Articles by Roberto Montagnetti

This contribution traces the history of pyArchInit, the first QGIS plugin created directly by archaeologists for the management of archaeological sites. The article describes the structure of the plugin, its features and the main innovations brought to the field of archaeological data management compared to the commonly used applications (CAD and Office package). Furthermore, practical examples of its use and potential will be provided through the description of the methodological procedure, based on pyArchInit, put into the field during the excavation of the archaeological site of Poggio Gramignano - Umbria - Italy. Such excavation is directed by Prof. David Soren of the University of Arizona and has revealed the remains of an important Roman villa reused in the Late Roman period as a cemetery for children.

This article offers an example for a quick and smart procedure for geo-referencing archaeological stratigraphy and managing it digitally in a GIS environment, through the open source software QGIS and pyArchInit. Specifically, the authors propose two ways of obtaining a geo-referenced survey of the archaeological features identified: 1) a handmade manual survey carried out with triangulation measurements; 2) a digital survey through Structure from Motion algorithms.