From Field to Screen: Best Practices for Digital Recording and Global Sharing of Catacombs from Late Roman Sicily

Summary

Ten years after the seminal research on the digital recording of the monumental complex of The Catacombs of Saint Domitilla at Rome, undertaken by the Österreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaften , the virtualization and the dissemination of 3d models of Late Roman catacombs is still a challenging research topic. While the catacombs of Rome are consistently considered for cutting edge digital archaeology projects, the underground cemeteries of Late Roman Sicily, the second in importance to those of Rome, struggles to get the digital visibility they deserve. Against this scenario, between 2013 and 2015 an Italian-American research project was undertaken at the Catacombs of St. Lucy at Siracusa. The research, including archaeological fieldwork, focuses on some very problematic parts of Region C. During the excavation, an array of 3D digital techniques was used for the daily recording of the archaeological units, but also to create high-resolution virtual replicas of certain districts of the catacombs and certain classes of materials, such as frescoes and marble architectural elements that could otherwise only be studied in the dark environment of the catacombs. The USF Digital Collections, a well-established multimedia repository of USF Libraries, has been chosen as global dissemination media.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21014