The rolling, green hills of West Flanders, Belgium, were once the bitter, brutal staging ground for some of the bloodiest fighting of World War I. An estimated 600,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing in that region between 1914 and 1918, often fighting along intricate but claustrophob ically cramped trench lines that were perpetually bombarded by artillery fire and sinking into thick, waterlogged mud. However, a visitor walking across many of those old battlegrounds today might never know they were treading across a graveyard.  One of those sites (now called Dig Hill 80) was first uncovered in 2015, when archaeologists conducting routine tests stumbled onto what looked like a remarkably well-preserved German stronghold. But that same plot of land was also being scouted out by real estate developers. The find set off an emergency excavation that had to be completed on a tight deadline. Today, that site belongs to a row of unassuming single-family suburban homes. The physical space may have lost its battle with residential construction, but archivists are working to immortalize the site digitally. The Applied Research in Immersive Experiences and Simulations (ARIES) team at Virginia Tech has been working with valuable archival material from the excavation site, transforming thousands of photographs and other documentation into an accessible, virtual world.  When the project is complete, history enthusiasts and professional archaeologists alike will be able to click through the web-based experience, move from site to site, and interact with highly detailed digital representations of artifacts as if they were actually there, down in the muck. It’s a painstaking task, one that requires balancing academic rigor and respect for the dead against the demands of telling a story that resonates with a modern digital audience. “Digital tools give us the chance to preserve not only the artifacts but also the spatial relationships, context, and stories that make archaeology meaningful,” manager for immersive learning and research with ARIES, manager for immersive learning and research Sarah Tucker said in a statement.  Recently, Tucker walked Popular Science through an early build of the project, showing examples of the digital artifacts on display and explaining how moving through the 3D space can help reveal what she calls “layers of history.”  “If we can help someone better understand the human experiences behind World War I or inspire someone who otherwise would never engage with archaeology, that’s incredibly rewarding,” she says. A digital model shows the excavation site for Hill 80, a German stronghold and trench fortress near Wijtschate, Belgium, captured during the 1917 Battle of Messines. Image: Sarah Tucker. A bloody battlefield, hidden in plain sight The area of British-German trenches now known as Dig Hill 80 may never have been fully uncovered without the swift actions of lead archaeologist Simon Verdegem. Rather than wait for lengthy approval from an academic institution, Verdegem took his case directly to the public, launching a campaign on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The campaign drew 2,679 backers and raised roughly €178,000 or roughly $200,000). That funding allowed a team to inspect the site, remove the topsoil, search through its maze of trenches and bomb craters, and map, photograph, and catalog everything within. Remarkably, that entire process wrapped up in just about two months. “Given the importance and unique character of this site, it requires a full-scale excavation,” Verdegem wrote at the time. “There should be no half measures.” The excavation area was reportedly the size of a soccer field, and included remains dating from the initial German capture of the position in 1914 through its recapture at the Battle of Messines in 1917. In total, remains from 125 soldiers, some as young as 15 years old, were recovered. But it wasn’t just hallowed ground. The research team also uncovered scores of personal belongings, each helping provide a bit more context into what life was like holed up in the wet trenches. Helmets, rifles, toothbrushes, bottles of HP sauce (a popular condiment among British troops), rosary beads, and crucifixes were all there among the discarded relics. The ARIES team spent a bit over a week on-site during the excavation. They already knew they wanted to archive the findings, so they went about recording just about everything possible. That process involved aerial drone photos, high-resolution orthophotos, photogrammetric models (essentially a 3D digital representation of an object captured by taking many photos of it from different angles), and structured-light scans of each artifact. All told, Tucker says the students collected over three terabytes of data (roughly the equivalent of 12 full iPhones) from the site.  The students working on the project essentially used tools and skill sets normally used to build virtual reality worlds in gaming or entertainment and redirected them towards historical preservation. “The same skills that students use to develop simulations and entertainment are used in preservation projects like this one,” ARIES Executive Director Todd Ogle said in a statement.  “Portfolio material students gained from this project helped them get jobs in engineering simulation, game development, and more.” Curating history in a digital world  But documenting the finds is only part of the process. Without proper curation, all of that data is devoid of context and meaningless to the average observer. That’s where Tucker comes in. She  says she set out to frame the material somewhat like how a museum director would orient an exhibition space. The goal was to accurately represent a core selection of material from the site while also instilling a sense of narrative.  “I was initially drawn to this project due to the amount and variety of data collected by Todd Ogle and the Virginia Tech team, which presented a significant curatorial challenge for me,” Tucker tells Popular Science. “I also liked the idea of making digital cultural heritage accessible to the public. Users who click through the web-based platform will first see an overhead aerial view of the site, with five main areas they can click on to walk through. The primary points of interest she settled on were the Millers House, a mass grave, a 1914 German trench, a 1918 British trench, and a  1914-1916 German trench. Clicking on any one of those sends the user to another page where there are 360-degree views of the photos captured from the excavation. Once there, online visitors can also click on specific artifacts from those areas, which are mapped to the locations where they were found in the real world. A brief text description appears beside the selected artifact, adding context much like at a museum. The entire digital world is being created using the software platform 3DVista. Tucker says picking and choosing which of those many artifacts to include was also a key component in creating a sense of narrative. Though ammo cartridges and cigarette containers are a dime a dozen in these types of environments, Tucker was particularly drawn to a handful of other, more personal objects. For example, the project includes full 3D visualizations of German buttons. But since Germany was still a relatively newly unified country at the time of the war, some of those buttons have a lion on them (for soldiers hailing from Bavaria) and others a crown (for those from Prussia).  Tucker also chose to include a harmonica found at the site. By clicking the instrument and spinning it on the digital screen, users might gain a more vivid understanding of the juxtaposed realities of trench life. Soldiers were simultaneously terrified, worried that any breath could be their last, but were also willing to play music despite that fear to instill some sense of normality. “I’m passionate about making research accessible without oversimplifying it,” Tucker added in a statement. “Archaeological excavations often disappear once they’re completed, and unless you’re part of the excavation team, you can never experience the site.” Tucker expects the project should be fully viewable to the public sometime early next year.  The post Lost WWI trench lives on in immersive VR installation appeared first on Popular Science. ...read more read less