AR App: The Past Comes Alive
Published 3 June 2025
Recently, an “Augmented Reality” app developed by Gunnar Liestøl and students at Media Studies at the University of Oslo, which shows former settlements at Skipssand in Øksnes, was tested.
16 June 2025
Last week, we carried out the first cultural heritage walk of the year for the 5th graders in Øksnes.
This is an annual walk from Stø to Skipssand along the Queen’s Route where the students learn about how to recognize old traces of people in nature; For example, in the form of burial mounds, settlement mounds, or formations in stone from where they would pull the boats up on land. These are traces you may not notice otherwise, unless you know what to look for.
We were met with changing weather – luckily that’s fine as long as you have good clothes! Photo: Øksnes museum.
The trip is carried out for the 5th grade in the spring, and 6th grade (which was not included in the spring) in the autumn. This time we had students from both Myre and Alsvåg school with us.
At Melkarstøa we see remains of a settlement and a sturgeon. The name comes from the fact that they milked cows here. Photo: Øksnes Museum.
Julie Sæther, archaeologist at Bø Museum, guided the students through a story that spans from the Stone Age (3000 BCE – 1800 BCE), when nomads had settled on e.g. Melkarstøa, until the Viking Age when people settled and lived by the sand, and buried their loved ones where they had a great view of the sea. At the very end, we come to 1349, when the Black Death most likely led to this area of Øksnes being vacated for good.
The name “Skipssand” has nothing to do with ships – it comes from the word “skep” which means “divided”. Photo: Øksnes Museum.
Cultural monuments are recognisable as, for example, mounds or depressions in the landscape. A settlement mound can be recognised, for example, by the area becoming more lush earlier in the spring than other areas. This is because there is so much activity in the soil because countless former settlements have thrown away waste and residues that are now lying underground, composting.
The first picture shows a looted burial mound from the Viking Age. There is a pile with a hole in it (in a “donut shape”). The second picture (right) shows the settlement mound Enge, and the third picture (left) shows the remains of two associated boathouses.
Cultural traces are often easier to see in the spring – then you can see where it’s starts turning green first – there may well be former settlements. In addition, it is more difficult to see the shapes of the mounds in the landscape if it’s overgrown. This year we had our walk a little later than usual, and noticed that it had already become difficult to see the cultural traces.
There are signs along this part of the Queen’s Route. In particular, it is about paying attention to where the cultural traces are. You should not disturb them.
Lots of nice flowers and plants had already sprung out. Here bunchberries (right) and cottongrass (left)
The students were eager and had many questions when the trip was over. With this program, we hope to inspire the students to become more aware of how people settled and lived in the past, what was important to them, and especially how we can find such traces in the landscape.
Recently, we tested an AR solution developed by Gunnar Liestøl and students at Media Studies at the University of Oslo, where you can use augmented reality to see what the settlements may have looked like in the past. Maybe this will be possible to implement with the school classes sometime in the future? Read more here: