View Ancient Rome in 3-D
Google has come up with a tantalizing new tool that allows anyone to view ancient Rome from a totally new perspective. It is part of Google Earth’s latest update, and it allows users to fly over and into ancient Rome in 3-D just as it looked in 320 A.D.
Originally intended as an academic tool to help researchers discover more about how people lived during those times, Google Earth’s “Ancient Rome 3-D” has quickly become popular with people wanting to get a better understanding of history. A video describing how this tool works is available here. It is free to download.
Ancient Rome has arguably been studied more than any other historic city, so it is a good place for Google to show off their new tool. It is perfectly reasonable to assume, however, that the same technology Google used to model ancient Rome could also be used on other cities. Perhaps it is just a matter of time before we have a Google model of London from the time of the Romans up to the Victorian era or even New York City in the 1800’s. The possibilities are endless and all of them have the potential to help family historians learn more about how their ancestors lived.
Categories: [November 2008] [ancient history] [research methods] [Europe]