Archive | 2019
Many Ways to Rome: The LARP’s Development of Technical Tools to Approach Resilience and Resistance within the Roman Empire
Abstract
The Laboratory for Roman Provincial Archaeology (LARP), a thematic Lab of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, aims to conduct research on the Roman presence in the areas of dominance in the Mediterranean sphere of influence and beyond. Cultural transformation and its correlates in material culture are investigated through analyses that assess the changes in its many aspects, given the variability of the contexts of societies under Roman imperial power. Thus, this paper seeks to propose a more flexible and multilateral reading between Rome and its provinces, where the forms of contact among Rome and the provinces had, in reality, a two-way relationship that should be considered not to be conflicting, but converging. In essence, we highlight the performance of provincial elites facing Roman domination. One of LARP s main instruments of action is the application of new technologies that act through images, two-dimensional or three-dimensional, interactive or passive. Virtual reality, also a means of scientific visualization, can be used for data analysis both in three-dimensional environments as well as in interactive exemplification that assist in the cognitive process of researchers, teachers and/or students.