Survey, archaeastronomy and communication: the Mausoleum of Teodoric in Ravenna (Italy)

The Mausoleum of Teodoric (apx. 520 AD), one of the most famous monuments of Ravenna, has been object of the researches of Professor Giulio Romano (Romano, 1995) who has measured it’s orientation (Azimut 84,5°). In the higher cell of the Musoleum a protruding strip underlines the base of the tambour. A little bit over this strip, in correspondence to the door that leads to the higher space, there are four slits in non parallel positions. On the sunset in the days of equinox the sun penetrates through them so to light up the small strip mentioned before on which some written signs were painted. Phenomena of this type could have been used both for calendar reasons, that is to mark the arrival of a special day of the year, and for the mesuring of time: in other words, to indicate a precise moment of the day (in this case, the sunset). The survey has been accomplished with a laser scanner faro-focus 3d (software Scene). Starting from the data originated from the archeoastronomical analysis, a 3D model has been realized so to be useful for verifying the astronomical phenomena and for the multimedia communication of the scientific contents. This paper is part of the sperimentations conducted by the research group on the new ways of multimedia communication, interactive and not, based on virtual models as instruments of “edutainment” for the fruition of cultural heritage.