(ANSA) - Rome, January 16 - A drone nicknamed Indiana Jones is being used to create a 3D map of a southern Italian city buried in a 1688 earthquake, termed a "medieval Pompeii".
The drone uses laser impulses like a radar to provide information for relief sketches of the underground medieval city, Cerreto Vecchia, the city beneath Cerreto Sannita in the province of Benevento, about an hour's drive northeast of Pompeii.
The project will take place in various stages, the first of which is the current 3D mapping. Once the mapping is complete, an archeological dig is planned, to be followed by restoration work, artifact cataloging, and a 3D reconstruction of the site.
The project is being financed by the Ministry of Education and carried out by the group Progetto Provaci.
Drone maps out 'medieval Pompeii'
City buried in 1688 quake being unearthed with technology