Digitizing the catacombs

Rome's underground Christian, Jewish and pagan burial sites, the Catacombs, date back to the 2nd Century AD.

There are more than 40 of them stretching over 170km (105 miles).

But, until now, they have never been fully documented, their vast scale only recorded with handmade maps.

That is now changing, following a three-year project to create the first fully comprehensive three-dimensional image using laser scanners.

A team of 10 Austrian and Italian archaeologists, architects and computer scientists have started with the largest catacomb, Saint Domitilla, just outside the Italian capital.

From the BBC, with video. The article does note, however, that the current project is restricted to the one catacomb -- but it is to be hoped that it will spur efforts to record more. In many cases the conditions underground are parlous, making this one of the most timely and appropriate digitization projects imaginable.

Posted by David on May 3, 2009 10:24 AM