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Introduction
He is full professor of Classical Studies, Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University and director of the DIG@Lab. His main research topics are: digital archaeology, cyber-archaeology, classical archaeology (Etruscan and Roman Archaeology) and neuro-archaeology. He is the director of the Vulci 3000 Project and co-director of CORSAC (Centre of Research and Studies on Ancient Cities).
He has coordinated archaeological fieldwork and research projects in Europe, Asia and US. From 2011-2016 he is was director of the 3D-Digging project at Çatalhöyük.
He has coordinated archaeological fieldwork and research projects in Europe, Asia, South America, Middle East and US.
He is actually digging in the archaeological site of Vulci (Viterbo).
Additional affiliations
January 2013 - present
January 2008 - December 2012
July 1998 - December 2007
Publications
Publications (141)
During the summers of 2016 and 2017, a series of Unoccupied Aircraft System (UAS, aka drone) missions were flown over the Vulci plateau, an archaeological relevant site near Rome, Italy. The city of Vulci played a prominent role in Italian history and remains a pivotal piece in understanding the physical and social changes that occurred for both Et...
Art experience is not solely the observation of artistic objects, but great relevance is also placed on the environment in which the art experience takes place, often in museums and galleries. Interestingly, in the last few years, the introduction of some forms of virtual reality (VR) in museum contexts has been increasing. This has solicited enorm...
Vulci (Viterbo Province, Italy) was one of the most important Etruscan city-states in the 1st millennium b.c. and became a Roman city in 280 b.c. The habitation site had over 1500 years of continuous life and a very large funerary area around the volcanic plateau. An international research cooperation investigated the site in 2014–2019 using remote...
Scholars from a range of disciplines offer an expansive vision of the intersections between new information technologies and the humanities.
Between Humanities and the Digital offers an expansive vision of how the humanities engage with digital and information technology, providing a range of perspectives on a quickly evolving, contested, and excit...
This chapter reports the results of a multifaceted research initiative that carried out digital experiments and explored the applications of three-dimensional spatial data recording, simulation and visualization of the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in the period 2010-2015, thanks to a collaboration between Duke University, the University of Californ...
Stone monuments occupy a significant role in the world's cultural heritage. These monuments and their artistic intricacies are the exhibits, which shed light on the ancient cultural heritage of the country. The severe damages and loss of these monuments due to environmental conditions, climatic factors etc. are on the increase. Especially in ancien...
Web-cam eye-tracking in the Lascaux caves. Heat map with 20 participants, 60 seconds of walkthrough. Gazerecorder. Duke University, DIg@Lab, Class on Virtual Museums. The experiment analyzes how movement through the virtual world modifies gaze and seems to favor more distant visual targets over near targets that might otherwise be used for navigati...
Virtual Sistine Chapel's heat map. Heat map generated by a class of 20 students by webcam eye tracking (Gazerecorder). Duke University Class of Virtual Museums 2020. The experiment is focused on subconscious eye tracking in relation to iconographic information and spatial embodiment in art.
Vulci 3000 is a multidisciplinary archaeological research project that applies cutting-edge technologies to produce a diachronic reconstruction of the Etruscan and Roman site of Vulci (tenth century BCE–fifth century CE). Located in the province of Viterbo, Italy, Vulci was one of the largest and most important cities of the Etruscan Dodecapolis—th...
The guiding premise of this book is the role of the study of the city, its display and dissemination, in the information network of digital cities. A collection of essays on the ways the city can now be studied and presented, this book surveys the current situation in regard to various visualizations of cities of the past and present, built on hist...
The guiding premise of this book is the role of the study of the city, its display and dissemination, in the information network of digital cities. A collection of essays on the ways the city can now be studied and presented, this book surveys the current situation in regard to various visualizations of cities of the past and present, built on hist...
Despite many years of archaeological excavations at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, the standing explanation for economic, social, and ritual activities of the inhabitants is based solely upon a wide range of evidence originating from deposits found in different parts of the densely-occupied settlement. The immediate environs of the settlement ha...
Despite many years of archaeological excavations at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, the standing explanation for economic, social, and ritual activities of the inhabitants is based solely upon a wide range of evidence originating from deposits found in different parts of the densely-occupied settlement. The immediate environs of the settlement ha...
