An Introduction

Woman with wax tablets (so called "Saffo")
Archaeological Museum of Naples
Wikimedia Commons

I am a PhD student in Digital Humanities and Classics at King’s College London and this is a blog about my research. It is meant to be a digital notebook to fix ideas and share them with colleagues and other people interested in the same topics. 

I study 3D visualisation of archeological heritage, more specifically Pompeian buildings and artefacts. I am focusing on some methodological issues of 3D modelling such as the documentation of the research process and the representation of multiple hypotheses. 

I think that introducing 3D visualisations in the study of the Ancient World would change and enrich our knowledge of the Past, and  I’m trying to find a way to make it possible and easy.

Here I will discuss museum exhibitions, archaeological sites, my own interviews to the public, old and not-so-old accounts of visits to Pompeii and Herculaneum, the image of these places that has been disseminated by cultural products (literature, post cards, movies), touristic guides and official excavation records. 

I will do my best to put together again, logically and visually, things that have been separated many years ago but should be seen and understood together because they complete each other and give sense to each other.

I am interested in the cognitive and emotional relationship that people build with these ancient artefacts and how digital technologies can represent and enhance such a bond. This is a complicated way to say that I want to understand why and how people fall so deeply in love with Pompeii. 

I like to talk, and write, about the idea of «place» and its existence in geography, perception, memory and imagination. And I will probably try to convince you that the best way to engage the audience with the Past is through storytelling. My cunning plan is to actually tell you a lot of stories about Pompeii. You probably won’t believe them at the beginning, but I promise they will be true. Almost all of them.