A new experience of Ohio’s ancient American Indian earthworks is available in Chillicothe.
The Junction Earthworks, off Belleview Avenue at Plyley’s Lane, are now featured in a new, free smartphone app. Visitors to this 2,000-year-old American Indian sacred site can read new trail signs, and use their smartphones to explore virtual reconstructions of the earthworks, watch videos and interviews, open up 360-degree panoramas, and compare different maps of the site. They can even fill the earthworks’ ditches with water!
The app features “Augmented Reality”, meaning you will see live virtual 3D objects - reconstructed earthworks in this case - superimposed in the real environment through the “window” of your phone or tablet, and you can move around and change your view on them. Created in computer modeling software, the reconstructions are based on the recent, highly-detailed archaeological surveys of the earthworks.
The app’s creators would like your help in evaluating the new signage and app at Junction! Here’s how to participate:
1.) Download the “Junction Earthworks” App from the App Store or Google Play. The minimum system requirements are provided there.
2.) Visit the earthwork site and explore the app, along with the trail signage, before July 29.
3.) Send an e-mail (before July 29) to john.hancock@uc.edu with “Junction App” in the subject line. You will receive a link to the survey.
4.) Fill out the short online survey.
We need you to let us know about your experience! The survey results will help us plan future heritage tourism projects using these new media tools, including the “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks” World Heritage property (which includes five Ross County sites).
WHAT: “Junction Earthworks” App paired with new trail signs at the site.
WHO: The App was commissioned by the Heartland Earthworks Conservancy, and produced by Virtual Grounds Interactive LLC of West Chester, Ohio.
WHERE: The app is available free from the App Store and Google Play.
HOW: Follow these four steps: download the app, visit the site, email John, take the survey.
WHY: To help us plan future projects about Ohio’s amazing earthworks, including World Heritage.
WHEN: Before July 29, 2020
CONTACT: John E. Hancock (Professor Emeritus of Architecture, University of Cincinnati) john.hancock@uc.edu