Book DG TimeMaps

TIME MAP S.
RE AL COMMUNITIE S–
VIRTUAL WORLDS–
E XPERIMENTED PASTS
Edited by
Dragoș Gheorghiu
TIME MAP S.
RE AL COMMUNITIE S–
VIRTUAL WORLDS–
E XPERIMENTED PASTS
Edited by
Dragoș Gheorghiu
ISBN
Graphic design: Faber Studio

Cover image: ??
First published in 2016 by UNArte.

Each contribution is the © of the contributor.
Contents
Project Summary
Research Report 2011–2012

Research Report 2013
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Dragoș GHEORGHIU
“Mação: Hillforts and Landscape” and ”Abrantes”. the Windows of Timemaps in Portugal
Davide DELFINO
Luiz OOSTERBEEK
Vasco ESTRELA
Luis DIAS
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Project Summary
The project Time Maps proposes to redefine the relationship between art
and science for a new, 21st century paradigm; it intends to reconstruct the
memory of forgotten places, which will be shared with the local community
and with virtual communities as well, thus helping preserve and safeguard
the material and immaterial heritage.
We offer a new utilization of the Mixed Reality in urban and rural
contexts by creating new mental maps, which will model human perception.
A map of time would be the memory of all the invisible places, of objects
and gestures forgotten; it would be a Virtual World recovered. For every
discovered location we intend to offer overlapped layers of information, to
be accessed in the manner of an archaeological stratigraphy. Every user
will explore and integrate in the overlapped Virtual Worlds at different
reconstructed chronological levels. The Maps of Time will help first their
makers to recover the humane message of the Past, and later will help
contemporary communities to redefine their identity. One of the project’s
important benefits and novel aspects is its beneficial social implications
for the communities participating in it. A social aspect will be the creation
of a cyberculture which will help the invisible rural communities to create
their own virtual museums to promote their own identity and to develop a
participatory tourism.
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Reports
2011–2012
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01 November–30 December 2011
The main goal of the project Time Maps. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented Pasts is
the attempt to relate science and art under the form of a synergic approach, this being the major
theme of the first two months of research.
Since the multidisciplinary team is composed of humanists (visual artists, architects and a phi‑
losopher), and scientists (software engineers), a period of adaptation was needed, to re‑examine
the activities of each group and to find a common language for the joint work to follow.
This occurred during several meetings [at the NUA and PUB], where the two cultural groups
presented their views on the project and proposed different strategies. After each meeting every
participant developed an activity report where s/he described the current activity and plans for
the near future. The discussion during November and December had as objective the clarification
of the theoretical discourse and the structuring of the VR/AR/MR strategies. After many consul‑
tations between the working groups formed by experts and students, the decision was taken that
the main VR project approach would be be of Single User type, in order to maintain the scientific
character of the phenomenological experience of the experimentalist, with the proviso that at the
end of the project, should financial support be available, the Multi User (MMO) approach would
be employed as an educational game. The need for high graphic quality for the Single User appli‑
cation was noted, and functional limits were established: the immersion of a single user receiving
information from the reconstructed space. It was argued that the development of the MMO appli‑
cation was desirable only in an educational context, due to the low graphic quality of the applica‑
tions of this type operating in real time, and the impression of a game‑like interaction. The Single
User application is intended to have an excellent graphic quality.
Another discussion topic covered the analysis and subsequent documentation necessary for
the procurement of the adequate equipment for the proposed art and educational experiments,
followed by the set‑up of the virtual community network (via Skype) to produce an interconnecti‑
vity with different universities and rural communities (such as Vadastra).
An additional subject broached was the identity of the project, solved by Lecturer Dr. Marina
Theodorescu, who designed a set of logo images inspired from the concept of “map” and Google
Maps. In addition, the functioning schema of the website was initiated to be finalised by the end
of the year, to be followed by the layout design inception. The site of the project is www.timemaps.
net and the domain name has been purchased.
For the actual design of the “maps of time” the Project Director defined the research themes
for the PhD and MA students regarding the traditional and antique dwelt spaces. For example PhD
student Alexandra Rusu who produced documentation on the textiles specific to the area studied
by the project, began the transfer of technologies recorded in 3D. These images will be included in
the architectural reconstructions drawn by PhD students Razvan Clondir and Lucian Hirth, together
with the MA students from the Interior Design Department, and will be transferred to the virtual
medium created by the IT group.
The most important meetings were held on the following dates: 15.11.2011 [D. Gheorghiu, D.
Popovici, A. Rusu, A. Serbanescu, C. Oancea, Ileana Oancea, 4 MA students design], 29.11.2011
[A. Moldoveanu, A. Morar, D. Gheorghiu, A. Hasnas, M. Theodorescu, A. Serbanescu, A. Rusu, A.
Manescu, M. Mihailov, I. Statica, V. Pasca], 06.12.2011 [D. Gheorghiu, M. Theodorescu, A. Moldoveanu,
A. Morar, A. Serbanescu, A. Rusu si 2 MA students], 13.12.2011 [D. Gheorghiu,. A. Moldoveanu, L.
Hirth, L. Stefan, A. Rusu, studrnt C. Marian].
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Workshops
In the educational workshops that took place at that time each member of the research team
structured his/her suggestions and tried to present them to different social groups. The focus of
the first workshop of the 26.11.2011 was the Vadastra community and was held at the local school.
Lectures were delivered by the following: D. Gheorghiu, A. Moldoveanu, L. Stefan, A. Rusu, I. Stelea,
A. Serbanescu, and C. Oancea. MA students from the Interior Design Department studied the pre‑
historic and Roman site to prepare the drawings of the architectural reconstructions. Local teachers
and pupils attended the event. The subject of the talks was the opportunity of achieving long term
economic growth that could arise from the learning of crafts, as well as its implication on educa‑
tion. In this perspective the team explained to the local teachers the opportunities brought to the
community by the courses, demonstrations and experiments using e‑learning.
PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan gave a technical presentation on long distance learning/e‑lear‑
ning, as the results of the project will take the form of e‑learning modules and applications. The term
and field of e‑learning were explained, as was the way in which it uses the information and techno‑
logies (IT&C). Finally, a distinction was made between it and other similar applications that utilize
digital content online (as for example Wikipedia).
It was pointed out that e‑learning applications cover all the aspects of an educational process—
teaching, learning and evaluation—and a brief presentation was provided of the evolution through
time of this field. The workshop underlined the strong link between the technological development
of the IT&C domain and the rise of new learning models/paradigms which evolved from the tradi‑
tional forms (e.g. the formal, curriculum‑based ones) to the modern forms (non‑formal, own pace),
and also between those and the development of innovative e‑learning applications, able to better
support the present educational and societal requirements (e.g. skill development, life‑long edu‑
cation, student mobility). These concepts were illustrated by a presentation of the mobile‑learning
domain and of the Augmented/Mixed Reality (AR/MR) applications for mobile devices (smartpho‑
nes, Tablet PCs). This is a domain which the project is commited to explore by developing innova‑
tive e‑learning applications.
To better understand the domain, the specific characteristics of the mobile‑learning applica‑
tions were highlighted (e.g. informal, contextual, „anytime and anywhere” learning), and their bene‑
fits for the learning process (e.g. mobility and availability of the learning resources). The concepts
and some technical details behind the Augmented Reality applications were explained, as well as
how the characteristics of modern devices (i.e. the GPS receiver, the video‑camera, sensors and
gyroscope) facilitate and extend this category of applications. The choice for these technologies
for experimentation within the Vadastra village community was explained.
The following subject that interested the local community was the digital communication
between the NUA and the Vadastra School. PhD student Adrian Serbanescu described the way
long distance communication would function using Skype. Associate Professor Alin Moldoveanu
presented the VR concept and its derivatives (AR, MR).
Immaterial heritage, i.e. glass and weaving technologies, were covered in two other theoreti‑
cal and applicative presentations. MA student Ioana Stelea from the Ceramics & Glass Department
organised a workshop with glass engraving demonstrations for the local school children, using
traditional techniques.
The Vadastra workshop also aimed to identify the craftsmen form the local community, the
inventory of the (still) functional traditional equipment and the tradition of dyeing with local plants.
Extensive field research identified three old weavers who agreed to lend their equipment to the
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research team. In order to prepare content materials for future conferences PhD student Alexandra
Rusu conducted an experiment that will be continued during the following summer.
A second workshop has as main theme the NUA student community. The Rector, Professor
Ruxandra Demetrescu delivered the opening speech, followed by Dr. Romana Cucu from NUA
Department of Research.
The opening discussion topic was the relationship between art and science (the antique technê).
Professor Dr.Ioan Rosca presented a humanistic perspective on this subject. The project director
presented the detail of previous experiments, to familiarise the public with the themes explored
by the research team. A presentation of the relationship between real and virtual was offered by
Associate Professor Alin Moldoveanu, who discussed the 3D, VR, and MMO [what real time 3D gra‑
phics mean compared with other programs; the resulting restrictions that appear within MMO fra‑
meworks], and explained the graphical issues that impose a Single User or a Multiple User strategy.
Professor Arh. Andreea Hasnas discussed the cyber‑theatre and Lecturer Adrian Serbanescu
the set‑up of a digital communication link with the Vadastra community via Skype. Lecturer Dan
Popovici presented a series of antique technologies to produce glass that will be taught during the
experiments in the Vadastra village, followed by the presentation of PhD student Alexandra Rusu
on traditional textiles and the methods to teach them through e‑learning and direct experience.
Lecturer Marina Theodorescu presented a study of the visual identity of the project.
At the end of the conference an invitation to collaborate on the project was extended to the
students from all departments, followed by a brainstorming session.
The purpose of the brainstorming session organised by Associate Professor Alin Moldoveanu
was to encourage the students to participate in the project, as a curricular practical activity or an
extracurricular one. As a result the Design Department decided to involve in the project all the stu‑
dents from years II and III as a means to achieve their required professional practice.
Participation to National and International Events
PhD student Alexandra Rusu contributed a paper at the “Shaping Europe” conference in Bucharest
and has a paper accepted at the 7th “Global Conference: Cybercultures”, Prague, 2012.
The acceptance of the papers of five members of the team to the session “Mathematics and
Art” at the Aplimat Confernce in Bratislava, Slovakia, represented a perfect occasion to achieve a
deeper understanding of the relationship between art and science (A. Rusu—Wave and augmen‑
ted reality. Algorithms and fiber art; L. Stefan—Augmented Reality and the art of collage; I. Rosca—
The propensity of figurative arts towards music and mathematics; I. Oancea and C. Oancea—The
use of geometry in search of the “pure form” in the 20th century sculpture; A. Serbanescu—Gesture,
performance and geometry).
Conclusions
In the first two months of activity the project attained its proposed goals:
• the educational goal was attained both at the academic level as well as at the folk culture level, having
been received with great interest by the rural community of Vadastra;
• the professional goal, of perfecting the initial proposal, was attained by making the team adopt a syncre‑
tic vision of art and science.
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The conclusions of the meetings were as follows:
• documentation/research of software technologies to develop a Single User application and Augmented
Reality applications for smartphone and tablets;
• the elaboration of a complex scenario for the Single User and Augmented reality applications.
Workshop in NUA amphitheatre, 18.12.2011
In 2012 all three major objectives of the project were attained, specifically the elaboration of a
methodology framework for the study and societal application of the relationship between art and
science, the elaboration of an experimental framework for the rediscovery and social re‑insertion of
certain ancient technologies, and the dissemination of the result of this research. The project star‑
ted in January with an exercise of synthesis between art and science to familiarize the team with
the concept of synthesis (the Aplimat conference, Bratislava).
Three approaches were used: one focused on Virtual Reality (with 3D reconstructions of diffe‑
rent objects and architectural and geographical contexts from Vadastra), one experimental (star‑
ting with the identification of the chaînes‑opératoires of different technologies such as weaving,
vase making, metal casting and glass making), and a mixed one, combining the real and the virtual
(as Augmented Reality AR and Augmented Virtuality AV), with video films inserted into VR recon‑
structions. All three approaches, whose final goal is education, targeted the creation of an immer‑
sive medium through art experiments and scientific experiments (experimental archaeology). For
the observer, the immersive framework using smartphones, PC tablets or the web site of the project
was achieved through the use of architectural reconstructions at full scale, virtual reconstructions
of objects and architectural contexts and video films. The immersive capacity of AR reconstructi‑
ons on smartphones or PC tablets was applied to educational ends when the team worked in the
rural community of Vadastra.
Documentation
The PhD group of students and a researcher participated in February at the Aplimat conference
in Bratislava (L. Stefan, Augmented Reality and the art of collage; A. Serbanescu, Gesture, perfor‑
mance and geometry; A. Rusu, Weave an augmented reality. Algorithms and fiber art; I. Rosca, The
attempt of arts to music and mathematics; C. Oancea et al., The Use of Geometry in Search of the
“Pure Form” in the Twentieth Century Sculpture). In April D.Gheorghiu, A.Rusu, A.Serbanescu and
R.Clondir collected information on archaeology and IT at the University College London library and
Bournemouth library, and L.Stefan at the Brighton University library in November. PhD students
A.Rusu and R.Clondir attended a course on modelling and texture Maya‑AMC 3DXP and another
one in Photomodeller coordinated by A.Moldoveanu at the Politechnic University. In October,
A.Rusu attended the online courses from Georgia Tech and Edinburgh University and L.Stefan the
online course “Gramification” on the Coursera platform. In November PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan
participated at the Conference of Android programmers. Lecturer Dan Popovici and PhD student
Ioana Stelea conducted a research of the litterature on the subject of the Roman glyptic and glass
at the Romanatiului Museum in Caracal. The team collected information on Roman architecture at
the Celei site (Corabia town).
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Personal Research
The individual research of the PhD students represented an important part of the project: the study
of traditional technologies (A.Rusu), of immateriality (R.Clondir), of the e‑learning systems in vir‑
tual media and AR (L.Stefan), or of the technological gestures (A.Serbanescu), were at the same
time chapters of the doctoral thesis and parts of the project research. The MA students in Interior
Design (I. Statica, A.Jipa, C.Kudor, I.Bunduche) that collaborated in the project produced their
diplomas or semester artworks using 3D and augmenting techniques, coordinated by PhD student
Eng. Livia Stefan (geographical AR application on a Layar platform, 3D models in Wavefront OBJ
format, 3D virtual tour for the prehistoric and Roman houses, and video films for AR applications
on mobile phones). PhD student Razvan Clondir structured the design course after the philosophy
of the project and PhD student Lucian Hirth created an experimental model of a virtual space with
Unity, and worked with students in Autodesk 3DS Max. PhD student Alexandra Rusu worked with
the students from the Fibre Art Department, and Lecturer Dan Popovici coordinated the experi‑
ments carried out by the students from the Ceramics Department.
Experiments
The 2013 experiments were focussed on the following prehistoric and Roman technologies: textile,
glass, metal and ceramics. Between May and June a Roman workshop was built at Vadastra (archi‑
tecture: Professor Arch. Andreea Hasnas; stage design: Professor Arch. Dragos Gheorghiu; cos‑
tumes PhD student Alexandra Rusu; building: sculptors Catalin Oancea and PhD student Marius
Stroe), with two kilns (project: Lecturer Dan Popovici; construction: technicians Ion Dimcea and
Gabriel Osan), a furnace for ore smelting (project and construction: sculptors Catalin Oancea and
PhD student Marius Stroe), a replica of a prehistoric house was built (project: Professor Arch. Dragos
Gheorghiu; costumes: PhD student Alexandra Rusu; restauration: Assistant Professor Costel Chitea
and Razvan Clondir), a horizontal and a vertical loom were built (project: PhD student Alexandra
Rusu; construction: Ion Dimcea), a Roman ceramic kiln was built (project: Lecturer Ion Cojocariu;
building: Gabriel Osan), and a tool for stone and glass engraving was built (project: Lecturer Dan
Popovici; construction Ion Dimcea). The experiments were performed during three campaigns (May,
June and August) and consisted of a series of filmed performances producing a database for the
website, publications and education materials.
There was a production of textiles woven on prehistoric and antique looms (Alexandra Rusu),
blown glass vases (Dan Popovici and Gabriel Osan), engraved glass (Ioana Stelea), smelted iron ore
and small metal objects (Catalin Oancea and Marius Stroe), and ceramic vases fired in the Roman
kiln (Ion Cojocariu). Films of the technological experiments and on the context designed were pro‑
duced for a better immersion of the viewer (Adrian Serbanescu).
The scientific coordination of the experiments as well as the stage design (spatial organiza‑
tion, colours, textures, illumination) were realized by Professor Arch. Dragos Gheorghiu, and the
films with GoPro camera for the database of the Gestures Museum were made by PhD student
Adrian Serbanescu.
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The Website as Working Instrument
A great part of the result was posted on the website designed by the project director to function as
a complex instrument of immersion, using both real life elements (such as photos and video films),
and 3D reconstructions and virtual animations.
The website is available for the inclusion of other European archaeological sites dedicated to
the protection of material and immaterial heritage, to present their strategy and content.
The Vadastra page was designed to represent the local archaeological stratigraphy with three
important dwelling layers. It contains a virtual museum with 3D objects selected from the three
archaeological layers, a database of technological gestures, and a database of re‑enactments. The
development and implementation of the virtual reconstruction for the Roman villa rustica (as a
Single user virtual space), as well for the website were done by the Polytechnic University team
(Associate Professor Alin Moldoveanu and Assistant Professor A.Morar). In the Virtual Reality recon‑
struction one can access the video films of the technological re‑enactments as an augmentation of
reality. The NUA students who modelled the 3D objects were coordinated by PhD students Razvan
Clondir and Lucian Hirth, who also acted as an interface between the NUA and the Polytechnic
University. The site also includes the database of the completed workshops and the e‑learning con‑
tent pertaining to the ancient technologies, thus representing an efficient educational instrument.
Education
The experiments with ancient technologies were presented to the village children in August, October
and November, as they unfolded and after the processing of the digital material, as well as during
e‑learning video‑conferences and on smartphone applications. The NUA’s Fibre Art Department
was connected to the Vadastra School by Skype. A group of twenty children coordinated by PhD
student Alexandra Rusu and technician Elena Haut worked on horizontal and vertical looms, utilized
the local dyeing plants, and engraved glass with modern and ancient instruments. PhD student and
Professor Arch. Dragos Gheorghiu organised in November a lesson of history on the archaeological
site, presenting in AR the virtual reconstructions of prehistoric and Roman architecture, together
with the films on technologies, using a PC tablet and smartphone with data and GPS functionality.
Conferences
The project and the 2012 results were presented during a series of conferences: at Aplimat (Bratislava)
by L.Stefan, A.Rusu, I.Rosca, C. Oancea; at Cybercultures. Exploring critical issues (Praga) by
