As of Thursday, March 13th, visitors to the Athenian Agora will be able to tour the site via Google's free Field Trip app. Instead of following a prescribed path, visitors can explore the Agora however they like. Field Trip will alert them to nearby monuments utilizing a smartphone's GPS feature. Tapping on the monument's name and image provides more information about that monument including its history, color and black and white photos, plans, and reconstructions, plus links to Open Access Hesperia articles as well as to ASCSA.net. ASCSA.net contains additional information about the monument, plus links to other images, related objects, publications, and more.
"This is an incredible advance in how people can learn about an archaeological site," Andrew Reinhard, ASCSA Director of Publications said. "I've been trying to find a way to make an asynchronous guidebook, something that will tell you about where you're standing at any given moment no matter how you decide to take your tour. Field Trip does this."
"Not only that," Reinhard continued, "but you can also link to deep ASCSA content through the Web directly through the app. This is impossible to do in print. And as we learn more about the site and update the public database, images, and add audio and video, Field Trip reflects that new information immediately."
The text and images are drawn from the Athenian Agora: Site Guide (5th ed.), by John McK Camp II with photos by Craig A. Mauzy, published in 2010. For those guests who do not have smartphones or who wish to use the guidebook for reference off-site, the book is available for purchase in both English and Greek in the Stoa of Attalos shop or online from the David Brown Book Company/Oxbow Books. An interactive Ebook edition will be available soon through Inkling. Content in Field Trip is only available for users actively in or near the Agora.
Development is underway for the Ancient Corinth edition of Field Trip for a mid-2014 release.
Click here to learn more about Field Trip and to download it for iOS and Android devices and Google Glass. Once downloaded, tick the "ASCSA" box to receive American School content.
