Exploring past through new technology

A GROUND-breaking exhibition at Perth Museum and Art Gallery will bring visitors faceto-face with the Pictish past using the latest digital technology.

Visitors to Picts and Pixels, which opened today, can explore the past through virtual reality headsets and interactive stations, including a reconstruction of Moredun Top Hill Fort at Moncreiffe Hill on the outskirts of Perth.

A real-life archaeological dig is currently taking place at the Iron Age fort but with the new technology visitors will be able to “fly through” and explore the site as it might have been in its heyday.

There will also be an opportunity to examine ancient Pictish objects up close through 3D modelling technology. These include the Inchyra Stone with its cryptic inscriptions and a Celtic stone head originally found by two schoolboys in 1965 at the North Muirton end of the North Inch.

Forensic artist Hayley Fisher will be producing a 2D facial reconstruction of the face of a Pict, using a partial skeleton found in Blair Atholl.

For more traditional fans of heritage and history, items loaned from National Museum of Scotland, as well as items from Perth Museum’s collection, will feature as part of the exhibition, which runs until August 13.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery’s first-ever Museum Late event kicks off the exhibition today at 7pm.