Cyber-archaeology is a branch of archaeological research concerned with the digital simulation of the past. In this context the past is seen as generated by the interaction of multiple scenarios and simulations and by the creation of different digital embodiments. The term also recalls the ecological cybernetics approach, based on the informative m...
Virtual reality modeling (VRM) is an essential part of archaeological research in the digital era. In fact, virtual reality models can be created directly on site by digital mediated tools (laser scanners, remote sensing technology, drones, digital photogrammetry and the like) or in digital labs by 3D modeling software and displayed by immersive sy...
Advanced data capture techniques, cost-effective data processing, and visualization technologies provide viable solutions for the documentation of archaeological heritage and material culture. Work at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Çatalhöyük has demonstrated that new digital approaches for capturing, processing, analyzing, and curating stratigr...
Here, an attempt has been made to link up prehistoric human settlements along with fluctuations in climate and sea-level along the central west coast of India during the late-Quaternary. Ancient human settlements seems to be very few which are mainly reported from banks of rivers and laterite plateaus ~50m above the current sea-level. This was prob...
The Regium@Lepidi Project started in 2013 as a collaboration between the Duke Dig@Lab and Lions Club Reggio Emilia Host-Città del Tricolore. The project aims to study and virtually reconstruct the ancient Roman town of Regium Lepidi after 2200 years since its foundation. This initiative entails the definition of new methodologies of digital documen...
Vulci 3000, a multidisciplinary archaeological research project that employs advanced digital technologies, is focused on the Etruscan and Roman site of Vulci (10th–3rd c. BCE–4th c. CE). Located in the Province of Viterbo, Italy, Vulci was one of the largest and most important cities in the 1st millennium BCE in the Italian peninsula. This project...
Advanced data capture techniques, cost-effective data processing, and visualization technologies provide viable solutions for the documentation and curation of archaeological heritage and material culture. Work at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Çatalhöyük has demonstrated that new digital approaches for capturing, processing, analyzing, and cura...
his contribution outlines the results of an exploratory survey conducted in the archaeological site of Ancient Isaura (modern Zengibar Kalesi, province of Konya/Bozkır), by the Dig@Lab team (Duke University) in 2015. The survey was made possible thanks to collaboration with the Konya Archaeological Museum. This work is aimed at providing a very det...
The 1990s will probably be remembered in the history archaeology as the age of GIS. At that time, the introduction of digital technology in archaeological research was in its infancy. Software and hardware had only a limited capacity to integrate the range and complexity of information involved in the archaeological process. Inthe following decade,...
Çatalhöyük (Turkey, 7400-6000 BCE), World Heritage site since 2012, is one of the most famous archaeological sites worldwide and known as “the first city of the world”. It is famous because of the rituals, the figurative wall paintings and the pre-urban organization of the site and as well the domestication of plants and animals, which is widely kn...
This chapter is focused on the study of the relations between digital embodiment, close range sensing and three-dimensional information in archaeology. The relations between digital recording and simulation environments generate new research questions and design a new epistemology in cyberarchaeology.
The 3D-Digging Project started at Çatalhöyük in 2009 with the intent to digitally record and display in 3D all the archaeological stratigraphy: the case study is building 89 (B.89), a Neolithic house (Forte, et al. 2012). A house is an ideal case study because of the consistency of all the elements interrelated with domestic and ritual activities:...
Regium@Lepidi 2200 is an international project designed by Duke University - Dig@Lab in collaboration with the Lions Club Host “Citta’ del Tricolore” which is the main co-sponsor. The project was born with the twofold scope to study and virtually reconstruct the Roman city of Regium Lepidi (now Reggio Emilia) and to support a junior research fellow...
The 3D-Digging Project started at Çatalhöyük in 2009 with the intent to digitally record in 3D all the archaeological stratigraphy in some areas of excavation assembling different devices and technologies for virtually reconstructing all the process in desktop and virtual reality systems. The introduction of 3D data recording and 3D simulation mark...
