Yvelines – Geocaching and Cultural Heritage

During the European Archaeology Days in June 2024, ArkéoTopia and its partners are launching the first mission of EVA et les Tisseurs du temps (“EVA and the Time Weavers”) in the south of the Yvelines region with À la poursuite des Pirates du temps (“Chasing After the Time-traveling Pirates”) in Longvilliers.

Arkéotopia invites families, gamers, and heritage lovers to chase after Pirates du temps (“Time-traveling Pirates”) in Longvilliers to discover the local cultural heritage, with the help of EVA, a mobile app for geolocation-based games.

ArkéoTopia, in partnership with les Archives départementales (the Departmental Archives), le Pôle Sauvegarde et transmission du patrimoine des Yvelines (The Center for Conserving and Transmitting the Heritage of the Yvelines region), and le Service archéologique interdépartemental Yvelines / Hauts-de-Seine (The Interdepartmental Archaeological Service Yvelines / Hauts-de-Seine), is launching the first mission in the south of the Yvelines region in Longvilliers with À la poursuite des pirates (“Chasing After the Time-traveling Pirates”) during the European Archaeology Days (EAD) taking place on June 14th, 15th, and 16th, 2024.

After downloading the free app EVA – les Tisseurs du temps (available for IOS and Android), players can head to Longvilliers’s city hall. The players are known as Tisseurs du temps, meaning “Time Weavers”. Once there, the cute little robot “EVA” on their screens will take them on an adventure to discover the town’s heritage in a fun way. They will have to find several physical locations using a document from the archives and an archaeological operation report. The Tisseurs du temps will explore the town on foot during missions.

In addition to an enjoyable stroll, joining the Tisseurs du temps offers access to information that is not, or is no longer, viewable because it is stored in archives, museum collections, and archaeological reports from the area.

Jean-Olivier Gransard-Desmond, an archaeologist with ArkéoTopia who devised and developed the route, hopes that “players can access documents that they might not otherwise see, and demonstrate the value of an archaeological operation even after its completion.”

Practical Information

EVA – Les Tisseurs du temps: À la poursuite des Pirates du temps
Games accessible for ages 8 and up – 500 meter route for about 20 minutes of gameplay.
To find out more about EVA and other games, visit the website of the Yvelines region Archives.

To learn more

• See the presentation of EVA – Les Tisseurs du temps for secondary education teachers (in French only) : Un jeu collaboratif pour des élèves acteurs du patrimoine (a collaborative game for students taking part in heritage)
• Visit our page ArkaeoGame – the ArkeoTopia gaming area where we will present the games that will be created with EVA for years to come, as well as our other in-person and online games