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1 2 3 4 The virtual reality digital model of the 5 of the Papyri project 6 7 mantha zarmakoupi 8 9 The virtual reality digital model of the Villa of the Papyri project has 10 been developed over the past four years at the UCLA Cultural Virtual 11 Reality Laboratory (CVRLab).1 It demonstrates how virtual reality 12 models may be employed to document and investigate archaeological 13 sites as well as to present hypothetical reconstructions that may serve 14 as virtual restoration proposals of architectural monuments. The aim 15 of the project is threefold: 1) to create a digital architectural model of 16 the Villa of the Papyri that incorporates both the architectural structures 17 known from the 18th century as well as those found in recent excava- 18 tions, 2) to present a virtual reality reconstruction of the architecture 19 of the Villa that distinguishes between the structures known from Web- 20 er’s plan (1758) and still lay underground, the structures that have been 21 recently unearthed (1994–1998, 2007–), and proposed restorations, and 22 3) to reincorporate the surviving known fragments of the finds from the 23 Villa, such as wall paintings, mosaics, sculptures and papyri.2 In 24 addressingACHTUNGTRENNUNG these aims, the project will provide an invaluable research 25 and teaching tool for the Villa of the Papyri. This paper presents the evi- 26 dence, methodology and tools used for the construction of the virtual 27 reality digital model of the Villa of the Papyri. 28 29 30 31 32 1 The project has been created with the support of the UCLA Experiential Tech- nologies Center, the Friends of Society, University College Lon- 33 don and the Excellence Cluster TOPOI. 34 2 The photographs of the Villa of the Papyri that are included in the digital model 35 were taken by the author and are published here with the permission of the 36 Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali and the Soprintendenza Speciale 37 per i beni Archeologici di Napoli e . I would like to thank Antonio De Simone, Maria Paola Guidobaldi and Domenico Esposito for discussing 38 the most recent excavations at the Villa (see De Simone and Guidobaldi and 39 Esposito in this volume). I am especially grateful to Domenico Esposito for dis- 40 cussing the reconstruction of the Villa of the Papyri. 182 Mantha Zarmakoupi

1 The Villa of the Papyri and its reconstructions 2 3 Discovered and explored through a series of tunnels in the 18th century, 4 the Villa of the Papyri remained effectively unseen until the beginning 5 of the “New Excavations” by Infratecna in the 1990s.3 The Villa lies be- 6 neath about 30 m of consolidated mud, the result of the 79 C.E. erup- 7 tion, the deposition of material over time and several subsequent erup- 8 tions.4 The original excavations at the Villa started in May 1750 and 9 continued for eleven years until 1761; they were resumed briefly be- 10 tween 1764 and 1765. The 18th-century excavations were conducted 11 by Karl Jakob Weber, the Swiss military engineer in the service of 12 Charles of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies.5 During this period, 13 the Villa was accessed by wells and was excavated systematically through 14 a series of tunnels, which led to the extraordinary finds of the large 15 papyriACHTUNGTRENNUNG and sculptural ensembles. On the basis of the tunnels that gave 16 access to the spaces of the Villa, Weber produced a plan in 1758, 17 now in the Archaeological Museum of (see Mattusch in this vol- 18 ume, fig. 5), which was redrawn with annotations of the findings by 19 Comparetti and de Petra in 1883 (see De Simone in this volume, 20 fig. 1).6 Weber’s plan was our only guide to the Villa until the Infratecna 21 ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 22 excavation. This period of excavation from 1994 –1998 and the most 23 recent excavations by the Archaeological Superintendency of 24 (2007–) gave access to the atrium quarter, known from Weber’s plan, 25 as well as areas that were unexplored by the Bourbons – the first and 26 second lower level of the basis villae, just below the atrium quarter, 27 and the lower terrace structures to the south of the atrium quarter – 7 28 but the entirety of the Villa still remains underground. 29 The inability to access the Villa of the Papyri combined with the 30 unique character of the finds from the Villa, the papyri and the sculp- 31 tures, have led to its idealization as the Roman luxury villa par excel- 32 lence. Scholarship has analyzed the ownership of the Villa, the philo- 33 sophical affiliations of the owner as well as the ideological connotations 34 35 36 37 3 See De Simone in this volume, 1–8. 4 See De Simone in this volume, 6. 38 5 Parslow 1995, 85–106. 39 6 CDP, pl. XXIV. 40 7 See De Simone, and Guidobaldi and Esposito in this volume. The virtual reality digital model of the Villa of the Papyri project 183

