Caistor Roman Town AR

See Roman Venta Icenorum appear on the landscape with the magic of AR.

Use your smartphone or tablet to see the town of Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund re-appear on the landscape. Meet Archie and Oli the archaeologist moles and see some finds from the site in more detail with this Augmented Reality app. Caistor St Edmund is the location of Norfolk’s lost Roman capital Venta Icenorum which means ‘Market of the Iceni’. In the dry summer of 1928 aerial photography revealed the pattern of Roman streets and buildings inside the walls of the town. The existence of the town had long been known, but the remarkable images awakened national interest. Excavations followed (1929 - 35) which found evidence for major public buildings including the forum, a bath-house and the south gate. These were later re-buried. Between 2006 - 2014 the University of Nottingham led an exciting programme of excavation and research which has radically changed our understanding of the town and the people who lived here. This Augmented Reality app will allow visitors to see a full 3D reconstruction of the town on the landscape and take a closer look at some of the artefacts that have been found. Some panels will trigger a view of the town and some will allow you to see one of five different artefacts found at the site in more detail.

AR artefacts can be viewed by most devices, however, to view the AR town on the landscape your device will need a compass.

How to use the App: • Launch the app and point it at the centre of any panel which has the AR icons on it. • Click the icon on the app that corresponds to the icon on the panel. If the panel has both town and artefact icons, choose which one you’d like to view first. • For a town view wait for the image to scan then tilt your device up so the landscape in front of you fills the screen. The town will appear on the landscape. • For an artefact view wait for the image to scan, then you can pinch and rotate the 3D artefact on the screen to get a good look at it. You can collect the AR artefacts to look at again later by clicking the ‘collect’ button.