The images in this Web page are screen snapshots from a three-episode VRML world that was used in an extended experiment in interactive drama. The project was led by Dr. Michael Moshell and carried out by eighteen Digital Media and Computer Science students between August 1998 and June 1999. A detailed description of the project is also available, if you want to read about fifty pages of text. A subset of these pictures is included over there, but you can see the full set of screen-captures here.

The Caracol Time Travel project was based on the actual archaeological work of Drs. Diane and Arlen Chase of the University of Central Florida. Their Caracol web site will tell you much more about their work.

In these images, you will see three human figure avatars. The characters Anna and Pedro are wearing the faces of two Guatemalan schoolchildren whom we photographed at Tikal. The archaeologist is wearing the face of Michael Moshell, (this being a sort of a joke by the students, since Moshell often wears an Indiana Jones-style fedora hat.)

Here are some of the pictures and a short story synopsis.

The great pyramid of Caana ("Sky House") at Caracol in Belize stands almost 50m (160 ft) tall.  This is a conjecturual image of how Caana may have appeared in 800 A. D. during the height of Caracol's power. The adjacent structures only suggest the large city extending for over 10 km outward from the center at Caana. This VRML model was constructed from an AutoCad model, based on field survey data.

Story Synopsis

Back Story. In ancient Caracol, an old homeless woman (Missaira) scrabbles around midden heaps, scavenging food. Almost everyone mistrusts her and calls her a chartzcoal  (witch), though she is befriended by a young noble girl named Rainbow. She gives Rainbow a sacred jade amulet, to use in a future time of great need.  The village boys taunt the old woman. In anger, she magically transforms the annoying boys into chattering monkeys and drives them into the forest.

Rainbow is anguished that the rains have not come. Her people need food and strength for their struggle against Tikal. She prays to the rain-god Chaac, and offers to sacrifice her jade amulet if Chaac will bring rain, even though without the amulet, her soul can never enter the underworld of Xibalba when she dies. She smashes the amulet and places the fragments in a small red ceramic pot. The rains come.

Rainbow grows old as the revered queen of Caracol. When she dies, her body is placed in a tomb high atop Caana.

Virtual Drama: Episode 1.

In modern times, the archaeology project discovers Rainbow’s burial, but has no access to her life story. When our drama begins, student trainees Pat and Jay are introduced to the site by the chief archaeologist. After he leaves, the guests interact with the Maya children, who reveal to them that sometimes it is possible to see the past. The children show the guests how to touch a certain symbol on a certain stela (stone monument), and the students find themselves transported back to ancient times. Ana’s toucan accompanies them, and leads them to observe Rainbow’s grave, as she is being reverently buried.

The guests see a young girl, Lida (who resembles Ana.) as she observes a fire burning alongside the burial site. In the flames appears the spirit of Rainbow, who says: Lida, you must help me to recover my amulet. Without it, I cannot enter the underworld.

Time travel ends. The guests find themselves back in modern times. They discuss their experience. Just at the end of the episode, a member of the party notices a small red ceramic shard sticking out of the soil.

Virtual Drama: Episode 2

The student trainees (guests) and advanced students (cast members) Louise and Bud, together with Anna and Pedro, go to a cave that contains Maya artifacts. They look at various artifacts and discuss them.

Eventually they come to an ornate box which contains a bone. When someone touches the bone, a ghost-monkey rises in a flickering flame from the box and tells the story of how Rainbow was given the amulet and how she sacrificed it. The monkey explains that their transformation from boys into monkeys was done so as to leave someone behind who could tell the story.

In this figure you see a feature sometimes used in VRMINet, the distributed world system used for this project. Avatars' names are displayed above their heads.

Virtual Drama: Episode 3

In this episode, the students participate in a simulated excavation at a site suggested by that small red potshard. They use a shovel,  a trowel, and a sifter to locate four broken parts of the jade amulet. When the parts are brought close together, they start to glow and are reunified.
 

The guests are transported back in time to classic Caracol and witness a ceremony at the circular altar. (Lida is the ancient Maya girl who corresponds to Anna in modern times.) The spirit of Rainbow appears and thanks the young archaeologists for their assistance. The monkeys come in from the forest and are transformed back into Maya children.

You can see one (of many) VRML errors in this scene. Even though we've traveled back in time (with much switching of VRML models, to be sure) we still have the little flags (under the altar) marking the modern excavation.

And much fun was had by all....