Development of Virtual Environments for the Museum Communication

Despite the large number of monumental tombs discovered over the years in Taranto, only a few among them are open to the public for in situ visits. Actually, in most cases the visit is precluded because the sites are placed below private buildings or urban roads. However, as often happens, they are affected, for various reasons, by another inevitable trouble: the artefacts preserved inside them until the discover, have been subsequently brought into some museums whereas the monumental structures have been restored, in most cases with provisional works, in order to prevent their collapse. The consequence of this moving, is the de-contextualization of the grave goods and the lack of valorisation of monumental archaeological contexts. An effective solution for these issues could be achieved from the use of technologies that allow a virtual enjoyment of these monuments and the virtual set-up of the grave goods in their original contexts. Based on these premises, thanks to the project CNR-IBAM "Marta Racconta. Storie Virtuali di Tesori Nascosti", co-financed by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Puglia, the National ARchaeological Museum of TAranto (MARTA) will be soon equipped with the installation of a Virtual Platform. This will make 'accessible' ancient monuments from the Greek Taras (the ancient Taranto) currently closed to visitors. In particular, three very interesting monuments have been identified in close cooperation with the Superintendent and with the direction of the Museum of Taranto. The first one is the so-called Tomb of the Festoons, that was found in Via Crispi at the beginning of the last century. At present, it is placed inside a private apartment under the ground floor of a building. The second one, called the Hypogeum of the Gorgons, was discovered some years ago in Via Otranto, but it is now placed below a road pavement. The archaeological and archaeometric studies carried out on these monuments made it possible to develop a wide path of knowledge ranging from funerary rituals to construction techniques.