Rome, Regenerated
Researchers at the University of Zurich are reinventing how antiquity is seen. Their platform Re Experiencing History trains AI models on archaeological sources to generate images of ancient Greece and Rome without the usual distortions, no centurions in sunglasses or triumphal crowds holding smartphones. Instead, users are pushed to ask sharper questions: what did a procession truly look like, how visible was the victor in the throng, and how gritty were Rome’s streets? The AI delivers not final answers but visual hypotheses that spark debate and imagination. Even a misplaced sandal becomes a reminder that history is never fixed but always the meeting of evidence and imagination, a theme I explored in earlier posts on Hero of Alexandria and ancient machines.
Full story at the University of Zurich -->
See video at the AIncient Studies Lab -->
(Image: Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer, c. 1883. Public domain.)