Preliminary Report on the Project ‘Arsinoe 3D’: Archival and Digital Reconstructions of the Italian Excavations at Arsinoë

The archaeological remains of the Roman phase of Arsinoë (present-day Medinet el-Fayyum/El- Fayyum), threatened by urban expansion, were investigated during a single emergency campaign in 1964-65 by the Istituto Papirologico ‘G. Vitelli’ (University of Florence), and subsequently covered by modern buildings. The project ‘Arsinoe 3D’, led by the papyrologists and archaeologists of the Istituto Vitelli (Scientific director: Prof F. Maltomini) and by the DAda-LAB team of the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the University of Pavia (Scientific director: Prof. Arch. S. Parrinello), aims to achieve a virtual reconstruction of the site, based upon film negatives, excavation journals, and the unpublished findings and data preserved in Florence. Through cutting-edge photogrammetry, 3D-modelling technologies, and digital storytelling, it has been possible to recreate the environment as it was in 1965, thus allowing us to visit a site that no longer exists. At the same time, numerous findings of that field campaign have been studied, catalogued, 3D-scanned, and virtually reinstated in their original archaeological context. The project ‘Arsinoe 3D’ will be offered as a virtual and physical exhibition, due to be launched in 2023. The present contribution serves as a preliminary illustration of the archaeological and archival research, the methodologies of the past excavation, and the modern reconstruction, for a project designed to qualify as a case study of contexts and sites endangered or no longer accessible.