Urban and Extra-Urban Cult Buildings in the Aegean World From the Excavation to the 3D Reconstruction

This work deals with sacred areas in the Minoan and Mycenaean world. The identification of cult sites is an open issue, since archaeology has not always provided with peculiar architectural forms for these places. In the Minoan period areas outside the urban settlement with ritual destination can be recognized mainly through appropriate finding of cult indicators (objects, benches, animal bones, altars) and on the basis of the same findings urban and palace shrines have been recognized. In the Mycenaean period cult sites belong almost exclusively to urban and palatial contexts with rather simple dimensions, not much different from domestic architecture and frequently confining with craftsman workshops. We have focused on some of the above typologies with the purpose to show how 3-dimensional reconstructions can be of great help in identifying the cult sites with confidence. With the contemporary digital solutions it's possible to show the image of the past, creating realistic environments aimed to virtual or static image creation. This process allows a better approach to the learning of the past and at the same time, when combined with the tools for investigation and analysis, creates the conditions for a step forward in the knowledge of a historical period. The purpose remains to find the best learning pathway using various tools, in the pure spirit of multimedia, which means the total interaction between multiple media in a single environment. The approach proposed here will not be limited to the simple use of digital graphic tools, but will include the traditional drawing techniques enhanced in the computer graphic environment to create more lively, suggestive and communicative representations. The novelty of our approach resides in the application of the 3-D modelling to sites that are mostly considered marginal compared to the most famous buildings but that are able to largely contribute to enlighten features that are still badly defined and quite promising.