Visitors can watch spearheads from 1150BC and a 2,000-year-old stash of gold coins fly through the air in a 3D video display after technological whizzes shot close-up sequences of The Oxfordshire Museum’s collection of ancient artefacts and toyed with their backgrounds to superimpose the locations where they were originally found.
Gold and enamel finger-rings and the nine-piece Grove hoard, which is among the country’s earliest known collection of minted coins, have been repositioned against digital backgrounds, manipulated and rotated in a project by Rob Munday.
They have now been unveiled anew to the public, shown in glorious Technicolour on 24-inch, 3D televisions.
“The brief was to produce an exciting and captivating display which held the attention and enabled the wonderful craftsmanship and detail of the objects to be fully appreciated,” explains Munday, of the Holovision imaging company.
“We believe that the Oxfordshire Museum is the first museum in the world to use such 3D technology to display its artefacts.”
Curator Cherry Gray said the innovation would allow the museum to highlight every nick and pattern of the precious display.
“New technology has created exciting ways to bring objects to life, and for us to effortlessly enjoy the detail of tiny objects which would otherwise be missed,” she added.
Highlights of the 3D special:
- Medieval brooches found in Radley and Cholsey
- Two post-Medieval dress hooks which were discovered in Woodstock
- Roman coins unearthed in Shellingford
- A post-Medieval cosmetic set from West Hagbourne