The University of Cyprus Team's Work for the iMARECULTURE Project

Speaking in Greek at the annual review of the archaeological work of the University of Cyprus for 2017, Dimitra Perissiou presents the university team's contribution (with Massimiliano Secci and Stella Demesticha) to the Horizon 2020 project iMARECULTURE. Coordinated by the Cyprus University of Technology with eleven partners across eight countries, the project uses virtual and augmented reality and video games for underwater cultural heritage. Alongside virtual dry visits to the Classical wreck at Mazotos (for the Thalassa Museum), Xlendi in Malta and Roman Baiae in Italy, it builds open-access 3D libraries of Classical amphorae and ships using the Kyrenia and Ma'agan Michael wrecks and the trireme Olympias.

The talk focuses on two educational games developed at the University of Cyprus. The first, in virtual reality for archaeology students, simulates underwater excavation across environments modelled on Tektaş Burnu, Mazotos and Ma'agan Michael. Introductory videos explain Keith Muckelroy's site-formation processes, and an alpha version demonstrates exercises in tagging finds, using an airlift, photogrammetry, scale drawing and safe lifting.

The second game, on ancient seafaring and trade, casts the player as a merchant sailing the eastern Mediterranean in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. It combines a wind-routing algorithm with a database of 150 shipwrecks compiled by Anna Demetriou, piracy zones and 54 ports. Ship tonnages (from a Thasos inscription), bottomry loans from Demosthenes, harbour taxes, currency exchange and seven commodities turn historical sources into game rules. Perissiou closes with the methodological tension between linear archaeological narratives and rule-based game worlds.