Avatar Badge & Content Advisory

Avatar Badge & Content Advisory

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Digital Reconstructions of Roman Britain

From The Daily Mail:

A professor has teamed up with digital artists to create striking pictures of how Roman Britain would have looked 2,000 years ago.

The CGI images include a Roman ‘motorway’ stretching from Exeter to London, a forgotten port and luxurious-looking barracks for the occupying forces.

Another image of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, located in Hampshire, has been produced that paints a picture of a wealthy and bustling settlement.

Read more (and check out the images!):
From a bustling port to a 160-mile 'motorway': Amazing digital reconstructions bring forgotten Roman Britain to life

SuccubaSuprema writes:

Note the reconstructed buildings in the images.  These are typical of Roman architectural style.  Architecture is, of course, an aspect of material culture.  By importing this style into Britannia Romana, the Roman conquerors were doing two things:  (1) bringing a bit of home to a foreign posting and thus theoretically making themselves more comfortable (I say "theoretically," as many of the soldiers and other persons representing the Imperium may not have been natives of Latium or even Italia;  still, if they were from the lands of the Imperium, which is likely, then they would undoubtedly have been familiar with this style), (2) introducing foreign material culture to a conquered people and thus engaging in cultural imperialism.  I'm not a fan of cultural imperialism, then or now (I'm also not a huge fan of the Imperium Romanum or any other empire, or imperialism in any form;  but I do appreciate much about the culture of Roma and Italia, then and now).  However, this is history, and there is nothing we can do to alter the past (and even if there were, the effects on all that has come since, as well as the present and the future, would be unpredictable).  We can, however, learn from the past, and we can also appreciate this architectural style, even if we dislike cultural imperialism.

No comments:

Post a Comment