1 of the sculptural collection.8 Due to the lack of available information, 2 attempts to reconstruct the architecture of the Villa have been far less 3 numerous. In fact, there have been only two: the by 4 LangdonACHTUNGTRENNUNG and Wilson with the advice of Norman Neuerburg (1974) 5 and the Capware reconstruction by Gaetano Capasso (1997). The first 6 one was produced before and the second one after the Infratecna exca- 7 vations. 8 The Getty Villa first opened to the public in 1974 (see Lapatin in 9 this volume, fig. 6).9 It is not surprising that of all the available 10 Roman luxury , J. Paul Getty chose to construct a full-scale recon- 11 struction of the Villa of the Papyri in order to house his art collection in 12 Malibu. The possible association with ’s father-in-law, Piso, 13 as well as the spectacular finds of this elusive site appealed greatly to 14 Getty.10 Furthermore, the fragmented character of the material remains 15 of the Villa of the Papyri allowed for some flexibility in the adaptation 16 of Weber’s plan for the purposes of the Getty Villa as a museum. With- 17 out the architectural details, wall paintings or mosaics of the Villa of the 18 Papyri, Norman Neuerburg, the academic advisor to the Getty Villa 19 ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 20 architects Langdon and Wilson, compiled a list from the pristine exam- 21 ples of Roman art and architecture that were used to fabricate the mu- 11 22 seum’s environment. The decoration of the Getty is a product of an 23 eclectic selection of the most impressive surviving decoration from 24 houses and public buildings around the Bay of Naples as well as the 12 25 city of Rome, which in some cases were adjusted to accommodate 13 26 modern American taste, for example the colour of the wall paintings. 27 Getty’s goal was not to produce an accurate reconstruction of the Villa 28 of the Papyri, but rather to house his collection in what he “felt a good 14 29 museumACHTUNGTRENNUNG should be.” In the case of the Getty Villa, the lack of infor- 30 31 8 For example, on the ideological programme underlying the sculptural display: 32 Pandermalis 1971, Sauron 1980, Wojcik, Neudecker 1988, 113, and Dillon 2000, 27–28. 33 9 For the construction history of the Getty Villa see True and Silvetti 2005. 34 10 See Lapatin in this volume. On the ownership of the Villa see Capasso in this 35 volume. 36 11 Neuerburg’s research notes on the design of the Getty Villa show this bricolage 37 of ancient components: Neuerburg 1966–1987, “Series IV. Drawings and Designs,ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 1966–1976, 1979–1980, (bulk 1971–1973),” Box 7 and 8. 38 12 See Lapatin in this volume, 134–135. 39 13 See Favro in this volume, 166. 40 14 Gebhard 1974, 57; See in this volume, Lapatin, 130–131, and Favro, 167. 184 Mantha Zarmakoupi

1 mation on the architecture of the Villa of the Papyri gave an interpre- 2 tative leeway that was necessary for the adaptation of the Villa into a 3 museum. 4 The Capware reconstruction of the Villa of the Papyri by Gaetano 5 Capasso and his team was first released in 1997.15 This digital recon- 6 struction is based on Weber’s plan as well as on the information from 7 the Infratecna excavations and fills in the “blanks” of the unknown 8 areas, such as wall paintings and mosaics, on the basis of the decoration 9 of houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum – like the Getty Villa does. 10 CapassoACHTUNGTRENNUNG also drew on the Getty Villa itself as is evident from the simi- 11 larity of the two reconstructions – especially in the appearance of the 12 second floor.16 Gaetano Capasso created this, as well as other recon- 13 structions of sites around the bay of Naples, in order to appeal to general 14 audiences. To this end, all the Capware reconstructions feature in a 15 touristic movie and book and are presented in real time in the Museo 16 Archeologico Virtuale in , a museum designed for their dis- 17 play.17 In order to satisfy the purposes of “edutainment,” the Capware 18 reconstruction of the Villa of the Papyri presents a homogenous 19 three-dimensional environment with no differentiation between the ex- 20 isting elements and those added hypothetically. 