In 1897, a series of severe storms washed away parts of the Scottish coastline on Shetland, exposing the over 4,000 year-old remains of a settlement: Jarlshof.
Recently, a team led by Kieran Baxter created a digital reconstruction of the site’s various occupation periods–from its earliest dwelling in 2700 BCE through the Bronze Age and Iron Age. You can see the Viking settlement beginning in 1000 CE as well as a Medieval farm (1300 CE) as well as a laird’s house (ca. 1600 CE). This project is an excellent example of the way that archaeologists can use digital reconstruction to understand and demonstrate how multi-period sites change over time.
© Kieran Baxter (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
Read more about the project in Baxter’s article in Internet Archaeology online journal Issue 36.
