Extended reality (XR) is an expanding world.

Businesses are waking up to the productivity-boosting potential of technologies like smart glasses and augmented reality (AR). And virtual reality (VR) gaming, once the preserve of science fiction and futurist think pieces, is now a multi-billion dollar industry with millions of customers.

XR is finding its audience. And that audience is developing ever more interesting ways to harness and enjoy the technology.

In the hands of users, the Metaverse is more than a virtual meeting space. Thanks to their ingenuity, we've seen a recreation of the Acropolis of Athens, virtual stand-up comedy and entire worlds populated with Star Wars role-players, among many other things.

And if you think that's novel, wait until you see what archaeologists are up to.

Yes, at the intersection of archaeology and gaming, a new field has emerged. It's unusual, it's academically minded and it's intrinsically tied to XR.

It's called archaeogaming. Here's everything you need to know about it.

What is archaeogaming?

Put simply, archaeogaming is when archaeology meets video games.

Like many simple definitions, this raises more questions than answers. Archaeogaming is a developing concept. It's cloudy. It's confusing. It wears a different hat every day.

One of these hats puts it firmly in the real world. Archaeogaming can mean, quite literally, digging up games.

Believe it or not, this has actually happened. In 2013, a team of archaeologists and filmmakers trawled through a landfill site in search of a not-so-precious prize: E.T. game cartridges.

The game was a famous dud. It flopped on release in 1982 – and, according to some, contributed to the American video game crash of 1983.

An urban legend claimed that Atari – in an act of ceremonial penance (or inventory management) – buried millions of the unsold cartridges in a New Mexico dump.

The 2013 team didn't find millions of cartridges. But they did find around 1,000, thus confirming the legend and ushering in archaeogaming as a real-world discipline.

But how about archaeogaming as a virtual discipline? Our next definition flips the concept on its head. It involves using real-world archaeological techniques to explore, study and contextualise video games.

The term "archaeogaming" was first used, at least in this sense, by Andrew Reinhard in a 2013 blog post.

Reinhard, an archaeologist, had become an avid player of the online game World of Warcraft. As he explored the game's fantastical environments and rich lore, he began to apply archaeological thinking to his gameplay. He would question characters endlessly, read in-game books and pay special attention to unusual environmental features – anything to help make sense of the virtual world he inhabited.

He summed up his thoughts like this:

"The archaeology of games is a very real thing and deserves a forum of its own for future exploration, speculation and outright scholarship. […] I would [like to] apply archaeological methods in exploring how in-game cultures change between game iterations."

A related field is the use of archaeological techniques to examine the inner workings of video games and the context in which they were created.

This technique was pioneered by computer science professor John Aycock. He explained his thinking in a 2016 presentation:

"Archeology is about the study of human activities through artefacts. And I would argue that in some ways that's what I'm interested in. This human activity of the programmers working under [constraints]. How did they work? How did they solve these problems?"

Are we done with the definitions? Hold your horses – there are a couple more to get through yet.

"Archaeogaming" can also refer to the study of how archaeology is used in games. This branch of archaeogaming is largely made up of archaeologists who want to explore existing depictions of their field in video games and help game makers depict archaeological practices more realistically.

And, finally, there are "archaeogamers": archaeologists who play games and make games.

These games might put players in the shoes of a virtual archaeologist – or weave complex worlds using archaeology as a creative pivot. They might emphasise education and use the gaming medium to teach players about ancient worlds and archaeological methods. Or they might simply be games made by archaeologists – not strictly about archaeology, but inevitably informed by archaeological practice.

How is archaeogaming linked to XR?

First, let's recap what we've learned. "Archaeogaming" can mean

1. Real-world excavations of video games
2. Using archaeological techniques to study video games
3. Studying archaeological depictions within video games, or
4. Archaeologists making games – for education, entertainment or both.

XR intersects with all of these practices. But it's the fourth form of archaeogaming – games made by archaeologists – that has the most potential for XR experiences.

Why? Because XR has been shown to be an effective educational tool. This is especially true for VR, which has gained traction for its ability to create immersive, three-dimensional training scenarios.

With VR, educators can deliver an endlessly repeatable form of experiential learning – the act of learning by doing. But unlike its real-world forebears, VR has no creative or geographic limits. A VR headset can instantly transport a student to an oil rig, operating theatre or production line. No risk. No fuss. No travel expenses.

This kind of experiential, VR-led training has proved especially popular in the manufacturing sector. Companies like Airbus, BMW and BP have used VR to help teach design, maintenance and safety procedures, among other things. Boeing has even used it to prepare astronauts for spaceflight.

In an archaeogaming context, however, VR is less about learning by doing and more about learning by being.

For archaeological educators, a VR headset can be a passport, a time machine and a storyteller. It allows learners to experience history and archaeology in ways that push far beyond the limits of lectures and museum exhibits.

They say the past is a foreign country. But imagine a scenario where archaeologists could present a living, 3D representation of the past (or their best guess at it). Would it feel so foreign if learners could walk the streets of antiquity?

There are more practical applications too. Say you're an archaeological lecturer tasked with teaching students the basics of fieldwork. Do you fly them out to an active dig site (sacrificing budget), attempt to teach it in the classroom (sacrificing effectiveness) or harness a VR simulation (sacrificing nothing)?

We've already seen educational VR experiences that – arguably – fall under the banner of archaeogaming. Take the Museum of Ontario Archaeology's "VR Ancestral Longhouse", which lets visitors explore a 16th-century dwelling, learn about archaeological artefacts and play with bows and arrows. Or the Louvre's Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass – a VR experience that unpicks the "archaeology" of Leonardo's masterpiece, from its developing patina to its wood panel texture.

One thing's for sure: these experiences are only the start.

Expand Reality is a UK-based retailer of smart glasses, augmented reality devices and virtual reality headsets. Follow our blog for more XR industry news and analysis.