Recreating an ancient village in Crete

Animating a film for a museum

Out on the wine-dark waters of the Aegean Sea, the epic poet Homer tells us, lies a wondrous destination.

Κρήτη.

Crete.

The Odyssey extols Greece’s southern-most tip as a fertile island, with ninety cities and myriad languages. And it was the home of mighty King Minos – son of Zeus and Europa.

An ancient Cretan civilization is named after the mythological king. Historians today consider the Minoans (2700 – 1420 BC) one of the first advanced civilizations of Europe. Not much is known about the Minoan culture, so when archaeologists discover a previously unknown village, it’s a big deal. And that’s precisely what happened during the pandemic. The archaeologists are now excavating and will submit their findings to journals.

The Minoan culture was known for its artwork, like this dolphin fresco in Knossos. Image by bigfoot, Pixabay content license.

But museums have a different task. They need to make the Minoan site relevant and interesting for their visitors. One way to do that is through animation. Pictures tell a thousand words, so the adage goes. But a film tells a million little details. And a film also tells a story.

Tasked with animating the village for a Greek museum, Dennis Ackermann flew to Crete in 2023 to get those details right. And what he found there changed his story-telling. Here’s our interview, and you can view his film towards the end.

Dennis Ackermann in Crete. Selfie, with permission.

Travel and Culture: Tell us about yourself.

Dennis Ackermann: I’m a game design student at a university in Cologne, Germany. I was always good at drawing and have a passion for movies and games. That’s why I started studying game design and animation after finishing an apprenticeship as a graphic designer. I use 2D and 3D programs to build, model, and draw things. I’m learning a lot about the gaming and film industry, and have some cool projects to work on.

T&C: Crete was one of your cool projects! Why did you go there?

DA: Our class on lighting and shading got an assignment to animate a Minoan village based on a current archaeological dig. Our university and another one from Belgium were asked to produce a film for a Greek museum. The archaeologists had taken a lot of pictures, but the light settings weren’t quite good enough for us to work with. We also didn’t know enough about the buildings.

So, to digitally recreate the buildings, two other students and I flew to Crete to see the dig ourselves. We talked with the dig’s official photographer to get information about the buildings. Greece gave us permission to enter the site with the photographer so we could take better pictures as a basis for our animation. We also visited a Greek museum on Minoan culture to learn more about the culture.

T&C: How did that influence your animation?

DA: We learned a lot about the Minoan buildings and what they were used for. We gained a better insight into the buildings’ structures and what the people there could have been doing. Our photos of the surrounding terrain and vegetation were helpful in recreating the background, although we also did research into ancient vegetation and used digitalized topographical models to reproduce the landscape. So we were able to recreate the village more accurately than if we hadn’t gone there.

One of Dennis Ackermann’s photographs of the site, showing the terrain in the background. With permission.

T&C: How where you able to make the landscape, topography, and vegetation look so realistic?

Our photos helped! We used programs like 3DsMax and the Unreal Engine to create high quality textures. We also modelled single parts of the buildings. Some 3D models from the internet came in handy.

T&C: What did you learn about the archaeological dig itself?

DA: We learned about the people’s daily lives and what each building might have been used for. Some were for storage, like barns, and were used to house livestock or store oil, honey, and grain. The site photographer explained how many rooms and floors each building had, and how many stairs connected them. The building I animated – each student was responsible for animating one building – was a two story structure used to stock vessels of oil and honey. It also had stairs. We also learned about the various artefacts found inside the buildings.

A close up of the foundations at the dig. The texture and colour of the stones, as well as the vegetation, are important to the animator. Image: Dennis Ackermann, with permission.

T&C: Did people live there?

DA: In the village, yes, but the photographer didn’t think they lived in the building I animated. It was big enough to house a family, though.

T&C: How old is the village?

DA: Based on information so far, the village was dated between 1700 and 1200 BC. But the archaeologists think it’s Minoan.

T&C: One interesting aspect of your video is a volcano erupting in the background. Why did you put that in?

DA: A huge volcano erupted in Greece around the time the village existed. Our class researched the eruption and our professor decided we should include it in the background of all our films. The eruption happened on an island north of Crete, and from the village, on the north coast of Crete, you would have been able to see smoke plume.

The Minoan eruption of 1600-1500 BC is considered one of the largest in history. It reshaped the island of Santorini. The smoke plume rose 20 miles high and a tsunami rolled through the Aegean Sea and hit the north coast of Crete. It destroyed many Greek towns. But some Minoan villages there appear to have survived the tsunami, and the Minoan culture reached its zenith in the centuries after the eruption.

T&C: The decision to include the eruption is fascinating. So your film is actually telling two parallel stories – one about the people’s daily lives and the other about the rise and fall of civilizations on a geological timeline?

DA: That’s right.

Dennis Ackermann’s animation of a building at the Minoan village. (c) University of Applied Sciences for Media, Communication and Management in Cologne. With permission.

T&C: How did the museum react to the film?

Our professor got some feedback after our class finished. The museum really liked some aspects, but others weren’t quite scientifically accurate enough for the archaeologists. But we weren’t finished – the next semester’s class continued to work on the project. We’ve since turned the film over to the museum and it thanked us.

T&C While you were there, did you try any new foods or local dishes? What do you remember about your dining experiences?

Images by Dennis Ackermann, with permission.

I tried local dishes such as gyros pita and hotpot dishes. They tasted different to the ones I had at Greek restaurants in Germany, but were still really good. We didn’t have the opportunity to cook in Greece. I personally haven’t cooked anything that inspired me (I live in a dorm!), but the visit made me want to eat at my favourite Greek restaurant again! I’d like to make a shout out for that restaurant: the Turmstüble in Bönnigheim.

T&C: What would you tell someone else who wanted to travel there? What tips can you give us based on your experience?

DA: Greece and Crete have a really interesting culture and good food. Try to get out and visit the countryside. I really enjoyed the landscape!