How Archaeologists Crammed 1500 Years of Roman History Into One Map

[de officiis]

How Archaeologists Crammed 1500 Years of Roman History Into One Map

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so it stands to reason that a modern map of the ancient city might take a considerable amount of time as well—almost a decade, to be precise. The task was a Sisyphean one .... How do you represent 1,500 of the city’s 3,000 years’ worth of history in print format, showing how Rome evolved in each era, what was destroyed, what remained, how its citizens lived and died, and which streets they walked on?

Italian archaeologists Andrea Carandini and Paolo Carafa assembled a team to do just that. The result is The Atlas of Ancient Rome, a two-volume, 1000-page book that follows the development of Rome from the 10th century B.C. to the 6th century A.D. Compiling the book also required constructing and patenting a geographic information system into which they organized all their information.

Very tempted to buy this...check out the gorgeous line illustrations at the website.

[doc_loliday]

That's pretty rad, I love it.

[heydaralon]

How Archaeologists Crammed 1500 Years of Roman History Into One Map

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so it stands to reason that a modern map of the ancient city might take a considerable amount of time as well—almost a decade, to be precise. The task was a Sisyphean one .... How do you represent 1,500 of the city’s 3,000 years’ worth of history in print format, showing how Rome evolved in each era, what was destroyed, what remained, how its citizens lived and died, and which streets they walked on?

Italian archaeologists Andrea Carandini and Paolo Carafa assembled a team to do just that. The result is The Atlas of Ancient Rome, a two-volume, 1000-page book that follows the development of Rome from the 10th century B.C. to the 6th century A.D. Compiling the book also required constructing and patenting a geographic information system into which they organized all their information.

Very tempted to buy this...check out the gorgeous line illustrations at the website.

Is it giving you any minecraft inspiration? I don't think you and your son have built aqueducts yet right?

[de officiis]

Well I don't own the book, but I just got back from Rome so I've had plenty of inspiration!

[heydaralon]

Well I don't own the book, but I just got back from Rome so I've had plenty of inspiration!

You should build the colossus of Rhodes.

[doc_loliday]

Well I don't own the book, but I just got back from Rome so I've had plenty of inspiration!

You should build the colossus of Rhodes.

I tried to do something similar in one of my Rome inspired minecraft worlds, I'd seen other people do sculptures, but it was much, much harder than creating buildings. It turned out pretty terrible.

[heydaralon]

Well I don't own the book, but I just got back from Rome so I've had plenty of inspiration!

You should build the colossus of Rhodes.

I tried to do something similar in one of my Rome inspired minecraft worlds, I'd seen other people do sculptures, but it was much, much harder than creating buildings. It turned out pretty terrible.

I'm sure it would be better than any of my attempts. I love building minecraft structures, but I am not great at detail. I think the key to something like the colossus would be scale. On a big enough scale, you could make an intricate sculpture. Its just a question of the game's capactiy and the user's patience. You should upload some of your buildings on the minecraft thread. I would like to see them. I am planning on uploading some of mine.

I can't wait to see what de officis's new project is.

[de officiis]

[doc_loliday]

I don't have the pictures saved, maybe they're up on the DCF wayback archive. I'll look around.

[BjornP]

That is soooo Catholic in its opulence and decadent grandiosity, but..... I gotta admit I'd love to see such a building made in real life. Thought I'd settle for Minecraft, too.