Virtual Archaeology and Historical Revisionism. The Neglected Heritage of Greek Siracusa

Founded in Sicily by the Corinthians in 733 BC, Siracusa was the birthplace of poets and thinkers as Epicharmus and Archimedes, visited by many prominent figures of Greek culture as Pindar, Aeschylus and Plato, and over centuries it became one of the most prominent cities of the Greek Mediterranean. Nonetheless, regardless the historical background and the imposing visible remains of that past emerging everywhere in the actual urban area, Siracusa, since 2005 World Heritage site, has never played the role of quintessential archetype of Greek city in the mainstream. Against this scenario a proper action of historical revisionism over all the media should be undertake for recovering the neglected heritage of ancient Siracusa in order to restitute to this once splendid archetype of Greek culture the deserved role of key-site. This paper elucidates a virtual archaeology project, undertaken by a team of scholars of the IBAM-CNR and The Arcadia University - TCGS, aimed to the digital reconstruction of Ortigia, the core district of the Greek Syracuse. The main goal of this exercise has been the production of the 3D documentary 'Siracusa 3D reborn', that represents an original advance in the knowledge of the Greek background of the city. In this perspective, the choice of providing 'passive' cognitive tools embedded with communicational and emotional components did not affected the scientific accuracy with which the reconstructive process has been carried out. Main monuments of Ortigia are described and analyzed in the context of a full 3D stereoscopic representation employing techniques of modern cinema industry for elucidating and explaining its historical and archaeological characteristics. The reconstructive workflow followed a meticulous methodological plan based on the published data and aimed to define a previously unavailable topographic profile of the city, portrayed in two main chronological phases, Archaic and Late Classical.