A.Rusu; by L.Stefan at ROCHI 2012 (Bucuresti) and HCI (Human‑Computer Interfaces (Bucuresti);
at Archaeoinvest II Arheologie experientala si Arheoinvest III Arheologia si politicile de protejare a
patrimoniului cultural (Iasi) by D.Gheorghiu; at Sesiunea de comunicari stiintifice (Sf. Gheorghe)
by D.Popovici; at Seminarul de etnoarheologie Revelatia Metalurgiei (Iclod) by D.Gheorghiu and
M.Stroe; at the World conference on design, art, and education (Antalya) by L.Stefan and A.Rusu;
at the The 13th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST
(Brighton) by D.Gheorghiu and L.Stefan. At The Seventh World Archaeological Congress (WAC‑7),
14
Iordan, a paper by D.Gheorghiu and L.Stefan, The preservation of monuments in the communities’
memory using augmented reality applications, will presented in January.
Collaborations
In April collaboration was initiated with Bournemouth University and Georgina Jones (Masters stu‑
dent) worked with the project team experimentalists at Vadastra.
In October a proposal for collaboration was received from Southampton University to orga‑
nize a workshop about illumination in virtual reconstructions (2013).
In November a collaboration agreement was signed with Muzeul National al Carpatilor
Rasariteni (Sf. Gheorghe) and with Muzeul National de Istorie a Transilvaniei (Cluj‑Napoca) for expe‑
riments with ancient technologies.
Exhibitions
In April Leonardo Electronic Almanac sent an invitation to participate at an exhibition at the Samek
Art Gallery and Kasa Gallery. In December two exhibitions with the results of the project were
organised at the NUA Gallery and Hanu cu Tei Gallery in Bucharest. A workshop accompanied
each exhibition.
Conclusion: the Originality of the Research
The theoretical and experimental research activity of 2012 led to the realization of a series of origi‑
nal experiments with ancient technologies. Other original experiments were carried out with mobile
technologies with the purpose of safeguarding the local heritage. The study of experientiality in the
case of material and immaterial heritage, as well as the AV approach to technologies, together with
the visual educational narratives are other novel features of the project.
Last, but not least, the project website represents an immersive and creative original instru‑
ment of education, where information is presented in a reflexive way.
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Research Report
2013
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2013 saw the completion of all the major objectives of the project, i.e. „elaboration of a metho‑
dological framework for study and application in society of the relation between science and art,
elaboration of an experimental framework for rediscovery and social reinsertion of certain past
technologies”. Special focus was placed on the personal research of the doctoral students and the
disemmination of the ensuing results.
At a national level some of the experiments, involving antique technologies, carried out in other
locations, added new centers of interest on the project’s map, such as the Center of Archaeology,
Taga (Cluj), and Macao and Abrantes, Portugal.
At the European level, the project visibility has been enhanced by means of conferen‑
ces, citing only those held in Macao, Abrantes, or Pilsen, and also through numerous publications
and exhibitions.
During the present year the resarch has focused on two intermediary objectives of the project:
1) education by means of the project, and 2) building a collaboration network at the European level.
Education
For the first intermediary objective we employed the web site and a variety of social networks
(Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube) as channels for the delivery of information and for the mea‑
surements of the impact on the younger generations. Concurrently, applications for mobile devices,
e.g. smartphones, where also used as e‑learning instruments. The monitoring of the Vadastra school
continued, while new schools from South and North Romania became participants in our programs.
Website
Folowing the successful collaboration with the computer graphics company Golem, which deli‑
vered the project requirements, the website www.timemaps.net started to function as an
educational instrument.
Initially designed by PhD student Lucian Hirth and afterwards by the graphics company a
Virtual Museum has been modelled in Virtual Reality, concurrently with the completion of the recon‑
structions for the Roman villa and the prehistoric village, all augmented with video films. Thus, the
introduction of links to social networks, new buttons, and a „guide‑presenter” character increased
both the website’s functionality and complexity.
The reconstruction of 3D objects and antique and prehistorical architectures for the web‑
site and Second Life (presently the latter is not visible on the site, due to a re‑design process),
required the participation of several master students from the Interior Design Department, whose
work was coordinated by the project director, Professor Arh. Andreea Hasnas, and PhD student
Razvan Clondir.
Virtual Museum
The central part of the website is represented by the reconstructions in Augmented Reality. It
is displayed as a palimpsest, i.e three superimposed dwelling layers, similar to an archaeological
27
stratigraphy. If in 2012 the collection of 3D reconstructed objects was named „virtual museum”, in
2013 under this name appears another virtual reconstruction, in 3D, of a complex and simbolic arhi‑
tectural structure, meant to suggest the underground descent of the visitor who travels to the Past.
The Virtual Museum comprising three distinct rooms is situated on the superior layer; it con‑
tains a modern art room, a Roman and a prehistoric one, as these two are the archaeological levels
representatives of the Vadastra site. The modern art room presents objects and technologies in
Augmented Reality (AR), inspired from the technological experiments of reconstructing antique
and prehistoric objects. The purpose of this room is to demonstrate that there is a fertile con‑
nection between art and science, which can, at the same time, inspire the archaeologist and revita‑
lize modern art. For the younger generation this room is a cultural model, which demonstrates the
possibility to connect a remote past to the most advanced modernity. The other two rooms of the
museum expose (also in AR) objects specific to each archaeological level, presented decontextu‑
alized, as in a regular museum.
Upon exiting the Museum, the visitor has access to the Roman and prehistoric archaeologi‑
cal layers. To present the Roman world we reconstructed in AR a villa rustica, by inserting in the 3D
virtual reconstructions the real architectural constructions implemented in 2012 in the village of
Vadastra. We consider that this reconstruction in AR or Mixed Reality (MR) is probable one of the
most accomplished artistic and stiintific products at the present time. The reconstructed prehis‑
toric village presents the complex image of a fortified settlement, specific to the Chalcolitic period
of the region. In one of the reconstructed houses the technologies of house building and of wea‑
ving are presented in AR, making a connection with the important discovery in Celei, near Vadastra
village, of a prehistoric textile.
Based on the analysis of the workshops conducted in Romania and Portugal, we can conclude
that the site functioned as an efficient educational instrument, as it can also be seen from the reac‑
tions of the users posted on social networks.
In October the website has been presented at the Ministry of Education and a workshop was
planned to be organised in February 2014 in Vadastra with the participation of history teachers,
during which the site will be presented as an educational instrument for teaching history and the
preservation of the imaterial heritage.
Courses for the team members
To improve the pedagogical prestation in exploiting the e‑learing tehnologies, PhD students
Alexandra Rusu and Eng. Livia Stefan participated in some online courses delivered via the
Coursera platform.
Students’ coordination
Lecturer Ioan Cojocariu and Lecturer Dan Popovici have been the coordinators of the diploma
artwork of Pantelymon Arnaudov (The reconstitution of the antique techniques for glass proces‑
sing‑construction of a glass melting kiln using wood fire).
Under the coordination of the project director and of Professor. Arch. Andreea Hasnas, stu‑
dents from the first year master studies at Interior Design Department, performed a detailed 3D
reconstruction of a Roman villa and objects from the Caracal Museum (which have been integrated
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in the Roman villa reconstruction), a reconstruction of the wall from Monte Velho, of the structure
from Woodhenge, as well as of a Roman amphitheater in Second Life. This group of students also
worked under the coordination of Associate Professor Marina Theodorescu, who collaborated again
with the project team.
PhD student. Livia Stefan coordinated the IT section of the diploma paper of master student
Christina Kudor, The redesign and reconditioning of the medieval castle from Targu‑Mures, which
implemented an interactive environment using QR codes.
PhD student Razvan Clondir continued to coordinate at Interior Design MA year I the applica‑
tive projects on material/immaterial and real/virtual and to supervise the reconstructions for envi‑
ronmental design of the 3D space.
PhD student Lucian Hirth has coordinated the work of students from the Interior Design MA
Program years I and II, involving the design of the Virtual Museum.
Workshops
The workshops continued with the focus on introducing the students to the ancient technologies.
Besides Vadastra, the following school units have also participated: the Technical College
„Danubiana” Roman, Neamţ County, the Arts high‑school „Victor Brauner”, Piatra‑Neamt, Neamţ
County, the Art school „Sergiu Celibidache”, Roman, Neamţ County, the secondary school from
Doljeşti, Neamţ County, and the Technical high‑school „Dimitrie Leonida”, Piatra‑Neamt, Neamţ
County. During the workshops, supported by PhD student Alexandra Rusu, the objectives of the
project were explained to the children, as well as the main platforms and networks created: the
Time Maps website, Time Maps Facebook page, the Time Maps YouTube channel, the Virtual Reality
application integrated in the project’s website. The children learned about the ceramics technolo‑
gies, those for processing the metal, glass and textile used in the decorative arts, and understood
the opportunities to revitalize those technologies in a contemporary context.
Two other workshops have been conducted in Râmnicu Vâlcea city, by PhD student Ioana
Stelea under the coordination of Lecturer Dan Popovici, workshops which were hosted by the insti‑
tution for non‑formal learning—the Children’s Palace Râmnicu Vâlcea, with participants from seve‑
ral schools (the C.P.T. Plesoianu Technological high‑school , the Victor Giuleanu Arts high‑school,
the Mircea cel Bătrân National College).
E‑learning
In 2013 PhD student Alexandra Rusu contributed to the development of the e‑learning program
designed for the sustainable development of small communities. The programm makes use of visual
support materials and online lessons, delivered by teachers from the National Universitaty of Arts.
A series of lessons have been uploaded on the project’s website.
29
European Network
For the second intermediary objective of the project, the creation of a European collaboration
network, the basis was established for a long term collaboration relationship with Istituto Terra e
Memoria (ITM) from Maçao, Portugal, with which a connection was made using the Skype vide‑
oconference platform. Subsequently, the structure of the project and the resulting possibilities
of collaboration were presented at several conferences. As a result, in August, two conferences
were organized in Maçao, followed by a new collaboration in the project with another Portuguese
community, Abrantes. The application mnvelho was tested and presented to archaeologists and
to the group of students from the Summer Archaeological School from ITM. Furthermore, a public
conference was organized for the community of the city of Mação which took place in the presence
of the Mayor of Mação, Mr. José Manuel Saldanha Rocha, followed by an open discussion on The
Time Maps project, the virtual 3D reconstructions, and the mobile‑learning applications. The Mayor
commented on some of the aspects of the future collaboration, followed by the archaeologists Dr.
Sara Cura and Dr. Davide Delfino.
In October Professor Arch. Dragos Gheorghiu and PhD student Eng.Livia Stefan were invi‑
ted to present a paper on the project („The Maps of Time. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–
Experimented Pasts. A proposal for a network between Vădastra and Abrantes for promoting their
material and immaterial heritage”), at the IV Jornadas Internacionais do MIAA (Museu Iberco de
Arqueologia e arte de Abrantes) in Abrantes, Portugal.
Dr. Jeroen Flamman, vice‑presedint of EXAR, the European Association for the promotion
of experimental archaeology, offered to promote the project’s site within the community of the
European experimental archaeologists.
Experiments
April saw the continuation of filming of replicas of ancient objects. PhD students Adrian Serbanescu
and Razvan Tun made a series of short films with replicas of glass vases and Roman pottery made
by students from the NUA, and a film of a re‑enactment of a Romanian villa interior, reconstructed
in the Photo‑Video studio of the NUA.
The melting of iron ore in an Iron Age furnace was done in June at the archaeological site at
Taga (Cluj) by Catalin Oancea, PhD student Marius Stroe, and Professor Dragos Gheorghiu. Another
reason for conducting this experiment in Cluj county was to promote the work of the Time Mpas
research project in other communities and develop at Taga a small center for experiments with tra‑
ditional and ancient technologies. Because this particular experiment requires a lengthy effort, the
children from the village school of Taga were not involved, external participation being restricted to
the high school students who work on archaeological excavations and their coordinator teacher. The
Institute of Archaeology of Cluj participated through archaeologists Professor Gheorghe Lazarovici
and Dr. Zoia Maxim, who provided archaeological documentation required for the project.
At the NUA an artistic experiment was conducted under the supervision of Lecturer Dan
Popovici, i.e. a replica of a Roman glass melting furnace, executed in a modern way by student
Pantelymon Arnautov (Bulgaria), as degree thesis at the Department of Ceramics–Glass–Metal.
30
Doctoral Activities
During the course of the year PhD students Alexandra Rusu and Eng.Livia Stefan continued their
pedagogical activity and that of the implementation of the project’s methodology. Thus, PhD stu‑
dent Alexndra Rusu, besides the coordination of the illustrator students, traveled to Piatra‑Neamt,
Roman and Doljesti to disseminate the results of the first phase of the project in vocational and tech‑
nical schools and colleges, to develop the virtual virtual community of Time Maps and to improve
the e‑learning strategy (the online course offerings). She collaborated with PhD student Lucian
Hirth in documenting the prehistoric textures and fabrics for the 3D reconstruction of the prehis‑
toric village with PhD student Adrian Serbanescu on creating the subtitles of the videos with tech‑
nological gestures, uploaded on the project website, and with PhD student Razvan Tun for editing
films made during the travels to the county schools in Neamt. She prepared with Adrain Serbanescu
the video material for the international exhibition DAE 2013 Bucharest 9–11 May and synthesized
the information gathered through questionnaires during her travels to the county schools in Neamt,
in April 2013. She also participated in numerous national and international conferences, publicati‑
ons and exhibitions.
PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan provided content for the Time Maps website, coordinated at
the Design Department a diploma project which utilized QR codes, created and updated profiles on
the social networks (Twitter, Google+, cirip.ro, Panoramio, Facebook of the Vadastra School); deve‑
loped mobile applications with AR; researched virtual 3D environments (e.g. Second Life); publi‑
shed several papers in Romania and abroad, participated in national and international conferences;
published the most important events of the project on the Time Maps blog; collaborated with
archaeologist Dr. Davide Delfino from Instituto Terra e Memoria (ITM) Mação. During the project
stage which took place in Portugal she had a series of meetings with specialists from ITM and from
the Municipality of Mação to establish practical cooperation methods within the project. She also
accompanied the archaeologists and doctoral students from the Summer School of Archaeology on
Mount Velho with the purpose of measuring and acquiring the local geographical coordinates, and of
taking photographs of the archaeological excavations coordinated by Dr. Davide Delfino, to be used
for the Time Maps website. She used this information to develop an Augmented Reality (AR) appli‑
cation on the Layar platform named mnvelho, which displayed the first 3D reconstruction of the
prehistoric settlement’s wall. She participated with an AR poster “The Maps of Time project: A 4D
virtual public archaeology”, at the European Association of Archaeologists Meeting 2013, in Pilsen.
Disemination
The project and the project’s results have been presented at different national and international
conferences and symposia, in different publications (book chapters, papers or proceedings), as
well as in exhibitions.
Participation at Conferences
• D. Gheorghiu, 2013, Building, burning, digging and imagining: Trying to approach the prehistoric dwelling,
12–13 April, History of experimental Archaeology Conference, Lejre, Denmark.
31
• D. Gheorghiu, 2013, Clay, water and fire: An experimental and experiential approach to the ritual and
materiality of prehistoric settlements, The Toronto Semiotic Circle Symposium on Earth, Fire, Water:
Matter and Meaning in Rituals held at Victoria College (University of Toronto), Northrop Frye Hall, Room
007, on May 31–June 1, 2013.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2013, The rhetoric of material culture. Building, burning, recycling, The Archaeological
Summer School 2013, Museu de Arte Pré‑Histórica de Mação, Portugalia.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2013, ART‑CHAEOLOGY: Augmenting the archaeological record with art, In “Archaeology
meets modern art: artists’ approaches to prehistoric data”, organized by Estella Weiss‑Krejci, Edeltraud
Aspöck and Mark Hall, 4–8 September, European Association of Archaeologists 19th Annual Meeting
2013, Pilsen.
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Stefan, 2013, The Maps of Time. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented
Pasts. A proposal for a network between Mação and Vădastra for promoting their material and immaterial
heritage, Museu de Arte Pré‑Histórica de Mação, Portugal. http://itmmacao.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/
the‑maps‑of‑time‑real‑communities‑virtual‑worlds‑experimented‑pasts/
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Stefan, 2013, Preserving monuments in the memory of local communities using aug‑
mented reality applications, World Archaeology Congress 7, 13–18 January 2013, Jordan.
• D. Gheorghiu and L.Stefan, 2013, e‑Cultural Tourism for Highlighting the “Invisibile” Communities—
Elaboration of Cultural Routes Using Augmented Reality for Mobile Devices (MAR), ArheoInvest 2013
Current trends in the archaeological heritage preservation: the national and the international perspecti‑
ves, Iaşi, 6–10 November.
• D. Gheorghiu and L.Stefan, 2013, The Maps of Time. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented
Pasts. A proposal for a network between Vădastra and Abrantes for promoting their material and imma‑
terial heritage, International Days of MIAA (Museu Ibérico de Arqueologia e Arte de Abrantes), 24
October, Portugal.
• D. Gheorghiu, L. Ştefan and A. Hasnaş, 2013, Visual performances as educational tools in a mobile learning
world, ARTSEDU 2013 World Conference on Design, Arts and Education, Universitatea de Arhitectura si
Urbanism „Ion Mincu”, 9–11 May, Bucharest.
• L. Ştefan, D. Gheorghiu, F. Moldoveanu and A. Moldoveanu, 2013, Ubiquitous learning solutions for
remote communities—A case study for K‑12 classes in a Romanian village, CSCS19 The 19th International
Conference on Control Systems and Computer Science, UPB—Facultatea de Automatica, Control si
Calculatoare, 29–31 May, Bucharest.
• L. Ştefan and D. Gheorghiu, 2013, Participative teaching for K‑12 students with mobile devices and social
networks, SMART 2013 Social media in Academia: Research and Teaching, 7–9 iunie, Bacau.
• L. Stefan and D. Gheorghiu, 2013, Outdoor mobile 3D Augmented Reality for reconstructing the
paleo‑landscape, The Archaeological Summer School 2013, Museu de Arte Pré‑Histórica de Mação, 3
August, Portugal.
• L. Stefan and F. Moldoveanu, 2013, Game‑based learning with Augmented Reality—from technology’s
affordances to game design and educational scenarios, eLSE 2013 The 9th International Scientific
Conference eLearning and software for Education, 25–26 April Bucharest.
• R. Clondir, 2013, Created with digital help. An approach on the use of immaterial in education, World
Conference on Design, Arts and Education, Bucharest.
• D. Popovici, 2013, 2–9 June 2013—Conference about the craft of glassmaking into the project „The Maps of
Time. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented Pasts”; 1. Reconstruction of Roman glass furnace.
Melting and processing glass using wood fire; 2. A contemporary revaluation of the ancient craft of glass
engraving, 3. Films and photos made at the Session of Experiments “Time Maps” 2012, University „Sf. Cyril
& Sf. Methodius” Velico Târnovo, Bulgaria.
32
• A. Rusu, 2013, The life of memes. Traditional technologies and the transmission of knowledge, LUMEN—
International Conference on Logos Universality Mentality Education Novelty. Current Paradigms in Social
Sciences, 10–13 April, Iaşi;
• A. Rusu, 2013, e‑learning solutions for revitalizing traditional textile technologies. The Maps of Time
Project, eLSE, The 9th International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education, work‑
shop “eLearning and Software for Education in Textiles”, Cercul Militar, 25–26 April, Bucharest;
• A. Rusu, A. Serbanescu, R. Clondir and D. Popovici, 2013, Social Media for preserving local technological
traditions”, SMART 2013—Social media in Academia: Research and Teaching, 7–9 June, Bacau;