21 The virtual reality digital model of the Villa of the Papyri project 22 presented here has a different scope from either the Getty Villa or the 23 Capware reconstruction. The project was created in order to visualize 24 the information that we have about the Villa and provide a virtual reality 25 reconstruction that distinguishes the material remains of the Villa from 26 hypothetical additions. The model incorporates the results from new 27 excavations into Weber’s plan and puts forward one or more restoration 28 proposals of the Villa’s architecture. Hypotheses are necessary in the 29 restorationACHTUNGTRENNUNG proposals that are incorporated in three-dimensional recon- 30 structions of archaeological sites,18 and by putting forward several this 31 project aims at facilitating further research on the Villa. Part of the flex- 32 33 15 Digital video: Viaggio a Pompei (Naples 1997 1st ed., 2002 2nd ed.); book: G. 34 Capasso, Journey to Pompeii, Virtual tours around the lost cities (Naples 2002 1st ed.; 35 2004 2nd ed.; 2005 3rd ed.). 36 16 See also Lapatin in this volume, 137–138. 37 17 The Museo Archeologico Virtuale in Ercolano which opened on July 8th 2008 presents the reconstruction of the Villa of the Papyri, together with other Cap- 38 ware reconstructions of buildings from Herculaneum and Pompeii (www.mu- 39 seomav.it). 40 18 Vacharopoulou 2005. The virtual reality digital model of the Villa of the Papyri project 185

1 ibility of this virtual reality reconstruction is the ability to select among 2 existing state and different restoration proposals. Whereas the previous 3 reconstructions put forth restoration proposals for the missing parts of 4 the decoration in the style of the original, adopting the approach of 5 Viollet-le-Duc,ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 19 the restoration proposals in this reconstruction do 6 not imitate the missing decoration and feature a uniform colour. Fur- 7 thermore, two different colours were used to differentiate the parts of 8 the Villa that are known from Weber’s plan and still lie underground 9 from the recently excavated parts of the Villa. In this way, the 10 colour-codingACHTUNGTRENNUNG of the model enables one to distinguish between the 11 kind of information that is visualized (fig. 1). 12 13 14 Methodology of the virtual reality digital model 15 of the Villa of the Papyri project 16 17 A virtual reconstruction of an archaeological site is based on excavation 18 data, historical sources, comparative studies as well as the modeller’s 19 informedACHTUNGTRENNUNG hypotheses (fig. 2).20 The virtual reality model of the Villa 20 th 21 21 of the Papyri uses the data from the 18 -century excavations, the In- 22 22 fratecna excavation and the recent excavations of the Archaeological 23 23 Superintentency of Pompeii. The project used MultiGen Creator 24 for the three-dimensional modelling and Adobe Photoshop for two-di- 25 mensional image processing of the textures applied to the surfaces of the 26 model, including the images of the fragments of wall painting and ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 27 mosaic decoration. 28 The 1883 publication of Weber’s plan by Comparetti and De Petra 29 was used as a basis for the model (fig. 3; See De Simone in this volume, 30 fig. 1). Information provided by the new excavations allowed this plan 31 to be adjusted and enriched. Specifically, the new plan of the atrium 32 quarter was used to correct Weber’s plan (see in this volume, De 33 Simone,ACHTUNGTRENNUNG fig. 7, and Guidobaldi and Esposito, figs. 1 and 2), and the 34 35 19 Viollet-le-Duc 1854, vol. 8, 14–34; see Melucco Vaccaro 1996. 36 20 Hermon 2008, esp. 40–41. 37 21 CDP. 22 See De Simone et al. 1998; De Simone and Ruffo 2002, 2003, 2005; De Si- 38 mone 2007b and in this volume. 39 23 See Guidobaldi and Esposito 2009 and in this volume; and Guidobaldi et 40 al. 2009. 186 Mantha Zarmakoupi

