Francesco GABELLONE | M. CHIFFI | M. DECKER | D. TANASI
(National Research Council (CNR IBAM), Lecce, Italy)

Keywords: Mosaics, photogrammetry, armerina,scanner, usf

Abstract:
The Roman villa of Casale at Piazza Armerina (Sicily), is among the most significant examples of Later Roman villas in the Mediterranean. Its typology, extension and location echo the wealth and power of the owner of the largest agricultural estate in Roman Imperial Sicily. The luxurious mansions is well known for the style of its mosaic floors dated around the 4th century CE, recognized by scholars as the most beautiful for Roman culture.
Such archaeological treasure is an invaluable iconographic source informing us about lifestyle and habits of Roman aristocracy and its economic and cultural interaction with north-African provinces.
The villa has an extension of about 3,500 square meters and it counts 48 rooms with mosaics floors crafted by north-African artisans still in excellent conditions. Such stone tapestries elucidate scenes of daily life, depiction of heroes and deities, hunts and games. In summer 2017, an interdisciplinary team of scholars carried out an integrated digital survey of the entire complex including the mosaic floors. With respect to the mosaics, the goal was that to document the conditions and to design an alternative and virtual enjoyment experience with a degree of realism as close as possible to reality. For this reason, laser scanning and digital photogrammetry were employed and combined in order to obtain an accurate metric reference (laser scanner) and a high resolution color information (digital photogrammetry). The heterogeneous light environment of the different rooms and the control of errors generated by the measurements have represented the most challenging aspect of the project. The preliminary results have been organized in a high resolution visualization platform with the option of altitude maps and detail level up to the size of a single tessera

Relevance for the conference: Villa del Casale: very extended survey of most important mosaics in roman age
Relevance for the session: Integrated methods of survey. Management of complex light illumination for photogrammetry issues
Innovation: HD platform for dissemination. 3200 square meters of mosaics displayed at the resolution of the single tessera
References:
• P. Pensabene, Piazza Armerina. Villa del Casale e la Sicilia tra tardoantico e medioevo