Staff Reporter

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has launched an augmented reality heritage experience at the Melville Koppies Nature Reserve.

The project uses digital technology to reconstruct a 500-year-old African smelting site without disturbing the protected landscape.

Launched on Workers’ Day, it was developed in collaboration with the Melville Koppies Management Committee and led by Dr Izak Potgieter and Dr Herman Myburgh of UJ’s Metaverse Research Unit.

It allows visitors to use their smartphones to scan QR codes and view a historically grounded, three-dimensional reconstruction of the ancient smelter overlaid on the existing remains.

Through animation and narration, the site is presented as an immersive learning environment focused on early African engineering, resource use, and environmental awareness.

UJ said the project pays tribute to the labour, craftsmanship and metallurgical knowledge of the pre-colonial ancestors of today’s Sesotho and Setswana-speaking communities, placing indigenous innovation at the centre of the heritage experience.

The university’s Department of History and Language Unit also worked on the project to ensure that the experience is academically rigorous and accessible through multilingual narration.

“Melville Koppies has long stood as a place of deep historical and cultural significance. For many of the present generation, these histories can feel distant and this project steps in as not just a technological achievement but an intellectual and cultural bridge.

“Through augmented reality we can reconstruct, reanimate and re-experience a vital aspect of our shared history,” said Professor Kammila Naidoo, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, at the launch.

UJ said the technology had been designed to be affordable and widely accessible, with even low-cost smartphones able to access the QR code and view the animated storytelling experience.

Potgieter said the project showed how history was embedded in the landscapes people inhabit and the communities they build.

“The site offers a rare opportunity to represent pre-colonial African technological knowledge in-situ,” said Dr Potgieter. “By animating the past, we enable visitors to engage with history in a way that is immediate, accessible, and deeply meaningful.”

The AR experience will also be made available at all UJ libraries in an effort to attract students to the site.

Jenny Grice, of the Melville Koppies Management Committee, said the project would add to the range of activities already taking place at the reserve and help draw more visitors, young and old.

UJ said the initiative could set a new standard for preserving cultural memory through digital storytelling while protecting conservation landscapes.

INSIDE EDUCATION

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