Designing digital archaeological trails together with the local population: This is the goal of an international team led by the University of Würzburg.
Archaeologists carry out a lot of field research at excavation sites. These are often difficult for locals to access for two reasons: for example, they are located in the middle of the forest and there is no paved path leading to them. And the information about archaeological sites and artefacts has to be presented in a way that is easy to understand, says Stephanie Döpper.
The Junior Professor of Digital Humanities for Near Eastern Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) is now working with an international team to achieve this. The joint project “SHARITAGE” (Digitally enabled community-based European SHAred cultural heRITAGE engagement) aims to use digital methods to improve dialogue with mayors, schools and other local communities. Ten partners from six European countries are involved.
Important Factor: Dialogue with the Local Population
The ArchaeoTrail app, which the JMU scientist developed in 2020 together with Matthias Ludwig, Professor of Didactics for Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Frankfurt on the Main, serves as the basis for this. Interested parties can, for example, explore Roman Mainz or discover the 5,000-year-old Omani city of Al-Khashbah.
The app is now to be further developed as part of the project. What is new is that the archaeological experts want to create the trails with the local people. “Of course, as the project managers, we check new trails to see how accessible they are and how the data on each site has been prepared,” assures Döpper.
According to the junior professor, the dialogue with the local population is a valuable addition. “During an excavation, we asked local farmers in Oman what they were particularly interested in. Above all, they wanted to know how people used to get water,” recalls the archaeologist. In this way, educational trails could be better adapted to the needs of potential users and also made more attractive to locals.
New teaching materials for students
The findings from the project will also be incorporated into university teaching. Students will learn how digital public archaeology can be further improved in cooperation with the local population.
Among other things, teaching materials on digital and computer-aided archaeology will be produced in English and in the languages of the project partner countries. This includes, for example, slide sets, task sheets and an online self-study course.
A Project with International Partners
The European Union is funding the project with 400,000 euros as part of the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships programme. The project began on 1 September 2025 and will run for three years. The ten project partners are:
Autentek Development, Germany
University of Frankfurt, Germany
University of Würzburg, Germany (lead partner)
University of Wroclaw, Poland
Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia, Serbia
University of Belgrade, Serbia
University of Nitra, Slovakia
Institute of Heritage Sciences, Spain
University of Prague, Czech Republic
University of Budweis, Czech Republic
Stephanie Döpper, Junior Professor of Digital Humanities for Near Eastern Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, T: +49 931 31 83170, e-mail: [email protected]
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