Fondazione GraphiTech

The Etruscan in Europe

Research Area Cultural Heritage Status Completed Start Year 2011 End Date 2011 GraphiTech Role Partner Project Web Page http://www.fbk.eu/etruschi_exhibition

After the success received in Brussels (more than 25,000 visitors in 6 months), the exhibit "ETRUSCHI IN EUROPA" (The Etruscan in Europe) will be finally hosted in Trento. The traveling multimedia exhibition created by Historia - Association for the Dissemination and Preservation of Cultural Heritage of Italy - with the technical collaboration of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler supported by Fondazione GraphiTech, was held at the Museum of Science of Trento from 9 September until January 9, 2012. The exhibition uses the anaglyph technology (two-colour glasses) to allow users to experience 3D major Etruscan archaeological sites reconstruction.

Indeed, the exhibition “Etruschi in Europa” was such an extraordinary journey to the discovery of the ancient people who lived in Central Italy between the IX and the II century BD. The pathway runs along six halls where a series of big monitors and screens (over 30) narrate the world of the ancient Etruscan people with dramatic videos, animations and two- and three-dimension images. Within the exhibit, two stations allow visitors to stroll and discover the Necropoleis of Banditaccia di Cerveteri (Rome) and Monterozzi a Tarquinia (VT), both Unesco World Heritage. They will also have the chance to appreciate the virtual tour of the Tomba della Scimmia in Chiusi (SI): the application, which can be viewed on an almost life-size screen, is a multimedia production based on panoramic images, by means of which visitors can walk through the ancient streets of the necropoleis and to go down through the dromos into the tomb chambers, usually closed to the public. Simple controls by the users take visitors into the famous Tomba dei Rilievi, the only one in the world, which comes face to face with the precious paintings of the Tarquinia tombs

Compared to the exhibit in Brussels, the contents of the Trento display have been expanded by adding a number of new 3D and 2D tombs and a new “augmented reality” station, produced by NoReal in Turin. Visitors can, through a camera which reads the body’s movements and processes them in real time, move with their hands virtual 3D objects stored at the Museum in Chianciano Terme (SI). In support of the technological section, the exhibit offers 3D digital giant posters of Etruscan objects and iconography, video screenings on the excavation period, the opening of the tombs, the niches and the finding of bones inside them. Texts have been curated by Elisabetta Siggia from the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia in Rome.

The survey and three-dimensional modelation (3D) of the Etruscan tombs and objects were produced by the 3DOM (3D Optical Metrology) Unit at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento. 3D models are viewed both mono- and stereoscopically and 3D animations can be appreciated thanks to anaglyph glasses (bi-color), a technology which allows an “immersive” experience in the etruscan hypogeums. Surveys and 3D modelations allowed the production of a high resolution “color photocopy” of the finds. Besides having a high resemblance with the original, the gathering of digital information relating to wall, ceiling and floor surfaces allows to preserve important Unesco sites, to study specific renovation and conservation policies, and to produce an accurate reproduction in any place and time.

The Exhibition Etruscans in Europe, after being displayed in the Trentino region’s capital, will move on to Stockholm until September 2012.