Ceramics Production in Late Hellenistic and Roman Syracuse: The Search for the Pottery Quarter

Arcadia University offers a field school at the Catacombs of St. Lucy in Syracuse, Italy under the scientific direction of Dr. Davide Tanasi (The College of Global Studies, Arcadia Sicily Center). Apart from the didactic function of the excavation, it also brings to light important information on the archaeology of ancient Syracuse. Indeed, the excavation has yielded information not only about the early Christian use of the site (3rd to 6th century A.D.) but also Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Syracuse in the context of a pottery manufacturing quarter (3rd century B.C. – 1st century A.D.). Though largely ignored in the past, this period following the conquest of the island by the Romans has slowly become an increasingly popular period for the study of Sicily. Unfortunately, despiteSyracuse’s prominence in antiquity as a political, military and economic center1, it has still been given remarkably little attention and many of the excavations in the area remain unpublished. The author took part in the 2013 and 2014 seasons of Arcadia University’s aims to contextualize the university’s excavation plans by summarizing the available data provided by previous excavations at the catacombs and to connect them with the current state of knowledge on Late Hellenistic and Roman Syracuse. Before discussing the excavation and finds, however, it is important to provide some general historical context for the city of Syracuse and the site

Melita in Milwaukee: the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Leopardi Collection

ABSTRACT MELITA IN MILWAUKEE: THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM’S LEOPARDI COLLECTION by Stephan Noureddine Hassam The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017 Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold The Phoenician/Punic occupation of Malta is an important period in the nation’s history. The Phoenicians first settled the Maltese islands sometime in the early to late seventh century B.C., and their material culture left a lasting influence on the island for nearly a millennium. Beginning in the early 1600s, Phoenician material culture began to be recognized as such upon discovery. Following wider trends in the Enlightenment era in Europe, Maltese nobility and clergy began collecting antiquities. Much of this material culture is now known through museum and private collections that have recently been published. Despite a very early implementation of cultural heritage laws that forbid removing antiquities from the nation, a private collection of this material with links to a noble family and at least one sister collection in Malta made its way to the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). This thesis presents a preliminary analysis of a collection of predominantly Phoenicio-Punic and Punico-Roman materials that was exported to the Milwaukee Public Museum in the late 1960s. The research is split into two phases, beginning with biographical research on the collection’s donors to provide provenance for the museum’s documentation. The second phase updates the outmoded terminology since the collection first arrived at the museum and provides a preliminary attribution of context for the material

Melite Civitas Romana in 3D: Virtualization Project of the Archaeological Park and Museum of the Domus Romana of Rabat, Malta

Abstract The archaeological site of the Domus Romana in Rabat, Malta was excavated almost 100 years ago yielding artefacts from the various phases of the site. The Melite Civitas Romana project was designed to investigate the domus, which may have been the home of a Roman Senator, and its many phases of use. Pending planned archaeological excavations designed to investigate the various phases of the site, a team from the Institute for Digital Exploration from the University of South Florida carried out a digitization campaign in the summer of 2019 using terrestrial laser scanning and aerial digital photogrammetry to document the current state of the site to provide a baseline of documentation and plan the coming excavations. In parallel, structured light scanning and photogrammetry were used to digitize 128 artefacts in the museum of the Domus Romana to aid in off-site research and create a virtual museum platform for global dissemination

Gregorio Selser

La mañana del 28 de agosto de 1991, la corresponsal en México de uno de los principales diarios conservadores germanofederales enunció un seco gut, cuando su secretaria le informó, al revisar los titulares del día, que el periodista y escritor Gregorio Selser se había suicidado

Virtual Karam Collection: 3D Digital Imaging and 3D Printing for Public Outreach in Archaeology

Archaeological museums are often perceived as repositories of relics, entrusted to preserve ancient material culture in perpetuity but at the same time committed to making it accessible. The fear of deterioration often denies access or imposes limits on the interactions between visitors and artefacts. This contribution will present the results of the Virtual Karam Collection, a digitization project of archaeological heritage consisting of a collection of artifacts that has limited access and is not properly shared and communicated with the public: The Farid Karam Lebanese Antiquities Collection of the University of South Florida’s Libraries. 149 objects were 3D scanned and the digital models were shared with the public using an ad hoc web platform. It is clear that digital renderings cannot replace real objects; however, the digital surrogates and replicas make up for it by being available for experimentation and manipulation. In order to overcome the obvious limitations on tactile interaction with digital media, an alternative system was used, employing realistic 3D printed copies and having student stakeholders in the collection participate in creation of the replicas. The promising result of this project offers a new perspective on the practice of virtual mimesis of ancient artifacts as strategic educational tool both for people with visual impairments and cognitive disabilities, and for the general public which can learn more using the touch interaction

Virtual Karam Collection: 3D Digital Imaging and 3D Printing for Public Outreach in Archaeology

Archaeological museums are often perceived as repositories of relics, entrusted to preserve ancient material culture in perpetuity but at the same time committed to making it accessible. The fear of deterioration often denies access or imposes limits on the interactions between visitors and artefacts. This contribution will present the results of the Virtual Karam Collection, a digitization project of archaeological heritage consisting of a collection of artifacts that has limited access and is not properly shared and communicated with the public: The Farid Karam Lebanese Antiquities Collection of the University of South Florida’s Libraries. 149 objects were 3D scanned and the digital models were shared with the public using an ad hoc web platform. It is clear that digital renderings cannot replace real objects; however, the digital surrogates and replicas make up for it by being available for experimentation and manipulation. In order to overcome the obvious limitations on tactile interaction with digital media, an alternative system was used, employing realistic 3D printed copies and having student stakeholders in the collection participate in creation of the replicas. The promising result of this project offers a new perspective on the practice of virtual mimesis of ancient artifacts as strategic educational tool both for people with visual impairments and cognitive disabilities, and for the general public which can learn more using the touch interaction

Best Practices for 3D Digital Recording and Global Sharing of Catacombs from Late Roman Sicily

During the most recent excavations at the Catacombs of St. Lucy at Siracusa, carried out between 2013 and 2015, an array of 3D technologies were employed to record excavation data and provide new interpretative models for the site. The research focused on some very problematic parts of the Region C of the complex. Thisarea most effectively documents the long life of the Christian hypogeum, which incorporated previous structures and artefacts related to the Greek and Early Roman Imperial periods and continued to beused until the Middle Ages. During the exploration 3D digital techniques were used for the daily recording of the archaeological units, but also to create high-resolution virtual replicas of certain districts of the catacombs. Furthermore, the same techniques were applied to support the study of certain classes of materials, such as frescoes and marble architectural elementsthat couldnot otherwise be studieddue to the dark environment of the catacombs. The virtual archaeology research undertaken at the Catacombs of St. Lucy represents the first systematic application of 3D digital technologies tothe study of such a specialarchaeological context in Sicily, culminating in a work-plan for digital global dissemination