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john_arundel, this is for you!
Jul. 26th, 2005 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4717745.stm
The Forma Urbis, or Severan Marble Plan, is a giant map of the city of Rome constructed around AD200 by the Emperor Septimius.
It was fixed onto the wall of the Templum Pacis (Temple of Peace) in the heart of the city - a massive display symbolising both the greatness of the city, and the emperor's power to know its every nook and cranny.
But with the decline of the empire from the 4th Century, the vast marble map - measuring 18m by 13m (59 feet by 43 feet) and intricately carved onto 250 separate slabs - was prised off the wall.
The building stones were stolen, crushed into cement or merely slid down off the wall to lie buried in the gardens below for the next 1,000 years.
Historical challenge
The rediscovery of some of the pieces during the Renaissance ignited an interest in reconstructing the map that has bewitched scholars ever since.
Now scientists at America's Stanford University have joined Italian archaeologists in the capital's Museum of Roman Civilisation with a multi-disciplinary and hi-tech approach to solving the ancient riddle.
The Forma Urbis, or Severan Marble Plan, is a giant map of the city of Rome constructed around AD200 by the Emperor Septimius.
It was fixed onto the wall of the Templum Pacis (Temple of Peace) in the heart of the city - a massive display symbolising both the greatness of the city, and the emperor's power to know its every nook and cranny.
But with the decline of the empire from the 4th Century, the vast marble map - measuring 18m by 13m (59 feet by 43 feet) and intricately carved onto 250 separate slabs - was prised off the wall.
The building stones were stolen, crushed into cement or merely slid down off the wall to lie buried in the gardens below for the next 1,000 years.
Historical challenge
The rediscovery of some of the pieces during the Renaissance ignited an interest in reconstructing the map that has bewitched scholars ever since.
Now scientists at America's Stanford University have joined Italian archaeologists in the capital's Museum of Roman Civilisation with a multi-disciplinary and hi-tech approach to solving the ancient riddle.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-26 09:02 pm (UTC)Reminds me of the huge aerial map of DC that was laid on the floor of an exhibition room at the short-lived City Museum of Washington. Everyone oohed and aahed as they walked over it, trying to locate their house or office or favorite landmark (say, RFK stadium). I found it enthralling. Same goes for the big new world-map projection that National Geographic commissioned and laid a copy of on the pavement outside one entrance at their HQ. Nothing like a big map to give you a sense of distance and proportions.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-26 10:02 pm (UTC)*Googles*
Here it is! At least, it was one or the other of these
http://www2.comune.roma.it/museociviltaromana/html/sxxxvii.htm
http://www.unicaen.fr/rome/index.php?langue=anglais
And some other cool pages of Roman models:
http://www2.siba.fi/~kkoskim/rooma/pages/MCIVILTA.HTM
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/00420/00420m.html
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/index.html