Heron of Alexandria – Automated Temple Doors

Heron of Alexandria (10-70 CE) was a Greek-Egyptian mathematician and inventor. He was experimenting with steam-powered devices and one of his inventions where automatically opening temple doors, powered by a fire altar and a hydraulic system.

The Reconstruction of Pi-Ramesse

Pi-Ramesse, the capital of Ramesses II., is located in the Nile Delta of modern Egypt. This visualisation shows the structure and inner organisation of the city center and explains the reconstructive process. As this animation was created for an exhibition, there is no sound in this file.

Anu Ziggurat and the White Temple of Uruk, 4th millennium BCE

This short video shows a circular, looped animation around the Anu Ziggurat of Uruk of the 4th millennium BCE, the so-called Late Uruk Period. On top of the Ziggurat, the White Temple is situated. The reconstruction is based upon a temple model found within the ruins.

Eanna Ziggurat of Uruk, 21st century BCE

This short video shows a circular, looped animation around the Eanna Ziggurat of Uruk of the 21st century BCE, the so-called Ur III Period. The two-stepped tower had a tripartite main staircase and a temple on top, which probably looked like the one depicted in the animation. The surrounding structures are framing different courts. The white space is unknown territory.

Karakorum: The Reconstruction of the Great Hall

The animation explains the erection of the platform and the reconstruction of the “Great Hall” that was built upon it. After an introduction, the archaeological record is shown and explained. Modern preservation is also a topic and the animation closes with a proposal on how the Great Hall might have looked like.

Uruk: The palace of Sin-kashid

The animation explains the different areas of the palace and offers an insight into the palace economy and the everyday life. Small-finds that were found in the palace and texts that refer to it were included in our animation. Every detail was researched to create a reconstruction that gives an insight into the world of Old Mesopotamia.

Uruk: The Late Uruk Period

Excavations in the centre of Uruk uncovered a large variety of monumental buildings with often unparalleled architectural features. This animation shows the complex centre of the Late Uruk Period. Due to the poor state of preservation of most buildings, and the uniqueness of this early architecture, the reconstruction was challenging and ambitious, as it had never previously been attempted to this extent.

Seleucid Bit Resh: Anu-Antum Temple – Detail and Reconstruction

During the Seleucid Period (3rd – 2nd century BCE), Uruk (modern Warka/Iraq) was an important religious centre featuring large complexes of sacral architecture, such as the “Bit Resh”. The animation shows the Anu-Antum temple as the central complex of the Bit Resh.

Uruk: The Eanna Ziggurat of the 21st century BCE

This short video shows two types of reconstruction. The first is a purely technical one, where only the most secure information was used to rebuilt the Eanna sanctuary. The second is a life-like momentum: it shows the loose reconstruction of a religious ceremony.

(Re-)Constructing the Stone-Cone building in Uruk – Exhibition Version

Together with Prof. Dr. Eichmann, who has been studying the “Stone-Cone Building” for many years, we reconstructed the building process on the basis of the archaeological evidence. The results were visualised in an animation showing the building’s entire construction process, from its complex foundation design to reflections about its inner installations.

Visualisation of a silver atom

The first episode of Crash Course Chemistry by Hank Green inspired me to visualise a simplified atom. The scale and dimensions are obviously not correct, due to visibility reasons. There are 47 Protons (red) and 60 Neutrons (yellow) in the nucleus of the silver atom. Electrons (blue) circle the nucleus in three different layers. The model follows the theories of Niels Bohr.