ViRS (Virtual Roman Shipwreck) is a project made for the course 'Museology, Museography and Virtual Environments' (prof. Caraceni) within the Master of Digital Humanities and Digital Knowledge at University of Bologna. It aims to design a full museum where virtual experiences coexist and are enhanced by the presence of true historical artifacts, explanatory panels and guided tours, that are features of the traditional museums.
The idea of the ViRS project originated in the observance of the Roman Naval Museum, in Albenga (province of Savona, Italy). This little museum offers the relics of the largest Roman navis oneraria (i.e. transport vessel) known in the Mediterranean, with a load exceeding 11,000 wine and oil amphorae, and therefore a net capacity of 450/500 tons.
It is believed that the wine contained in the amphorae came from Campania and was destined for the markets of southern France and Spain, along with black-glazed ceramics and other types of pottery. Objects of personal use for the crew and of the armed escort on board (helmets and armours) have also been recovered and exposed in the museum, among interesting artifacts like a lead horn, a crucible, wooden planks, hazelnuts to be traded and pine cones to perseve optimum wine aroma.
The museums is organized in three little rooms that display the artifacts mentioned above, recovered during the various excavation campaigns, begun in 1950. The main attraction remains the vision of the amphorae, placed according to the original arrangement of the load (as it can be seen in the Figure below).
The date of the sinking falls between 100 and 90 B.C., period coinciding with the granting of the Latin ius to the Ligurian populations, with the Romanization of the region and the consequent development of the cities, including Albenga, once known as Albingaunum. Nowadays, the ship is located 42 mt below sea level and 1.400 mt from the coast; most of it lies under the sea bed: only amphorae and fragments of wood remain visible.
Pass your mouse over the map of the real Roman Naval
Museum in Albenga to discover the fictional map of ViRS.
The museum of Albenga (represented by the grey map above) is located inside the ancient Palazzo Peloso Cepolla, a valuable early 17th century building in the old town of Albenga. The palace is spread on three floors, and the underwater archeology section (i.e. the actual Naval Roman Museum) occupies just the three north side rooms of the first floor, as indicated in the map by the blue circle.
On the contrary, ViRS (Virtual Roman Shipwreck) Museum needs much larger spaces than the old museum, and thus a complete reallocation of the artifacts belonging to the Naval Roman Museum of Albenga has been thought, since such a wide extension of the original museum was not possible. Therefore, ViRS Museum has been conceived as a much larger building (710 square metres), developed on a single floor, where rooms and corridors accompany the visitors in an emotionally involving story, trying the first full experience of the life of a Roman ship, from its building to its sinking. The museum itinerary consists of:
In 2000+ years of adventure, until the present day, the visitors can reach an underwater and unaccessible cultural heritage, an oasis of history and life that, from a place of memory, has become an environment of transformation, a cradle where new life rises among the remains of the past one. And it is exactly this transition between the old and the new, between the past and the present, that is sought by means of the state-of-the-art technologies.
As its name states, ViRS (Virtual Roman Shipwreck) Museum is a virtual museum. But what do we mean by "virtual museum"?
Prof. Simona Caraceni provided a new definition of ‘virtual museum’ (Caraceni 2015), taking into consideration several definitions of virtual museum, as well as observing the growing number of them from direct experience, literature review, launch events and academic and professional community meetings. Eventually, a six-categories taxonomy also emerged from the observation of examples of virtual museums.
Check it out in the page "Virtual museum?", or clicking the button below!
From the pannels in braille to the alternative route for disabled people, this museum is designed to be experienced by everyone.
From a VR game to an AR reconstruc-tion of artifacts by means of tablets, from motion sensors to a 360° immersive ship sinking... and more!
Real ancient artifacts remain the key of the visit, along with a visitable ship replica on 1:2 scale and touchable models.
ViRS favors the "social production of heritage" as better than the single user interaction.
Children, school groups and secondary school students are the main target users of ViRS.
ViRS provides a pedagogical boost for learning new information, due to the shift from book-knowledge to life-experience.