Virtual Reality in Maritime Archaeology Legacy Data for a Virtual Diving on the Shipwreck of the Mercurio (1812)

Virtual Reality is becoming a complete and original way to leverage the enormous potential of the underwater cultural heritage world. In this paper, we illustrate how we used this tool and other 3D reconstruction to create a virtual experience on the Mercurio shipwreck. The brig Mercurio, sunk during the Battle of Grado (1812), currently lies at a depth of 17 m in the northern Adriatic Sea. Artifacts recovered during investigations made by the Università Ca’ Foscari are now exposed in the Museum of the Sea in Caorle where a multimedia station has been installed. In order to create the virtual dive on this site, it was necessary to process legacy data from the photogrammetry surveys made during the excavation campaigns carried out when VR was unknown in archaeology. The paper presents this original way to create a virtual dive on an ancient shipwreck from archival and heterogeneous data.