Paper short abstract:

Archaeology has been a fore-runner in the attempt to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to address the challenges of recreating perception and social behaviour within a computer environment.This paper discusses how an Augmented Reality approach can not only add to the current narratives about Hadrian's Wall, but also to contribute to the ongoing debates in archaeological theory about present and past perceptual and experiential engagement.

Paper long abstract:

Archaeology has been a fore-runner in the attempt to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to address the challenges of recreating perception and social behaviour within a computer environment. However, these approaches have traditionally been very much based on the visual aspect of perception and analysis has usually been confined to the computer laboratory. In contrast, the latest archaeological theories and methods involving phenomenological analysis of landscapes and past environments are normally carried out within the landscape itself and computer analysis away from the landscape in question is often seen as anathema to such approaches. The importance of the embodied experience to any discussion of past people cannot be overstated. My research aims to bridge this gap by using an Augmented Reality (AR) approach. AR gives us the opportunity to merge the real world with virtual elements, including 3D models, soundscapes and social media. In this way, the results of desk-based GIS analysis can be experienced directly within the field, and phenomenological analysis can be undertaken using an embodied GIS. This paper discusses how an Augmented Reality approach can not only add to the current narratives about Hadrian's Wall, but also to contribute to the ongoing debates in archaeological theory about present and past perceptual and experiential engagement.