Digital Cultural Heritage, Public Archeology, Photogrammetry, Gamification

Collaborators:

Ertug Ergurer, Derya Gulec Ozer, Ipek Akbaylar, Ipek Coskun, Yusuf Gungor

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Introduction

Gaining an understanding and appreciation of cultural heritage requires knowledge that visitors often lack. As a result, digital games are increasingly being recognized as an important tool for increasing awareness and understanding of immovable archaeological cultural heritage. Games are not only entertaining, but can also serve an educational purpose through the concept of "serious play," which is made possible by the nature of games and the rapidly spreading technological devices. In the context of the symposium, archaeology overlaps with the concepts of conservation and representation, as well as with maintaining the continuity of systems in complex ecological dynamics.

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Methodology

This study involved a literature review of the concepts of increasing perception and gamification in the field of archaeological heritage, as well as an investigation of the potential of this area. A field study was also conducted at the site of a recently unearthed and documented floor mosaic depicting the mythological events of the "twelve works of Hercules" in the bathhouse of the ancient city of Syedra in Alanya (AD 7-13). Using photogrammetry methods, an image of the mosaic was captured and used to create a puzzle game called "Syedra Mosaic Puzzle" in the UNITY interface. The puzzle has three levels of difficulty and was published on a website to increase its impact. The effect of the game on increasing perception will be evaluated by asking 50 young university students (aged 18-25) questions after they play the game.

The puzzle can be tried out below.