This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The Etruscan painted tombs in Tarquinia, Italy, date to the first millennium BCE and are known for their vivid scenes of music, feasting, processions and the afterlife. While these tombs have been extensively studied, archaeologists have typically looked at the paintings as images to decode rather than as parts of an experience that people moved through.
But in a new study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, archaeologists Maurizio Forte and Jacqueline Ortoleva reveal what it might have felt like for the people of ancient Tarquinia to experience two of these tombs. With the integration of AI computer vision–based visual analysis, architectural modeling, acoustic data and agent-based perceptual trajectories, the team details where attention may have been drawn, the feelings the images may have invoked and how sound reverberated in different areas of the tombs. The study suggests these tombs may have been designed not simply to house the dead but to affect the living through an immersive environment.
The researchers say their goal was to understand how the spatial and acoustic environment could bias and shape sensory experience. To do this, they made detailed 3D models of both tombs and conducted standardized acoustic surveys. The acoustic surveys involved playing recorded handclaps at different locations and measuring how sound decayed and traveled through each tomb.
The study authors write, "By considering reverberation times documented inside the present tombs, the analysis reveals how sound behaves as a material force. Because they are physically experienced, low-frequency sounds below 1000 Hz, in particular, are interpreted not merely as an auditory phenomenon but as a bodily one, capable of inducing vibration, disorientation and potentially even altered cognitive states." To investigate visual elements, they used AI to map visually striking features that draw attention, likely movement routes and places where actions might cluster. The models incorporated plausible candlelight conditions rather than modern lighting, choosing candles over torches since torches would have likely resulted in dangerous levels of smoke in the small spaces.
The first tomb the team discusses is the smaller Tomba del Gallo, dating from between 450 and 400 BCE. Upon entering, the visitor encounters a steep stairway that leads to a small burial chamber measuring 3.31 meters (11 feet) in length and 2.50 meters (8.2 feet) wide. The chamber has two main paintings, including a banquet scene on one side and dancing double-pipes players on the other.
The team says visual stimulation is minimal in the initial corridor, which leads the visitor to move forward to the chamber. The chamber is easily lit with candles due to its small size. The study authors write, "Once inside the burial chamber, visual saliency seems to cluster around architectural transitions and the paintings.
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