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Virtual Reality is becoming increasingly popular in museums and heritage attractions as a way to help visitors explore long-ago events and long-vanished landscapes. Recently, this immersive technology has offered new perspectives on the Great Pyramid of Giza (see CA 406), Tutankhamun’s tomb (CA 423) and the Titanic (see https://legend-of-titanic.com/london), but a particularly compelling example can be found at the Trimontium Museum in the Scottish Borders.
Located 60 miles (97km) beyond the line of Hadrian’s Wall, Trimontium was one of the largest Roman forts in Scotland and a key outpost during the empire’s northern campaigns. The Borders area was home to numerous Iron Age hillforts, including a particularly large settlement on Burnswark Hill which forms the focus of one of the Trimontium Museum’s VR experiences. The hill stands gripped between two Roman camps, and over the last century archaeologists have recovered huge numbers of sling bullets and ballista balls from around the hillfort itself (CA 316). The significance of these finds has been debated, with some suggesting target-practice by passing soldiers – but the scenario proposed by the Trimontium Trust is altogether more chilling: a swift and devastating Roman assault that brought the hillfort’s occupation to a brutal end.
This interpretation is vividly brought to life at the Trust’s museum in nearby Melrose, which features a detailed digital model, populated by a cast of thousands, that was produced in collaboration with Robert Gapper of Virtual Histories and is based on ballistic mapping by the Trust, recent drone surveys of the landscape by Professor Stuart Campbell, the Trust’s lead archaeologist, and evidence from earlier excavations (CA 411). Beginning with a sweeping aerial view of the hillfort and surrounding landscape, the 35-minute experience then travels through the hillfort settlement, along its ramparts thronged with warriors, and through the massed ranks of Roman soldiers.
The reconstruction shows the attack frozen at the point that the Romans began their advance, which means that, despite its powerful subject matter, the imagery is not gory (it is advertised as being suitable for children aged 8 and over). Even so, as I ‘stood’ with those defending the ramparts and gazed down at the overwhelming forces below, I keenly felt the hopelessness of their situation, and what the arrival of the Roman army meant for the peoples that they encountered. Imagined but poignantly plausible vignettes help to humanise the scene further; a terrified child runs past smouldering roundhouses towards his mother’s outstretched arms, while a young couple are shown saying a final farewell.
With the closing narration drawing sensitive parallels with more recent conflicts, it is a thought-provoking experience that stayed with me long afterwards. Tickets also include entry to the museum’s recently renovated main gallery (CA 386) and, while examining artefacts reflecting both the hillfort and fort communities, I found myself reflecting on not only ‘what the Romans did for us’, but what they did to us.
Further information: Trimontium Museum is open 7 days a week from 10am to 4:30pm; VR sessions run four times a day (pre-booking is strongly advised). For more details, see http://www.trimontium.co.uk/the-trimontium experience.
Image: Trimontium Trust
