The Site
Built around AD142 in the reign of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, the Antonine Wall ran coast-to-coast across Scotland from the Clyde to the Firth of Forth and was the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire. It was abandoned by the Romans who retreated further south, from the late AD150s onwards. A permanent display of the largest collection of artefacts discovered along the Wall is housed in the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, UK.
The Ebutius dilemma experience was driven by the overall, high-level objective to increase visitors’ engagement and connection with the objects on display, and more broadly with related themes, historic periods, heritage, museums, and the past. More specifically, the aims of the ‘Ebutius’s Dilemma’ experience were:
- To connect with the Antonine Wall through the story of the character of a Roman centurion
- Address universal themes (e.g. family, work, love, loss)
- Encourage empathy and emotional engagement
- Engage with objects in the gallery
- Challenge stereotypes (e.g. about military life, the relationship of Romans with locals)
The experience
The digital storytelling experience designed for on-site visits features the character of Ebutius, a centurion, named after the name found scratched on one of the hammerheads found on the Wall currently on display at The Hunterian. The scenario covers the abandonment of the Antonine Wall by the Romans and the dilemma Ebutius faces: He must decide before sunrise whether to leave his home – the Roman fort at the site of Bar Hill – with the rest of the army, or stay behind with his partner, a local woman named Calle and their son Callum. He then asks the user to help him make this life-changing decision and in order for visitors to be able to do that, they are invited to first learn more about Ebutius and his life.
The experience has three main strands: one relates to Ebutius’s working life, another to his personal life and a third to his sense of honour and duty, all three weaving in the objects on display.
The virtual experience
In order to position the offsite virtual experience and the story of ‘Ebutius’s Dilemma’ within the Antonine Wall display, a photo-realistic representation of the gallery was developed with objects located within this representation and identifiable to the user. The virtual walkthrough of the Antonine Wall gallery is based on several 360° images of the gallery, as well as images of the display cases and objects taken on-site.
This virtual walkthrough of the gallery is combined with the digital storytelling in a web application allowing off-site users to experience the story.
What others think about it
Both the onsite and the virtual version of the Ebutius’s dilemma experience have been extensively evaluated with a range of physical and virtual visitors, including highschool students. The results of our evaluations showed a major contribution to the state of the art of digital heritage practice, due to its capacity to engender visitor engagement with museum displays and cultural heritage sites, and – most importantly – its potential for emotionally connecting visiting audiences with the distant human past, especially relevant in the context of primary and secondary education.
Try it!
Ebutius’ dilemma
If you would like to further explore the story of Ebutius, you try out the virtual experience.
Ebutius’ Dilemma has been designed and developed through the collaboration of our group with the University of Glasgow and the Hunterian Museum and namely Professor Maria Economou, Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Glasgow and Dr Hilary Young, as well as with the company noho