Articles by Renata Esposito

Starting in 2017, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Genova e le province di Imperia, La Spezia e Savona (SABAP-LIG) began activities to inventory archaeological assets through the ‘in batches’ inventory system based on the new MINP standard module. The activity was carried out with funds allocated by the General Directorate and has continued annually until 2023, leading to the compilation of about 13,000 modules. Since the first experiment, the DSC (Archaeological Excavation) authority file, which has been developed among the ICCD authority file standards for a while, but used sparingly. It has been identified as a crucial element of the activity because it can be used as a link between catalogue of records describing finds (MINP, MINV) and records describing archaeological sites. Despite the relative simplicity of the data model compared to state-of-the-art initiatives in archaeology data modelling, still it allows an improvement in finds management and knowledge about archaeological heritage.

In the last few decades, urban archaeology in Naples has contributed to outline the history of the city. The discovery of a great amount of pottery gave information about the daily life of ancient Naples. It was therefore decided to draw up a thematic archaeological map of the ceramics finds to reconstruct their production and distribution from the 4th century B.C. to the 7th century A.D. The project ceraNEApolis consists of a pottery map linked to a bibliographic database, which will be made available online: a working tool for experts, useful to outline the cultural city stratification and to understand the Neapolitan archaeological sites through the material. It is useful in defining the topography of production (workshop, raw materials, and resources), distribution (communication routes, harbour, market), uses and consumption patterns (house, habitat, sacred areas, burials) in the city, even if lacking monumental evidence. It contributes to the reconstruction and analysis of the cultural and urban landscape, taking into account the geomorphological elements and the data contexts even in diachronic and transversal multi-disciplinary perspective. The analysis of some significant cases shows its validity also for potential alternative fruition. The integration of virtual reality systems is a possible extension also for the knowledge, enhancement, communication and use of cultural heritage.