Jason Urbanus reports on progress made on what sounds like an extraordinary map in Archaeology (Sep/Oct 2016):
The Forma Urbis Romae was created under the reign of the [Roman] emperor Septimius Severus (r. A.D. 193-211). Measuring 60 feet by 43 feet, the map was incised onto 150 marble blocks arranged in 11 rows, and represented an area of over five square miles at a scale of 1:240. An incredibly detailed plan of Rome, it reproduced every building, house, shop, and monument in the smallest detail, even including staircases.
It has disintegrated since Rome declined. How long have archaeologists been working to recreate it?
Scholars have been retrieving the map’s fragments from locations around Rome and attempting to determine their original positions for the past 500 years. Reassembling the map is slow, painstaking work, further complicated by the fact that thousands of fragments are still missing. However, authorities from the Capitoline and Vatican museums in Rome recently announced the discovery and identification of an important new section of the map, perhaps offering new insights into the topography of the ancient city.
Stanford has a project dedicated to reproducing it digitally here. I do hope they find ways to accelerate progress. I’d hate to be dead before they finish and it goes on display somewhere.
