In Ersilia's Footsteps: Toward an Interactive WebGL Application for Exploring the Villa Romana del Casale at Piazza Armerina, Sicily

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 4th-Century CE Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina, Sicily contains the largest collection of mosaics in the Roman world. However, due to accessibility issues (e.g., remote location, weak online presence), the Villa remains nearly unknown in comparison to popular sites like Pompeii, despite its cultural importance. VILLAE, a collaboration between archaeologists, classicists, and game designers at the University of South Florida and the University of Arkansas, aims to build academic and public engagement with the Villa through a serious game played directly online using WebGL. Addressing the issues of accuracy in 3D reconstruction versus digital embodiment and meaningful game play, this paper outlines the project's pipeline for synthesizing the extensive 3D documentation of the site to create the digital prototype for an immersive narrative that unfolds the Villa's history against the development of modern archaeology in Italy and focuses the human story and professional life of a pioneering female archaeologist, Ersilia Caetani-Lovatelli.