• A. Rusu, 2013, Patterns of sustainability in textile design use of traditional technologies, 2nd Conference
on Sustainable Intelligent Manufacturing, 26–29 June, Lisbon, Portugal.
Books
• D. Gheorghiu and G. Nash (eds.), 2013, Place as material culture: objects, geographies and the construc‑
tion of time, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Exhibitions
PhD student Alexandra Rusu participated in the international exhibition DAE 2013 (International
Art Exhibition DAE 2013) Bucharest 9–11 May 2013, University of Architecture and Urbanism „Ion
Mincu” with the paper „Roman technology—modern textile design”.
Lecturer Dan Popovici held in April–May a personal exhibition („The craft transparency”) at
the Brancoveanu Palace Cultural Center, April 8 to May 9, 2013.
Exhibition Poster
Between the 4th and the 8th of September 2013, at the annual conference of European Archaeologists
Association the Time Maps website was promoted as an augmented reality (AR) poster (“The pro‑
ject Maps of Time: A 4D public virtual archeology”), by authors Dragos Gheorghiu and Livia Stefan,
in the section “Archaeology meets modern art: artists’ Approaches to prehistoric time”, organi‑
zed by Weiss‑Krejci Estella, Edeltraud Aspöck and Mark Hall. The poster presented an interactive
software application called 4darcheo for smartphones with Android system. The application uses
the Junaio AR platform based on the reference image recognition, which triggers the display of con‑
tent in connection with these images. In the case of the application presented, the content was in
the form of video sequences representing reconstructions and re‑enactments of ancient techno‑
logies from Vadastra.
33
Conclusion: Social Involvement of the Research
During the year 2013 the effectiveness of the teaching methods proposed by the project and the
interest in these and the subsequent results were on display both during project presentations
at various prestigious professional events, and during implementation in various communities, in
Romania and abroad.
Frequent participations at numerous national and international conferences, and the publica‑
tion of the results in different specialized publications support have contributed to increasing the
project visibility and the impact of its approach.
This year’s upgraded version of the website has functioned as an immersive and creative tea‑
ching tool, the e‑learning courses being applied to various educational institutions.
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35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
Research Report
2014
44
The year 2014 has once again seen the attainment of all the major objectives of the project, namely
“the elaboration of a methodology framework for the study and application in society of the relati‑
onship between science and art, the elaboration of an experimental framework leading to the redis‑
covery of ancient technologies and to their reinsertion into society”. In addition, the dissemination
of the results has continued, as well as the expanded implementation of the project into multiple
Romanian communities, with a great focus on the uses of art as an instrument for the study of the
Past. The past and new experiments carried out at Vadastra, have been replicated in several diffe‑
rent locations, with the educational goal of teaching the young generation the use of some of the
old technologies specific to those sites. The international presentation of the project has also con‑
tinued, through the attendance of various European conferences at venues such as Burgos, Istanbul,
Barcelona, Coimbra, Vienna, Albena, and Timisoara, as well as through various publications and with
the help of art events such as exhibitions and land‑arts.
This year too a focus was placed on two intermediary objectives: 1) the provision of educa‑
tion through the project and 2) collaboration at the European level.
Education
To achieve the first objective a high emphasis was placed on the organization of a series of workshops
in the old and in new locations (Vadastra, Sfistofca, C.A.Rosetti and Luica), in order to directly pre‑
sent the project and its results, and to work with these communities’ younger generation. The next
step was to organize an e‑learning program linking the National University of Arts (NUA) and these
locations. The project web site proved to be an extremely convincing and efficient instrument for
information transmission. Two workshops were organized at the Vadastra School with the exten‑
sive involvement of the local community that adopted some of the ideas circulated by the project.
Using the project website as a source for teaching material history lessons were provided spurring
the active participation of the local pupils. The historical and technical information offered in the
Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality reconstructions proved to be an extremely efficient educa‑
tional material, easily accessible and easy to understand. This type of learning, also experimented
with at the C.A.Rosetti and Luica schools demonstrated the project approach’s efficiency in saving
and transmitting elements of the local technical tradition, as well as its educational value.
Website
In 2014 the website (www.timemaps.net) has become more complex, bringing together European
scientific communities with communities from Romania and Portugal. Currently, the website functi‑
ons as a European platform of archaeology, art, and education, and presents, besides the Romanian
experience, other European perspectives on the means to save and use as educational tools ele‑
ments of the past, therefore being a useful instrument for archaeologists, as well as for educators
and artists.
Virtual reconstructions of Iron Age or contemporary architectural features were posted on
the web pages of the Taga and Sfistofca communities, together with new video films on e‑learning
sessions, workshops, or art experiments. A new series of virtual objects was drawn with the help of
new groups of MA and PhD students, coordinated by the director of the project, and by Dr.Davide
45
Delfino for the reconstructions at Abrantes. The information on the project was updated on the
social networks Facebook, Twitter, and Panoramio.
Virtual Museums
A replica of the Vadastra Virtual Museum was also drawn for the Abrantes community, which collabo‑
rated with the project’s team on art issues. There virtual replicas of some prehistoric, proto‑historic
and Roman objects were introduced. Both museums demonstrated their educational effectiveness
during the workshops organized in the fall.
Coordination of Student Work
The project’s director coordinated the work of three doctoral students from the team, and two
MA students to achieve the goals planned for this year. Lecturer Ioan Cojocariu and Lecturer Dan
Popovici coordinated a group of MA and PhD students as well. Under the direction of Lecturer Dan
Popovici students from the Ceramics Department studied the typology of Roman glass objects and
produced replicas of antique artefacts, displayed at the Glass Show 2014. During the “Transparent
Studio” event at Simeza Gallery, they presented to the public the technique of glass engraving.
PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan together with Professor Arch. Andreea Hasnas coordinated the
work of a MA student who designed the 3D reconstruction of a Roman Amphitheatre, optimized
for Second Life/Opensimulator.
PhD Students’ Activity
Supported by an Erasmus fellowship, PhD student Alexandra Rusu worked for a six months period
with the museum of ethnography of the Sassari University, Sardinia, preparing the collaboration
between this university and the NUA, as well as a page on the project website. She offered an online
lesson with NUA on the local textile technologies and was an active participant in the Vadastra
and Sfistofca workshops. Additional lessons on textile technology were conducted for the Luica,
Vadastra and C.A.Rosetti schools. A video‑conference with the Abrantes Manuel Fernandes School,
Portugal was coordinated by her during the February workshop in Vadastra. In October she defen‑
ded her PhD thesis: Anthropological perspectives on traditional textiles. Experiments with weaving
techniques for the revitalization of the textile tradition.
PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan alongside her doctoral research continued the research on lear‑
ning technologies in 3D immersive mediums, Second Life/OpenSimulator, Unity3D and educatio‑
nal games, offered consultancy services to the NUA team (Professor Andreea Hasnas and Assist.
Professor Razvan Clondir) for virtual reconstructions (a Roman Amphitheater) and for a cyber‑thea‑
tre in Second Life/OpenSimulator. She presented applications for mobile learning on smartphones
and tablets to the children and teachers from the Vadastra and Luica schools, and she made tests
and offered consultancy services for the improvement of the website pages in Sfistofca, C.A. Rosetti,
Luica and Santa Cristina locations, wrote and posted texts on the blog, elaborated virtual commu‑
nities (i.e. Facebook and Google+ pages) for the C.A.Rosetti and Luica schools. Additionally, she
46
developed and tested the applications for mobile learning with Augmented Reality for smartphone,
labelled “e‑prehistoric”, “ARt‑chaeology”, “AR‑palimpsest”, adapted them for tablets, and created
layers on Panoramio and Google Maps. For the project book she developed a prototype application
with AR for smartphone and tablet called “Timemaps‑book”, and realized a 3D virtual community
simulator on the platform OpenSimulator. She continued the collaboration with the project director
for the development of book chapters and participations at national and international conferences.
PhD student Adrian Serbanescu participated with a paper on the artistic gesture in the inter‑
national conference International multidisciplinary scientific conferences on social sciences & arts
SGEM2014 at Albena, Bulgaria. During the course of the year he realized a series of video films at
the e‑learning sessions, and at the glass melting experiments, metal objects restoration experi‑
ments, at the NUA, Vadastra, Sfistofca and Luica. In August he made a land‑art/installation to mark
the Roman road at Vadastra. His PhD thesis on The Art Gesture: A key element of the recent expe‑
rimentalism was defended in July.
Workshops
The 2014 workshops had a double role: to inform the new communities of the project approach, and
to enable the experiments with ancient technologies to be carried out with the participation of the
local pupils. Due to financial constraints a series of workshop were conducted in the NUA labora‑
tories, with the participation of the students from the Luica School.
The first workshop was organized in February 2014 at the Vadastra School, with the partici‑
pation of 30 art and history teachers from Olt County. Other guests included the NUA Rector prof.
dr. Catalin Balescu, the General Inspector Prof. dr. Doru Dumitrescu from the National Ministry of
Education, and Inspector prof. Viorica Istrate from the Olt Education Inspectorate. The project
director presented the Time Maps website as an educational instrument using Augmented Reality,
lecturer dr. Dan Popovici presented a series of movies depicting experiments with blowing Roman
glass, PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan demonstrated two mobile‑learning applications (with geogra‑
phical points of interest augmented with re‑enactment videos, and with image recognition, augmen‑
ted with educational films). The team’s presentation was followed by an open lesson in Augmented
& Mixed Reality, using the website as an educational tool, conducted by teacher Narcisa Balteanu
from the Vadastra School. This event was followed by several workshops dedicated to ceramics,
glass engraving, and textiles and by a Skype conference with a school from Portugal. Professor dr.
Ioan Rosca prepared a text explaining the project, which was then used as promotional material.
Other workshops, for the initiation of the young in ceramic technology, were organized in June
at the Luica School and in July at the Abrantes Castle, the latter with PhD student Traian Marcu
as performer.
In April the team travelled to the Danube Delta (at Sfistofca and C.A.Rosetti) to prepare a
new experimental campaign, and in October a workshop was organized at Sfistofca , using the shel‑
ter built by the local community for this purpose. The latter included the participation of Lecturer
dr. Meinhard Breiling (Vienna Technical University).
The experiments conducted in an architectural structure designed by the project team,
reproduced the technologies of the metalwork, glass engraving and textile making of the local
communities of Russian fishermen and Romanian pastoralists. During the experiments the team,
collaborators and students worked together with a group of Austrian students from the Vienna
Technical University.
47
At the C.A.Rosetti School PhD student Alexandra Rusu introduced the school staff to the pro‑
ject, while Lecturer Dan Popovici, PhD student Ioana Stelea and glass artist Jaroslav Šara (Czech
Republic) organized an engraving workshop.
In September, PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan and project director Prof. Dr.arh. Dragos Gheorghiu
organized a workshop at the Vadastra School which presented to the pupils the Augmented Reality
application “TimeMaps Geo Layers”, for the purposes of exploring the local archaeological area and
watching technological video films using QR barcodes.
In November at the NUA, two workshops on glass engraving and ceramics took place, involv‑
ing MA and PhD students whose works were photographed for inclusion in the e‑learning lessons
for the Luica and C.A.Rosetti schools.
E‑learning
The e‑learning program on traditional textiles coordinated by PhD student Alexandra Rusu and
involving the staff from the NUA continued in the Vadastra, Luica, C.A.Rosetti communities in
Romania, and Sassari in Sardinia. PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan presented a series of solutions for
mobile learning at the workshop in Vadastra in February, and for Smartphones and tablets at UNUA
for the teachers and pupils from Luica. Other activities related to e‑learning were the uploading
of video films on Youtube, and the uploading of photos and films on the project’s educational blog
on Google+.
European Network
The second intermediary objective of the project, i.e. the creation of a European collaboration, was
continued with the Abrantes community in Portugal in July, by designing a Virtual Museum on the
web page, as well as by organizing a series of art events, such as three land‑art, two art installations,
and two workshops, all in the Abrantes Castle and Museum. The paper presented last year at the IV
Jornadas Internacionais do MIAA (Museu Iberco de Arqueologia e arte de Abrantes) describing the
Time Maps project will be published in the journal of the museum. Moreover, Instituto Terra i Memoria
from Maçao opened a page on Time Maps presenting their experimental archaeology activity.
PhD student Alexandra Rusu initiated the proceedings leading to the opening of a web page
(on the project site) by the centre of prehistory of the Sassari University, Sardinia, and PhD stu‑
dent Eng. Livia Stefan did the same for the research group STARC from the Cyprus Institute of
Technology working at the archaeological site Santa Cristina in Sardinia.
Archaeological and Art Experiments
Lecturer Dan Popovici produced a study about the making of antique artefacts for the Eastern
Carpathian Museum in Sf. Gheorghe as part of collaboration on the recovery of the ancient craft
of glass engraving on the territory of the Roman Empire. He designed the mold for the blowing of
a “Becher mit Facetten schliff” cup dating from the 3rd AD century, and togheter with Lecturer Ion
48
Cojocariu, he coordinated the building of a modern interpretation of a Roman glass kiln, which was
realized by MA student Pantelymon Arnautov.
Professor dr. Arh. Dragos Gheorghiu produced a series of art experiments with the purpose
of drawing the attention of the archaeologists and the public towards certain invisible elements of
the past. In Abrantes two land‑arts were created in the Castle courtyard to reveal the rituality of
the built space and to represent the stratigraphy of the place, another one in Porto‑do‑Concelho
to mark the site of the discovery of a bronze deposit, and an art installation in the ceramic exhibi‑
tion of the Castle. Another land‑art was created to reveal the place of disappeared houses in the
village of Sfistofca. In August a series of performances were made to emphasize the shape of a pre‑
historic settlement or the Roman traces in a clay quarry.
At the same time Adrian Serbanescu marked with a column the Roman road linking Vadastra
to Sucidava.
Another series of experiments using performance and IT were carried out at Vadastra by the
project director and PhD Eng. Livia Stefan by creating layers on Panoramio and Google Earth with
art‑chaeology works, and by creating layers on Google Maps, augmented with images and video
films, representing land‑art works (both by Dragos Gheorghiu).
Dissemination
The project and its results were presented in several international conferences and congresses, in
different publications (as book chapters, papers, or proceedings), in exhibitions and virtual exhibi‑
tions, as well as on the website which functions as a virtual exhibition too.
In September, besides the scientific results, the project itself was presented at two impor‑
tant scientific events, the Union Internationale des Societées Prehistoriques et Protohistoriques
Congress in Burgos and the European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meeting in Istanbul, as a
scientific paper and interactive poster. The website of the project that functions now as a European
platform of archaeology and art (see http://timemaps.net/timemap/velho_da_zimbreira/wp‑con‑
tent/uploads/2013/06/2‑3.jpg) presents the scientific and artistic results of the team.
• D. Gheorghiu, Exotica, skeuomorphs, and the problem of materiality in the south‑east Europe Chalcolithic,
UISPP Congress, 1–6 September 2014, Burgos, Spain.
• D. Gheorghiu, The ritual decoration of ceramic vases in the chalcolithic south eastern Europe societies,
UISPP Congress, 1–6 September 2014, Burgos, Spain.
• D. Gheorghiu, Augmenting the Reality of the Material and Immaterial Past, EAA Conference, 10–14
September 2014, Istanbul, Turkey.
• D. Gheorghiu, Form follows ritual. An experimental and experiential approach to Chalcolithic materiality
and ritual, EAA Conference, 10–14 September 2014, Istanbul, Turkey.
• D.Gheorghiu, Cuptoare cucuteniene: o abordare experimentala si experientiala, Colocviul International
“Cucuteni 130”, 15–17 octombrie 2014, Piatra‑Neamt
• D. Gheorghiu and D. Delfino, Mapping invisible communities: The Time Maps Project, Mapping culture:
communities, sites and stories. International conference, May 28–30, 2014, Coimbra, Portugal.
49
• D.Gheorghiu si Davide Delfino, Archaeological research and land‑art for public archaeology in a Final
Bronze Age hilltop settlement of Castelo Velho da Zimbreira (Mação‑Portugal) UISPP Congress, 1–6
September 2014, Burgos, Spain
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Ştefan, Virtual palimpsests: the use of mobile devices to visualise the archaeological
record (poster), UISPP Congress, 1–6 September 2014, Burgos, Spain.
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Stefan, Memory and Immersive Applications. The use of MAR to preserve Local
Tangible and Intangible Heritage (poster), e‑iED 2014: 4th European Immersive Education Summit,
University of Applied Science BFI, 24–26 November, Vienna, Austria.
• A. Rusu , Technological heritage preservation in cyber‑culture. Learning fiber art in virtual communities,
pp. 241–256. In Maj, A. (ed.) Post‑Privacy Culture. Gaining Social Power in Cyber‑Democracy, Oxford,
Inter‑Disciplinary Press.
• A. Serbanescu, The artistic experiment: a phenomenological research towards a pedagogy of art,
International Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences & Arts, Congress Center, 01–10 September, 2014,
Albena Resort, Bulgaria.
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Stefan, 3D Online Virtual Museum as e‑learning tool, The 6th International Conference
on Computer Supported Education CSEDU 2014, 1–3 April 2014, Barcelone, Spain.
• L. Stefan and D. Gheorghiu, 3D cyber‑communities of learning. An immersive educational strategy for
rural areas, International Conference Smart 2014 Social Media in Academia: Research and Teaching, 18–21
September 2014, Timisoara, Romania.
Sessions organized
• T02S025 On the future reality of the past. Material, immaterial, and virtual heritage in the 21st century
(Suzie Thomas, Luiz Oosterbeek, Dragos Gheorghiu, Styliani Kaltsogianni), EAA Istanbul, Turkey.
• B28–Technology and the first agro‑pastoral societies: ceramic manufacturing and
• decoration (Dragos Gheorghiu, Moustapha Sall, Luiz Miguel Oosterbeek, André Luís Ramos Soares &
Jedson Francisco Cerezer), UISPP, Burgos
• A3c The emergence of warrior societies and its economic, social and environmental consequences.
Commission on The Metal Ages in Europe (Organizers: Fernando Coimbra, Davide Delfino, Dragoş
Gheorghiu), UISPP, Burgos.
Exhibitions
Lecturer Dan Popovici and Lecturer Ion Cojocariu were the curators of the exhibition Reconstructions
made by MA student P. Arnautov in July 2014 at Hanul cu Tei, which presented in a modern per‑
spective the experiments with Roman technologies. The land‑art from Portugal and Romania made
by Professor Dragos Gheorghiu were displayed on site for several weeks and later were posted on
Panoramio and Google Earth.
Virtual Exhibitions
• Dragos Gheorghiu, Art‑chaeology on Google Earth and Panoramio.
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• Dan Popovici, Facebook album Flames, shadows & glass, Vădastra. Photo‑notices about the experiments
in the project “The Maps of Time. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented Pasts”.
• D. Popovici, Facebook Photo album: “Crafting Transparence, installation step by step”—Artistic research
in the project “The Maps of Time. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented Pasts”.
Poster–Exhibition
During the UISPP Congress in Burgos, 1–6 September, Professor Dragos Gheorghiu and PhD student
Eng. Livia Stefan exhibited a poster (Virtual palimpsests: the use of mobile devices to visualize the
archaeological record) which showed an interactive software application, based on the recognition
of some reference images, which determined the display of a content in relationship with these ima‑
ges. The content represented fragments of films with architectural reconstructions and re‑enact‑
ments with prehistoric and antique technologies in Vadastra, and a Roman road.
Conclusions: Towards a New Paradigm of a Synthesis Between

