Build Rome
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Sorry Fluffy, for the time being I have no info on the Domus Tiberiana issue.
As for the temple on the slope of the Velia, it was completely razed by Nero's atrium, which later became the base for the temple of Venus and Rome. What the excavations showed was just the sidewalk in front of the temple, with two sacred wells at each end. So we have a hint on how broad it was (not much, about 14 meters) how ancient (a lot, one of the wells could be dated at Vth bC, and it contained even older materials, VIIIth bC, that had been thrown in at the moment of the consecration. Both the sidewalks and the well's walls had been preserved and raised through the centuries, which means it was very revered and important. But there's no mention in the sources, and the rich materials found in the wells don't give any certain indication about who or what was the deity to which it was dedicated. -
And here are three links. The first is an interview with a nice explanation about the temple on the Velia slope and the sacred wells. The second is my animation with my (bad) english comment. The third is a broader view on the Palatine slope excavation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqp294ARrec
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Ludus Magnus
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Around the Ludus Magnus there were other gladatorial gyms about which little is known, the two main ones were the Ludus Matutinus and Ludus Dacicus. There goes a try.
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Impressive.
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Thanks Bryan.
Basilica of Maxentius, more or less ...
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And that's in place ...
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Hey everybody,
I thought I'd show you a small update on my progress.In stead of modelling anything new, I think I'll spend the next couple of weeks cleaning it up.
The model is very messy: having over 30 million edges it is becoming unbearable to work with. I will have to draw the interiors in a separate file, replace all columns by even less detailed ones and abandon all invisible technical stuff (like supporting beams for the roofs and inside doors).
I need to rethink the model as well. For now, I've been doing all for which archaeological material was available the easiest. That's why you see the "severan extensions" in their flavian phase, the "vigna barberini" in its severan phase and the "Santa Maria Antiqua" in its domitianic phase, all in the same model... The idea was to have all phases in one model, and browse through them with scenes and layers. But that will be way too heavy I guess.Anyway, it'll be another 10 years before it's finally finished but I love working on it
Regards,
Tom
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Happy new year.
... Emperor Hadrian moved the colossus into the valley with the help of 24 elephants ...
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Bona Saturnalia!!
Thanks hepf, it's very fun!!
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I still think that Nero's atrium probably had a temple at its center, this is another try ...
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I've been criticized because I used the standard Sketchup guys in jeans and t-shirt to give scale to the roman views, so I took some images from Alix to populate the renderings, but they do not work that well. I'll have to look for some other solution ...
And I wonder why the .skp is that big. Thought it would be much lighter ...
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Csaba, I am playing with some tools that may interest you, especially 123D catch, that is a free software from Autodesk. I made some interesting 3D visualizations of my wife's excavation and finds. I still use sketchup a lot, as you'll see in the video, made mainly in Poser (the video is just a joke to experiment things), but I am also looking at other software. At the time being I am going crazy trying to learn Blender ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO0RcdmRXIM
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I am trying my hand at interiors, there goes a WIP on Venus and Rome, still a long way to go ...
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Glad to see an update, I was afraid you had abandoned the project!
I'm a big fan -
Thanks a lot, Tom. I need fans. There goes the model with all the statues, the volumes are ok, I think. Now it's time for UV's and textures and bump maps, but that will have to wait. I used Blender's decimate modifier on Poser characters for the statues, and I think it works fine, I get some decent figures at very low res and very light. No way I could have built a model with about 26 human figures otherwise ...
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I am intrigued by the cistern called the sette sale (seven halls, even if the cistern corridors are nine). Lots of problems in the reconstruction, the lower part is rather straightforward, but the upper part is hellish. I am pretty sure the project was part of Nero's golden house, raised partly after Nero's death by Titus, enlarged and completed by Trajan. A part of the structures on top of it belongs to Trajan, but there is also a late roman extension (IVth century). One of the problems is the access to the upper level. I think the terrain on the northern side was more or less level with it, and that the access was through that side. We'll see.
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Carandini reconstructs it something like this:
- in the middle of the eastern (curved) side is a basilica-like building
- he puts the main entrance there, with a staircase leading down 2-3 meters to the ground level
- to the south is a nymphaeum and an oecus
- to the north is a flower-shaped triclinium (topped with a large central dome and several smaller domes and half-domes on a lower level; feels quite byzantine)
- the series of smaller rooms to the west are a small bath complex
- behind the baths, over the "straight" side of the cisterns, a portico overlooking the site of the Domus Aurea / Thermae Traiani, about 10m above street level (with the "arcades" you already modeled below it)
Though the North side is level with the surrounding area (on that side) and more suitable for an access to the building, I don't really see where, apart from a door giving out on the long "corridor" leading all the way South...
On the other hand, Carandini's solution with a monumental staircase on the curved site doesn't really make sense either...I'm curious what solution you'll come up with
PS I read somewhere that it used to be nothing more than a cistern for Nero's gardens (which makes sense since it has the same orientation as the Domus Aurea), that Trajan relocated the pipes from the gardens - which largely ceased existing - to his baths, building slave quarters on top of it, and that the private house of which we can still see the plan now, is much later - probably Maxentian
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Yup. I am doing this mainly because I am not satisfied with Carandini's reconstruction. The buildings on top of the cistern belong at least to two moments. One more or less contemporary with the completed cistern (Trajan)and the rest added about IVth century. The problems with Carandini's reconstruction are more than one. One is the access, that staircase doesn't make much sense. The other is the roofing of the flowerlike building, the walls are too thin to sustain a concrete vault, I believe it was wooden. The third is the extension, the edge of the top of the cistern, the part that has fallen off, was very frail. I don't beleve anybody would build something on top of that. And Carandini's reconstruction, based on a central simmetry, goes far beyond even the edge, no way. I think that the whole edge was used just as a sidewalk, no masonry.
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