The Business of Commemoration: A Comparative Study of Italian Catacombs

Late antique funerary workers shaped the material forms of burial and commemoration and played influential roles in the social world of the cemetery. In this dissertation, I present a social-historical inquiry into their working practices and interactions with their patrons. In particular, I examine the work of gravediggers, painters, and engravers who labored in catacombs—the massive subterranean necropoleis that developed outside some Italian urban centers in the third to sixth centuries CE. The catacombs of Domitilla (Rome), San Gennaro (Naples), and San Giovanni (Syracuse) furnish the large corpora of architecture, painting, and inscriptions through which I study the late antique funerary industry, using methods drawn from classical archaeology, art history, and philology. Throughout I argue for the application of “network thinking” to the study of these poorly understood workers: where we cannot trace the movements of an individual, we should look for workshops, communities, and other “collective agents” accomplishing funerary labor through social interaction. The first chapter provides context for this inquiry by outlining its theoretical and methodological approaches, major sources, and datasets. Chapter 2 addresses the Roman fossores—the gravediggers who excavated and managed catacombs—and reviews longstanding debates about the extent of the Church’s control over their work. Chapter 3 proposes criteria for workshop attribution in catacomb painting by systematically examining painting of the so-called “red and green linear style” in Naples, a style often overlooked in favor of the figural types employed in catacomb decoration. Chapter 4 approaches engravers from two directions: quantitative analysis of a large epigraphic corpus to find workshop-specific patterns in the use of words and images, and an examination of a small group of inscribed plaques as artifacts, in order to uncover the working practices and trade networks of engravers. Chapter 5 considers the work of fossores, painters, and engravers in the social contexts of catacombs, attempting to chart these workers’ interactions with their patrons, with each other, and with members of non-funerary professions. This interdisciplinary project takes a worker-centered approach to funerary labor in late antiquity, seeking to shed light on the social contexts of cultural production in the catacombs.PHDClassical Art & ArchaeologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138452/1/jkreiger_1.pd

Digital methodologies for surveying and enhancement of hypogeous cultural heritage

[EN] The study addresses the problems of acquisition and enhancement in the field of underground sites with particular regard to the Catacomb of St. John in Syracuse. In addition to the proposed survey methodology, the research highlightes that only through a reliable and objective documentation you can understand and study in depth these places. 3D documentation of these places hidden from the eyes of the city and, therefore, very complex to interpret has provided a powerful tool for investigation as it has allowed to show the relationships between the plano-altimetric environments and to study from a geometrical point of view the spatiality of these places providing new and valuable information to scholars of the monument.[ES] El estudio afronta la problemática de la adquisición y valorización en el ámbito de las obras subterráneas con especial atención a la Catacumba de San Giovanni de Siracusa. Además de la metodología de investigación propuesta, la presente investigación evidencia que sólo a través de una documentación objetiva y rigurosa se puede conocer y estudiar en profundidad esta clase de lugares. La documentación 3D de estos lugares escondidos a los ojos de la ciudad y, por este motivo muy complejos de interpretar, se muestra como un formidable instrumento de investigación que ha permitido visualizar las relaciones plano-altimétricas de los entornos y estudiar desde un punto de vista geométrico la espacialidad de estos lugares proporcionando nuevas y valiosas informaciones a los estudiosos del monumento.Santagati, C. (2014). Metodologie digitali per il rilievo e la valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale ipogeo. Virtual Archaeology Review. 5(10):82-92. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2014.4222829251

Information technologies for epigraphy and cultural heritage. Proceedings of the first EAGLE international conference

This peer-reviewed volume contains selected papers from the First EAGLE International Conference on Information Technologies for Epigraphy and Cultural Heritage, held in Paris between September 29 and October 1, 2014. Here are assembled for the first time in a unique volume contributions regarding all aspects of Digital Epigraphy: Models, Vocabularies, Translations, User Engagements, Image Analysis, 3D methodologies, and ongoing projects at the cutting edge of digital humanities. The scope of this book is not limited to Greek and Latin epigraphy; it provides an overview of projects related to all epigraphic inquiry and its related communities. This approach intends to furnish the reader with the broadest possible perspective of the discipline, while at the same time giving due attention to the specifics of unique issues

The Spatial Agency of the Catacombs: An Analysis of the Interventions of Damasus I (305-384)