Science‑Art‑Education
The year 2014 was an “international test” year for the project research results, and one of the deve‑
lopment of the European collaboration. In addition, it presented a good opportunity for the imple‑
mentation of the project’s educational ideas in rural areas. Thus, we succeeded on adding on the
project map three new locations for experimental research and educational activities, with two
additional locations to be added in 2015. The positive results obtained from the mix of science, art
and education for safeguarding the immaterial [intangible] heritage, the creation of virtual muse‑
ums to save the knowhow and the human gestures, the creation of new forms of material culture
derived from tradition and, last but not least, the possibility to generate small local industries that
would perpetuate a technical tradition obscured by Modernity, encourage us to continue develo‑
ping the concept of Time Maps to become a paradigm of this new synthesis.
As recognition of the novelty and quality of some of the approaches of the Time Maps Project,
the paper Augmenting the Archaeological Record with ARt (The Time Maps Project) was selected
for publication in the Springer volume Augmented Reality Art: From an Emerging Technology to
a Novel Creative Medium, which, as the editor stressed, contains the artistic elite working with
Augmented Reality.
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Research Report
2015
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During 2015 the research team has continued pursuing the major objectives of the project, namely
“the elaboration of a methodology framework for the study and application in society of the rela‑
tionship between science and art, the elaboration of an experimental framework leading to the
rediscovery of ancient technologies and to their reinsertion into society”, with an emphasis on the
implementation of the project in different urban and rural European contexts. These activities have
enabled an extensive dissemination of the project in high and folk cultures as conferences and work‑
shops (in Glasgow, Belvi, Skopje, Vienna, Mangalia and Albesti) and publications through different
European publishing houses.
We have also continued the previous years’ strategy, namely the provision of education through
the project and collaboration at European level.
Education
To achieve the first objective a series of workshops were organized in new locations (Belvi –Sardinia,
Mangalia and Albesti) with the purpose of sensitizing young people and adults to ancient and tra‑
ditional technologies. During the workshops the website of the project (with its 3D reconstructi‑
ons in Virtual and Mixed Reality) was utilized as an educational instrument. The experiments were
carried out with three traditional materials: glass, ceramics and metal.
In central Sardinia, in the Commune of Belvi, children and adults worked along our experimen‑
talist as part of the summer school ISSEP program that extended the invitation to the Time Maps
team, (see http://timemaps.net/timemap/belvi). In Mangalia and Albesti children from the local
schools and from a neighboring village (Pecineaga) attended the workshops. The event in Mangalia
also saw the organization of an online conference in collaboration with the archaeologists from the
Callatis Museum.
At the Technical University of Vienna a round table was organized in collaboration with
Associate Professor Meinhard Breiling in order to plan future experiments in the Letea region.
This year an agreement of collaboration was signed between Time Maps and UNATC Bucharest,
to produce a series of cyber‑theatre experiments, as stated in the list of project tasks. Two students
from UNATC worked with Time Maps’ team at a series of re‑enactments and several scanning sessi‑
ons to create virtual characters for the virtual reconstructions (see http://timemaps.net/timemap/
mangalia). This year we adopted a hyper‑realistic approach to reality in order to experiment cer‑
tain new techniques and also because of the high educational effect this approach possesses, tes‑
ted with the reconstructions of Kallatis and Albesti (see http://timemaps.net/timemap/albesti).
In order to also involve the adult population in the educational process of presenting the local
history and ancient technologies, a series of video movies of our re‑enactments were projected in
the town of Mangalia on the facade of the local museum building.
The level of complexity of the virtual reconstructions was raised by introducing scanned live
characters and scanned images at the “virtual museums” headings, and used not only UnityPro 3D
(which is now restricted only to Mozilla browsers), but also different types of virtual reconstructions.
Website
In 2015 three new pages were added, two displaying sites from Romania (Mangalia and Albesti), and
one from Sardinia (Belvi). The website continues to function as a European platform of archaeology,
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art and science, and this autumn it was presented in Glasgow (at the European Association of
Archaeology Annual Meeting) and Vienna (at the 20th International Conference on Cultural Heritage
and New Technologies CHNT 2015). The Mangalia and Albesti pages contain archaeological recon‑
structions in Virtual Reality with video hot spots presenting re‑enactments and scanned objects
and live characters dressed in historical costumes. The respective Virtual Museums also contains
scanned objects from the Callatis Museum collection. To create the 3D reconstructions and videos,
the research team employed BA, MA and PhD level students, as well as the archaeologists from the
Callatis Museum. At the same time the information on the blog and FB was updated.
The innovative aspect of this year virtual reconstructions, is represented by the scanning of
real characters dressed with ancient Greek costumes modeled after Tanagra figurines, which were
integrated in the 3D reconstruction of an ancient Greek house created in 3Dmax.
The project director coordinated the work of one MA design student for the 3D reconstructions
and of two PhD students (for film making in Mangalia and Albesti, and ancient ceramic technologies
in Belvi). Associate Professor Dan Popovici coordinated the work of one PhD student (for ancient
glass technologies), and two BA students (for glass melting and blowing in Mangalia). The work of
his students was presented in a provisional exhibition in November in the Callatis Museum, during
the experiments. He also presented his 2015 work at the Annual Glass Exhibition in Bucharest.
This year the involvement of children from primary schools was extensive; the Mangalia and
Albesti workshops were attended by 150 children from the towns and surrounding villages.
The former PhD students continued their work with the project; thus Alexandra Rusu organized a
video‑conference with an e‑learning course on ancient textiles in Mangalia, and Adrian Serbanescu
delivered a lecture in Skopje about Time Maps, made and edited video films for the video‑confe‑
rence in Macedonia and for an e‑learning lesson at the NUA (the process of making Tanagra figuri‑
nes). PhD student Eng. Livia Stefan defended her PhD thesis (“E‑learning systems based on advanced
technologies in 3D virtual spaces”) which deals specifically with the implementation of 3D online
virtual worlds, a work with educational impact, especially for the Romanian education system. Her
work is mainly based on the experience accumulated during the research within the Time Maps
project. Her research subjects in 2015 were: gamification as a stimulus for student learning motiva‑
tion, new VR technologies (KINECT sensors, and HMD helmets), 3D technologies for web without
the use of plugins, as alternatives for Unity3d, “structure‑from‑motion” photogrammetry. Aside
from the research program Dr. Stefan performed all the work concerning the post‑processing and
loading of content on the website, made “machinima” film for mobile devices, elaborated virtual
communities (Facebook, Google+) for the new locations in Romania, created AR mini‑applicati‑
ons on Aurasma and a film for Monte Velho, carried several demonstrations with the website for
students at Luica’s school and the NUA’s Design Department, and presented her work with mobile
applications in Skopje (as a video‑conference), Bucharest (eLSE conference), Lisbon (CSEDU con‑
ference) and Vienna (CHNT conference). Additionally, she contributed as co‑author of two papers
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to be published in the British Archaeological Reports in Oxford, and two to be published by the
CHNT and eLSE conferences.
Holding a statute of external collaborators, the following NUA PhD students worked under
the director’s coordination to support the research team: Ioana Stelea (ancient glass technologies),
Vlad Basarab (traditional and contemporary ceramics), Sever Popescu Petrovici (video) and Alina
Gurguţa (fashion design).
Workshops
Continuing the idea that the workshops’ role is to “inform the new communities of the project
approach, and to enable the experiments with ancient technologies to be carried out with the par‑
ticipation of local pupils”, in July 2015 a series of experiments with traditional technologies were
conducted in a traditional European community in central Sardinia, Commune di Belvi, which repre‑
sented a novel experience for the research team. Due to the financial constraints of the 2015 fun‑
ding, the expenses for transportation and accommodation were absorbed by the Municipality of
Belvi, through the summer school ISSEP coordinated by Dr. Giusi Gradoli.
In July, in Belvi, the project’s director and Ion Dimcea built an up‑draught kiln with perfora‑
ted platform to fire the objects produced by children and adults, coordinated by PhD student Vlad
Basarab. The other experiments conducted were the melting and casting of Bronze Age Nuragic
bronzetti figurines by Catalin Oancea and Ileana Oancea, which also attracted a large audience
(http://timemaps.net/timemap/belvi/).
Professor Andreea Hasnas, assisted by the local iron smith Andrea Marotto, created a life‑size
figurine copied after a Nuragic statue, which was positioned in a public space.
During the Belvi workshops the research team was helped by the Commune’s Major Sebastiano
Casula who worked alongside the ceramicists.
In June the team built an up‑draught kiln for ceramics and a furnace for glass melting in the
Callatis Museum courtyard in Mangalia. Here again, due to financial constraints, the accommoda‑
tion expenses were covered by the local municipality. A collaboration agreement between the NUA
(represented by Time Maps) and the Callatis Museum was signed on this occasion. Also in June
the archaeologists from the museum organized a workshop for the research team, to present the
museum’s objects and a fortified farm at the site of Albesti, a Hellenistic village in relationship with
the ancient Greek city of Kallatis (now Mangalia).
In October a two days’ workshop was organized in the museum courtyard, focused on the pro‑
cess of making vases and figurines, engraving glass and working metal with the children from diffe‑
rent local schools, firing clay objects in the up‑draught kiln, as well as pressing in moulds and blowing
glass in the furnace. The experiments were coordinated by the director of the project helped by
Associate Professor Dan Popovici, Lecturer Ovidiu Ionescu and the model expert Ion Dimcea. The
BA, MA and PhD students from the UNA acted as instructors. The workshops attracted a large
number of participants both local and from the city of Constanta.
E‑learning
The e‑learning program to teach traditional textiles’ making was continued by Dr. Alexandra Rusu;
she established an online dialogue between the NUA and the Callatis Museum representatives and
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succeeded in presenting information on traditional textiles to a public formed by students of diffe‑
rent ages from two Mangalia schools. She also produced a video conference which was presented
in Skopje.
A series of experiments with ancient technologies were photographed or filmed, such as the
preparation of clay, or the making in moulds of the female figurines called Tanagra. Another expe‑
riment presented involved the Roman technique of pressing the melted glass into moulds.
European Network
The European collaboration was continued in 2015 by participation in international events, new
foreign contributions to the website, and by video‑conferences.
In March the project director and Lecturer Adrian Serbanescu participated to an interna‑
tional conference (“Settlements, culture and population dynamics in Balkan prehistory”) at the
Skopje Museum in Macedonia. A pre‑congress lecture was organized to present the Time Maps
project to an international audience. After the two speakers’ presentation a series of video‑lec‑
tures were provided by Drs. Alexandra Rusu, Livia Stefan and Davide Delfino (Portugal). The pro‑
ject director gave the opening speech at the congress, presenting the message of the International
Scientific Committee.
As a consequence of the presentation of the project a series of requests for collaboration
came from Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece, establishing a future Time Maps network in the Balkans.
The experiments carried out in Belvi and Mangalia were first scientific, since they studied the cha‑
înes‑opératoires and ergonomics of ancient technologies, and secondly artistic, since they presen‑
ted to the public the beauty of these technologies.
During the workshops in Mangalia Associate Professor Dan Popovici coordinated two expe‑
riments to reproduce the Roman vases from the museum’s collection, and one with pressed mol‑
ten glass into moulds.
The project’s director coordinated the construction of two up‑draught kilns (In Belvi and
Mangalia), built by the model expert Ion Dimcea. Together with Vlad Basarab and Ovidiu Ionescu
they fired different types of objects made by students and professionals. Associate Professor Ilie
Rusu created moulds for pressing Tanagra clay figurines which were fired in the kiln mentioned above
and Professor Bogdan Hojbota made an ancient crown and the replicas of the most important metal
objects found in Mangalia. In addition to the making of the Tanagra replicas, studies of ancient costu‑
mes were conducted by the collaborators from the Fashion Department, Associate Professor Paula
Barbu and PhD student Alina Gurguta. The UNA’s collaboration with National University of Theatre
and Film I.L. Caragiale (UNATC) allowed the performances in the re‑enactments to attain a high
degree of realism and aestheticism, due to the genuine play of actors dressed in ancient costumes.
One other type of archaeological experiment conducted was metal casting. The modeling
of wax and the casting in clay moulds, together with the use of clay pipes to blow air revealed new
minute details of this technological process. Catalin Oancea reproduced accurately all the signifi‑
cant bronze objects specific to the Nuraghe culture.
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One of the miniature bronze figurines was transferred into another dimensional scale by
Professor Andreea Hasnas, transforming it into a public space monument in Belvi.
Experiments with land‑art and installations to reveal “invisible” archaeological or anthropo‑
logical traits were carried out by the project director in Teti and Birru i Concas in Sardinia, and in
Vadastra, in southern Romania, where he highlighted the Western palisade of the Chalcolithic settle‑
ment (see http://www.panoramio.com/user/8058979).
Dissemination
The project and its results were presented in high culture at one international conference (Skopje),
at the European Association of Archaeologists’ meeting (Glasgow), in several publications (as book
chapters), in a museum proceedings (Abrantes), and on the website. In folk culture the project was
presented at a conference in a Sard (Belvi) and a Romanian (Albesti) village.
Participation at conferences
• Gheorghiu, D., 2015, The Time Maps Project, Settlements, culture and population dynamics in Balkan
prehistory, Skopje.
• Gheorghiu, D., 2015, Linear drawing in archaeology: Between representation and metaphor, European
Association of Archaeology Meeting, Glasgow.
• Gheorghiu, D., 2015, Chalcolithic architectures of fire: Air‑draught, space and agency, European Association
of Archaeology Meeting, Glasgow.
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2015, e‑learning portals and mobile personal learning environments as new
learning ecosystems, 11th International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education
(eLSE), Bucharest.
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2015, Preserving Monuments In The Memory Of Local Communities Using
Immersive MAR Applications As Educational Tools, The 10th International Conference on Virtual Learning,
Universitatea de Vest, Timisoara.
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2015, Augmenting Immersion: The Implementation Of The Real World In
Virtual Reality, The 20th International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies CHNT 2015,
Vienna, Austria.
• Ştefan, L. , 2015. Mixed‑Reality Adaptive 3D Multi‑User Online Communities Of Practice In Academic
Education Tackling Students Motivation And Teachers’ Self‑Efficacy, Doctoral Consortium of the
International Conference on Computer Supported Education CSEDU 2015 (DCCSEDU 2015), Lisbon.
• Serbanescu, A., 2015, The Time Maps Project, Settlements, culture and population dynamics in Balkan
prehistory, Skopje.
Sessions organized
• Gheorghiu, D. (with Pitman D.), 2015, Architectures of fire: Processes, space and agency in pyrotechnolo‑
gies, European Association of Archaeology Meeting, Glasgow.
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Exhibitions
One exhibition with the work of the research team in Vadastra was organized by Dr. Giusi Gradoli at
the Municipality of Belvi. At the Callatis Museum Associate Professor Dan Popovici and PhD student
Ioana Stelea organized an exhibition of engraved glass with antique patterns. Professor Popovici
also presented his 2015 work at the Annual Glass Exhibition in Bucharest.
Virtual exhibitions
Professor Dragos Gheorghiu posted on Panoramio a land‑art produced in Vadastra and two art
installations from Sardinia (Teti and Birru e Concas). At Mangalia the re‑enactments were presen‑
ted as video‑projections of the wall of the Callatis Museum during the period of the workshops.
Conclusion
In spite of the financial difficulties experienced, the year 2015 was productive for the scientific and
art experiments, as well as for the educational and information dissemination activities due to the
national and international collaboration initiatives. Two new Romanian communities and one from
Sardinia have adhered to the project and a great number of young people became involved enthu‑
siastically. The new results of the archaeology and art experiments, including the Virtual Reality
experiments, were presented at international conferences (Skopje, Glasgow and Vienna) and to
foreign communities (Belvi) and were received with much interest. The different virtual reconstruc‑
tions with scanned characters and objects allowed an advanced experientiality of the Past, so the
future plans are to intensify this aspect of the project and the collaboration with UNATC for crea‑
ting a cybertheatre.
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Research Report
2016
80
2016 saw the validation of the approaches applied during the previous years, as well as the gathe‑
ring of the resulting conclusions; it was also a year during which the accumulated multi‑year results
were disseminated via multiple channels.
The technological experiments conducted this year attempted to provide solutions to several pro‑
blems which arose during the previous years. Associate Professor Dan Popovici coordinated a series
of experiments involving the creation of replicas of Roman vases with thin walls using blown glass,
and continued to experiment with glass engraving. Under his supervision PhD student Ioana Stelea
attempted to perform engravings using different hard stones, especially rock crystal. With the kind
assistance of the Callatis Museum manager the doctoral student was provided access to a series
of engraved Roman pieces, which she studied under the microscope and compared them with the
results from her previous experiments. Also in Mangalia, two other PhD students, Vlad Basarab and
Florin Sirbu, working under the supervision of Professor Dragos Gheorghiu, continued the construc‑
tion of the ceramic up‑draught kiln and performed an experiment with objects modelled by them
and by Associate Professor Ilie Rusu.
The IT experiments focused on the concept of insertion of the real in the virtual were conti‑
nued by student Marius Hodea under the supervision of the project director; more accurate scan‑
ned images of objects and characters were obtained this year, which were then inserted in the virtual
reconstructions of architectural spaces. An example of this is the virtual museum of the Mangalia
page within the Time Maps website.
Various art experiments were conducted during this period. The land‑art experiments of
Professor Dragos Gheorghiu continued to reveal prehistorical settlements, this time by means of
iconic images. Aerial photographs of the land‑art created in Vadastra in September 2016 have been
posted on Panoramio and Google Earth, thus presenting to the world a new, heretofore « invisible»
site. Another example of contemporary art was the installation created by PhD student Ioana Stelea
under the supervision of Associate Professor Dan Popovici within the exhibition organized at the
Library of the Romanian Academy. The installation represented a metaphor of a Roman engraving
workshop and incorporated contemporary creations alongside replicas of ancient objects, thus
demonstrating the continuation of the engraving techniques over the years.
The cybertheatre experiments involving several avatars, coordinated by Dr. Eng. Livia Stefan
and Professor Dragos Gheorghiu represent another contribution to contemporary art, by illustra‑
ting the profound connection between science and art today.
Education
During the current year of experimentations there was an important improvement in the presen‑
tation of the local history on each web page of the Time Maps communities achieved through the
refinement of the mixture of the real with the virtual.
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This year saw the continued involvement of new MA and PhD students in project activities, both in
the areas of illustration and 3D reconstructions. New doctoral students from the 2016 fall session,
which collaborated on the project during previous years will continue the development of the Time
Maps project in IT area (immersion in virtual reconstructions—Marius Hodea), cartography and art
research (Stefan Ungureanu) and ancient ceramic technologies (Florentin Sirbu).
Former PhD students, which conducted project research (Livia Stefan, Alexandra Rusu, Adrian
Serbanescu), continued their collaborative work, the application of the results of the doctoral
research and the coordination of the activities of students from the NUA.
Art Therapy
A special case of validation of the project was the application of the working methods and the expe‑
rimentation of the virtual spaces at the Special School Valenii de Munte, where the team worked
with children afflicted by mental handicaps of varying degrees. Two workshops involving traditional
technologies where organized, the objectives being to test the simplest methods of transmission of
the technical information, and the organization of an exhibition at the Cultural Center during the
International Festival of theatre and masques for primary and secondary schools. Following the suc‑
cess of these initial endeavors, the NUA will continue to be involved in the future in order to offer
courses of art therapy.
Website as an Educational Network
During the last few years the Time Maps website has been developed as a European platform for
addressing science from a humanistic perspective and also for the application of this method in edu‑
cation. In Romania an educational network comprising NUA and the schools involved in the project
was set up. The web pages of the European sites have functioned as a model of the experimental
approach to the past; thus their web links, posted on the Romanian pages, augmented the informa‑
tion provided in connection with certain topics. As can be seen on the Time Maps home page (on
the world map) the Romanian sites cover a large geographical area and span a lengthy chronological
period, ranging from prehistory (Vadastra, Taga, Cucuteni), to the Greek‑Roman period (Mangalia,
Albesti, Vadastra), to the early Medieval Age (Luica), and until the end of the Medieval Age and the
beginning of the modern period (Valenii de Munte).
In 2016 three new pages were added, two displaying sites from Romania (Valenii de Munte and
Cucuteni), and one from Greece (Elis).
The Valenii de Munte and Cucuteni pages contain archaeological reconstructions in Virtual
Reality, packaged as video tours, and rich e‑Learning and workshop content.
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The Mangalia and Albesti webpages were updated with new content on the e‑learning and VR
pages. At Mangalia two historical layers were added: one for the Hellenistic period and one for the
modern period. For the Hellenistic level two video tours were uploaded, in which scanned objects
and live characters dressed in historical costumes are embedded. The link for the Modern period
leads to a complex panoramic tour, representing a mix of scenes of today’s “Callatis” Archaeological
Museum, scanned with photogrammetry techniques, and 3D reconstructions of the museum walls
and objects. The VR content was created by MA student Marius Hodea, under the coordination of
Professor Dragos Gheorghiu.
The Luica webpages were updated with Virtual Reality content, representing a virtual tour of
a reconstructed semi‑subterranean house from the Early Middle Ages.
To improve the relationship of the NUA with the different schools within the Time Maps vir‑
tual community, a new “Skype” button was created. At the same time the information on the blog
and project’s social network profiles (Facebook, Google+ and Twitter) was updated.
The Vadastra pages of mobile‑learning and Second Life were also updated, to reflect the new
research and development performed during 2016 and to expand the Augmented and Virtual Reality
experiences. The AR applications were migrated to Aurasma, a more stable AR platform, which
better supports AR scenarios and 3D content. The work was performed by Dr. Eng. Livia Stefan.
The 3D content was optimized by Marius Hodea.
The Second Life page was renamed “3D cyber‑communities” and contains captures of the
3D virtual world “Time Maps cyber‑community” created on the OpenSimulator platform, the
open‑source and free version of Second Life metaverse. This online 3D simulator contains a Roman
amphitheater, a prehistoric house, and a series of ancient objects, and was designed to be employed
for real time learning, social meetings and cyber‑theater. The simulator allows different users (tea‑
chers, students and their invitees, e.g. Dr. Davide Delfino and Dr. Sara Cura from ITM Portugal) to
be represented by their avatars and to personalize them by their appearance (look and clothing).
A NPC (Non‑Player Character) was also created as a woman dressed in an ancient Greek costume,
which is programmed to perform as a virtual guide. The simulator was designed and implemented
by Dr. Eng. Livia Stefan, and the MA students Marius Hodea. Iulia Chera and Cristian Cramarenco
created a set of 3D reconstructions under the coordination of Professor Dragos Gheorghiu.
The work concerning the post‑processing and loading of content on the Wordpress platform,
on which the website is implemented, was completed by Dr. Eng. Livia Stefan. She also optimized the
video content for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), maintained the virtual communities
(Facebook, Google+) of the project and created social profiles for the new Romanian communities.
E‑learning
The courses transmitted by Skype continued to be organized by UNA and the project schools. For
example, at Mangalia, the e‑learning lessons have presented the moulding of a Tanagra ceramic figu‑
rine from the local museum (performed by Associate Professor Ilie Rusu), followed by the design of
ancient Greek costumes, figured on these statues (performed by Associate Professor Paula Barbu).
The e‑learning program to teach traditional textiles’ making was continued by Dr. Alexandra
Rusu; she established an online dialogue between the NUA, and the schools from Vadastra and Luica.
At the same time, Dr. Livia Stefan conducted several demonstrations with the website for stu‑
dents at the Luica and Vadastra schools during distant e‑learning sessions or at several meetings
and events, such as “Scoala Altfel”. She also stressed the idea that project schools should develop
and conduct networking activities, by taking advantage of the virtual community supported by the
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Time Maps website, Facebook and Google+ profiles, and multi‑participant Skype sessions (currently
allowed directly from the website, with the newly added “Skype” button).
Dissemination
During 2016 the dissemination activities have been focused on the social dimension of the project, as
well as on validation of the results, i.e. by organizing workshops with significant social visibility, exhi‑
bitions with visibility at different cultural levels, presentation of the relationship between art and
archaeology at the World Archaeology Congress in Kyoto, and participation in a conference on the
psychology of education. The project was presented at the Library of the Romanian Academy, was
integrated in the Summer School in Valenii de Munte, in the cultural event Museums Night Feast at
the Callatis Museum, in the cultural event UAP “Arts in Bucharest”. These types of exposure were
sought as we wished that the project be accessed by larger and more diverse categories of public
users, from different cultural areas.
Workshops
The workshops involved the participation of large groups of visitors, such as those from Mangalia,
during the Museums Night Feast, May 21, 2016, when the following presentations were performed
in the downtown: a) the VR reconstructions of the ancient towns of Callatis and Albesti (Scientific
coordinator: Professor Dragos Gheorghiu. 3D; b) reconstructions and performance with Oculus HD
(Marius Hodea MA). Teachers and students from the schools involved in the project also participa‑
ted in a workshop titled “O altfel de scoala” (“A different school”) during the event “Scoala Altfel”,
(workshop organized in the NUA laboratories with the Time Maps team, on April 20, 2016.
Within this activities’ category a special case were the workshops organized at the Special
School, Valenii de Munte, 11 June, and 26 September 2016, when the Time Maps team (Dan Popovici,
Paula Barbu, Livia Stefan) and contributors (Ioana Stelea si Marius Hodea) provided sessions of
art therapy.
Associate Professor Dan Popovici attended on the 9th–13th of April the Romanian–Turkish pot‑
tery workshop on the topic of “The woman akimbo / Eli Belinda, common cultural values”, organized
in Istanbul by the Romanian Cultural Institute in collaboration with the University of Istanbul and
the National University of Arts of Bucharest. Dan Popovici’s work develops the theme of impressi‑
ons with suggestions of the figurative representations of the Cucuteni Neolithic culture, similar to
those from the Anatolian plateau.
A workshop for the NUA students was organized by Ion Dimcea demonstrating a 3D printing
of virtual objects, scanned after the original artifacts from the Callatis Museum.
• Dragos Gheorghiu, 2016, A representation of wetland in the Pre‑Pottery Neolithic metonymic landsca‑
pes at Gobekli Tepe, 4th International Landscape Archaeology Conference, 22nd–25th August 2016
Proceedings, Uppsala University, pp. 69–70.
84
• Gheorghiu, D., Stefan, L., 2016, Mobile‑Learning in a Rural Community. Problems of the Psychology
of Learning in Context at Primary and Secondary School Students, Ist International Conference of
Psychology—From Individual to Society—Applied Psychology for a Sustainable Community, 22–23
September 2016, Brasov.
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2016, Experimental online solutions for teaching traditional crafts, 12th
International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education (eLSE), Bucharest, 21–22 April.
• Rusu, A., Gheorghiu, D., 2016, Blended learning practices in artistic education. The “Time Maps” pro‑
ject experience, 12th International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education (eLSE),
Bucharest, 21–22 April.
• Stefan, L., 2016, Virtual worlds in online Education and Training—an evaluation report, 12th International
Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education (eLSE), Bucharest, 21–22 April.
• Popovici, D., 2016, Glass art at the National University of Arts from Bucharest, Conference organized by
the Romanian Cultural Institute in collaboration with the University of Istanbul and National University
of Arts Bucharest, Istanbul, 9–13 April.
Sessions Organized
• T14–J. Art‑Archaeology: Art as Inspiration for Archaeologists. Organiser(s): Dragos Gheorghiu (National
University of Art / Romania) and Jose‑Roberto Pellini (Universidade Federal de Sergipe / Brazil).
http://wac8.org/academic‑program/accepted‑sessions‑2/ast14/
• T09–C. A Future Archaeology of Senses?
Organiser(s): José Roberto Pellini (Sensorial Archaeology Laboratory / Brazil) and Dragos Gheorghiu
(National University of Arts, Romania / Romania).
http://wac8.org/academic‑program/accepted‑sessions‑2/ast09/
Posters
• Dragos Gheorghiu, eARTh: Using land‑art in archaeology, WAC Kyoto.