1 first and second levels of the basis villae structures as well as the lower 2 terrace structures (VPSO area) were added (see in this volume, De Si- 3 mone, figs. 15 and 16, and Guidobaldi and Esposito, figs. 1 and 34). 4 The dimensionsACHTUNGTRENNUNG of Weber’s plan, which were accurate overall,24 were 5 put into scale in relation to the measurements of the new plan of the 6 atrium quarter. In addition, the pathway to the belvedere was given a 7 more westward orientation according to the Infratecna excavation 8 (see De SimoneACHTUNGTRENNUNG in this volume, cf. figs. 1 and 2). Finally, the informa- 9 tion on the heights of the Villa from the Infratecna excavation (see De 10 Simone in this volume, figs. 14 and 25) was used for the heights of the 11 model (fig. 4). 12 Weber’s excavation notes and annotations to his plan, published in 13 the 1883 publication by Comparetti and De Petra, were used in order to 14 clarify the difficulties of the plan resulting from the simultaneous 15 graphicACHTUNGTRENNUNG representation of structures and tunnels. They also allowed allo- 16 cating the find-spots of the fragments of wall paintings and mosaics that 17 were found and removed in the 18th century.25 For the New Excava- 18 tions of Infratecna the publications of Antonio De Simone and Fabrizio 19 Ruffo were used.26 Since the publication of results from the most recent 20 excavations undertaken by the Archaeological Superintendency of 21 Pompeii only appeared at the end of 2009, personal communications 22 with Maria Paola Guidobaldi and Domenico Esposito, as well as their 23 27 24 article in this volume, provided information on their findings. Visits 25 to the site were conducted in summer 2005 with the permission of 26 the Archaeological Superintendency of Pompeii. Photographs of the 27 mosaics and wall painting fragments taken during these visits were 28 used in the model and are published here with the permission of the 29 Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Superentindency of Pom- 28 30 peii. For the restoration proposals of the second floor above the atrium 31 quarter as well as of the substructures of the rectangular peristyle facing 32 the seaside, comparisons were made with other luxury houses and villas 33 in Herculaneum, such as the House of the Relief of , and 34 around the Bay of Naples, Villa Arianna A in and Villa A at 35 Torre Annunziata. 36 37 24 De Simone and Ruffo 1998. 25 CDP, 147–294, esp. 225–236. 38 26 See note 22. 39 27 See note 23. 40 28 See note 2. The virtual reality digital model of the Villa of the Papyri project 187

1 As there is currently a terminological confusion in the field of 2 visualizations,ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 29 a definition of the terms used in the virtual reality digital 3 model of the Villa of the Papyri project is necessary. I use the term vir- 4 tual reality reconstruction to refer to the model of the Villa of the Papyri 5 model as a whole. This term does not differentiate the visualization of 6 the existing structures and wall paintings of the Villa from their hypo- 7 thetical reconstructions. The term virtual restoration designates the 8 hypotheticalACHTUNGTRENNUNG reconstructions of the architecture and wall paintings, 9 where restoration is defined as reconstitution of what is proposed to 10 be the original state of the ancient building or decoration.30 The term 11 virtual restoration is used for the virtually created restoration of objects 12 or structures that are either presented in virtual reality or projected in 13 real-time on real-world objects.31 The virtual realm of the model 14 enablesACHTUNGTRENNUNG us to put forth several such restoration proposals, as none of 15 them is invasive to the monument itself, and as such they are non-com-ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 16 mittal. 17 18 19 Presentation of the model 20 21 The model reconstructs and distinguishes the following areas of the Villa 22 of the Papyri: (1) areas known from the 18th-century plan, (2) areas 23 revealedACHTUNGTRENNUNG during the new excavations by Infratecna and the Archaelogical 24 Superintendency of Pompeii that are accessible today and (3) restoration 25 proposals (fig. 1). The areas known from the 18th-century plan are 26 indicatedACHTUNGTRENNUNG by a yellow-beige colour, (a) in the index of figure 1. A 27 brown-beige colour is used for the areas revealed during the new exca- 28 29 29 Golvin, J.-C. “Signification et problèmes de définition,” in: De la restitution en 30 archØologie, Archaeological restitution (Paris 2008), 12–25, electronic document, 31 http://editions.monuments-nationaux.fr/fr/les-ouvrages-en-ligne/bdd/livree/ 32 9 (accessed June 30, 2009). 