen@uva.nl.
Jill Hilditch, Tijm Lanjouw, Jitte Waagen, Markus Stoffer, Caroline Jeffra