The vicus of Calvatone-Bedriacum: cultural heritage promotion and communication

Since 1986 the vicus of Bedriacum (Calvatone, Cr), a small Roman town in Northern Italy, is under investigation by the University of Milan (excavations directed by M.T. Grassi). The scientific value of the site has required the creation of a website, in order to communicate the vicus to a broader non-specialist community (http://www.progettocalvatone.unimi.it/). The website, published in 2007 and based on Web 1.0, has been redesigned and updated in 2013 with new tools allowing better interaction and it is presented at the congress. The new website is a dynamic site in XHTML PHP and CSS technology in compliance with the current standards of the W3C and with a Web 2.0 design and capabilities. We have used the new HTML5 and CSS3 standards and particular attention has been paid to the compatibility with all browsers and mobile devices. The archaeological site of Bedriacum is also promoted by a Visitors Centre opened in 2011. It is a centre provided with two computer workstations in which multimedia contents are stored, in order to allow the public to access to the archaeological site even when the excavation is closed, that is 11 months a year. At the congress a new interactive installation is presented that allows to virtually participate in the just ended 2013 excavation season through a multimedia tour composed by videos, photos and 3D reconstruction of excavation and finds. The latter has been obtained by using standard digital camera and advanced computer vision technologies for capturing the reality as-built in order to generate a 3D model comparing pictures between them. Thanks to the computer workstations of the centre the visitors can also view a 3D reconstruction of the “Domus del Labirinto” (House of the Labyrinth), a Roman luxury house dated back to the 1st century AD. The 3D reconstruction, based on a thorough analysis and elaboration of excavation data, is presented by a video showing how the house was in Roman period (spaces, paintings, lights, furniture, decorated floors, gardens, etc.). The 3D modelling has been done in Luxology Modo 501, a software by which you can create objects and "colour them" with photos to make them real. After that the objects have been exported in UDK 3D engine, a free software that lets you browse the Roman house. The virtual reality generated also allows interaction with many objects, which give information if touched. Since the House of the Labyrinth is completely browsable, it has been also produced a video to film the rooms and the gardens of the house. Then the footage has been exported and edited in Adobe Premiere CS5. In this video, dubbed into Italian and English, the 2,000-year old owner explains directly to the visitor the different parts of the house, illustrating the expensive floors, the fine furniture and the surrounding gardens.