30 Stubbs 2009, 23–24. 33 31 This term is used for the virtually created restoration of objects or structures 34 whether these are presented in virtual reality or projected in real-time on 35 real-world objects: Law et al., “Projecting restorations in real-time for real- 36 world objects,” in: Museums and the Web 2009: proceedings, edited by J. Trant 37 and D. Bearman (Toronto 2009), electronic document, http://www. archimuse.com/mw2009/papers/law/law.html (accessed June 30, 2010); 38 Peral et al., “Virtual restoration of cultural heritage through real-time 3D mod- 39 els projection,” electronic document, http://public-repository.epoch-net.org/ 40 publications/VAST2005/shortpapers/short2002.pdf (accessed June 30, 2009). 188 Mantha Zarmakoupi

1 vations, (b) in the index of figure 1. For the restoration proposals of the 2 atrium quarter and the rectangular peristyle a gray colour is used, (c) in 3 the index of figure 1. For the restoration proposals of the second floors 4 above the atrium quarter and above the rooms in between the square 5 and rectangular peristyles the yellow-beige colour of the 18th-century 6 plan was used. As this latter restoration proposal does not feature in 7 the main view of the model but is only shown as one option of the 8 reconstructionACHTUNGTRENNUNG of the Villa in the fly-through of the model, this colour 9 was chosen for reasons of homogeneity and readability of the model. 10 For similar reasons, the gray colour used for the restoration proposals 11 of the substructures is also used for the floors in the areas of the square 12 and rectangular peristyles. The aforementioned colour-coding choices 13 were made in order to satisfy two goals: on the one hand, to create a 14 reconstruction that makes as clear as possible what is reconstructed 15 from the archaeological evidence and what is projected from the evi- 16 dence in the form of restoration proposal and, on the other, to offer a 17 reconstruction that is comprehensible as a three-dimensional building 18 and it is not overly schematic. Finally, coloured walls occur only in 19 two cases in which archaeological evidence indicates their existence: 20 first, the inner walls of the natatio of the lower terrace and, second, 21 the short wall of the long promenade that is adjacent to the south- 22 west side of the rectangular peristyle. 23 The model gathers all the surviving fragments of wall painting and 24 th 25 mosaic decoration from the Villa, both the ones found in the 18 cen- 26 tury and in the recent excavations by Infratecna and the Archaelogical 27 Superintendency of Pompeii (figs. 5 and 6). The mosaics and wall paint- 28 ings found during the new excavations as well as those found during the th 29 18 -century have been placed in their original locations, for example 30 the mosaic and fragment of megalography in room (i) (fig. 7; see also 31 Moormann in this volume, fig. 9) and the mosaic in room “XVI” in 32 32 Weber’s plan (fig. 8). The fragments of wall paintings found in the th 33 18 -century excavations were only schematically noted on Weber’s 34 plan. The Latin numbers and letters on Weber’s plan indicate commen- 35 taries in his excavation notes where he lists the finds (sculptures, papyri, 33 36 mosaics and fragments of wall paintings) of a given area over time. For 37 example, in the atrium area, “XIII” was used to indicate the location of 38 39 32 CDP, 224, “XVI.” 40 33 CDP, 221–224. The virtual reality digital model of the Villa of the Papyri project 189

1 the fragment of wall painting NM 8759 found on 16 June 175434 as well 2 as two other fragments of wall paintings found on 23 June 1754 that 3 have no inventory numbers,35 and “XI” was used to indicate the loca- 4 tion of the fragment of wall painting NM 8548 found on 10 March 5 1754.36 These annotations do not indicate the exact find-spots of the 6 fragments of wall paintings. The fragments of wall paintings have 7 been placed in the model at the points where their corresponding anno- 8 tations occur on Weber’s plan, since these are the approximate “find- 9 spots” for which we have evidence (fig. 9; cf. fig. 6). 10 The placing of the surviving fragments of wall paintings and mosaics 11 on their exact or approximate locations aims at facilitating research on 12 the Villa’s wall painting and mosaic decoration. One of the options of 13 the model is to switch between existing state and restoration proposals, 14 such as the one of the wall paintings of ala (e) by Moormann (fig. 10; 15 see Moormann in this volume, fig. 5). The reversibility and easiness 16 of switching between proposals during navigation in the virtual reality 17 model facilitates the presentation of several hypothetical reconstructions 18 of such a nature. 