Excavations at Catalhöyük have been ongoing for over 20 years and have involved multinational teams, a diverse range of archaeological specialists and a vast archive of records. The task of marshalling this data so that it can be useful not only at the post-excavation stage, but also while making decisions in the field, is challenging. Here, member...
Remote sensing data capture and virtual reality visualization have changed the archaeological documentation and interpretation of the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, located in the Konya province in Turkey (Berggren et al. forthcoming 2015). Indeed, since 2011, the ongoing excavation and digital documentation of the mud brick house Building 89 (B89)...
The project “3D-Digging at Çatalhöyük” started in 2009 as an on-site digital experiment to record every phase of an archaeological excavation in 3D, using different technologies such as laser scanning, computer vision, and photogrammetry. The end goal was to make the excavation process virtually reversible in a simulated environment from laptop com...
Digital documentation in archaeology includes appli-cations for data capture, virtual reconstruction, and visual communication (Forte 2010; 2012; Forte and Kurillo 2010; Forte and Siliotti 1997). In the last decade, the use of digital technologies, such as GIS 3D ARCHAEOLOGY New Perspectives and Challenges—The Example ofÇatalhöyük Maurizio Forte Th...
The project “3D Digging at Çatalhöyük” started in 2009 as an on-site digital experiment to record every phase of an archaeological excavation in 3D, using different technologies such as laser scanning, computer vision, and photogrammetry. The end goal was to make the excavation process virtually reversible in a simulated environment from laptop com...
1 V 2 Visualizing Mediterranean 3 Archaeology 4 Maurizio Forte
Between 1812 and 1841, Fort Ross was a Russian fur trading outpost
and multi-cultural colony located in the Northern California coast. Current Fort
Ross is a popular California State Historic Park visited every year by over
100,000 visitors from all over the world. In March 2011, California State Parks
and the University of California Merced starte...
The project Çatalhöyük @ DiVE started in 2013 as a multidisciplinary research collaboration initiative between Dig@Lab and DiVE at Duke University. Dig@Lab is the new digital archaeology facility at Duke University—directed by Prof. Maurizio Forte—focused on investigating how the information is shaped, elaborated, stored and then culturally transm...
Between 1812 and 1841, Fort Ross was a Russian fur trading outpost and multi-cultural colony located in
the Northern California coast. Current Fort Ross is a popular California State Historic Park visited every
year by over 100,000 visitors from all over the world. In March 2011, California State Parks and the
University of California Merced starte...
This paper identifies the significance of cultural landscapes in serious games as conveyers of cultural heritage and values the scientific reconstruction of the environment in digital-based learning tools. In this article we propose an effective methodology for producing historically validated landscapes in serious games for heritage which we adopt...
Structure from Motion 3D modeling techniques are a useful tool for recording and interpreting burials.
PRINT 499 26. Virtual worlds, virtual heritage and immersive reality: the case of the Daming Palace at Xi'an, China Maurizio Forte INTRODUCTION
Cyber Archaeology How 3D scanning is unpeeling the Neolithic at Çatalhöyük Archaeology destroys: once a site has been dug, it cannot be un-dug. Now, however, archaeologists Maurizio Forte, Nicolò Dell'Unto, and Scott Haddow at the huge Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, have developed a process that can do just that -virtually, at least. T he...
In March 2011, California State Parks entered an agreement with University of California Merced (UCM) to create an interactive, learning game able to educate students, schools and visitors about Fort Ross: the “Fort Ross Virtual Warehouse Project” (FRVWP). It is a web-based 3D game platform developed in Unity 3D that currently supports single playe...
The project “3D-Digging at Çatalhöyük” began in 2010 thanks to collaboration between Stanford University (Archaeological Center) and the University of California Merced with the scope to record, document (with different digital technologies) and visualize in virtual reality all the phases of archaeological excavation. Phase I (2010 excavation seaso...
The present volume consists of the peer-reviewed papers presented at the CAA2011 conference held in Beijing, China between April 12 and 16, 2011. The theme of this conference was -Revive the Past, which means retrieving our history and using it to help create a new civilization. It was a great honour to organize the conference where over 130 resear...