• Dragos Gheorghiu, Experiential archaeology: Approaching material culture through the senses, WAC Kyoto.
Exhibitions
• “Time Maps. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented pasts”, Mangalia, 5–9 October.

• “The Maps of Time. Ancient techniques. Contemporary approaches”, Galeria 15 Design, Hanul cu Tei,
Bucharest, 12–25 September.
• “Time Maps. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented pasts”, The Library of the Romanian
Academy, Bucharest, 1–2 September.
• “Time Maps”, Nicolae Iorga Memorial House, Valenii de Munte, 13–15 August.
• “The Mask”, Centrul Cultural Valenii de Munte, 13 May.
85
Virtual Exhibitions
Professor Dragos Gheorghiu posted on Panoramio and Google Maps a land‑art produced in Vadastra
to make visible other features of the Vadastra site. The virtual museum, available on the Mangalia
page within the Time Maps website, presents the most representative archaeological pieces from
the Callatis site, the interior of the painted tomb from Documaci, near the Callatis fortress, as
well as a series of scanned real characters, which appear in different re‑enactments. The virtual
museum represented student Marius Hodea’s masters diploma project, coordinated by Professor
Dragos Gheorghiu.
Finally, the videos of the most important exhibitions of the project were posted on You Tube.
Conclusions
At the end of the last year of the project it is evident that the initial research objective was com‑
pletely fulfilled: “the extension of the methodological base and knowledge regarding the synthesis
between art and science, and growth of the capacity of research and social use of the results of the
research, by means of the elaboration of a methodological frame to study and to apply into soci‑
ety the relationship between art and science; by the elaboration of an experimental frame for the
recovery and social reinsertion of ancient technologies, and by the elaboration of a specific frame of
action for the dissemination of the results of the project”. In addition, two intermediary goals were
also fulfilled: “the education through the project and the set‑up of a European network”.
The conclusion of the current research year, as well as those previous years, is that the science
and art mix can develop into a strong instrument of the contemporary world, able to act both in
the IT area and for the salvation of the intangible heritage. This mix is able to revitalize modern art,
as well ancient technologies and represents an efficient educational instrument. Furthermore, the
science and art mix has also proved to be an efficient instrument for approaching the Past.
Metaphorical images act on the imagination both in science and in art. Also, both art and
the technologies possess a dimension of performance, which in turn features an immersive cha‑
racteristic. The senses are active in an art performance as well as in an immersion in Virtual Reality.
The involvement and consciousness of the involvement has a strong mnemonic feature and is
consequently educational.
The experiments we performed have demonstrated that the technologies seen as performan‑
ces are both an art form and a form of learning. The artistic performance, and her art‑science rela‑
tive which is the re‑enactment have in common a ludic character. It is precisely this ludic character
that was exploited in the reconstructed historical scenes, or in the IT applications on mobile devi‑
ces, such as “Archaeology at home” from 2013, which enabled the children in Vadastra to learn the
local history by playing, while searching and scanning (using smartphones) for the archaeological
virtual objects hidden in the archaeological site.
The mixture of art and science also has a strong social characteristic, due to the fact that it is
able to facilitate the access of the larger public to some domains of science or art. The activities
focused on demonstrating and presenting the experimental archaeology to the broader public had
an important role. An arid lesson of technology would not be easily received nor assimilated, if it
would not present the ineffable features of the analogical thinking which art is able to offer. In the
case of the Time Maps project, the re‑enactments and the metaphors fulfilled with land‑art and
installations offered this ferment for stimulating the archaeological and artistic imagination.
86
During the years of elaborating the project, the Time Maps team and their contributors and
collaborators from numerous Romanian and foreign schools and institutions have created and wor‑
ked within a network of ideas, archaeological or simple technological experiments and artistic cre‑
ations, which they shared, and finally have become a real community, functioning in an immersive
and mixed virtual and real environment, and which shall experiment in the future years the Past to
determine the Future.
To all I am grateful!
Prof. univ. dr. arh. Dragos Gheorghiu
87
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Bibliography
Publications 2016
Articles
• Gheorghiu, D., Stefan, L. (in press), Transdisciplinary teaching and learning using mobile technologies,
Leonardo Almanach, MIT Press.
• Gheorghiu, D., Stefan, L. (in press), Mobile‑Learning in a Rural Community. Problems of the Psychology
of Learning in Context at Primary and Secondary School Students, Bulletin of the Transilvania University
of Braşov Series VII: Social Sciences Law, Vol. 9 (59) No. 2—2016 (to be indexed ISI Thomson).
• Ştefan L., Moldoveanu F., Gheorghiu D., 2016, Evaluating a mixed‑reality 3D Virtual Campus with Big Data
and Learning Analytics: a transversal study, Journal of e‑Learning and Knowledge Society (to be indexed
SCOPUS and ISI Thomson), v.12, n.2, 41–54. ISSN: 1826‑6223, e‑ISSN:1971‑8829.
• Gheorghiu, D., 2016, Experiencing a prehistoric ritual, Pleistocene Coalition News, Issue #40,
March–April 2016.
• http://pleistocenecoalition.com/newsletter/march‑april2016.pdf
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2016, Experimental online solutions for teaching traditional crafts, Proceedings
of 12th International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education (eLSE), Bucharest,
21–22 April, “Carol I” National Defence University Publishing House, vol. II, pp. 373–379 (to be indexed
ISI Proceedings).
• Stefan, L., 2016, Virtual worlds in online Education and Training—an evaluation report, Proceedings of 12th
International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education (eLSE), Bucharest, 21–22 April,
“Carol I” National Defence University Publishing House, vol. II, pp. 453–459 (to be indexed ISI Proceedings).
• Rusu, A., Gheorghiu, D., 2016, Blended learning practices in artistic education. The “Time Maps” project
experience, Proceedings of 12th International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education
(eLSE), Bucharest, 21–22 April, “Carol I” National Defence University Publishing House, vol. III, pp. 612–619
(to be indexed ISI Proceedings).
• L. Ştefan and D. Gheorghiu. 2016. Participative teaching for K‑12 students with mobile devices and social
networks, in Gabriela Tabacaru (ed.), BRAIN. Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience,
Volume 7, No.3, pp. 94–114.
• Book chapters
• Delfino, D., Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L. 2016. Archaeological research and applied arts for Public Archaeology
in a Final Bronze Age hilltop walled station of Castelo Velho da Zimbreira (Mação‑Portugal), in Quagliuolo,
M. and Delfino, D. (eds), Quality Management of Cultural Heritage Problems and best practices,
Proceedings of the XVII UISPP World Congress (1–7 September, Burgos, Spain). Volume 8 / Session A13,
ISBN 9781784912956, pp. 21–34, Oxford, Archaeopress.
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L. 2016. Virtual palimpsests: augmented reality and the use of mobile devices to
visualise the archaeological record, in Quagliuolo, M. and Delfino, D. (eds), Quality Management of Cultural
Heritage Problems and best practices, Proceedings of the XVII UISPP World Congress (1–7 September,
Burgos, Spain). Volume 8 / Session A13, ISBN 9781784912956, pp. 35–48, Oxford, Archaeopress.
• Gheorghiu, D., 2016, Building and burning, in Nikolova, L. (ed.), Early Euro‑Pontic culture and ambience
and pattern. In memory of Eugen Comsa, Warshaw/Berlin, De Gruyter Open.
Books
Paula Barbu. 2016. Volumetria modei. Unarte, Bucharest
99
Publications 2015
Books
• Gheorghiu, D. and Bouissac, P. (eds.), How do we imagine the past? On metaphorical thought, experienti‑
ality and imagination in archaeology, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Articles and book chapters
• Gheorghiu, D., 2015, A river runs through it: The semiotics of Gobekli Tepe’s map (an exercise of archae‑
ological imagination), pp.65–76. Vianello, A., (ed.), Rivers in prehistory, Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing.
• Gheorghiu, D., (in press), Imagining and illustrating the archaeological record: The power of evocation
and augmentation of linear drawing, in Valdez‑Tullet, J. and Chittock H. (eds.), Archaeology with art,
Highfields Press.
• Gheorghiu, D., (in press), Lighting in reconstructed contexts: Archaeological experiments and experientia‑
lity with pyrotechnologies, in Papadopoulos, C., (ed.) Light in archaeology, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Gheorghiu, D. (in press), Exotica, skeuomorphs, and the problem of materiality in south east Europe
Chalcolithic, in Besse, M.,and Guillaine, J. (eds.), Materials, productions, exchange networks and their
impact on the societies of Neolithic Europe, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, Archaeopress.
• Gheorghiu, D. (in press), Emotión y sentidos indisciplinados en arqueología experiencial, in Pellini, J.,
Salerna, M., Zarakin, A., Arqueologia con Sentidos, Madrid, JAS Arqueologia.
• Gheorghiu, D., 2015, Immersive approaches in built contexts. Constructing the archaeological images and
imaginary, in Gheorghiu, D. and Bouissac, P. (eds.), How do we imagine the past? On metaphorical thou‑
ght, experientiality and imagination in archaeology, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Pubishing.
• Gheorghiu, D., 2015, Sensing the Past. The Sensorial experience in experiential archaeology by augmen‑
ting the perception of materiality, pp. 119–140. In Pellini, J., Zarakin, A., and Salerno, M.A. (eds.), Coming
to senses. Topics in sensory archaeology, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Pubishing.
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2015, e‑learning portals and mobile personal learning environments as new lear‑
ning ecosystems, Proceeding of the 11th International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for
Education (eLSE), Bucharest, 25–26 April 2015, “Carol I” National Defence University Publishing House,
ISSN: 2066‑026X‑15‑104, vol. III, pp. 569–575 (ISI Proceedings indexed).
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2015, Virtual Palimpsests: Augmented Reality And The Use Of Mobile Devices To
Visualise The Archaeological Record, in Quagliuolo, M.; Delfino, D. (eds) Quality Management of Cultural
Heritage: problems and good practices, Proceedings of the U.I.S.P.P. Congress 2014, Oxford, Archaeopress.
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., (in press) Augmenting Immersion: The Implementation Of The Real World
In Virtual Reality, The 20th International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies CHNT
2015, Vienna.
• Ştefan, L., 2015, Mixed‑Reality Adaptive 3D Multi‑User Online Communities Of Practice In Academic
Education Tackling Students Motivation And Teachers’ Self‑Efficacy, Doctoral Consortium of the 7th
International Conference on Computer Supported Education CSEDU, Lisbon, SCITEPRESS Digital Library,
pp. 16–22.
• Ştefan, L., Gheorghiu, D., 2015, e‑Cultural Tourism for Highlighting the “Invisible” Communities—
Elaboration of Cultural Routes Using Augmented Reality for Mobile Devices (MAR), in Musteaţă S. and
Caliniuc Ş. (eds.), Current Trends in Archaeological Heritage Preservation: National and International
Perspectives, Proceedings of The International Conference, Iaşi, Romania, 2013, BAR International Series
2741, ISBN:9781407314006, 2015, Oxford, Archaeopress.
• Ştefan, L., Gheorghiu, D., 2015, Virtual MIAA in Mobile Augmented Reality. A digital approach to the future
museum in Abrantes, Actas Das IV E V Jornadas Internacionais Do MIAA Museu Ibérico De Arqueologia
e Arte, pp.51–54.
100
• Gheorghiu, D., Ştefan, L., 2015, Preserving Monuments In The Memory Of Local Communities Using
Immersive MAR Applications As Educational Tools, In (eds.) Vlada, M., Albeanu, G., Adascalitei, A.,
Popovici, M., Proceedings of ICVL 2015—The 10th International Conference on Virtual Learning, Bucharest,
University of Bucharest Publishing House, (ISSN 1844‑8933, ISI Proceedings), pp. 440–446.
• Burghelea, V., Gheorghiu, D., 2015, Ceramica medieval timpurie (secolele IX‑XI) de la Radovanu, punctul
“Valea Coadelor”, judetul Calarasi (analize ceramice), Archaeology of the first millennium A.D.. Nomads
and autochtonous in the first millennium A.D., Istros, pp.495–516.
101
Publications 2014
• D. Gheorghiu and D. Delfino, 2014, Mapping invisible communities: The Time Maps Project, Mapping
Culture, In Centro de Pré‑História (ed.), O Ideário Patrimonial, Portugal:Centro de Pré‑História.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2014, Building, Burning, Digging and Imagining: Trying to Approach the Prehistoric Dwelling.
Experiments Conducted by the National University of Arts in Romania, in Reeves Flores, J. and R. P.
Paardekooper (eds.), Experiments Past. Histories of Experimental Archaeology, Leiden: Sidestone Press.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2014, The Domestication of Space: The Geometry of Dwellings vs. Nature’s Chaos (An
anthropological and experimental approach to Chalcolithic planning), pp. 83–96. In Preoteasa, C., and
Nicola C. D. (eds.) L’Impact anthropique sur l’environnement Durant le neo‑Enéolithique du Sud‑Est de
l’Europe, Piatra Neamt: Constantin Matasa.
• D. Gheorghiu, (in press), Sensing the past (The sensorial experience in experiential archaeology by aug‑
menting the perception of materiality), In Pellini, J. R. (ed.), Sensorial Archaeology, Newcastle upon Tyne,
UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• D. Gheorghiu, (in press), Immersive approaches to built contexts. Constructing the archaeological images
and imaginary, In Gheorghiu, D. si Bouissac, P. (eds.), How do we imagine the past? On metaphorical thought,
experientiality and imagination in archaeology, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• D. Gheorghiu and D. Delfino, 2014, Mapping invisible communities: The Time Maps Project, O Ideario
Patrimonial (digital publication edited by the Prehistoric Centre, Polytechnic Institute of Tomar).
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Ştefan, 2014, Augmenting the Archaeological Record with ARt (The Time Maps
Project), In V. Geroimenko (ed.), Augmented Reality Art: From an Emerging Technology to a Novel Creative
Medium , Springer.
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Stefan, 2014, Patrimoniu imaterial si memorie digitală: recuperarea, stocarea si trans‑
miterea tehnologiilor din trecut. In: S. Musteaţă, (ed.), Arheologia si politicile de protejare a patrimoniului
cultural în România. Culegere de studii, Chisinău/Iasi, Editura ARC.
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Stefan, 3D Online Virtual Museum as e‑learning tool, Proceedings of The 6th
International Conference on Computer Supported Education CSEDU 2014, Barcelone, Spain.
• A. Serbanescu, 2014, The Artistic Experiment: A Phenomenological Research Towards a Pedagogy of Art,
pp. 217–224. Arts, Performing Arts, Architecture and Design, SGEM 2014 Proceedings, Albena.
• L. Ştefan and D. Gheorghiu (in press), e‑Cultural tourism for highlighting the “Invisible” communities—ela‑
boration of cultural routes using Augmented Reality for mobile devices (MAR), In S. Musteaţă, St. Căliniuc
(Eds.), Current Trends in Archaeological Heritage Preservation: National and the International Perspectives.
Proceedings of the international conference, Iasi, Romania, November 6–10, 2013, BAR International Series,
Oxford: Archaeopress.
• A. Rusu, Technological heritage preservation in cyber‑culture. Learning fiber art in virtual communities,
pp. 241–256. In Maj, A. (ed.) Post‑Privacy Culture. Gaining Social Power in Cyber‑ Democracy, Oxford,
Inter‑Disciplinary Press.
• L. Stefan and D. Gheorghiu, 3D cyber‑communities of learning. An immersive educational strategy for
rural areas, Proceedings of International Conference Smart 2014 Social Media in Academia: Research and
Teaching, 18–21 September 2014, Timisoara, Romania (ISI Proceedings indexed).
• L. Stefan and D. Gheorghiu, (in press) Virtual M.I.A.A. in Mobile Augmented Reality. A digital approach
to the future museum in Abrantes, Actes de la Journée Internationalle du Musée de Abrantes, Abrantes.
• D. Popovici. 2014. Construirea cuptorului de tip roman, topirea şi suflarea sticlei la foc de lemne. Între expe‑
riment artistic şi arheologie experimentală, Angustia, National Museum of Eastern Carpaţi.
102
Publications 2013
• D. Gheorghiu, 2013, Le projet “Les Cartes du Temps”. Archeologie expérimentale et immersion dans
l’oeuvre d’art, in Jasmin, M. and Norcia, A. (eds.), Des temps qui se regardent. Dialogue entre l’art con‑
temporain et l’archéologie, Errances, Paris.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2013, On the tracing of curvilinear patterns on prehistoric vases in South Eastern Europe
(Experiments with Bézier curves), in Cotiuga, V. (ed.), Interdisciplinary research in archaeology. Second
Archaeoinvest Congress, British Archaeological Reports, Archaeopress, Oxford.
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Ştefan, 2013, In between: experimenting liminality, Leonardo 19 (1) “Not Here, Not
There”, pp. 44–61.
• L. Stefan and F. Moldoveanu, 2013, Game‑based learning with Augmented Reality—from technology’s
affordances to game design and educational scenarios, Proceedings of eLSE The 9th International Scientific
Conference eLearning and software for Education, Bucharest (ISI Proceedings indexed).
• L. Ştefan, D. Gheorghiu, F. Moldoveanu and A. Moldoveanu, 2013, Ubiquitous learning solutions for remote
communities—A case study for K‑12 classes in a Romanian village, in I. Dumitrache, A. Florea and F. Pop
(eds), Proceedings of 19th International Conference on Control Systems and Computer Science (CSCS19),
Bucharest, pp 569–574 (ISI Proceedings, IEEExplore indexed).
• L. Ştefan and D. Gheorghiu, 2013, Participative teaching for K‑12 students with mobile devices and social
networks, in B. Patrut et al. (eds.), Proceedings of SMART 2013—Social media in Academia: Research and
Teaching, Bologna, Medimond‑Montuzzi (ISI Proceedings indexed).
• A. Rusu, A. Şerbănescu, R. Clondir and D. Popovici, 2013, Social media for preserving local technological
traditions, in B. Patrut et al. (eds.), Proceedings of SMART 2013—Social Media in Academia: Research and
Teaching, Bologna, Medimond‑Montuzzi (ISI Proceedings indexed).
• D. Gheorghiu, L. Ştefan and A. Rusu, e‑Learning and the process of studying in virtual contexts, in M.
Ivanovic and L. Jain (eds.), Studies in Computational Intelligence, Volume 528 2014, e‑Learning: Paradigms
and applications. Agent—based approach, Springer, 2013, ISBN: 978‑3‑642‑41964‑5.
• A. Rusu, 2013, Patterns of sustainability in textile design use of traditional technologies, in Bártolo, H. et
al. ( Eds.) Green Design, Materials and Manufacturing Processes (Proceedings of the 2nd International
Conference on Sustainable Intelligent Manufacturing, Lisbon, Portugal, June 26–29, 2013), CRC Press Taylor
& Francis Group.
• D. Gheorghiu, L. Ştefan and A. Hasnaş, 2013, Visual performances as educational tools in a mobile lear‑
ning world, Proceedings of ARTSEDU 2013, World Conference on Design, Arts and Education, Elsevier (ISI
Proceedings indexed).
• R. Clondir, 2013, Creating from digital, an approach to use immaterial in design education, Proceedings
of ARTSEDU 2013, World Conference on Design, Arts and Education, Elsevier (ISI Proceedings indexed).
103
Publications 2012
• D. Gheorghiu, 2012, Metaphors and Allegories as Augmented Reality. The Use of Art to Evoke Material
and Immaterial Subjects, pp. 23–32. in I‑M. Danielson, F. Fahlander, and Y. Sjostrand (eds.) Encountering
imagery. Materialities, perceptions, relations, Stockholm Studies in Archaeology 57.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2012, Virtual pasts: A future for public archaeology, Izomorph 2, pp. 35–36.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2012, eARTh Vision (Art‑chaeology and digital mapping), World Art, Routledge, pp. 1–7.
• D. Gheorghiu Experiment and indirect evidence, 2012, Proceedings The 3rd International Congress of
Experimental Archaeology, Banyoles.
• D. Gheorghiu, 2012, Place as Artefact. On The Life and Death of Tell Settlements of the South Eastern
Europe Chalcolithic, in D. Gheorghiu si G. Nash (eds.), Place as material culture. Objects, Geographies and
the construction of time, Cambridge Scholarly Publications, Newcastle upon Tyne.
• D. Gheorghiu, Experiencing Light in re‑enactments (in press), 2012, in C. Papadopoulos and G. Earl (eds.),
The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• L. Ştefan, 2012, The art of collage and Augmented Reality 2D/3D Techniques, Proceedings of APLIMAT2012,
Journal of Applied Mathematics vol.5, 1, Institute of Mathematics and Physics Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava
• L. Ştefan, 2012, Prototipuri de interacţiune om‑maşină şi tipuri de aplicaţii educaţionale specifice reali‑
tăţii îmbogăţite pe dispozitive mobile, Proceedings of ROCHI2012 Confererence on Human‑Computer
Interfaces, Revista Romana pentru Interactiune Om‑Masina, Bucharest, pp 26–30.
• L. Ştefan, 2012, Immersive Collaborative Environments for Teaching and Learning Traditional Design,
Proceedings World conference on Design, Arts and Education, Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences,
Volume 51, Pages 1056–1060, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
• D. Gheorghiu and L. Ştefan, 2012, Mobile Technologies and the Use of Augmented Reality for Saving
the Immaterial Heritage, pp. 21–24. in D. Arnold, J. Kaminski, F. Niccolucci, and A. Stork (eds.), The 13th
International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2012).
• A. Rusu, 2012, Weave an Augmented Reality. Algorithms and fiber art, in Proceedings of APLIMAT2012,
Journal of Applied Mathematics vol.5, 1, Institute of Mathematics and Physics Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava
• A. Rusu, 2012, Revitalising ancient technologies and advancing an ethical design in textile art education,
Proceedings World conference on Design, Arts and Education, Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences,
Volume 51, pp 1061–1065, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
• A. Rusu, 2012, Technological heritage preservation in cyber‑culture. Learning fiber art in virtual
communities, Redefining Cyberculture: Losing Privacy and Gaining Social Power in Cyber‑Democracy,
Inter‑Disciplinary Press, Oxford.
• A. Rusu, 2012, Revitalizarea tehnicilor textile tradiţionale prin fiber art, in C. Bolborea (ed.) Tradiţie şi
inovaţie în artele decorative: sesiune de comunicări ştiinţifice a Facultăţii de Arte Decorative şi Design,
Unarte, Bucharest.
• A. Rusu, 2012, MIX SATB 2012—Textile Art Exhibition, Bucharest, in Dorina Horatău (ed.), Crestere–
„Growth”, UNArte, Bucharest.
104
Acknowledgements
105
The Time Maps’ team would like to thank the following persons for involvement and contribution
to the success of the project:
• ABRANTES: Davide Delfino, Luiz Felipe Dias, Gustavo Portocarrero, Ana Cruz, Ana Graça, Liviu‑Sebastian
Ungureanu, Andrada Stancu, Traian Marcu, Dana Popescu.
• ALBESTI: Mihaela Vîlcu, Gheorghe Moldovan
• BELVI: Giusi Gradoli, Sebastiano Casula, Simonetta Carboni, Ileana Oancea, Andrea Marotto.
• C.A.ROSETTI: Cătălin Sarbu, Mioara Bălan, Jaroslav Šara, Gheorghe Cârlan, Octavian Postolache,
Vladimir Hagiu.
• CUCUTENI: Constantin Preoteasa, Cristian Cramarenco.
• FLEVOLAND: Jeroen P.Flamman.
• LUICA: Octavia Iacob, Mariana Andrei, Alexandra Comşa.
• MAÇAO: Luiz Oosterbeek, Sara Cura, Pedro Cura, Anabela Borralheiro, Margarida Morais, Gil Nicolau,
Abebe Mengistu, Aldo Malago, Vera Moleiro, Anna Luana Tallarita.
• MANGALIA: Tatiana Odobescu, Robert Constantinescu, Laurentiu Radu, Mihai Groza, Florin Sîrbu,
Ana Demit.
• MONTE D’ACCODI: Maria Grazia Melis, Alessandra Celant.
• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF ART—BUCHAREST: Ruxandra Demetrescu, Cătălin Bălescu, Petruţa
Fluieraş, Dinu Dumbrăvician, Marina Theodorescu, Ion Dimcea, Adrian Petrică, Ovidiu Ionescu, Bogdan
Hojbota, Ilie Rusu, Claudia Muşat, Panteleymon Arnaudov, Inga Bunduche, Liana Svinţiu, Costel Chitea,
Andra Jipa, Alina Gurguţă, Ioana Stelea, Vlad Basarab, Gabriel Oşan, Sever Popescu‑Petrovici, Alexandru
Drăgoi, Stefan Szabo, Alexandru Andrei Dimitriu, Ioana Maria Vişan, Ana Maria Maioru, Marius Hodea,
Ana Popescu‑Petrovici, Razvan Tun, Monica Popescu, Radu Manelici, Alina Vasiliu, Anamaria Parnavel,
Florentina Ivaşcu, Roxana Pleşca, Mihaela Chiriţă Gheorghiu.
• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THEATRE AND FILM: Carmen Stanciu, Mihaela Beţiu, Lavinia Stan,
Ioana‑Maria Vişan.
• ROMANIAN ACADEMY: Razvan Theodorescu, Marian Lupaşcu.
• ROMANIAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION: Doru Dumitrescu, Iuliana Sima.
• SANTA CRISTINA DI PAULILATINO: Sorin Hermon, Anna Depalmas, Gincarlo Iannone, Marina Faka.
• SFIŞTOFCA: Meinhard Breiling, Laura Ivanov, Răzvan Clondir.
• ŢAGA: Zoia Maxim, Gheorghe Lazarovici, Ovidiu Sechel, Ion Cojocaru, Ionuţ Raul Petruş, Magda
Cornelia Lazarovici.
• TILLEY: George Nash, Alastair Reid.
• UEFISCDI: Daniela Mihai.
• VĂDASTRA: Laura Voicu, Sorin Rădulescu, Paula Ruscu, Cătălin Oancea, Marius Stroe, Georgina Jones,
Valentin Soare, Marius Purice.
• VĂLENII DE MUNTE: Monica Ene, Viorel Stere, Mihai Ispas, Graţiela Lupu, Elena Alecu, Iris Diţa,
Claudia Giannotti.
Last, but not least, our gratitude goes to Bogdan Căpruciu, for his useful comments.
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“Mação: Hillforts and Landscape” and ”Abrantes”.
The Windows of Timemaps in Portugal
Davide DELFINO
Instituto Terra e Memória (I.T.M.‑Mação)/Grupo “Quaternário e Pré‑História” do Centro de Geociências
da Universidade de Coimbra (CGeo‑U. C.)/ Câmara Municipal de Abrantes
Luiz OOSTERBEEK
Instituto Politécnico de Tomar/ Instituto Terra e Memória (I.T.M.‑Mação)/Grupo “Quaternário e
Pré‑História” do Centro de Geociências da Universidade de Coimbra (CGeo‑U. C.)
Vasco ESTRELA
Mayor of the municipality of Mação
Luis DIAS
Alderman of Culture of the municipality of Abrantes
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Abstract: The TimeMaps project has been implemented in two Portuguese locations: the municipali‑
ties of Mação and Abrantes. For Mação a webpage named “Mação‑Hillforts and landscape” was cre‑
ated, whose goal is to work on human perceptions, usage of landscape and landscape changes, from
the Final Bronze Age hillforts to the present. This includes the presentation of the geomorphology
and fisographic traits of the territory, the presentation of the archeological work in hillforts and the
dissemination of some activities involving the public (students, local people, and tourists) as part of a
shared learning and participative research process. Local people were also involved in the work with
video documentations about ancient techniques in exploring natural resources (resin) that modeled
the landscape. Results of activities in the field evidence the involvement of over 200 local people, 30
students of the M.A. program in Archaeology, 10 PhD students of “Quaternary: materials and cultu‑
res”, 15 researchers coming from Brazil, Romania, the U.K., Italy and Moldova. Augmented reality has
been applied in the virtual reconstruction of the hillfort of Castelo Velho da Zimbreira which has rai‑
sed the awareness of the Municipality to the need to improve a system of sign posts to the archae‑
ological sites, using as far as possible QR codes with augmented reality. For Abrantes the webpage
focuses on two types of Heritage: historical/archaeological and historical/ethnographic. These are
linked to the traditional materiality of Abrantes: mobile and immobile materialities of past civilizati‑
ons, but which have contributed to the formation of modern Abrantes; materialities of yesteryear that
represent the living identity of the abrantine community, including archaeological sites and materials,
that evidence, across centuries, the work, technologies, symbolism, ritual and power in the land of
Abrantes. Augmented reality is strongly used to create a Virtual Museum based on part of the collec‑
tion of the local Museum, including both archaeological materials and results of contemporary artis‑
tic performances done in the field to show a history of the materialities of Abrantes.
Keywords: Middle Tagus Valley, Landscapes, Archaeology, traditional materialities, Augmented

