International scientists at the Archaeological Museum of Istria.
On Thursday and Friday, an international scientific team from the University of Bradford visited the Archaeological Museum of Istria, where they performed a 3D laser scanning of situlae found at Nesactium. The scanning was done as part of the ENTRANS project (Encounter and Transformations in Iron Age Europe), which is funded by HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) and the European Commission. Its aim is to study cultural exchanges and transformations of Europe in the period of the Iron Age. ENTRANS is a project which brings together scientists and experts from the University of Bradford (Great Britain), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the University of Zagreb (Croatia), reports arheologija.hr on January 14, 2016.
Nesactium was an ancient fortified town and hill fort of the Histri tribe. Its ruins are located in southern Istria, between the villages of Muntić and Valtura.
Covering the area of the eastern Alps, ENTRANS studies the role of material culture and the patterns of settlement in the environment within the complex identity structure of the Iron Age. Through analysis of bones, artistic works and non-destructive traditional archaeological research, ENTRANS aims to develop new methodologies for the study of cultural contacts in the past.
As part of the project, the team from the University of Bradford led by Professor Ian Armit scanned objects of the situla art from Nesactium, which are kept at the Archaeological Museum of Istria. They include a situla with a unique depiction of a sea battle. Scanning will create 3D digital models of these remarkable and fragile objects, which will then be suitable for public presentation. They will also be used as sources for the study of the situla art, for example, to analyze ways of decorating objects.
An example of a scanned situla from a different location can be seen on this link:
