{"title":"Scanning and visualization of Roman Adriatic townscapes","authors":"F. Vermeulen","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.20","url":null,"abstract":"Since 2000 a team from Ghent University has achieved intensive non-invasive intra-site prospections on four abandoned Roman towns in central Adriatic Italy (Marche Region): the coastal colony of Potentia and the inland municipia of Ricina, Trea and Septempeda. These urban surveys include total coverage geophysical prospections (such as GPR, geomagnetic and earth resistance approaches), low altitude aerial photography (including NIR photography with drone and helikite), geomorphological augerings, surface artifact collection, and micro-topographical field measurements. A GIS-based integration of all survey data, maps and re-studied legacy data has procured a formidable database for the computer-aided digital 3D mapping and interpretation of these complex ancient sites. The methodological acquisitions and archaeological results not only contribute to the understanding of Roman urbanization in this part of Italy, but also support and innovate the use of integrated approaches to geospatial mapping and analysis of ancient urban environments. Based on earlier experiences with 3D visualizations of the abandoned Roman town of Ammaia in Lusitania, as part of the EC funded Project ‘Radiography of the Past’ (http://www2.radiopast.eu/), the project in Adriatic Italy moves now towards presenting the new data in digital formats that allow specialists from archaeology and cultural heritage management, as well as the wider public to immerse into the visual world of Roman Late Republican and Imperial townscapes of a whole valley and its coastal environment.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"28 1","pages":"269-276"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68138003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Nora Virtual Tour: an immersive visit in the ancient city","authors":"J. Bonetto, Arturo Zara","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.43","url":null,"abstract":"The ancient city of Nora was a Phoenician, Punic and Roman settlement rising on a peninsula in the south-western coast of Sardinia. Since 1990, the University of Padova has been carrying on an interdisciplinary research project of excavation, architectural analysis, historical reconstruction and cultural promotion of tourism in this site. The excavations allow us to increase our knowledge of Middle Imperial Roman urban planning and to get a better understanding of the whole city and its history; the restoration of excavated monuments using gravels with different colours helps more than 60,000 tourists every year to recognize the function of different areas. In spite of this, visitors experience difficulty in understanding a landscape of ruins with barely visible evidence. Thus, a complete virtual reconstruction of the ancient city has become essential. 3D models of the Phoenician and Roman settlement have been developed, reshaping archaeological plans produced in 25 years by Universities that work in the site. The main monuments of the Roman city and the major crossroads have been rendered in greater detail, using sample-based textures that give a photorealistic effect and implementing the models with furniture and decorations selected through reliable sources of information. 3D reconstructions are now available for tourist groups led by a guide in the Nora Virtual Tour: stereoscopic images have been rendered and uploaded in an app for mobile headsets that provides immersive virtual reality for the users. The guide controls the devices with a tablet using a Bluetooth connection: at the beginning of the visit, the tourists can view equirectangular panoramas of the ruins taken from a helicopter, then they are accompanied to hot-spots where the ancient monuments are shown in an evocative Roman reconstruction.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"531-538"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68139673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Knowledge and valorization of historical sites through low-cost, gaming sensors and H-BIM models. The case study of Liternum","authors":"V. Cera","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.40","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.40","url":null,"abstract":"The paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary project related to the 3D documentation, dissemination and valorisation of archaeological sites. The project has two goals: to test a novel and economic pipeline for the acquisition of survey data, and to promote the study and appreciation of archaeological areas, among public and scientists, using the HBIM workflow. The 3D survey of archaeological sites is still an expensive and time-consuming task. In this project, a low-cost approach to 3D survey is presented and compared to a standard photogrammetry pipeline based on high-resolution photographs. The pipeline is based on a consumer-level hand-held RGB-D sensor as Microsoft Kinect. The quality of the digitized raw 3D models is evaluated by comparing them to a photogrammetry-based reconstruction and then the acquired data is elaborated in software BIM in order to create a semantically enriched model of the archaeological site. This method has been verified on the archaeological park of Liternum (Campania, Italy), a Roman forum that includes a capitolium, a theatre, a basilica and some others commercial spaces. Using a reflex camera for the photogrammetric survey, it was compared to the Kinect acquisition. In this way, we obtained a 3D model that is imported in a BIM software such as Autodesk Revit. Every element is modelled as a parametric object so the final model is enriched with additional information: geometric dimensions, material, text documents, CAAD reconstruction hypotheses, drawings, photos, etc. These methods allowed us to better understand the site, perform analyses, see interpretative processes, communicate historical information and promote the heritage location.