The National Archeological Park of Paestum and Velia is proposing an entirely new way to gain access to the celebrated Tomb of the Diver. The project is the result of uniting advanced technologies including ultra-high definition digital capture, 3D and mixed reality. Now, we ourselves can dive into this unique example of Greek funerary art, from the fifth century before Christ. This is an example of how new technologies bring added value to the archeological heritage.
The virtual augmented reality tour of the Tomb of the Diver using the Apple Vision Pro headset, made its debut last June at the ‘We Make Future’ conference in Bologna. It will be available for viewing again this November 1-2 at the Ministry of Culture’s booth at the XXVI Mediterranean Marketplace of Archeological Tourism in Paestum.
Beside the virtual mixed reality headset viewer, there is also an online 360° ultra-high definition Gigapixel view of the Tomb of the Diver. There were two types of digital capture used on the Tomb, ultra-high definition digital photography and 3D scanning. The combination of both datasets makes it possible to build a complete virtual reconstruction of the Tomb.
“The Tomb of the Diver is certainly one of the most iconic monuments in the Archaeological Park of Paestum,” says the Director, Tiziana D'Angelo. "Its paintings are known all over the world. And yet, Haltadefinizione’s digital twin of the tomb manages to show it from a completely new, virtually recreated point of view. With the new technologies, the images and their context are realistic and extremely accurate. This offers visitors a personally engaging and fully accessible experience as well as new opportunities for study and research.”
Since its discovery in 1968, the Tomb of the Diver has been disassembled and displayed in the National Archeological Museum in Paestum, which is the only way to permit public viewing of the paintings on all its surfaces. The digital acquisition made it possible to build an accurate virtual model for the first time, giving a realistic view of the complete composition of all the images in the original Tomb of the Diver.
