Weird News: Mapping the Roman Catacombs in 3-D
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
An ambitious new project is underway beneath Rome, employing advanced laser technology to disturb the slumber of the dead in a 21st century journey across the city's catacombs. It seems our increasingly well equipped hands can't be kept away from one of the world's most mysterious and macabre corners, though this is a fact that will probably cause the seeker after strangeness to rejoice. Not too fast, though: the project intends only to map a few of the wondrous passages in full 3-D, leaving the more mysterious depths to visitors willing to risk life and legal repercussions in the off limits areas. A short video of an already animated section of the catacombs can be seen at the BBC link below. Though the effort is impressive, one thing seems conspicuously absent from the product so far. Where are the heaps of bones? Hopefully, the more populous regions of the catacombs will be filled to the brim with skeletal denizens, without having corpses filtered out for any aesthetic or politically correct purpose. When it comes to the catacombs, after all, the dead are the vital force behind any aesthestic at all.
