Reviving Bruges’ Lost Outer Harbors. From Survey and Excavation to Augmented and Virtual Reality

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Re-Visualizing Submerged Landscapes", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Medieval Bruges has been coined as “the cradle of capitalism”, a place where goods, ideas and people converged into a unique, multicultural environment. A tidal inlet, called the Zwin, linked Bruges to the rest of Europe and beyond and was dotted with several outports at its banks. Natural, political and economic factors all resulted in the eventual downfall of Bruges and the Zwin in early modern times. The outports shrunk from cities into hamlets or even disappeared entirely from the landscape.

In an effort to revive this lost harbor system, an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, historians and geologists unravelled the topography, chronology and evolution of this maritime landscape using a broad range of (non-)invasive techniques. This research was enriched with VR and AR experiences in an outreach project. In the paper we will highlight the concept and discuss the methodological background behind the digital revival of the Zwin ports.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Re-Visualizing Submerged Landscapes   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow