The Virtual Museum of Iraq between documentation and communication

Francesco GABELLONE¹ / Giuseppe SCARDOZZI¹ / Massimo CULTRARO²

(¹Istituto per i Beni Archeologici e Monumentali, CNR, Lecce, Italy / ²Istituto per i Beni Archeologici e Monumentali, CNR, Catania, Italy)

Outline: Web site for the knowledge of the ancient Mesopotamian heritage.

The paper concern the experience that was gained in the context of the “Virtual Museum of Iraq” Project, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and under the scientific supervision by Italian National Research Council. The project is finalized to create a rich website, free to the general public, based on the archaeological collection of the National Museum of Baghdad. The creation of an innovative virtual museum shows the need to explore new digital communication. The virtual journey into 8000 years of history includes a traditional informative system (catalogue of the most important artefacts) associated with a dynamic representation of the website, thanks of the use of 3D models and short videos. The principal contribution of Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage (CNR-IBAM) in the Project derive from the need to contextualize objects and monuments on show in the Virtual Museum. For this contextualization two main problems are highlighted and faced: the documentation and the communication of the archaeological sites. The research activity in the project provided an integration between humanistic approaches (archaeological data and historical sources) and recent scientific methodologies. More specifically, the ancient sources and the data from the old excavations are integrated with satellite remote sensing documentation; 3D image-based modelling techniques (photo-modelling and digital photogrammetry) were used for the communication of archaeological data.

Keywords: Virtual Museum, Iraq, Archaeology, Satellite Remote Sensing, 3D Photo-modelling