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Royal Holloway, University of London

Visualisation of Rome's maritime facade

The 3D-Bridge is an integral part of the larger research project The evolution of Rome's maritime facade: archaeology & geomorphology at Castelporziano conducted by the Department of Classics, Royal Holloway, University of London (later RHUL). The presidential estate of Castelporziano/Capocotta includes 7 kilometres of heavily forested coast, free from 20th-century development. Behind the modern beach lies a sequence of earlier sandy coastlines and dune systems, in the midst of which is an almost continuous line of Roman ruins, the ancient Laurentine shore. The project focuses on the Roman period (100BC-AD500), when the shore became the favoured ‘resort’ of the Roman aristocracy, and host to a large community of maritime villas.
The 3D-Bridge sub-project aims to take a short stretch of this coastline under closer scrutiny and build a 3D-model which can be used to explore and explain how the villa architecture responded to the evolution of the coastline and to the environmental changes. During the archaeological fieldwork in Sep. 2005 the extent, composition and phasing of the architecture on the chosen site will be obtained. A pilot scheme in 2002–4 successfully tested a new methodology under the local forest conditions. The geomorphological fieldwork in Sep. 2005 will concentrate on determining the changing patterns of drainage and the evolution of the coastline and the associated dune system in relation to the built structures. The new data will be analysed, entered in a GIS database and integrated with elements from the older archive.

Activities

The project will be developed according to the following timetable:
  1. Archaeological and geomorphological fieldwork (Sep. 2005).
  2. Analysis of the archaeological data and entering into a GIS database (Oct. 2005–Jan. 2006).
  3. Initial analysis of the geomorphological data and entering into a GIS database (Oct 2005–Jan.2006.
  4. Modelling the coastline and architecture based on the archaeological and geomorphological data (Feb.–Aug. 2006).

Seminar output in Jyväskylä (November 10-11)

The Castelporziano Project: Dr. Amanda Clarige, Dr. Jari Pakkanen, Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Classics, and Helen Rendell, Loughorough University

Modelling Rome’s Maritime Facade. Dr. Jari Pakkanen and Dr. Peter Rose, Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Classics