Articles by Pasquale Favia

Since 2016, the Montecorvino project has studied the topics of intervisibility and of the movement of humans and goods in the area of Monti Dauni (Foggia, South-Eastern Italy) in the late Middle Ages. This has been accomplished through the use of spatial analysis in an Open Source GIS. The use of Digital Terrain Models in a hilly area has been crucial in analyzing the influence of geo-morphological contexts on the genesis and development of settlements. Single and cumulative viewshed analyses have been applied to figure out if and to what extent these settlements could keep sight of each other, their surroundings and the communication routes. By means of a cost surface analysis, some site catchment areas have been defined and the potential and easiest (least costly) paths between some of these settlements have been generated. The results have then been integrated into a much wider research-field, which features archaeological, historical and bibliographical sources of information, to produce a comprehensive and integrated study of the ancient landscapes.

The making of an intra-site GIS of the archaeological site of Montecorvino is related to a more comprehensive project, led by University of Foggia, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane, focused on the study of the medieval landscape and settlements in northern Apulia. Statistical and spatial analyses have been applied in this project, as well as a global overlook on the archaeological research conducted on the site.