Reality, Public Archaeology
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Introduction
The TimeMaps project in Portugal was developed in the region of the Middle Tagus Valley by the
Instituto Terra e Memória (ITM). Field activities and the gathering of content for the web pages were
carried out in two municipalities, Mação and Abrantes, where the local authorities provided all the
necessary support. The two municipalities involved in the project share many common traits: they
host two of the most ancient Portuguese archaeological museums (Museu de Arte Pré‑Histórica Dr.
Calado Rodrigues in Mação and Museu D. Lopo de Almeida in Abrantes), both having undergone
recent renovations (since 2003 in Mação and since 2007 in Abrantes) and with a strong focus on
research, as indicated by Heritage scientists functionally integrated in the Instituto Terra e Memória
and in the Geosciences Centre of Coimbra University; both municipalities possess a very rich terri‑
tory in terms of heritage, today however, subject to risks associated to demographic desertification.
The ITM (Memory and Land Institute) and the “Quaternary and Prehistory” Group of the Geoscience
Centre of the University of Coimbra (that also includes the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar and ITM)
were the Portuguese scientific partners in the project.
The TimeMaps webpages for each municipality reflect some of their respective highlights of
the tangible and intangible heritage, to be protected, known, transmitted, studied and valorised
by local authorities, local inhabitants and visitors, encompassing the elder and younger local gene‑
rations, archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, tourism technicians, etc.
Mação: “Hillfort and Landscape”
Mação is a municipality located in the geographic centre of Portugal, traditionally characterized by

