HomeSociety & EconomicsYork: Roman Fortress, Viking Capital, Medieval Walled City

🏛️ York: Roman Fortress, Viking Capital, Medieval Walled City

A layered 3D dig-site model of York that peels back Roman, Viking, medieval and modern strata one at a time, revealing what lies beneath today's streets.

Society & Economics3DModerate60 FPS
york-city-guide-roman-viking-and-medieval-layers-lab ↗ Open standalone

A stack of four colour-coded strata — Roman Eboracum, Viking Jorvik, medieval York and the modern city — that you can excavate, spotlight and pull apart to see how nearly two thousand years of history sit on top of one another.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Each layer carries simplified landmarks true to its era: a Roman corner tower and barracks, Viking timber long-houses from Coppergate, York Minster and the medieval Bars, and today's street grid — stacked in the order archaeologists actually find them.

🎮 How to Use

Drag the excavation slider to strip strata from the top down, spotlight a single era to "x-ray" through the layers above it, and use layer separation to explode the stack into a clearer side-on diagram.

💡 Did You Know?

York's Roman walls, Viking street names ending in "-gate", and medieval Bars all still exist above ground today — the city rebuilt itself directly on top of its own history rather than starting over.

⚙ Under the hood

A layered 3D dig-site model of York that peels back Roman, Viking, medieval and modern strata one at a time, revealing what lies beneath today's streets.

HistoryArchaeologyRomanVikingThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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