Geostatistical and deterministic predictive methods for a 3D reconstruction of the ancient morphology and the anthropic remains of the early medieval port of Comacchio (Ferrara – Italy)

Abstract

The paper presents a reconstruction of the ancient morphology of the early medieval port of Comacchio through Kriging and Radial Basis Functions algorithms, and 3D models of the archaeological remains. The predicted surfaces are in significant accord with past hypotheses, also providing a good amount of certainty from a scientific point of view, since they appear extremely consistent with the geological data collected through stratigraphic corings. As a whole, the predicted surfaces and the 3D reconstructions of the wooden remains of the port offer fresh perspectives on the interpretation of the site by showing the existence of different building phases and spatial organizations, thus providing new guidelines for future excavations.