From July 21, 2023, you can download the free mobile app game “Craveler”, which provides knowledge about ancient and Islamic coins from Syria and Iraq, among other places, in an entertaining way. The main character is the young archaeologist Anna Alaska, who travels back in time in a time machine with her flying robot BIB 3000 from the year 3542 to search for coins in ancient Syria, for example.
The gameplay of “Craveler” is inspired by the well-known game “Temple Run”. The game lets a running character navigate through a path blocked with obstacles to collect a historical coin at the end. In the process, a fascinating impression of what the ancient and medieval Islamic world might have looked like is conveyed. The background stories of 30 historical coins are told and shown in the historical landscapes with typical plants, animals, objects and buildings.
Knowledge is imparted in question-and-answer dialogues and later queried again. There are rewards for correct answers. With the successful run and collection of the coins, Anna’s initially empty coin exhibition is built up in a museum. By passing each new run level, new exhibits continuously fill this museum.
The game was developed by scientists from Tübingen and Changchun (China) around Stefan Krmnicek, Tübingen numismatist and long-time guest author of tünews INTERNATIONAL, with a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. In recent years, rapid technological development and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced scholars to shift from traditional media to newer technologies such as mobile or virtual reality applications to communicate knowledge about cultural heritage.
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Beispielmünze: Eine Münze aus Sidon mit dem Porträt von Julia Maesa und der Darstellung von Europa auf dem Stier, Tübingen Inv. II 1547/96 (https://www.ikmk.uni-tuebingen.de/object?id=ID10755). Foto: Stefan Krmnicek.
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