Tarquinia scomparsa: progetto di virtualizzazione 3D e analisi storico archeologica dell'ipogeo 1824 in località Calvario (Necropoli dei Monterozzi)

Abstract

The archaeological record is often founded on the dynamic relationship between visible and invisible. A third possible dynamic, due the ravishes of time, is the «no longer visible». These three forces operated in the Calvario cemetery, a Hellenistic and Roman funerary context within the Monterozzi necropolis of Tarquinia (Viterbo, Italy). Archaeological investigations of Calvario began in the 1950s, thanks to the «Ing. Carlo Maurilio Lerici Foundation». Excavations have revealed different occupational phases, from the Final Bronze Age settlement to the Hellenistic-Roman cemetery, which is composed by semi-subterranean structures. In the absence of paintings and distinctive features, «standardised» graves were excavated and numbered. However, architectural and archaeological data were never published and the tombs are now neither visible nor accessible. Fortunately, digital technology makes it possible to overcome the gap between the «no longer visible» and the documentary evidence, in order to reveal forgotten contexts. Tomb 1824 a monumental hypogeum with a central pillar, which was used from IV century BCE to II century CE, probably as a family tomb is an example. Through the process of archivistic analysis of cartographic sources, vectorial processing, structural and architectural analysis, using archive photos from the Lerici Foundation, it was possible to recreate a three-dimensional environment, that allowedfor the rediscovery of the vanished context. An essential tool was the communicative methods of this process which integrated modern museological methods with social tools like Sketchfab portal and Google Earth. These tools can provide the viewer with the possibility of discovering and observing disappeared contexts and testimonies.