In Bologna, you can try to rebuild an Etruscan city with a video game

An ancient Etruscan city reconstructed through a video game. The Golinelli Foundation of Bologna, in collaboration with MNEMa - National Etruscan Museum of Marzabotto, is in fact launching the second edition of Archeo-Minecraft, an online journey between science, archaeology and new technologies, in which participants will digitally reconstruct an Etruscan city. The initiative, aimed at girls and boys ages 11 to 13, will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 4, 11 and 18.

The encounter with archaeology has given cinema some of its best-known icons. From Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, who in 2023 is preparing to return to theaters with a new adventure, the fascination given by the discovery of ancient civilizations, the curiosity of combining history with entertainment, has also been a staple in video game productions for years. Sagas such as Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted, offer players, in addition to a good dose of entertainment, important information about the history, customs and traditions of the places they visit through their avatars. From these experiences Archeo-Minecraft takes as its inspiration the educational component and relies, for the interactive and entertainment one, on another element: the possibility of creating the city at the base of one’s gaming experience. For its innovative component, the Archeo-Minecraft project was awarded a special mention in the 2022 edition of the Gianluca Spina Prize for Digital Innovation in Cultural Heritage.

During the appointments, participants and attendees will engage with the museum’s director, Denise Tamborrino, to discover some of the most unique features of Etruscan civilization. Next, they will be immersed in the virtual world of Minecraft, one of the best-selling video games in history and, at the same time, one of the most widely used in educational tracks around the world to teach the rudiments of coding, programming and to bring new generations closer to STEAM subjects.

Thanks to the software, those enrolled in the Archaeo-Minecraft cycle will take on the role of a micro-community, organizing themselves to meet the proposed challenge with the help of Fondazione Golinelli’s expert tutors and Museum staff: to create with the game an Etruscan city by reinterpreting what they have learned. Each appointment will focus on a particular aspect of Etruscan urban organization, helping to enrich and enhance the digital construction.

Finally, on Saturday, April 1, the virtual city will give way to the real one; the protagonists of the trail and their families will have access to a personalized guided tour at the archaeological area and the National Etruscan Museum of Marzabotto, to discover together what Kainua, the only Etruscan city to date that can be fully visited, really looked like. Archeo-Minecraft costs 60 euros per participant. For more information and to register for the initiative, you can visit the Golinelli Foundation website.

In Bologna, you can try to rebuild an Etruscan city with a video game

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