NetConnect

One of the aims of the project is to design and develop a virtual journey through archaeological sites of the ancient Magna Graecia. The virtual journey will support many and significant archaeological sites, offering innovative products for the exploitation and promotion of the Magno-Greek Cultural Heritage, with particular reference to the Calabrian poleis, as Lokroi, Sybaris, Skilletion, and Kroton. The archaeological site of Lokroi has been chosen as a first validation scenario by the implementing of its several environments (theatre, agora, house, temple, etc.): regarding the digital reproduction of public or sacred buildings, such as theatres or temples, documentation is very rich, because almost intact monuments of the same age are present in the Magno-Greek area (for example Paestum and Agrigento). The documentation for this kind of modelling consists of a database (images, texts, paintings) obtained through an extensive bibliographic research. The data has been categorized for easy location according to the archaeological site, historical age, and bibliographic source. Moreover, they have been analysed by historians and archaeologists to obtain a congruent and organic overall composition. In fact, the activity of virtual reconstruction of an archaeological site requires a close collaboration between technological experts/researchers in multimedia environments and cultural operators in order to design and develop a realistic and historically correct virtual representation. For the Lokroi settlement documents depict an archaeological site (founded between the VII and the VIII century B.C.) of about 230 hectares (Figure 1), and surrounded by 7 kilometres of walls. These walls, still present in many parts, have a rectilinear course, from the plain to the fortifications on the hill tops of Castellace, Abbadessa and Mannella, and draw a rectangle that reaches the coast. They are 6 meters high and 3.5 meters wide, consisting of sandstone or limestone blocks, superimposed without binding substances.