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"497-506"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68140151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tanti cocci, quanti vasi?","authors":"Mara Sternini","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.1.2017.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.1.2017.03","url":null,"abstract":"The study of a massive waste dump of the Arretine potter Ateius, by means of the database FileMaker Pro 11, provided some evidence concerning the deposit’s formation. For part of the fragments there were at least two depositions at different times, as some potsherds were re-used as building material within the kiln itself, then discarded again, with a layer of lime and sand that still covered them. Some fragments were first used as slats for shaping vases, then thrown into the dump, and eventually re-used as building material. All these operations inevitably caused the alteration of the stratigraphy, making it quite difficult to piece together all the fragments pertaining to a single vase. Moreover, in a period that cannot be identified, part of the dump was moved from the original place to the location where it was found in the excavation carried out in the 1950s . All these events are reflected by the archaeological records. The Conspectus 9 cup is a good example: the fragments of rims largely outnumber those of foots. Assessing the minimum number of vessels present in the dump is not easy under these circumstances.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"49-60"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68133005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"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)","authors":"A. Rucco, M. Vianello, Danilo Vitelli","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.1.2017.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.1.2017.14","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"239-255"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68134226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From ruins to reconstruction: past and present","authors":"M. Torelli","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.02","url":null,"abstract":"Among the rare surprises I had during my long permanence at Perugia, in the first place I put the discovery of the fascinating frescoes of the local Quattrocento painter Benedetto Bonfigli (on this painter, see Mancini 1992). Twenty years ago, my colleague of Art History invited me to give a look at the restorations of the frescoes painted by Bonfigli in the years 1449-1456 in the Cappella dei Priori, the Chapel of the local magistrates inside the City Hall, the Palazzo dei Priori. News on his life are really scanty, but it is certain that Bonfigli was included into the group of painters headed by Beato Angelico, to whom Pope Nicholas V, following his decision to move the papal see from the Lateran, commissioned the decoration of the “Appartementi Nicoliniani”, i.e. his apartments in the Vatican, unfortunately destroyed in the course of centuries. The stories painted by Bonfigli on the walls of the Perugian Chapel can be considered among the masterpieces of the Italian early Renaissance, a cycle of frescoes lamentably unknown not only to the great public, but sometimes also to specialists in art history. The frescoes represent various episodes of the life of two of the three saints, chosen to be protectors of the city of Perugia, the local bishop Herculaneus, accused of intelligence with the Byzantines and sentenced to death by the king Totila during the Gothic war, and Saint Louis from Toulouse, saint of the royal house of France, chosen by Perugia to protect the commercial interests of the town, mainly connected with clothes, the “panni”, a deal that already three centuries before suggested to a merchant from Assisi to give his son the name Francesco. Bonfigli places here and there in his frescoes memories of the classical past to follow in his own way the brand new fashion to copy Roman monuments 1, a must for men of both letters and arts, but also to obey by instinct to his culture of the late Middle Ages, heir of the great Trecento realism. This is why he sets the funerals of Saint Louis in a church of an unmistakable","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"27-46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68135600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Engaging visitors of archaeological sites through ‘emotive’ storytelling experiences: a pilot at the Ancient Agora of Athens","authors":"M. Roussou, F. Ripanti, Katerina Servi","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.33","url":null,"abstract":"The use of interactive storytelling by museums and heritage sites lends to the creation of experiences that support visitors in engaging emotionally with the objects on display. Finding ways to connect to the cultural content is even more important for visitors of archaeological sites due to the often fragmentary nature of the exhibits, which can leave them wondering what was once there and how it relates to them. In this paper, we describe the creation of a prototype mobile storytelling experience that attempts to explore a more emotive kind of storytelling in cultural contexts. The prototype was evaluated in a preliminary study that took place at the archaeological site of the Ancient Agora of Athens. The observations provide insights for the design of future iterations of such emotive storytelling experiences.