Matthew Brennan

context: Theater of Pompey

The Theater of Pompey was an Ancient Roman theater structure built by Pompey the Great in 55 B.C. Today, the ruins of the theater are buried under streets and apartment buildings in Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori neighborhood.
Indeed, many of the modern buildings incorporate the ancient theater into their own foundations, and ancient brickwork and structural fabric can be readily seen.

a Problem of access

The theater ruins consist of many rooms that formed the substructure of the ancient cavea, the semi-circular seating structure of the theater. These rooms are now incorporated into the basements of various privately-owned apartment buildings, restaurants, and shops.

Thus, it is nearly impossible for archaeologists and historians of this important ancient building to gain access to the relatively well-preserved ruins.

A new 3D digital survey

In support of a forthcoming publication on the Theater of Pompey, a new survey of the ruins was commissioned. It needed to be fully three-dimensional, photorealistic, and extremely accurate (~3cm). Because the team needed access to a number of separately-owned and occupied structures, the survey also needed to be rapid and minimally invasive/disruptive.

The end products required were measured plans, ceilings, and elevations of every room, as well as experiential 3D digital models of each room, and the complex as a whole.

the process

Digitization was carried out over the course of 2 weeks in 2019, in collaboration with an archaeological expert on the theater. The resulting 3D model served myriad purposes:

• It situated the preserved ancient rooms in space,

• allowed for the generation of measured plans and sections,

• and, perhaps most importantly, allowed archaeologists to “virtually visit” the subterranean spaces at will, using an interactive 3D model, to make further notes and discoveries.

In total, more than 20 spaces in 10 different modern structures were digitized, resulting in more than 50 measured drawings.