Carteia: reconstitution and immersive simulation of multiple identities through data collection of archaeological urbanization remains in the Pillars of Herakles

• Grant number: 18/08593-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): August 27, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology - Historical Archaeology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Nicolau Kormikiari
• Grantee: Rodrigo Araújo de Lima
• Host Institution: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 20/11832-0 - Globalizing the Pillars of Herakles: the formation of Carteia identities and its material cultural reproduction, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

As a place of intense cultural contacts, the region of the Pillars of Herakles (present area of the Strait of Gibraltar) forms a crucible of cultural interactions. Within this circuit, the city of Carteia (present San Roque, Spain) is integrated into an ideal landscape for the deepening of the themes that involve the contact between its various visitors (Iberians, Phoenicians, Punic, Greeks and Romans) in the light of the theory about the Globalization of the Ancient Mediterranean. The present study intends to show that the use of approaches such Globalization, Sovereignty, Hybridization and Landscape shed light to understand the configuration and disposition of Carteia's space since the traditional regional archaeology did not deepen in the hybridization of Landscape and the role of the Sovereignty. The present research project aims to present a name concept of Virtual Augmented Reality (VAR) to represent virtually prototypes of an interpretation on 5 structures of the city of Carteia in the long duration: the Punic wall, the Punic altar and the Roman forum, the cetariae set and Gorham's Cave. A specific aim is to verify the city's degree of hybridization and their markers, from the Phoenician settlement, during the Late Iberian Bronze Age, to the Iron Age, where it passes to the Punic domain and thereafter receives the status of Roman colony in 171 BCE as Colonia Libertinorum Carteia. With the VAR we intend to analyse elements of hybridization through the constructive techniques and by the building materials to identify how the locals construct the Roman building using their own methods and what the kind of the material culture associate recovered in the interior. Inserted in the projects of the Laboratory of Studies on the Ancient City (LABECA/MAE-USP) financed by FAPESP in its two thematic projects (processes 2004/14429-0 and 2009/54583-1) and with the expertise of Interlab (Interactive Technologies Laboratory), headed by Prof. Romero Tori, we will produce these prototypes based on archaeological data made available online by the Municipal Museum of San Roque, as well as use the specific bibliographical references about the city from its Phoenician-Punic to Roman times. We will also consider the landscapes of its surroundings, including the frequented Cave of Gorham (Gibraltar in UK territory) in less than 10 km from the present site, a place frequented by the Phoenicians as a sanctuary from the ninth century BCE and which remained in use until the Roman period. With the experience gained during our Masters, we will use geotechnologies that contribute to the conception of Virtual Augmented Reality of the old landscape of the city of Carteia. We will create a georeferenced database to improve understanding of the dispersion of the archaeological record through the landscape thus optimizing the virtual experience. As this research intends to be included in the debate on the Digital Humanities, we will use specific production systems belonging to Cyber-Archaeology for the programming and distribution of the result of our research in the form of visual didactic content for both the Municipal Museum of San Roque, an institution that keep the Carteia findings, as well as for national and international educational institutions in a format appropriate to the new digital educational information vehicles so that students can have an immersive experience in a Roman city with multiple identities. (AU)