Digital Technologies for Funerary Urn Micro-Excavation Training: Video, Interactive Web-Based, and Augmented Reality Approaches

The micro-excavation of funerary urns is a specialised archaeological procedure that requires technical expertise and access to fragile cultural heritage materials. Opportunities for hands-on training are limited due to the scarce availability of archaeological materials for educational purposes and the conservation requirements of archaeological remains. Digital technologies provide alternative approaches for supporting archaeological education while preserving original artefacts. This work presents an interactive web-based application for training in the micro-excavation of funerary urns, developed as part of the European ArchaeoPills project. The application builds on a previously developed Augmented Reality (AR) learning tool and guides learners through the complete funerary urn micro-excavation process within a virtual laboratory environment. To investigate the impact of different learning modalities in cultural heritage education, the web application was evaluated alongside an instructional video generated from a previously developed virtual reality application, providing access to the same training content without requiring immersive technologies. The results were also compared with those previously obtained using the AR version. Learning outcomes, perceived workload, and user experience were compared across the different conditions. Both the instructional video and the web application produced significant learning gains, and no significant differences were observed between the two modalities. The learning outcomes obtained with the video-based resource and the web application did not differ significantly from those of the AR version. Both the instructional video and the web application were perceived as accessible and useful educational resources. These findings suggest that video-based, web-based, and AR-based resources developed from the same archaeological content and educational materials can all effectively support learning. However, further studies with larger samples are needed to confirm these findings. The choice among these resources should therefore be guided not only by learning effectiveness but also by instructional objectives, technological resources, and the desired level of learner interaction.