The Ancient Ohio Trail: A Media-Enhanced Cultural Heritage Experience

FAIN: GI-50275-10

Ohio State University Research Foundation (Columbus, OH 43210-1435)
Richard Douglas Shiels (Project Director: January 2010 to June 2013)
Marti L. Chaatsmith (Project Director: June 2013 to July 2013)
Richard Douglas Shiels (Project Director: August 2013 to April 2016)

Implementation of a website and ancillary downloadable materials interpreting the major earthworks of the Ohio River region, focusing especially on heritage driving tours.

The ancient earthworks of Ohio remain undervalued as tourism assets even as they prepare for UNESCO World Heritage designation. The Newark Earthworks Center at Ohio State University and CERHAS at the University of Cincinnati are partnering to create multimedia resources that will present these sites in new ways: with layered interpretations spanning several humanities disciplines, digital reconstructions to enhance on-site visualization, and Native American perspectives and traditions. Our web-downloadable materials will draw on our (and our partner agencies') vast combined video interview archives, digital models, interactive exhibits, artifact collections, sites, and experts. "Ancient Ohio Trail" resources and events will help travelers to the earthworks appreciate their architecture, their meanings, their makers, and their multiple interpretive, historical, cultural, and landscape contexts, as never before.