Articles by Ramona Quattrini

The widespread integration of digital technologies in the field of archaeology, facilitated by increasingly powerful and economically accessible tools, is producing a profound transformation in the conventional methodologies employed by archaeologists. This contribution specifically delves into the documentation of excavation phases and artifacts, presenting a workflow tested on the tomb 27 of the Colle Vaccaro necropolis (AP) within the educational project managed by the Istituto Centrale del Restauro (ICR). The digital representation of distinct layers and artifacts, developed together with with micro-excavation and restoration operations, serves as a tool for real-time analysis and documentation. Crucially, it acts as a foundational element for constructing an information system geared towards subsequent and more comprehensive historical-archaeological analyses. The outcome of this contribution is the formulation of a semi-automatic process designed to ensure a geometrically accurate and informed three-dimensional representation. This workflow for documenting an excavation and its artifacts is designed to facilitate efficient data utilization both for scholars and professionals.

In the Cultural Heritage domain, the potential of BIM for the built heritage is well known. However, research in Historical Building Information Modeling (HBIM) is still developing and deserves new experiments. Currently, the main objectives are the model transparency, meaning that sources and reliability of information can be linked to the model and retrieved from it, for a better interoperability and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Given the proliferation of 3D models, both informed and uninformed, and their increasing quality, there is a need to protect this heritage and provide useful uses beyond visualisation. This research not only addresses the challenge of creating an informed three-dimensional model capable of showing and documenting the evolution and transformation of the building, but also aims to achieve an output that can be used by historical experts who contribute to the creation and validation of the information apparatus. The case study is the Lazzaretto in Ancona, designed by Luigi Vanvitelli in the 18th century: it is an example of a building that shows the material culture of its time. The information gained from the primary sources, which contribute to the analysis of early modern notions of contagion, are merged with the analysis of the built environment. The proposed HBIM model is the result of interdisciplinary research between history and digital survey/representation and aims to provide the greatest transparency of knowledge in both areas. The informed model shows how the data improvement through HBIM platforms is a powerful tool to support historical-archival research and guarantees the transparency of the model.