In the open-air museum Hechingen-Stein (in the southwest of Germany), a wall was discovered during excavations. The wall had been fallen over in full height and length. With this discovery, it can be proven for the first time how an antique building actually looked like.
The wall is located ca. 40 m outside of the enclosure wall of the Roman estate „Vila Rustica“. During the collapse, each stone kept its horizontal position whereby even window openings are identifiable. The building’s front side was at least 15 m high.
Up to 8 archaeologists have dug up the forest behind the Villa Rustica since June. For them, the preservation of the stones is spectacular since the stones allow conclusions on the Roman architecture for the first time and provide important information for future Roman research.
An excavation team documented the discovery completely and highly accurately with a terrestrial laser scanner. Using the recorded data, a detailed and photo-realistic 3D computer animation was created.