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The project Archeology without barriers, coordinated by Cortona Municipality (other partners France – Association Memoire et patrimoine, Paris – and Greek – IX Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, Thessaloniki), has been funded by European Commission, Division Education and Culture, in Summer 2001, under “Culture 2000” Framework Programme.
The project consists in a wide research about problems concerning access and fruition of museums and expositions spaces by people with sensorial and deambulation disabilities (blind and lowseeing, lowhearing...).
The research is based on the assumption that the sentence “equal access opportunities for disabiled people”, used in all international and national official documents, must be meant in all senses, starting from problems of architectural barriers, still existing, to problems related to exhibition design and communication.
Simply stating as a fact, that normally all the educational and communication aids in exposition places (panels, labels and tags, etc.) are thought and designed to be read by a standing adult, the project combines the theoretical research (in collaboration with partners) with the experimentation of tactile and olfactory visit paths in museums, which involve senses different from sight and hearing.
The experimental prototypes for tactile and olfactory visit paths are designed for the Etruscan museum and the archaeological park of Cortona, because the city is a fundamental centre for the understanding and the knowledge of the history of Etruscan society; furthermore, the Municipality has planned the opening of a new museum and the archaeological park, which covers all the city’s territory.
Moreover, the project assumes that the planning methodology for olfactory and tactile paths must be focused on the specific objects exhibited in a certain space (a olfactory path about the Etruscan society is, of course, different from a path about Renaissance).
Third point, the project assumes that museums of ancient societies (archaeological and prehistoric museums) are, more than other museums, very far and extraneous from the daily life experience of the public; in some cases, museums and exhibitions focus the attention on the single object, presented as a “treasure”; in some other cases, archaeological museums suffer from a sort of “close model”, created by experts for experts.
The olfactory and tactile paths add to the standard museum path, based exclusively on visual learning (you see objects, you read tags, guides and panels) the olfactory and tactile perception.
The tactile exploration of an object, supported by a special verbal technique that guides the subject to understand the form, the composition and the meaning of the object, is a experimental methodology already tested in several artistic and historical museums paths, in Italy and abroad; one of the objectives of the project has been the application of the methodology at archaeological collections.
The olfactory stimulation, involving mostly the emotional part of the human being, rather than the rational part, has been elaborated to give new reflection inputs, new curiosities and cues to museums visitors, trying to get them familiar with the knowledge of daily life of ancient societies, using an unusual and attractive method.
The olfactory and tactile paths in a exposition’s space, acting on not-used senses, promote access and fruition for all the citizens, avoiding exclusion and distinction between first-class citizens (able to see, read and hear) and second class (Those for which substitutes have to be prepared).
First prototypes for olfactory and tactile perception have been designed and set up for the Fair in Ferrara “Restauro 2002, Salone dell’arte del restauro e della conservazione dei Beni Culturali e Ambientali” (April 2002); during that event also the evaluation of prototypes occurred, with questionnaires and in-depth interviews.
Tests and prototypes evaluation results have given inputs to the technical and methodological improvement of the prototypes, which, in a amended and enriched version have been showed during the Fair “Museum Image” in Arezzo (May 2002). In that occasion also the project phase concerning the planning of alternative paths for outdoor archaeological areas has been showed, as a Etruscan botanic path.
The whole settlement of prototypes has been showed also at “Museum”, in Firenze, in October 2002.
Tactile prototypes have been made by Clessidra snc, with consultancy and supervision of V.A.M.I. association (Associated Volunteers for Italian Museums), of Firenze.
Olfactory prototypes have been designed and made by Clessidra snc (Cavezzo – MO).
The project’s research team (archaeologists, botanists, V.A.M.I. members, communication experts, olfactory experts) has selected, between the Etruscan collection in Cortona, objects to be reproduced as moulding for tactile exploration, and themes for developing the “olfactory environments”, both of them, objects and themes, to be integrated in the new museum of Cortona and in the under-construction archaeological park.
The team has enucleated some topics for the comprehension of the ancient Cortona, highlighted by finds, objects and excavations on the territory; on the basis of those topics, the team has decided finds for mouldings, tactile maps, details for olfactory panels (colours, smells, decorations) to create “olfactory environments”.
Tactile maps have to explain mostly geographical and spatial organizations issues, and some significant excavations in archaeological area of Cortona.
Concerning the choice of “olfactory environments”, the team has selected three themes related to Etruscan and Italic culture: “Burial rites”, “agriculture/food” and “medicine/cosmetics/body care”. For all of them, direct and indirect documentary sources are large. The first one, “Burial rites” is focused on a very important part of the Etruscan culture, and on a very significant amount of finds, apart from being one of the most known and fascinating aspects of Etruscans; the second and the third, at the opposite, are focused on two aspects of the Etruscans very closed to the contemporary daily experience: smells of food, made of mostly vegetables, and flavoured by mediterranean herbs and spices, are familiar for the public, as well as herbs and flowers used to make cosmetics, fragrances and medicines, still used for the same scope also today.
Prototypes designed and made for the project are:
- The tactile map of the archaeological park of Cortona.
- The tactile map of “Melone del sodo II” (a tumulus).
- The tactile map of the Tabula Cortonensis.
- The tactile map of the Stele di Lemnos.
- The tactile map of the Villa di Ossaia (roman villa)
- The reproduction of a mosaic of the Villa di Ossaia.
- The moulding of a kantharos made of bucchero.
- The moulding of a lekythos decorated with black features.
- The panel with the smell of “agriculture/food”, reproducing an original fragment of decorated plaster coming from the villa di Ossaia, with the different colours underlined using a different granulometry, for the tactile perception; the olfactory suggestion has been made on the basis of smells of vegetable food, typical of the roman food.
- The panel with the smell “medicine/cosmetics/body care”, with colours and decorations similar to the lekythos.
- The panel with the smell “Burial rites”, an odour alluding to resinous plants used in burial rites; the colour is bronze, alluding to the most used alloy by Etruscans.
- The panel reproducing a detail of the Tabula, made with mortar.
- The panel about the origin of Etruscan language.
- The panel reproducing a detail of the “Piacenza liver”, related to the topic of divination.
The part of he project regarding olfactory and tactile paths in outdoor areas has stated to define a limited and protected area inside the archaeological park, where grow plants existing in Etruscan period, spontaneous or cultivated, used for feeding or for medicine. Plants can be tactile explored, and prominence can be given to smells and odours with an appropriate choice (seasonality, kind of soil, rotation in flowering, etc.). In this area can be set up also tactile maps and braille panels, to design an “information and didactic point” specialized in tactile and olfactory perception.
The settlement showed in Arezzo supposed the information and didactic point to be made in the area of Tumulo del Sodo II, using the moulding with scale 1:1 of the stair-altar, and showing some plants across a possible didactic path, with maps and panels.
The final report of the project is at disposal on paper and on CD, writing to Comune di Cortona (contact person, Dott. Paolo Giulierini )