Archaeology
Screen shot from virtual reality experience inside La Garma caves in Northern Spain
Viveport
Only 50 individuals have been inside the caverns of the mountain La Garma in Northern Spain, an unique archaeological website with among the world’s most remarkable collections of rock art and historical remains from the Paleolithic age. As part of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain, La Garma is a Unesco World Heritage site La Garma homes 5 levels of caves and is considered the most essential Paleolithic archaeological discovery since the mid twentieth century. Discovered in 1995, the lower gallery of the cave contains the world’s largest example of Paleolithic floors. The floors and ancient remains within the cavern were well protected by a landslide 16,000 years ago that sealed the cave to the elements.
Still of La Garma cavern floor in Memoria VR experience
Viveport
Twenty years after the rediscovery and preliminary study of the lower gallery at La Garma, researchers saw the need for additional research study of the cave’s underground system– its microclimate and microbiology– and evaluation of the state of conservation of the rock art. With support from the American shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, who has been producing shoes in Spain given that the 1970 s, the World Monuments Fund has been dealing with a job to conserve and promote La Garma with Morena Films and Overlat studio A multidisciplinary team of professionals have actually been studying the cavern’s community and archaeological remains. Two brief documentaries and a virtual reality experience have been produced to permit individuals to enjoy and learn more about this extraordinary site.
Now anyone can “take a trip” to Northern Spain on a virtual check out to these rarely checked out Spanish caves. Memoria: Stories of La Garma, by a ward-winning VR director Rafael Pavón, is a brand-new virtual reality experience simply launched by Viveport, the world’s very first unlimited VR membership service. T his VR experience is really the only way to discover these remarkable caves due to the threat of the website. Just 50 individuals have physically been able to enter them in the past 16,000 years and the caves are off limits to the general public however by mapping them for VR, they can now be seen essentially by anybody.
Still from Memoria of cavern drawings of animals in La Garma caverns
Viveport
Memoria premiered in 2019 at the Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria in Santander and it was this museum’s team who worked with Rafael Pavon on the VR experience. Told by Geraldine Chaplin ( The Crown, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), t his VR movie is a fish story from the Paleolithic age about a neighborhood who on returning from hunting found that the La Garma caves they called house had actually been blocked off by a landslide, creating a time capsule. Thousands of relics, from cave-wall paintings of animals and indications, to animal bones, seashells and artefacts carved in bone, remained undisturbed and undamaged for 16,000 years.
So what is the VR experience like, what devices is needed and just how much does it cost? The Memoria: Stories of La Garma VR experience is impressive and is suitable with most VR headsets. The user can “stroll” around 3 spaces of the cavern, captured with millimetric precision utilizing laser scanners and photogrammetry. The audience will see paleolithic hunters, a mom and her child and a cave lion who made his way deep into the cave to live his final days. You can see videos about the caves however the nature of VR indicates individuals can physically check out the caves, virtually select things up and become immersed, as if they remained in the caves. A UK viewer of the material makes an one-time purchase for ₤ 4.56 from Viveport and after that can see the experience consistently. Alternatively Viveport has an unrestricted VR subscription service called Infinity that can be purchased as a monthly (₤1299) or annual subscription (works out as ₤ 8.99/ month), allowing endless access to their whole variety of content.
Memoria: Stories of La Garma VR experience is specifically readily available from Viveport, the world’s very first unrestricted VR membership service.