L’uso della tecnologia DEM nella documentazione archeologica. Alcune applicazioni in casi di scavo stratigrafico e nello studio dell’edilizia storica

This paper describes a procedure of archaeological interpretation and representation based on DEM technology. Through different contexts of application the aim is to describe the potential of this procedure, useful for recreating all the stratigraphic complexity of an archaeological site. After an introduction and a short history of studies about the use of DEM in archaeological documentation, the Author illustrates two examples of archaeological excavation and two of archaeology of architecture. The first case study is the Castle of Castelpizigolo (Toano, RE): the DEM documentation was used for the production of automatic profile lines of every archaeological stratification. A similar result was obtained in the documentation of the second archaeological context, the site of Capo Don (Riva Ligure, IM). The subject of this investigation was a fireplace dating from Late Antiquity to the early medieval period. The second part was focused on the use of DEM in the archaeological analysis of buildings. A preliminary investigation was focused on an example of household architecture from the island of Rab (Croatia). The DEM was used for the interpretation of the origins of some architectural instabilities, caused by stratigraphic changes which occurred in the original building. The last case study was the rural church of S. Giusto in Marlia (LU), where DEM analysis gave a new interpretation about the archaeological evolution of this building. The procedure described in this paper is an innovative method for producing a faster and more accurate archaeological documentation and for giving a new archaeological tool for the stratigraphic interpretation of historical buildings.