Exhibition on Thalassa Museum

From 10/10/2019 to 22/11/2019 – The exhibition has finished

iMARECULTURE has entered its final phase which concentrates on pilot tests and evaluations from the public of the technologies developed during the project. The core of these activities develop around the exhibition ‘iMARECULTURE: a virtual journey around underwater archaeological sites of the Mediterranean’ which will take place at the THALASSA Museum* (Agia Napa, Cyprus) from 10 October to 22 November 2019.

The exhibition will demonstrate how technological advancements in immersive technologies and applications can be utilized to bring inherently unreachable cultural heritage within digital reach of the public. By using advanced technologies, such as holographic screens and Head Mount Displays (HMDs), the exhibition will elaborate virtual reality as an excellent tool which provides access to underwater archaeological sites which are either restricted or very difficult for the public to reach.

By using VR HMDs, visitors will be able to “dive” in the past and freely navigate in the three underwater test sites of iMARECULTURE project, digitally replicated into the virtual world: the submerged Roman city of Baia (Italy), the Archaic shipwreck of Xlendi (Malta) and the Classical shipwreck of Mazotos (Cyprus). As part of the experience, visitors will also have the opportunity to directly “grab”, move and rotate, 3D objects shown on the holographic screens and get information in an interactive way about the significance and history of each site. In this respect, visitors will have the chance to test an equivalent immersive experience using different devices, evaluate their experience on different devices and provide valuable feedback.

In parallel to the virtual experience, the visitors will also have the opportunity to experience the actual finds of one of the project’s test sites, the Mazotos shipwreck. Original amphorae from the site will be exhibited for the first time at the Thalassa Museum, while at the same time, visitors will be able to interact with their replicas which will also be exhibited in the area.

Through the digital visits on the underwater archaeological sites, as well as the parallelism with the actual experience, the exhibition seeks to provide an opportunity to the public to realize the importance of submerged cultural heritage as well as the protection of underwater archaeological sites.

Entrance, as well as the use of the Holographic screen and the VR HMDs, is free.

*The THALASSA Municipal Museum, directed by the Pierides Foundation, in association with the Hellenic Institute for the Preservation of Nautical Tradition and the Tornaritis-Pierides Marine Life Foundation, has the sea as a subject-matter. Its main exhibition develops around the Kyrenia shipwreck, the remains of a Hellenistic merchant ship (dated around 300 BC) that sank off the coast of Cyprus. The Thalassa Museum exhibits a reconstruction of the shipwreck site, which was fully excavated between 1967-1972, as well as the ‘Kyrenia II’ vessel; a life size exact replica of the Kyrenia ship which was built in 1985 for scientific experimental purposes by the Hellenic Institute for the Preservation of Nautical Tradition, Athens.

Closed on Public Holidays