Photo courtesy of Olivia Russo ’25
By Olivia Russo ’25
Staff Writer
Students, historians and archaeologists alike can now “travel back in time” and experience the city of ancient Rome. Yorescape, a digital platform founded by Flyover Zone, provides curated virtual tours through reconstructions of ancient civilizations.
Indiana University professor and leading digital archeologist Dr. Bernard Frischer spoke to the Mount Holyoke College community on Oct. 24 about his work on Rome Reborn, a digital recreation that depicts the city of ancient Rome within the Aurelian Walls, in a lecture sponsored by the Classics department. Frischer is also the founder and CEO of Flyover Zone, whose mission is to use 3D technologies to present cultural heritage sites and monuments to the public.
Frischer began development on Rome Reborn, originally named ‘Project Cicero’, 28 years ago. The project has since morphed into a series of additional ‘reborn’ projects that showcase ancient sites and cultures: such as Athens Reborn, Egypt Reborn and Mesoamerica Reborn.
Though the work of visualizing ancient Rome wasn’t exactly new — with predecessors such as Francis Petrarch, Flavio Biondo, Raphael and Italo Gismondi — the usage of 3D computer graphics to produce a visualization of the city, and virtual reality to allow users to experience it, was. Frischer considers Rome Reborn to be a ‘remediation’ of previous work, making up for deficiencies that came with written accounts, drawings or even Gismondi’s Il Plastico.
Opting for a digital reconstruction reconciled the difference between representing the city orthographically, from a top-down angle as a map, or from one specific angle. Now, the city could be viewed in an infinite number of ways due to the project’s three-dimensional nature. The digital reconstruction has also solved issues of uncertainty when there are multiple possible ways to reconstruct each monument, as the screen can be refreshed to show each different possibility.
Photo courtesy of Olivia Russo
Frischer said that the original motivation for the project was actually for teaching. He believes an up-to-date reconstruction would be more efficient and effective than textbooks and lectures to teach others about Rome cartography.
While at UCLA in the classics department, Frischer taught a general education requirement course on Roman civilization. He could tell that most students weren’t particularly interested in the content. If the students were able to actually experience Rome, however, he felt that they would be much more interested and engaged. “I have to find a way to bring Rome to them, bring Rome to the classroom, rather than bring the class to Rome,” Frischer said.
In being able to awaken an initial curiosity in the students — and then kindle that curiosity — students are driven by their own interest rather than by assignments or exams. When students want to learn themselves, the professors can then guide and direct that learning. “It’s not pushing the students uphill and forcing them to learn. The students want to learn themselves,” Frischer described.
In addition, the digital reconstruction has helped greatly in research efforts. In particular, researchers can run experiments that wouldn’t otherwise be possible or feasible using computer simulations, such as “going back in time” to research ancient Rome. “Obtaining new research results is what keeps a field alive,” Frischer stated.
Giving the field a new tool will allow it to have new insights and discoveries. For example, Frischer was able to use NASA’s Horizons System with the digital reconstruction to analyze how the sun lined up with an Egyptian obelisk and Ara Pacis. Using NASA data allowed Frischer to see the exact position of stars and planets at any time in history from any spot on Earth.
When used with Rome Reborn, Frischer was able to debunk a popular theory that the obelisk would cast its shadow right through the middle of the Ara Pacis altar on Roman emperor Augustus’ birthday. “The scientists themselves use visualizations to see things in the data that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to see,” Frischer said.
After Frischer concluded his talking portion of the event, attendees had the opportunity to try out the simulation using Oculus virtual reality goggles for an immersive experience. The virtual tour and reconstruction are accessible through smartphones, tablets, PCs and VR headsets. The simulation has two parts: first, a quick aerial tour narrated by Frischer, and second, the ability for users to roam the site freely.
Gabby Tonn ’27 contributed fact-checking.