Animated rock art

Some of the world’s oldest engravings of the human form – prehistoric rock art from the Italian Alps – have been brought to life. PITOTI is an innovative research project that applies insights from the new technologies of computer graphics to prehistoric pictures, specifically the rock art of Valcamonica, Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It brings to life some of the earliest human figures in European rock art — some made from as early as 7,000 BC — with interactive graphics, 3D printing and video games, exploring the potential links between the world of archaeology and the world of film, digital humanities and computer vision.

A multimedia digital rock art exhibition with video projections, an ambient cinema and an interactive touch screen table is on display at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, 7-23 March 2013.