The Golden Bond: Unfolding the Kapulukaya Hoard

The Golden Bond: Unfolding the Kapulukaya Hoard is a digital cultural heritage project developed within the 3D Big Data for the Data Space for Cultural Heritage (3DBigDataSpace) initiative, co-funded by the European Union under the Digital Europe Programme, and supported by the Time Machine Organisation (TMO). The project transforms a Late Roman coin hoard into an interactive storytelling experience, allowing visitors to explore the historical, economic, and geographic context of the collection through advanced digital visualisation tools. Using a combination of high-fidelity 3D rendering, interactive narratives, and spatial visualisation, the application reveals the journey of the coins and the wider historical networks they represent. Visitors can inspect the coins in detail, uncover their inscriptions and imagery, and explore the historical route between Antioch and Ancyra that contextualises the hoard. The project is developed by the University of Milan in partnership with Ankara University (Department of Classical Archaeology), whose numismatic expertise underpins the historical and iconographic interpretation of the hoard, and in collaboration with the Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum in Ankara, home to the original Kapulukaya Hoard, where the interactive application has been installed and opened to public visitors as a permanent museum kiosk experience. The project combines archaeological interpretation with innovative digital tools to demonstrate how cultural heritage collections can be transformed into immersive public experiences. By integrating kiosk displays, web access, and augmented reality, the application provides multiple points of engagement for both museum visitors and online audiences.