REPRESENTATION AND DIGITALIZATION OF STONE THEATRES IN EASTERN SICILY: THE PALAZZOLO ACREIDE THEATER

Abstract. The ancient theatres in Sicily, in southern Italy and along the countries facing the Mediterranean Sea basin, constitute a reality of incomparable cultural value. Regarding the research on the ancient theatres of eastern Sicily, few studies have been recently dealt with different methodologies. In the last years some practices have been done using 3D laser scanners for the theatres of Syracuse, Taormina and Morgantina, as well as the Syracuse amphitheatre and Taormina Odeon, just obtaining very interesting results. Lately the theatre of Palazzolo Acreide (Syracuse) has been studied, with Structure From Motion (SFM) and Dense Matching methodologies. From these experience, conclusions could be drawn on the quality and reliability of the elaborations realised with the SFM methodologies. We really know that these systems are today representing one of the fastest growing areas of examination, on which several software houses are investing. The study was chosen both for the small size of the building, and for the particular geometric conditions typical of the architecture of ancient theatres. This because their three-dimensional trend varies continually in the three variables X, Y, Z. The purpose of the work was to check whether the latest releases of these systems of survey allow today more than yesterday, a rapid digitalization and representation of the enormous archaeological cultural heritage. Various software were used, to verify the practicality and operation, the choice then fell on the Zephyr of 3DFlow, kindly available by the manufacturer, whose results were quite agreeable. The possibility offered by the program of a graphical tracing of polylines on the textured 3D model, has been a considerable advantage. Therefore the results obtained by modeling and surveying of the Palazzolo Acreide theatre have been compared, with the survey of the Syracuse, Taormina and Morgantina theatre performed using 3D laser scanners. First results of the research are matter of the following work.