Articles by Mirko Buono

3D recording methodologies have been successfully integrated into the archaeological fieldwork practice, resulting in a widely accepted series of advantages for the documentation of the excavation. However, post-processing analysis is often neglected and recording protocols do not consider possible developments for exploiting the potential of 3D data. At the excavation of Vetricella, in Italy, the ERC nEU-Med project developed a digital documentation protocol aimed at reconstructing the volumetric physical space occupied by each stratigraphic unit, generating more than a thousand contexts over the course of four archaeological seasons. In this contribution we are going to present how the volumetric approach has influenced the whole methodology of documentation since the recording stage, introducing a standardized workflow aimed at reconstructing solid geometries from 3D surfaces. In this protocol a great attention is paid to the strategies, timings and needs of the fieldwork practice, without overlooking important archaeological aspects such as data accuracy and the chance to generate data for more quick on-field interpretation. The final outcome is a new visualization and analysis of the space with the use of volumetric models, which results in greater accuracy in displaying physical and stratigraphic relationships, as well as generating volumetric quantitative data. In the end, some examples drawn from Vetricella will be employed to show how solid 3D geometries and volumetric quantities can be used in support of the archaeological interpretation of the site.