Roman Catacombs Scanned

Rome is studded by tens of miles of catacombs: underground tunnels and galleries in which the dead were buried. The largest, Saint Domitilla, has been the target of a new study by a team of archaeologists, architects and computer technicians who have used laser scanning technology to create a detailed 3D model. They can now travel through the recreated tunnels, all 15 kilometres of them, as if they’d been filmed, but with the ability to zoom out and see the structure. Cameras have mapped clear images of the decorations to the scans, and it will take the team a year to study them. Luckily for the public, who are restricted to the first 500m of the catacomb in real life, the results will be made available for general viewing, hopefully online. The BBC has a video of the results in action, plus technical details.