Improving the territorial awareness through paleontological heritage: preliminary results from Pietraroja site (southern Italy)

This study is part of a larger research project (INSITE) - PRIN 2022 founded by MUR – Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca. It is focused on two pilot sites to highlight the intrinsic potentialities of the paleontological heritage as a tool for valorising territorial resources, particularly referring to inner areas. These sites, Pietraroja (PTJ) and Le Ciampate del Diavolo (LCD), are areas of great paleontological importance, in the Campania region. The PTJ (Benevento) is the place where the fossil of a small dinosaur, Scypionix samniticus named CIRO, was found. The LCD ichnosite (Caserta) preserves elements that allow behavioural and structural evaluations of hominins of the middle Pleistocene. The main intention of the study refers to the attempt to broaden the spectrum of interest around these sites, suggesting mainstreaming the potentialities of the whole territorial context in which these sites are located. To identify innovative communication modalities and to develop a new knowledge model, we present here the reconstruction of Pietraroja paleoenvironment using technological tools. Using immersive technologies for virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality models, it is possible to build an immersive digital space in which the visitor will perceive the original environment and interact with the fossils' virtual avatar. The CIRO digital model was obtained based on complete information on the anatomical structure of Scipionyx samniticus and, through accurate 3D modeling, the digital model of the dinosaur was generated. The same approach was used to recreate the landscape and the marine and vegetation species.