19 Very little is known about the architectural details of the Villa. In 20 order to reconstruct the Villa’s architecture, comparative material 21 from other luxury villas on the bay of Naples was used as well as archi- 22 tectural details surviving from other buildings of Herculaneum. There is 23 no evidence for the order of the columns of porticoes (a), (u) and (m) of 24 the atrium quarter (see in this volume, De Simone, figs. 7 and 8, 25 GuidobaldiACHTUNGTRENNUNG and Esposito, fig. 2). Plain Tuscan columns, similar to the 26 tufa columns incorporated in the south and west façades of the House 27 of the Relief of Telephus in Herculaneum, were produced for these 28 porticoes. The surviving footprints of the columns (fig. 11) were used 29 to adjust the intercolumniations indicated in Weber’s plan. These sug- 30 gest that a fence or a thin wall – such as the thin walls placed between 31 the columns of porticus 13 and 24 in Villa A at Torre Annunziata – was 32 placed in between the columns, both of which were reconstructed as 33 options in the model (fig. 12). 34 35 36 37 34 CDP, 224, V. Explic. “XIII;” CDP, 282, no. 97; see Moormann in this vol- ume, 73, table 1, no. 3. 38 35 CDP, 224, V. Explic. “XIII;” CDP, 287, nos. 99 and 99b; see Moormann in 39 this volume, 75, table 1, nos. 26 and 27. 40 36 CDP, 224, V. Explic. “XI;” see Moormann in this volume, 73, table 1, no. 1. 190 Mantha Zarmakoupi

1 The recent investigations by Maria Paola Guidobaldi and Domenico 2 Esposito have given information about the columns of the square peri- 3 style.37 Their shafts were built in opus testaceum and were coated with 4 white stucco that rendered their fluting. The capitals and bases were 5 made of tufa; the capitals were Ionic and the bases were characterised 6 by the Attic profile. A photograph of the base of a column in the 7 north portico of the square peristyle (see Guidobaldi and Esposito in 8 this volume, fig. 14) was used for the reconstructed bases and shafts of 9 the columns of the square peristyle in the model. The Ionic capitals 10 of the square peristyle are not fully visible. As they bear a strong simi- 11 larity to the Ionic capitals from the recently re-excavated Basilica in 12 Herculaneum, a photograph of one of the latter was used to reconstruct 13 the capitals of the columns in the square peristyle (fig. 13).38 14 The area of the rectangular peristyle is known only from 18th-exca- 15 vations. Weber’s notes indicate that the columns of the rectangular per- 16 istyle were stuccoed.39 Photographs of two different kinds of stuccoed 17 columns with stuccoed Tuscan capitals from Villa A at Torre Annunzia- 18 ta (porticus 40, 33 and 34) were used to reproduce alternative solutions 19 for the columns of the rectangular peristyle in the model, one with 20 with incised flattened flutes (porticus 33 and 34) and one that is plain 21 up to 1.20 m and then fluted (porticus 40) (fig. 14). 22 The reconstruction of the basis villae presents the openings of the 23 24 rooms of the first lower level, which were exposed during the new excavationsACHTUNGTRENNUNG (fig. 15; cf. figs. 1, 4 and 12; see in this volume, De Simone, 25 ACHTUNGTRENNUNG 26 figs. 9–11, Guidobaldi and Esposito, figs. 23, 32 and 33). The first 27 lower level of the basis villae is presented in brown-beige colour in 28 the model. Below this first lower level the façade continues for another 29 level presented in gray colour in the model, to indicate the second lower 30 level of the basis villae whose existence is documented by Guidobaldi 40 31 and Esposito but is not yet excavated. Two rows of large windows 32 found at the west end of the façade (see in this volume, De Simone, 33 fig. 13, Guidobaldi and Esposito, fig. 32) indicate a 5.50 m high flat 34 roof structure in front of the basis villae. The roof of this structure 35 was at level +6.211 (see De Simone in this volume, fig. 14). The slight 36 37 37 See Guidobaldi and Esposito in this volume, 30. 38 I would like to thank Domenico Esposito for providing images and advising on 38 the reconstruction of the columns of the square peristyle. 39 39 CDP, 294. 40 40 See Guidobaldi and Esposito in this volume, 42–44.