The latest entry in the CyArk 3D Heritage Archive is a laser scan-based digital record of the Hypogeum of the Volumnis, an Etruscan tomb located outside Perugia, Italy, among a site of Etruscan tombs known as the Necropolis of Palazzone. “Few archaeological remains exist representing [Etruscan] material culture” due to Roman domination, CyArk’s John Loomis notes. Much of what’s known “comes from remains of their underground tombs and the funerary artifacts found within.”
In October 2004, Guido Galvani, Nicola Zaltron and Daniel Blersch from the Research Center for the Development of Integrated Automatic Procedures for Restoration of Monuments (DIAPReM) of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ferrara conducted a 3D laser scan survey of the Hypogeum of the Volumnis (Ipogeo dei Volumni). “The resulting model and Blersch’s subsequent research,” Loomis says, “demonstrated that the design of the tomb was predicated upon the typology of Etruscan domestic architecture.”
CyArk, established by laser scanning pioneer Ben Kacyra and his wife, Barbara, is a nonprofit project of the Kacyra Family Foundation with the mission of preserving cultural heritage sites through collecting, archiving and providing open access to data created by laser scanning, digital modeling, and other state-of-the-art technologies.
