UNVEILING DAMNATIO MEMORIAE. THE USE OF 3D DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE VIRTUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS AND ARTEFACTS

The aim of this paper is to show how the possibility to acquire 3D reality-based data from archaeological finds allows to build 3D digital models that can be analysed and managed in a virtual environment and can be relocated, assembled or restored in order to suggest or graphically support archaeologists’ interpretations and reconstructions. In particular, the paper shows how the use of 3D digital technologies is extremely helpful in contexts where iconographic sources are damaged or completely lost. In ancient Rome, for example, damnatio memoriae was a practice of erasing the memory of condemned persons from historical records after their death. This condemnation usually included practices such as the erasure of names sculpted on inscriptions and the destruction or reworking of statues and of any other image of the person. The paper shows the methodology developed for the virtual restoration of the statue of Nero that was found 500 years ago by the Roman theatre of Bologna, Italy, starting from the 3D digitization of the torso, to the reconstruction of its damaged and missing parts.