The VHLab of CNR-ITABC is developing new research projects oriented to virtual archaeology and to the study and communication of cultural heritage through multi-user virtual reality applications (off and on line). The state of art in this field is still quite pioneering, because there are no multi-user domains (MuD) for sharing and exchanging cultu...
p>Teleimmersive archaeology is still in embryonic stage of development but this system is the fi rst one of this kind created worldwide and opens very challenging perspectives in archaeology. The project was supported by the University of California, Merced (School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts), and the University of California, Berkeley,...
The project "3D-Digging at Çatalhöyük" began in 2010 thanks to collaboration between Stanford University (Archaeological Center) and the University of California Merced with the scope to record, document (with different digital technologies) and visualize in virtual reality all the phases of archaeological excavation. Phase I (2010 excavation seaso...
Archaeologists collect vast amounts of digital data around the world;
however, they lack tools for integration and collaborative interaction
to support reconstruction and interpretation process. TeleArch software
is aimed to integrate different data sources and provide real-time
interaction tools for remote collaboration of geographically distribut...
The paper is focused on virtual reality applications, off-line and on-line, intended as advanced and complex systems that in the next future could offer many solutions to new requirements of more accessible, open and shared information. In particular we will focus on Internet that we believe will be chosen more and more as medium even for these kin...
Trece años después de la publicación del libro "Arqueología virtual" (Forte, 1996, 97) es el momento de volver a discutir sobre la definición, los conceptos clave y algunas nuevas tendencias y aplicaciones de la arqueología virtual. El presente documento analiza la introducción del término "cyber-arqueología" en relación con el proceso de simulació...
This paper investigates the integration of archaeological laser scan data inside the world's first 360-degree stereoscopic virtual environment (Advanced Visualization and Interaction Environment -AVIE). This interactive display system allows for fully embodied, omnispatial, omnidirectional and 3D visualization. Rhizome of the Western Han represents...
We present a framework for collaborative cyberarchaeology aimed at remote real-time interaction with 3D archaeological models through a shared virtual environment. The project combines research in 3D computer vision, collaborative virtual reality and archaeology. At each geographical location, a set of stereo cameras captures 3D video of the user i...
In this paper we present the framework for collaborative cyberarchaeology with support for teleimmersive communication which
aims to provide more natural interaction and higher level of embodiment. Within the framework we create tools for exploration,
interaction and communication of archaeologists in a shared virtual environment. Users at differen...
In 2009, a joint research project among the University of California Merced, the City of Teramo and the Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage (National Research Council, Rome) started with the goal to communicate virtually the archaeological context of the city, on the basis of the key archaeological areas of the urban network. The...
The University of California, Merced and the University of California, Berkeley are developing an open source virtual collaborative system labelled tele-immersive archaeology which is able to involve different users/avatars in the 3D cyberspace at different levels of embodiment. The
application is built upon Vrui VR Toolkit developed at UC Davis an...
We present a prototype collaborative application for archaeology that allows archeologists from remote locations to interact in real time with 3D archeological models through a shared virtual environment using teleimmersive technology. At each location, a set of stereo cameras captures 3D video of the user in real time to create his/her avatar. The...
This project is aimed to learn how to virtually reconstruct archaeological sites within the virtual community of Second Life, the 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using voice and text chat. The University of California Merced purchased a virtual island in Second Life (www.secondlife.com) called "UCM Heritage Island", w...
Current models indicate that catastrophic impacts by asteroids and comets capable of killing more than one quarter of Earth's human population have occurred on average once every million years; smaller impacts, such the 1908 Tunguska impact that leveled more than 2,000 square km of Siberian forest, occur every 200-300 years. Therefore, cosmic impac...
This paper presents the outcome of the research project: "Integrated Technologies of Robotics and Virtual Environments in Archaeology", financed by the Italian Ministry of the University and Scientific Research, FIRB (Funds for the Investments of Basic Research). The aim of the project is to experiment and realize a multi-user domain on the web aim...
The Virtual Rome Project, commissioned by Seat Yellow Pages and the Italian Chamber of Commerce, has developed a VR webGIS application, with front-end and back-end on line solutions, for the interpretation, reconstruction and 3d exploration of archaeological and potential past landscapes of Rome. The purpose is the creation of a three-dimensional o...