When a coup attempt began to unfold in Turkey’s northern metro areas in the summer of 2016, University of Nebraska-Lincoln art history professor Michael Hoff rushed to fill up the gas tank and max out his ATM card, getting as much cash as possible as uncertainty grew.
He, fellow archaeologists and a group of UNL students enrolled in a summertime were staying in the southern coastal village of GazipaÅŸa, far from the chaos in Istanbul and Ankara that subsided quickly. But the team taking part in the excavation site dig returned to the U.S. shortly after the attempted coup.
Because of the volatility in Turkey, UNL students and volunteers, 150 of which have participated in the field school since it began in 2011, won’t be returning to the country in the immediate future. Meanwhile, Hoff’s heading back, because there’s lots of work to be done at the archaeological site in the province of Cilicia, where the remains of a Roman-era village are slowly being unearthed. And he’s looking for financial help to keep the project going.
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Since 2005, the Antiochia ad Cragum Archaeological Research Project has revealed the remains of temples, baths, tombs, churches and the head of a Medusa statue. The discovery of a third or fourth century A.D. 1,600-square foot mosaic was featured in a 2012 New York Times article.
On Monday, Hoff and several others connected with the project provided potential donors with a unique view of the dig site -- a virtual one.
Ben Kreimer, a former student of Hoff’s who also studied drone journalism at UNL, has since gone on to work on immersive journalism projects for BuzzFeed, among others. A video allowing users to survey the damage of the 2015 California Valley Fire with the help of a drone’s eye 360-degree view has been viewed more than 6 million times on Facebook.
With the Antiochia ad Cragum site, Kreimer thought he could provide an even-more immersive experience with the help of a VR headset. He used approximately 200 to 250 images of the area encompassing the site’s imperial temple that he had taken with a drone-mounted camera to create a three-dimensional rendering of the site through a process called photogrammetry. With the aid of VR goggles, visitors to UNL’s Eisentrager-Howard Gallery in Richards Hall were able to peruse the hilltop archeological excavation site in Turkey. The mosaics that, in reality, are currently blanketed to preserve them were present in the virtual world.
Kreimer said that, thanks to the growing availability and affordability of VR headsets like the HTC Vive, and user-friendly software that allowed him to drag-and-drop his images into a photogrammetry program that rendered them into a three-dimensional world, he sees the potential to tell stories in a new way that would have “enormous impact for journalism, not to mention archeology.â€
"It was like I was back on the site again,†said Hoff. “I was completely blown away. It was like I was there.â€
He’ll be there soon. Hoff said he remains optimistic that students and volunteers will be cleared to head back in 2018.
“There are lots of students who want to come,†Hoff said. “On a weekly basis, I field calls from students.â€
Until then, Hoff is hoping to raise $30,000 to fund the next leg of the project on the expansive site, which is larger than UNL’s city campus. One of the summer projects, he said, is an excavation of the stage area at a theater Hoff said likely not only hosted plays and orchestral performances, but also speeches from town leaders.
That amount would help fund a crew of 25 to 30, he said.
“Then I would be pretty relieved and satisfied and grateful,†Hoff said.
Hoff said anyone with interest in the project who would consider donating is welcome to contact him by email at mhoff1@unl.edu.
Michael Hoff, University of Nebraska-Lincoln art history professor
Reach the writer at 402-473-7438 or cmatteson@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSMatteson.