Damasus I (305-384) ascended to the office of the Bishop of Rome after a bitter and bloody battle with Ursinus in 366 CE. The violence was a culmination of doctrinal squabbles and power contests which erupted in the Roman church over the course of the fourth century. Damasus engaged in a substantial program of physical renovation and enlargement of martyr sites and personally penned numerous epigrams both extolling the virtue of the honored dead and the patronage of the bishopric. Scholarship related to Damasus and his works is typically narrowly focused, considering motive(s) for his actions, his use of specific architecture and/or materials, the content of his epigrams, etc. This dissertation expands the analysis to synthesize elements of space and architectural theory, sensory theory, and anthropological issues to fully explore the impact of his works related to martyr sites on the minds and bodies of pilgrims visiting such sites during martyr festival. The bishop’s interventions at the catacomb of Callistus serve as a prime example of his use of architectural features, materials, decoration, and rhetoric to forge a distinct collective memory for visitors to the space – memory that was both manifestly Christian and manifestly Roman. Damasus’ use of materials and architectural features redefined the catacomb as monumental space. His proscription of physical movement and the stunning impact of the performance of his epigrams, combined with the sights, sounds, and smells within the space engaged the visitors’ senses to incite synesthesia and visceral seeing toward an encounter with the divine. These elements--catacomb-as-monument and synesthesia--provided visitors a shared visceral experience, which cemented a message of unity and a distinct collective identity for the fracturing Roman Christian community

Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of many disciplines. The contributions are written by specialists from a variety of disciplinary contexts (Jewish Studies, Theology, Classics, Early Christian Studies) dealing with the history of religion of the Mediterranean, West-Asian, and European area from the (late) Hellenistic period to the (early) Middle Ages and shaped by their intensive exchange. From the point of view of their respective fields of research, the contributors engage with discourses on agency, embodiment, appropriation and experience. They present innovative research in four fields also of theoretical debate, which are “Experiencing the Religious”, “Switching the Code”, „A Thing Called Body“ and “Commemorating the Moment”

New visualization tools for sciences and humanities: databases and virtual reality

Within the scientific view, one of the major problems related to simulations developed for Virtual Reality, more specifically in research, is mainly related to the poor development of interaction between the data being displayed in the database in which they are contained, combined with the difficulty of making everything directly accessible in virtual environment. In Digital Humanities, it becomes increasingly necessary to have an instrument capable of combining scientific visualization in Virtual Reality with the access and consultation of an open repository. The work done for this thesis is based on the creation of a heterogeneous relational database called ArcheoDB, run by an open web platform, on which researchers can upload 3D content and share them with their own collaborators. The web platform and the database are alongside an application called "ArcheoDB VR Toolkit" developed with Unity Engine, which dynamically loads contents within the ArcheoDB database and visualizes them in a complex scene. This application also provide a detailed reconstruction of the various objects, the background of the discovery and the chemical analyzes made in a highly immersive way, thanks to the use of immersive visualization. Likewise, in order for the application to be 3truly innovative, it must allow not only to display 3D data, but also to interact in real time with the displayed models, enabling to enrich and modify them, based on data consultation and metadata drawn from the database

Senseable Spaces: from a theoretical perspective to the application in augmented environments

Grazie all’ enorme diffusione di dispositivi senzienti nella vita di tutti i giorni, nell’ ultimo decennio abbiamo assistito ad un cambio definitivo nel modo in cui gli utenti interagiscono con lo spazio circostante. Viene coniato il termine Spazio Sensibile, per descrivere quegli spazi in grado di fornire servizi contestuali agli utenti, misurando e analizzando le dinamiche che in esso avvengono, e di reagire conseguentemente a questo continuo flusso di dati bidirezionale. La ricerca è stata condotta abbracciando diversi domini di applicazione, le cui singole esigenze hanno reso necessario testare il concetto di Spazi Sensibili in diverse declinazioni, mantenendo al centro della ricerca l’utente, con la duplice accezione di end-user e manager. Molteplici sono i contributi rispetto allo stato dell’ arte. Il concetto di Spazio Sensibile è stato calato nel settore dei Beni Culturali, degli Spazi Pubblici, delle Geosciences e del Retail. I casi studio nei musei e nella archeologia dimostrano come l’ utilizzo della Realtà Aumentata possa essere sfruttata di fronte a un dipinto o in outdoor per la visualizzazione di modelli complessi, In ambito urbano, il monitoraggio di dati generati dagli utenti ha consentito di capire le dinamiche di un evento di massa, durante il quale le stesse persone fruivano di servizi contestuali. Una innovativa applicazione di Realtà Aumentata è stata come servizio per facilitare l’ ispezione di fasce tampone lungo i fiumi, standardizzando flussi di dati e modelli provenienti da un Sistema Informativo Territoriale. Infine, un robusto sistema di indoor localization è stato istallato in ambiente retail, per scopi classificazione dei percorsi e per determinare le potenzialità di un punto vendita. La tesi è inoltre una dimostrazione di come Space Sensing e Geomatica siano discipline complementari: la geomatica consente di acquisire e misurare dati geo spaziali e spazio temporali a diversa scala, lo Space Sensing utilizza questi dati per fornire servizi all’ utente precisi e contestuali.Given the tremendous growth of ubiquitous services in our daily lives, during the last few decades we have witnessed a definitive change in the way users' experience their surroundings. At the current state of art, devices are able to sense the environment and users’ location, enabling them to experience improved digital services, creating synergistic loop between the use of the technology, and the use of the space itself. We coined the term Senseable Space, to define the kinds of spaces able to provide users with contextual services, to measure and analyse their dynamics and to react accordingly, in a seamless exchange of information. Following the paradigm of Senseable Spaces as the main thread, we selected a set of experiences carried out in different fields; central to this investigation there is of course the user, placed in the dual roles of end-user and manager. The main contribution of this thesis lies in the definition of this new paradigm, realized in the following domains: Cultural Heritage, Public Open Spaces, Geosciences and Retail. For the Cultural Heritage panorama, different pilot projects have been constructed from creating museum based installations to developing mobile applications for archaeological settings. Dealing with urban areas, app-based services are designed to facilitate the route finding in a urban park and to provide contextual information in a city festival. We also outlined a novel application to facilitate the on-site inspection by risk managers thanks to the use of Augmented Reality services. Finally, a robust indoor localization system has been developed, designed to ease customer profiling in the retail sector. The thesis also demonstrates how Space Sensing and Geomatics are complementary to one another, given the assumption that the branches of Geomatics cover all the different scales of data collection, whilst Space Sensing gives one the possibility to provide the services at the correct location, at the correct time

