From museum to original site: A 3d environment for virtual visits to finds re-contextualized in their original setting

With ancient monuments, it often happens that following their discovery components of them have to be moved, albeit temporarily, to museums in order to carry out restoration work. In the case of funerary contexts, a consequence of this is the de-contextualization of grave goods and furnishings, making it impossible to convey the significance of the archaeological monument as a whole. An effective solution to this problem can be achieved by using technology to provide virtual experiences in which the grave goods, for example, are virtually restored to their original contexts. This paper presents the “Marta Racconta. Storie Virtuali di Tesori Nascosti” project, co-financed by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Puglia, undertaken by CNR-IBAM (Lecce, Italy) in order to install a virtual platform in the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (MARTA). The project aims to make `accessible´ ancient monuments from the Greek Taras (the ancient Taranto), such as the Twin Tombs Monumental Complex, the Tomb of the Festoons, and the Hypogeum of the Gorgons, discovered some years ago in Via Otranto. The first two of the these monuments are closed to the public, while the third was filled in and is currently located below a road. From a technological point of view, a real time 3D platform for immersive stereoscopic visiting was developed, with a navigation system using a `natural interface´ and commands executed with simple hand gestures. Using this technology, visitors will be able to follow an integrated knowledge itinerary based on heterogeneous content including historical and archaeological data and the results of archaeometric analyses. This involves spatial navigation within a hyper-realistic environment where it will be possible to interact with the 3D structures, to query the database and to interact with