Digging Pixels 2: Modeling Rome’s Theatre of Pompey

In my first post I wrote about an archaeological study in Second Life, an online 3D virtual world. Archaeologists are interested in other aspects of 3D simulations, too. One way they use 3D models is to virtually reconstruct ancient sites or artifacts. Reconstructions can be fascinating to look at, for the public and professionals alike, but can also serve as research tools.

Such was the case when researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, embarked on creating a digital redo of Rome’s vast Theatre of Pompey, built in 55 B.C., “possibly the largest theatre ever built.” Although much of the original building remains, it was largely incorporated into the dense fabric of surrounding homes and shops during the Middle Ages. Parts can be glimpsed in basements and walls, but the way they link is not obvious. Because of its documentation in ancient texts, the theatre became the model for theatres throughout the Roman Empire, later in the Renaissance, and thus for Western theatres in general. Yet little is known about the original.

To address this lack, the researchers set out to assemble an ambitious electronic repository of information about the site, spanning its history and including 3D models, text references, records of every artifact associated with the site, and acoustical models. The digital reconstruction based on this resource was created with the highest possible accuracy from CAD drawings, and can be continually revised and updated with new information, since a virtual model allows ongoing adjustment and correction. A model of this kind has many advantages: it avoids invasive archaeological procedures; it can be easily publicized; and it can generate still images from any angle, interactive moving images, and even virtual environments for researchers and the public to experience.

But perhaps most important, the model is a tool for the ongoing investigation of the structure of the theatre the relationships between the parts. A full and detailed 3D model makes it easier to hypothesize about the areas of the theatre that can’t be seen, for instance by using virtual cutaway sections. The model can be zoomed into at any level of detail, rotated, modified, and shown in multiple versions to indicate different possible interpretations—crucial in not creating the impression of false certainty. The nature of the process, too, adds depth to the study, since it has required the collaboration of archaeologists with modelers, archivists, theatre and urban historians, and surveyors.

Coming full circle to the idea of virtual worlds, the researchers have proposed using the virtual reconstruction for virtual performances, bringing the ancient theatre to (virtually) full life and realizing its original purpose. It would not be the first of its kind; in Second Life there is a virtual Old Globe theatre that gives live Shakespearean performances by avatars, and a number of scholarly reconstructions of other historical theatres. This one, though, may be the most ambitious and thorough yet. Whether in Second Life or some other virtual realm, we may someday be able to sit in the 25,000-seat hall of Pompey’s theatre, the model for theatres over two millenia.

Reference
Beacham, R. and H. Denard
2003 The Pompey Project: Digital Research and Virtual Reconstruction of Rome's First Theatre. Computers and the Humanities 37(1): 129–139.