Jose KOZAN | Iara KOZAN | Jarrod BURKS | John E. HANCOCK
(Heartland Earthworks Conservancy; Virtual Grounds Interactive, Cincinnati, OH, USA)
Keywords: Earthworks, Augmented Reality, Vanished Heritage, Virtual Reconstruction
Description of the APP: Many types of vanished heritage sites now benefit from virtual reconstructions, but large earthworks present several specific problems, including their vast, almost incomprehensible scale, and their often severely-degraded conditions. Like many of the region’s ancient American Indian monuments scattered throughout the USA, the Junction Group of Earthworks has been flattened by many decades of agriculture. Originally documented in a mid-nineteenth century engraving, the site was object of two magnetic surveys conducted in 2005 and 2015, which were a resounding success. The ancient earthworks circles, crescents, and other figures were revealed in unprecedented detail in the magnetic data.The Junction Earthworks Trail Tour app helps with the virtual rebirth of this two-thousand-year-old geometric earthwork complex in Chillicothe, Ohio, USA. The downloadable app is coordinated with a trail and its five sign locations, providing wayfinding along with several visualization and interpretation tools. Signage text is complemented in the app by in-depth videos and interviews, and 360-degree rendered panoramas of the virtually restored complex. A digital model of the earthworks opens in augmented reality which users can explore, choose between map overlays of the old engraving and the new mag-data, open content windows, and simulate water on the geometric figures’ interior ditches.The app gives Junction Earthworks visitors innovative and uniquely effective ways to grasp the complex history, formal precision, vast scale, and even the sacred aura of this ancient ceremonial center.
The Junction Earthworks Trail Tour app is available free for download from Apple’s App Store and Google Play
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/junction-earthworks/id1472880036
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.virtualgrounds.junctionearthworks&hl=en_US