Senseable Spaces: from a theoretical perspective to the application in augmented environments

openGrazie all’ enorme diffusione di dispositivi senzienti nella vita di tutti i giorni, nell’ ultimo decennio abbiamo assistito ad un cambio definitivo nel modo in cui gli utenti interagiscono con lo spazio circostante. Viene coniato il termine Spazio Sensibile, per descrivere quegli spazi in grado di fornire servizi contestuali agli utenti, misurando e analizzando le dinamiche che in esso avvengono, e di reagire conseguentemente a questo continuo flusso di dati bidirezionale. La ricerca è stata condotta abbracciando diversi domini di applicazione, le cui singole esigenze hanno reso necessario testare il concetto di Spazi Sensibili in diverse declinazioni, mantenendo al centro della ricerca l’utente, con la duplice accezione di end-user e manager. Molteplici sono i contributi rispetto allo stato dell’ arte. Il concetto di Spazio Sensibile è stato calato nel settore dei Beni Culturali, degli Spazi Pubblici, delle Geosciences e del Retail. I casi studio nei musei e nella archeologia dimostrano come l’ utilizzo della Realtà Aumentata possa essere sfruttata di fronte a un dipinto o in outdoor per la visualizzazione di modelli complessi, In ambito urbano, il monitoraggio di dati generati dagli utenti ha consentito di capire le dinamiche di un evento di massa, durante il quale le stesse persone fruivano di servizi contestuali. Una innovativa applicazione di Realtà Aumentata è stata come servizio per facilitare l’ ispezione di fasce tampone lungo i fiumi, standardizzando flussi di dati e modelli provenienti da un Sistema Informativo Territoriale. Infine, un robusto sistema di indoor localization è stato istallato in ambiente retail, per scopi classificazione dei percorsi e per determinare le potenzialità di un punto vendita. La tesi è inoltre una dimostrazione di come Space Sensing e Geomatica siano discipline complementari: la geomatica consente di acquisire e misurare dati geo spaziali e spazio temporali a diversa scala, lo Space Sensing utilizza questi dati per fornire servizi all’ utente precisi e contestuali.Given the tremendous growth of ubiquitous services in our daily lives, during the last few decades we have witnessed a definitive change in the way users' experience their surroundings. At the current state of art, devices are able to sense the environment and users’ location, enabling them to experience improved digital services, creating synergistic loop between the use of the technology, and the use of the space itself. We coined the term Senseable Space, to define the kinds of spaces able to provide users with contextual services, to measure and analyse their dynamics and to react accordingly, in a seamless exchange of information. Following the paradigm of Senseable Spaces as the main thread, we selected a set of experiences carried out in different fields; central to this investigation there is of course the user, placed in the dual roles of end-user and manager. The main contribution of this thesis lies in the definition of this new paradigm, realized in the following domains: Cultural Heritage, Public Open Spaces, Geosciences and Retail. For the Cultural Heritage panorama, different pilot projects have been constructed from creating museum based installations to developing mobile applications for archaeological settings. Dealing with urban areas, app-based services are designed to facilitate the route finding in a urban park and to provide contextual information in a city festival. We also outlined a novel application to facilitate the on-site inspection by risk managers thanks to the use of Augmented Reality services. Finally, a robust indoor localization system has been developed, designed to ease customer profiling in the retail sector. The thesis also demonstrates how Space Sensing and Geomatics are complementary to one another, given the assumption that the branches of Geomatics cover all the different scales of data collection, whilst Space Sensing gives one the possibility to provide the services at the correct location, at the correct time.INGEGNERIA DELL'INFORMAZIONEembargoed_20181001Pierdicca, RobertoPierdicca, Robert