a forested landscape and predominantly rural activities, associated to very relevant agro‑industrial
production of smoked ham, olives or honey. This region, with about 7.500 inhabitants and a very
vast 400 sq. km territory with abundant water resources, was once a main mining area, namely for
iron and gold, heavily exploited from pre‑Roman times to the dawn of the middle ages. Mação is
home to a strong cultural diversity, expressing the specificities of riverine communities of the Tagus
basin, or of hilly settlements on the Ordovician and other ancient rock massifs, or yet very rich agri‑
culture valleys. In the last few decades, as part of a wider phenomenon, Mação lost demographic
density and saw ageing indicators become a main concern. A multi‑strategy has been pursued, for
well over a decade, attempting to strengthen the resilience of the territory through a certain num‑
ber of areas of intervention, namely a more efficient risk management of the forest (Mação’s moto
is “Green Horizon”); a public management of health and social care with particular emphasis on the
aged population, through a vicinity approach that mitigates one of the major difficulties of this seg‑
ment of the population, namely isolation; a quality and branding approach to the economic acti‑
vities; a detailed attention to all the territory’s heritage, which includes the hosting of a research
centre rated “excellent” by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology; and a major
focus on learning at all levels, from informal and fundamental teaching to higher education research
degrees (a dimension that led to the recent integration of Mação in the UNESCO Global Network
of Learning Cities). This strategy has been complemented with strategic leisure resources, such as
“blue flag” beaches, sports centre, or an artistic residence.
Within this approach, Mação fosters adaptive responses to desertification and population
decrease, thus attracting visitors but also new residents related to cultural activities is part of this
strategy. Internally, Mação and its museum have started to work with local communities establishing
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their spaces of memory, as a means to preserve knowledge, enhance identity cohesion and attract
visitors. Beyond this, Mação is engaged in a very strong internationalization process, with acade‑
mic exchanges with all continents and the regular implementation of cooperation projects, of which
TimeMaps is one of the most relevant, within a global strategy that was also part of the European
Commission funded project GESTART (OOSTERBEEK and POLLICE 2014).
Since 2010 ITM and the Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação have been conducting research
on the mechanisms of occupation of the territory and settlement dynamics in the Final Bronze Age/
Iron Age in the Mação Council (Central Portugal), with a specific focus on the Castelo da Zimbreira
hilltop walled station and its relation with the landscape. The initial 2010 collaboration with the
National University of Arts, Bucharest which produced a land art simulating the two wall/terrace
lines of the settlement, was consolidated in 2013 through additional collaborative work within the
framework of the Time Maps project and focused on public archaeology and Virtual Reality appli‑
cations in archaeology (DELFINO, GHEORGHIU, STEFAN 2016). Research on inhabited dynamics
and landscape strategy occupation in the Final Bronze Age/Iron Age (XII–VII/VI cent BC) in the
Portuguese Middle Tagus Valley has been ongoing since 2011 aiming to clarify what was the con‑
tribution of the substrate indigenous to the Final Bronze Age and what could be attributed to the
dynamics initiated by contact with the Mediterranean world, starting from the 9th to 8th centu‑
ries BC (VILAÇA, ARRUDA 2004; ARRUDA 2005; DELFINO 2012). Focused in the municipalities of
Abrantes and Mação, the research has produced results (DELFINO ET AL. 2014; DELFINO 2016)
indicating the occurrence of a phenomenon of fortifications development (incastellamento) in the
second part of the Final Bronze Age (10th to 8th centuries BC) and linked in some parts of the sur‑
veyed territory to alluvial gold resources and the presence of ground waters. The paradigmatic site,
which has been almost completely investigated, is Castelo Velho da Zimbreira (Parish of Envendos,
Council of Mação). In order to involve the local population, students, tourists and scholars with this
archaeological monument and with the historical dynamics linked to it, various approaches have
been considered, each designed for a specific target audience. The issues encountered, requiring
resolution were as follows: 1) absence of striking monumental features of the archaeological site
(how to enhance the relevance of site with minor monumentality?); 2) low population density and
remoteness of the region concerned (how to justify protection investments in contexts of lower
tourism short term benefits?); 3) lack of adequate financing resources (how to obtain such resour‑
ces in the context of crisis and other social and economic demands?); 4) lack of visually conspicu‑
ous archaeological materials found (GHEORGHIU, DELFINO 2014).
Project
The walled site of Castelo Velho da Zimbreira (Parish of Envendos) (Fig. 1), dating to the end of
Final Bronze Age (8th century BC), is an emblematic archaeological site in Mação: archaeological
fieldwork undertook since 2011 revealed two drystone walls built between the end of 8th and the
beginning of the 7th centuries BC (DELFINO 2015: 139–140) probably to install a fortified point in
times of emergency and stress (DELFINO 2016: 10–12).
110
Fig. 1: the site of Castelo Velho da Zimbreira
In the landscape, Castelo Velho da Zimbreira is located in an interesting position, along a

quarzitic crest, in conjunction with other sites dating from the Final Bronze Age: the settlements of
Castelo Velho do Caratão, the walled enclosure of Castelo do Santo and the settlement of S. Miguel
da Amêndoa (DELFINO at al. 2013) (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: the system of hilltop settlements and enclosures in Mação. 1: Castelo Velho do Caratão; 2:
Castelo Velho da Zimbreira; 3: Castelo do Santo; 4: S. Miguel da Amêndoa
Castelo Velho da Zimbreira dominated the landscape in the Bronze Age, partially because
of man‑made modification of the hill, but also because it was probably recognised before this as
a natural landscape marker. The conception of the project was based on the concept of modifica‑
tion of the landscape from the end of Late Prehistory until today and on the recovery and transmis‑
sion of the techniques used in modifying the landscape, when establishing the settlement and when
exploring natural resources. The landscape encapsulates ancient and contemporary perceptions of
111
the area. A high ridge of quartz defines a territorial unit that over time has been the basis for diffe‑
rent landscapes, modified by different people and cultures, but maintaining across the centuries its
essence: the geology, the natural resources, the visual control of the territory. Since the start of the
first millennium BC, the human community of shepherds and metallurgists occupied some of the
peaks along the ridge of quartz, establishing hilltop settlements and enclosures, close to resources
and with visibility in the territory, from both sides of the ridge, guaranteeing the strategic control of
the land and of the mobility routes. The walls of dry stone were a deterrent against attacks. Water,
a strategic element in the area, was a valuable natural resource exploited in the Bronze Age, as it
is today. Wind is a source of energy today, whereas in the past the minerals were a major source of
wealth. So, from the earliest land markers (hill top walled sites, named in the project “hillforts” beca‑
use of their appearance to the general public) until the most recent ones (as the big wind energy
turbines), passing by all the anthropic modification during time (agricultural terracing, bridges and
other), archaeological and anthropological research redeems the landscape memory, that the arts
help to bring forth to the public.
Experiment
Land Art in the Castelo Velho da Zimbreira

Minimalistic Land Art was used to highlight with a metaphor a specificity of archaeological sites
(GHEORGHIU, STEFAN 2014: 255). A first experiment in Castelo Velho da Zimbreira was conduc‑
ted in 2010, representing the two lines of drystone wall.
In October 2013 a piece of land‑art (Fig. 3) was fitted on the outer surface of the line of walls
in Castelo Velho da Zimbreira. This land‑art was designed by Dragos Gheorghiu in 2010 to present
the hilltop station to the world, and in autumn 2013 he decided to move it to make visible the walls
excavated by Davide Delfino.
Fig. 3: the Land Art inside of the wall and the area of the archaeological excavations
112
The artwork has been moved, by a team formed of researchers from the Museum of Mação
(Anabela Borralheiro Pereira), from the Time Maps project (Livia Stefan), seven MA students in
Prehistoric Archaeology and Rock Art of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (Abebe Mengistu, Aldo
Malagó, Vera Moleiro, Marco Monteiro ), and a resident of the City of Mação (Gil Nicolau) (Fig.4).
Fig. 4: the team at work in Land Art
Gheorghiu placed the artwork on the collapsed drywall, following Delfino’s excavation, and
secured the land‑art with cords and stakes. When the sun is shining, the white plastic allows an excel‑
lent visibility of the walls’ line. A first result of the impact on the local population was documented
immediately after the installation of the Land Art.
On the recommendation of a member of the team, Gil Nicolau, the team visited the nearby
village of Zimbreira. Some inhabitants, all elderly people, were invited to see the Land Art. This was
the start of a conversation with the local inhabitants about the Castelo Velho (Fig. 5), taking advan‑
tage of the memories of the elders in order to learn that, for example, only 50 years ago, the stone
walls were in a much better state of preservation than currently.
Fig. 5: Conversation with old inhabitants of Zimbreira village about the memories of the
Castelo Velho
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Spreading the plastic, the MA students learned the architecture of the Castelo Velho, its role
in the ancient landscape and the usefulness of inexpensive, simple artistic performances to cherish,
while also continuing to investigate a prehistoric settlement. Having attracted the attention of the
residents of a village near the site, we were able to revive 50 year old memories of the elderly resi‑
dents about the archaeological remains, and sustain the attention on the importance of the Old
Castle to local memory.
Few miles away from the site the highlighted wall of the Land Art was still visible even if quite
far away, namely from the nearby motorway A23.
Night intervisibility among Bronze Age hillforts using bonfires: light and legend in the Mação hillfort
This was an experiment on intersite visibility, by observing the hillfort at night, making use of bonfires
and involving the local population, thus turning it into an event for experimentation, dissemination,
and valorization of prehistoric contexts. Involving the population in an archaeological experiment
was thought to help improve the understanding of these less monumental structures, leading the
public to share and value the work of archaeologists and of their archaeological heritage. The acti‑
vity was carried out in April 14th 2014, as part of the year’s International Day of Monuments and
Sites, involving tourists and the local community. It was organized by the Museum of Prehistoric Art
of Mação, involving relevant resources from the Municipality of Mação. The research question was
to assess to what extent the three locations provided clear reciprocal visibility of the sites conside‑
red; in other words, whether an observer situated in one site (e.g. Castelo Velho do Caratão) could
see and be seen from the other two hillforts (Castelo Velho da Zimbreira and Castelo do Santo).
The question is not as easy to answer as it might seem, since normal observations under daylight
conditions do not provide a definitive conclusion. This is the case, for example, of the Castro do
Santo viewed from the Castelo Velho da Zimbreira. The experiment was planned to start immedi‑
ately after sunset, rallying the public around the hillfort and the highlighted ancient structures of
the Castelo Velho da Zimbreira (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6: bonfire at Castelo Velho da Zimbreira and the involved public
114
Seven elders from rural villages near the hill forts were invited to participate, relating to the
audience legends and tales about the hillforts and their surroundings, establishing a continuum
between the experiment testing possibilities in the remote landscape to the tales of much recent
landscape, rediscovering and valorizing the “living” local memories. A team composed of students
of the Master program in Prehistoric Archaeology and the Doctoral program in “Quaternary: mate‑
rials and Cultures”, as well as a Civil Protection group were deployed in each hill fort (Fig. 7), to super‑
vise the lightning of the fires and for observation.
Fig. 7: team and fireplace in Castelo Velho do Caratão
In addition, a team of 5 students from the Masters in Photography program of I.P.T. was
deployed in order to produce a set of photographs at all three fort locations. The town hall of
Mação, the Civil Protection services and the Parish of Envendos and Cardigos have also provided
invaluable support. The experiment’s results showed that there was reciprocal visibility between
the Castelo Velho da Zimbreira and Castro do Santo, but not between these two and the Castelo
Velho do Caratão. These findings strengthen the hypothesis that the Castelo Velho do Caratão was
not directly linked to a network of hill forts with the function of controlling the landscape, but was
a possible central settlement, rounded by some “satellites” like Castelo da Zimbreira and Castelo
do Santo, visually connected. It is also possible that other hillforts may exist along the quartzite
ridge, to be eventually identified by future surveys. From a dissemination perspective, the experi‑
ment attracted 120 people of all ages (children, adolescents, adults and the elderly) at the Castelo
Velho da Zimbreira; these were inhabitants not only from Mação, but also from Coimbra, Tomar,
Abrantes and from some parts of the Alentejo region. The event made it possible for these people
to become familiar with the territory of Mação during the Bronze Age and the sites that were mana‑
ging it, as well as with the ongoing archaeological research at the Castelo Velho da Zimbreira and the
“living memories” of the land: the elders and their tales. On this occasion those 120 people discove‑
red the excavated ruins of the hill fort, tried to see from the Castelo Velho Zimbreira hill the bon‑
fires on the two other hillforts, and also held discussions about the archaeological research already
115
completed, or under way in all three hill forts; this was a good opportunity to publicize the results
of the archaeological research, simply by inviting the public to the site, with some simple and tra‑
ditional attractions (bonfires and nighttime tales). By creating an engaging, charming setting like a
fire kindled in the night and hearing ancient legends told about the ancient location of the gathe‑
ring, it was possible to leverage a simple and economical attractiveness factor of the archaeologi‑
cal monuments and territory. The incentive to be on the very location of the memory of a place and
tell or listen to its legends, or to the personal history of old people living there had stimulated the
participants. These precious living memories had a value in the eyes of the young people since the
elders were the only ones who could pass on the local stories linked to the territory and its people.
On the other hand, the experiment, for one night, allowed the revival of the ancient landscape as
an intangible presence, echoing what was material in the Bronze Age, but is now gone.
E‑learning
Traditional extraction of pine resin in Zimbreira village