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"405-420"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68138499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Management and communication of archaeological artefacts and architectural heritage using digital IS. What today? What next?","authors":"M. Gaiani","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.34","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.34","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we reviewed 20 years of development of 3D based IS to support archaeological and AH artefact knowledge, management and communication and their theoretical work basis. In detail, we illustrated our experiences showing the advantages and limits we had observed after extensive use. In conclusion, we have illustrated a new paradigm based on IoT-related technologies, potentially able to overcome existing problems, and the theoretical foundation of the new framework that has been designed, the concept of the Smart Cultural Object, sources and recipients of advanced information and related technological underpinning.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"421-435"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68138558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A 3D environment to rebuild virtually the so-called Augusteum in Herculaneum","authors":"Andrea D'Andrea, Angela Bosco, M. Barbarino","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.35","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.35","url":null,"abstract":"Computer graphics and three-dimensional modelling techniques have extended the possibilities of archaeologists in the creation of virtual reconstruction of ancient sites and monuments. Modern computational systems allow the implementation of computer-generated scenarios tailored on human cognitive capacities. Although Virtual Archaeology is not a novelty in the panorama of archaeological methods, there is no agreement among scholars on the minimal parameters necessary to virtually rebuild an ancient context, nor is there any requirement needed to guarantee the accuracy and the effectiveness of the final reconstruction; the strength of a model is based mainly on the capacity of the archaeologist to check the final result in terms of comparison between interpretations and hypotheses. The paper aims at exploring how the archaeologists could perform their work in a computational laboratory thanks to shared 3D models. The case study selected is the recent virtual reconstruction of the so-called Basilica in Herculaneum, a monument - 250 years after its discovery - still largely unexplained. The building is completely buried by volcanic lava save for part of its entrance porch. It was extensively explored using tunnels and looted by its early excavators. Different scholars have rebuilt the monument mainly on the basis of two plans, drawn in the 18th century, and few notes taken by the archaeologists during the exploration. The 3D model, carried out by integrating cad modelling with close-range photogrammetry, is intended to highlight some controversial parts of the reconstructions. Metadata associated to the digital replica describe the physical object and register all phases from data-acquisition to data-visualization in order to allow the validation of the model and the use or re-use of the digital resource.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"437-446"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68138642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"3D digital technologies for architectural analysis. The case of the \"Pagan Shrine\" in the Catacombs of Santa Lucia (Siracusa, Sicily)","authors":"Ilenia Gradante, D. Tanasi","doi":"10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.48","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.48","url":null,"abstract":"The Catacombs of Santa Lucia are one of the oldest and most important monuments in the Christian communities of Siracusa and Sicily in the late Roman period. The name of the complex derives from a tradition, according to which Saint Lucy was buried here, after her martyrdom in the early 4th century AD, under the reign of Diocletian. A large underground cemetery extends beneath the homonymous square. The cemetery gradually expanded from the 3rd to the 5th century AD, as it incorporated pre-existing constructions once used for funerary, religious and industrial purposes, by transforming them into monumental burial chambers. One of the most significant structures is the so-called ‘Pagan Shrine’: a chamber that is dated between the 3rd century BC and 1st century AD, prior to the foundation of the cemetery and frescoed with worldly themes and pagan deities. The Shrine is located in the South-western corner of Regio C, an area that is hard and rather dangerous to reach, never opened to the public and visited only by few scholars over the past decades. The excavation project undertaken in the years 2011-2015 by the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology, in association with the Arcadia University and the University of Catania, led to the development of the first virtual replica of the Shrine, using Digital Photogrammetry. This new approach facilitated an accurate examination of both its structure and its decoration, allowing us to propose a new theory about the original purpose of the room, traditionally regarded by scholars as a place for worshipping Zeus Peloros.","PeriodicalId":43161,"journal":{"name":"Archeologia e Calcolatori","volume":"1 1","pages":"581-586"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68139786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}