Pines have been an integral part of the Zimbreira landscape, as in many inland regions in Portugal,
until a few decades ago. Aside from being one of the main visual characteristics of the scenery, they
also provided an important natural product, the resin. The commerce of resin helped to integrate
the lean rural economy which revolved around the olive harvest, goat breeding and small subsistence
farming. Over time, the requirements of the activity of resin extraction have led to the develop‑
ment of a series of traditional tools, fabricated by the villages’ blacksmiths for the local community.
Focusing the action in Zimbreira, the little village at the foot of the hill of Castelo Velho da Zimbreira,
the project team identified an elder that in his youth had worked in the extraction of the pine resin
and could remember the steps of work and preserve the traditional set of tools (Fig. 8).
Fig. 8: original tools of Mr. António da Barroca for the extraction the pine resin
116
The extraction of resin was divided into several steps: 1) selection of the pine (by law it had to
have a minimum trunk diameter); 2) removal of the cortex (in the low part of the trunk, where the
resin extraction would take place), creation of an opening, the width of which was regulated by law
(could not exceed a maximum limit, to avoid compromising the life of the pine); 3) performance
of a small incision in the wood; 4) insertion of a metal blade in the incision (to facilitate the flow of
resin); 5) positioning, below the incision, a typical vessel for collecting the resin; 6) large engraving
of the wood, above the metal foil inserted before; 7) application of acid in the large incision to faci‑
litate the bleeding of resin. After a few days, the workers would come back to the pine to collect
the resin in a special vessel using a metal scoop. The collection process in the vessel using the ladle
was repeated several times over the course of a few months: every 8–9 days the large incision over
the metal foil was reopened and the acid was added which repeated the process of resin collection.
The weather and temperature heavily conditioned the work efficiency: for example, in cold and
windy conditions the resin solidified before dropping from the incision made in the pine. The pine
resin thus produced had many industrial uses, primarily in the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors.
Nowadays, eucalyptus has replaced the pine in the local landscape, partly because of large fires in
2003 and 2005 that burned down almost the entire pine population. As a result, the extraction of
pine resin has disappeared as a commercial occupation in this region. But the technical knowledge
of the remaining elderly practitioners of this activity and the surviving tools remain for now as the
tangible and intangible heritage of the region.
Dissemination
Space anthropization: perspectives of power in Mação

What is the space from the point of view of power? Is this even a way in which their actions can be
revealed? The mastery of space implies the possession of power. The concepts of space and time
are set. The senses perceive space and the reality that deals with the living. The space can be a geo‑
graphical place, having in itself the characteristics that favour the dominance, control and power
actions because power needs a place to be revealed. Space is also the order of existence of things
and correlated human activity. One perception that derives from experience sensing and an exter‑
nal perimeter for the person’s body yet to define(don’t understand the meaning; where is the verb
in this phrase? What action are we talking about?). The body is the first natural space, but it is not
only a physical space. Humans make their own perceived and experienced space, and societies are
fundamental to understanding such spaces. This social space includes three categories: form, func‑
tion and structure. This implies a concept of territoriality that favors organization and collective
life. The natural space appears as a totality of interdependent relationships, a social construct that
also favors the discovery of unknown human abilities. Culture, in this perspective is the engine, the
means to further human actions, techniques and know‑how that shape materialities. Power tensi‑
ons are condensed in the replacement of prior ecosystems by an organized and controlled space,
which consolidates identities and segregates the “other”.
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Abrantes
Abrantes is a community of 40.000 inhabitants in Central Portugal, along the Tagus river. The relation
between the area of the Council (71.343 m.3) and the number of inhabitant makes that, apart from
the urban area of Abrantes (18.500 inhabitants), the density of population is very low. Geographically
the municipality involves the northern border of Tagus River, traditionally belonging to the Ribatejo
region, and the Southern border of the Tagus River, traditionally belonging to the Alentejo region.
The two main rivers in the municipality are the Tagus, used until the mid 20th century for trade from
and to Lisbon, and the Zêzere River, where the dam of Castelo de Bode is located, one of the most
important in Portugal and where river beaches and leisure places have been located. Industry in
Abrantes is historically important since the end of 19th century, with Metallurgica Duarte Ferreira in
the Parish of Tramagal (today no longer in use), or traditional production of clay material for building,
coarch and cloths. Today the main industry is represented by the Mitsubishi Fuso Track Europe, the
Bosch and the Sofalca (coarch production) and the thermoelectric central Tejo Energia. A consor‑
tium for enterprise and technological development recently created the TAGUSVALLEY—Vale do
Tejo, a Science and Technology Park (Technopole). Abrantes folklore includes active groups of tra‑
ditional dance and songs (ranchos folclóricos), chorus (orfeão) and philharmonic societies. Several
sports investments for youth and people in general, with several clubs and teams, include football,
baseball, athletics, boating (on the Tagus and Zêzere rivers) and swimming. Gastronomical special‑
ties are represented in Abrantes confectionery by the typical cakes Palha de Abrantes, Limas, Broas
Fervidas and Tijelada. Historically, for 700 years, Abrantes has played a key role in the access way
to Lisbon (chave da Estremadura) as experienced by all the invaders from Spain, and as illustra‑
ted by its architectural landmarks: the Castle dating from the Middle Ages and the fortress dating
from the Modern period. During the 20th century, the area has also hosted strategic cantonments
of the Portuguese Army, still present today in town. Abrantes’ most important historical moment,
of significance to Portugal as a whole, was the war council of King John the 1st of Portugal, during
which he took the decision to march against the Castilian invaders in Aljubarrota (1385). Abrantes
has been officially elevated to the rank of city on the 14th June 1916, a period remembered every
year mid‑June, during the City’ Festival. Abrantes is twinned with Partenay (France), São Nicolau
(Capo Verde) and Hitoyoshi (Japan).
Project
The idea to create a webpage for Abrantes arose in 2013, during Dragos Gheorghiu’s and. Livia
Stefan’s participation to the 4th International Journey of the M.I.A.A. with a communication
titled “Virtual M.I.A.A in Mobile Augmented Reality. A digital approach to the future museum in
Abrantes” (GHEORGHIU, STEFAN in press). The International Journeys of the future Museu Ibérico
de Arqueologia e Arte (M.I.A.A.) took place from 2010 when, during the process of development of
the new museum in Abrantes, it was decided to organize an annual international scientific meeting
inviting a selected international specialist in archaeology, art and museology to talk about the col‑
lections of the M.I.A.A. and the general aim of museology and public archaeology.
The draft TimeMaps page for the Abrantes community captures three types of Heritage:
historical‑archaeological, historical and ethnographic. These are linked by the fact that they con‑
stitute the traditional materialities of the Abrantes territory: mobile and immobile materialities.
Materialities of past civilizations, but which have contributed to the formation of modern Abrantes;
118
materialities that represent the identity of the abrantine community still alive (is it just a descrip‑
tion of the previous statement? If so there should be no period; is it something else? If so, there is no
verb). Archaeological sites and materials, standing for centuries of work, technologies, symbolism,
ritual and power in the landscape of Abrantes. Materials, production sites and traditional crafts that
represent the abrantine identity that can be evaluated. (is it just a description of the previous state‑
ment? If so there should be no period; is it something else? If so, there is no verb)
The materialities of the ancient and of the contemporary ages have another common link: the
Tagus River, a “water highway” exploited for thousands of years, which favored trade, contributing
to the shaping of the identity of Abrantes. The Tagus was not only a waterway that has fostered
over the centuries the exit and entry of raw materials, technologies and products. It also allowed
the supply of the great wealth of Abrantes in antiquity: the gold.
Past and Contemporary materialities along the Tagus from the dawn of agriculture, pastora‑
lism and pottery, include diverse objects and contexts, falling mainly in two categories. First, the ear‑
liest funerary contexts such as the atypical megalithic monument of Pedra da Encavalada (Middle
Neolithic) where it is possible to see the adaptation of a natural outcrop into a monolith with buri‑
als and grave goods (CRUZ, GRAÇA 2016: 142–144; CRUZ, DELFINO, BATISTA 2015: 17–26), or like
the hypogeum of Colos (Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic) preserving grave good in schist, pottery and
flint (CRUZ et al. 2016), or yet like the tumuli of Souto (Late Bronze Age) where the materiality
in metal was ritually destroyed (CRUZ, DELFINO, GRAÇA 2013). Second, the earliest settlement
contexts such as the Epipaleolithic/Early Neolithic station of Fontes with a first presence of struc‑
ture in baked clay (CRUZ 2013), like the site of Amoreira ( CRUZ, DELFINO, BATISTA 2015: 26–29)
with domestic landfill in the Early Neolithic levels, or like the Final Bronze Age hillfort of Castelo de
Abrantes with a monumental drystone wall (PORTOCARRERO, DELFINO, GASPAR in press: 150–
153) which is the basis on which was later developed the architecture of the medieval castle and of
the modern fortress (ibid.). In more recent times the craft tradition of Abrantes reflects above all
the peasant traditions of the 19th century, highlighting essential moments of the cycle of life and
recycling of materials in a simple being. Some objects reflect the characteristics of the values of
the society that created them; other objects are transmitters of social memory. The craft materi‑
als are potential means to create new forms that reflect traditional values and culture, transforming
the forms to preserve the memory. Abrantes contemporary craft work includes cloths, wood, tex‑
tile fibers, stone and coarch. Also relevant are objects related to death, translating a past moment
into contemporary time, such as the “palmitos” or the “registos”; some of these are used at home,
to protect the house and to remember the deceased.
The Castle of Abrantes ( Fig. 9) is a most significant site to the history of Abrantes, contai‑
ning the earliest remains of the city since the Final Bronze Age, and also hosting the Municipal
Museum “D. Lopo de Almeida”, where, every year,a forevision exhibition of the future “Museu Ibérico
de Arqueologia e Arte‑ M.I.A.A.” is presented (OOSTERBEEK 2013).
119
Fig. 9: the Castle of Abrantes and the Museum Lopo de Almeida
For these reasons the home page of Abrantes the Castle is the entry point of the little Virtual
Museum (Fig. 10), where a collection of ancient materialities is displayed going back in time.
Fig. 10: the Virtual Museum of Abrantes, the entrance (from the TimeMap page of Abrantes).
The collection is introduced in the first virtual hall by an example of Modern Art inspired from
the Past, more particularly from a Land Art related to the archaeological stratigraphy of the Castle:
Protohistory, Roman, Middle Age and Modern Age (Fig. 11). The second hall is dedicated to Late
Antiquity and Roman Times, with a collection of Visigoth buckles and Roman glass from the Estrada
120
Collection (private collection that will be a part of the collection of the M.I.A.A.) (Fig. 12); in the
third and fourth halls ancient materialities are presented in two themes: materiality from living spa‑
ces (settlements) and from spaces of death (necropolis) from Late Prehistory and Protohistory. The
Virtual Museum was developed by Andrada Stancu, student of Design at the National University
of Arts Bucharest.
Fig. 11: QR code to see the Virtual Museum of Abrantes (by Livia Stefan)
Fig. 12: an essay of Virtual Museum of Abrantes (from the TimeMap page of Abrantes)
Art Experiments
Related to the role of the Castle of Abrantes throughout time, to its chronology of occupations and
to the themes of the temporary exposition in the museum D. Lopo de Almeida in 2014, located in the
church of the Castle, were performed four artistic experiments: 1) Stratigraphy land art Abrantes
Castle; 2) Ritual track land art Abrantes Castle; 3) Choreography in the donjon; 4) Metaphor of an
exposition. All the experimental performances were recorded photographically and on film by pho‑
tographer Dana Popescu.
Stratigraphy land art Abrantes Castle

During the investigation in the castle area, in the 20th century and, above all, in the first two years of
the so‑called Cast.Ab. project (2013–2016), objects, structures and other data were found linked to
human occupation over three millennia: a hilltop walled settlement in the Final Bronze Age (12th to
8th centuries BC), followed by 8th to 7th centuries BC incorporation of Phoenician potteries from
121
the lower Tagus Valley, then a limited Roman occupation, until becoming an Islamic period stron‑
ghold (9th to 12th centuries AD) with a mud brick tower and the first town nucleus, then a Christian
Middle Ages occupation with the first stone castle (13th to 15th centuries AD), until the Modern
Age palace and fortress (16th to 19th centuries AD) (PORTOCARRERO 2013; PORTOCARRERO,
DELFINO, GASPAR in press). Taking into account the main four levels of occupation highlighted
during the fieldwork since 2013, a minimalist Land Art performance was installed near the excava‑
tion area (Fig. 13).
Fig. 13: the Land Art expressing the four chronological lines of the Castle in the slop in front of
the archaeological works area.
An embankment covered all the earliest areas of the castle and near the excavation it had
been removed to create an amphitheatre: four lines of white cloth were stretched on a slope of the
amphitheatre, each symbolizing the four chronological levels of occupation, and placed exactly
facing the real levels. Exploring the inclination of the slope, the four white lines are superposed like
the four occupation levels. The author of the concept and its implementation is Dragos Gheorghiu.
Ritual track land art Abrantes Castle

The Castle of Abrantes was built on the hilltop, exploring the relief contour lines as the basis for the
walls. In addition, soldiers of the castle garrison were walking along the walls, thus following the path
traced by the walls and the relief contour lines. The central part of the castle is the main tower, the
donjon, around which the walls run.
To visually represent the soldier’s walk in that perspective, a white cloth was stretched along
the hypothetical line of the earliest walls, today hidden under the green of the embankment and
near the donjon, drawing a semi‑circular line. The artist, Dragos Gheorghiu, during a short video,
walked along that line with military step and counting the step aloud, as in a military march (Fig. 14).
122
Fig. 14: Dragos Gheorghiu walking in the ritual track
123
Choreography in the donjon
Traces of men walking in the stairs: this was the aim of the choreography realized in the access stairs
of the donjon. After laying a white cloth on the stairs, choreograph Cornelia Stancu, runs dancing
on the stairs marking her steps with black tempera, performing a metaphor of the soldier’s step on
the stairs through time.
Metaphor of an Exposition
The theme of the 6th exhibition of the M.I.A.A. in 2014, was “7.000 years molding clay. Potteries of
M.I.A.A.”. More than 80 ceramic shapes and fragments, dated from the Neolithic until the 18th cen‑
tury AD, belonging to the Museum D. Lopo de Almeida and to the Estrada private collection were
shown in the Museum, evidencing a development in shaping and decorating pottery through the
millennia with a special focus on the local Late Prehistory and Modern Age and on the Southern
Italy Iron Age and Hellenistic periods (Fig. 15).
Fig. 15: the 6th exhibition of M.I.A.A. (source Municipality of Abrantes, Fernando Sá Baio)
The restoration and conservation of archaeological pottery, work carried out on some expo‑
sed artifacts by a restorer temporarily contracted by the city of Abrantes, were also considered in
the exhibition. An artistic performance conceived by Dragos Gheorghiu showed the fragility of the
archaeological pottery even after restoring: fragments of Roman pottery inserted in a glass, became
over time impacted by fractures and displaying a tendency to break and peel. That is a metaphor of
restored and consolidated archaeological pottery, which over time are again in need of restoration
and consolidation. At nighttime the “Metaphor” and other video performances were projected in
the donjon of Castle, transforming it into a large screen for the population (Fig. 16).
124
Fig. 16: the projection in the donjon of Castle of Abrantes
Workshops
Related to the theme of the 6th exhibition of the M.I.A.A. a workshop was organized for adults and
children on the decoration of pottery. Participants in the workshop were inspired by the pottery
exposed at the museum D. Lopo de Almeida, namely the Daunian (southern Italy) Iron Age pottery
from the Estrada collection, with painted decorations. The next step was to decorate some pot‑
teries, made by the ceramist Traian Marcu with the whole group: during the process of clay mani‑
pulation it was possible for the participants to experience the ceramist’s view thanks to a camera
fixed on his hat, projecting “live” on a screen in the workshop. Participants chose a pottery recipi‑
ent, made according to the originals from the pottery exhibition, and remade the original decora‑
tions with personal interpretations (Fig. 17).
Fig. 17: ceramist Traian Marcu working with children in a workshop
Acknowledgements
For the web page “Mação: Hillforts and Landscape”:

• the Civil Protection of the Municipality of Mação, namely Eng. Fernandes and the Alderman Eng.
António Louro
• Gil Alexandre Nicolau, for the fundamental action bond with the local community
• Zé da Barroca for the explanations and simulation of pine resin extraction
125
• the M.A. students in “Prehistoric Archaeology and Rock Art” of the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (aca‑
demic year 2013–2014)
• the students of the PhD program “ Quaternaio:Materiais e Culturas” of U.T.A.D. in collaboration with the
Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (academic year 2013–2014)
• the staff of the Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação, particullarely Anabela Borralheiro and
Margarida Morais
• Livia Stefan (IT work)
• Andrada Stancu (Castelo Velho da Zimbreira 3D)
• Anna Luana Tallarita (original text Space anthropization. Perspective of power in Mação included in
the website)
For the web page “Abrantes”:

• The City Office of Culture and the staff of M.I.A.A. project, namely Filomena Gaspar, Célia Amaro and
Gustavo Portocarrero
• Anna Luana Tallarita (study of Contemporary Materialities and pictures in the website)
• Centro de Pré‑História of the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar
• Andrada Stancu (3D objects and environments of Virtual Museum)
• Liviu Sebastian Ungureanu (IT of Virtual Museum)
• Dana Popescu (pictures of Art Experiments and Workshop)
• Traian Marcu (Workshop)
• Alcino Herminio and Isilda Jana (activity of the High School Manuel Fernandez)
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TIME MAP S.

Graphic design: Faber Studio

First published in 2016 by UNArte.

Research Report 2011–2012

Participation to National and International Events

Conclusion: the Originality of the Research

Courses for the team members

Archaeological and Art Experiments

• Dragos Gheorghiu, Art‑chaeology on Google Earth and Panoramio.

Conclusions: Towards a New Paradigm of a Synthesis Between

Archaeological and Art Experiments

Archaeological and Art Experiments

• Dragos Gheorghiu, eARTh: Using land‑art in archaeology, WAC Kyoto.

• “Time Maps. Real Communities–Virtual Worlds–Experimented pasts”, Mangalia, 5–9 October.

Prof. univ. dr. arh. Dragos Gheorghiu

Keywords: Middle Tagus Valley, Landscapes, Archaeology, traditional materialities, Augmented

Mação: “Hillfort and Landscape”

Mação is a municipality located in the geographic centre of Portugal, traditionally characterized by

In the landscape, Castelo Velho da Zimbreira is located in an interesting position, along a

Land Art in the Castelo Velho da Zimbreira

Fig. 4: the team at work in Land Art

Fig. 6: bonfire at Castelo Velho da Zimbreira and the involved public

Fig. 7: team and fireplace in Castelo Velho do Caratão

Traditional extraction of pine resin in Zimbreira village

Space anthropization: perspectives of power in Mação

Stratigraphy land art Abrantes Castle

Ritual track land art Abrantes Castle

Fig. 17: ceramist Traian Marcu working with children in a workshop

For the web page “Mação: Hillforts and Landscape”:

For the web page “Abrantes”:

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