Articles by Antonio Gottarelli

Monte Bibele is an archaeological settlement of the 4th and 3rd century BC with a village, a necropolis and a votive deposit. Earlier, during the 14th and 13th century BC, in the same area there was a small village of sub-Apennine facies attributable to the late Bronze Age. The Second Iron Age settlement is just a part of a larger demographic reorganization of the Apennines, as is also proved by the recent discovery of the Monterenzio Vecchio necropolis and votive deposit, on the opposite side of Idice Valley. These are small settlements located close to the main routes of both sides of the Apennines and populated by Italic (Etruscans, Umbrians, Ligurians, etc.) and transalpine peoples (Celts) allied to control the surroundings. Of the architectural structures of Monte Bibele, the best known are those of the village, in the part of the massive called ‘Pianella di Monte Savino’. It has an Etruscan foundation, over an area of about 7,000 m2, in part still to be explored, and documented in its final phase in the late 3rd century BC, when the village was sealed by a sudden fire. Archaeologists of Te.M.P.L.A. (Research Center for Multimedia Technologies Applied to Archaeology of Bologna University’s Department of History and Cultures) over the last decade, have made many models of houses at Pianella. Reconstructions are based on direct feedbacks (archaeological data) and indirect comparisons (historical sources, traditional architecture). The first model was virtual, followed by a real one made near the Museum of Monterenzio, and by the two new houses made directly in situ, thanks to EU funds for the development of Emilia Romagna used for renovating the archaeological and naturalistic area of Monte Bibele (Por Fesr 2007/2013).

The portal NADIR (Network of Archaeological Research) is developed from the work of the Commission Carandini of 2009 for the SITAN (Sistema Informativo Territoriale Archeologico Nazionale) and aims to build integration between scientific information systems and infrastructure of computer networks, the physical locations and the various functional areas of research that are developed at the national level. It aspires to be a cooperative network of shared work between the different databases spread throughout the country.

By means of the NADIR network, designed by the Research Centre for Multimedia Technologies Applied to Archaeology (Te.m.p.l.a.), the Department of Archaeology of the University of Bologna organises, controls and develops the use of multimedia technologies in archaeological activities. The reach of NADIR covers a broad spectrum of activities that ranges from the management of the net and the working seats, to the organisation of the equipment logistics, to the realisation of special operational workspace and services (e.g., Unibook.it) and the experimental projects for the remote-control of workspaces and multimedia exhibition halls (e.g., the Multimedia and Multifunctional Museum of Onferno).

The archaeological Museum of Bologna has produced a graphic computerized video on the Saqqara tomb of General Horemheb and its reliefs. At the beginning of the nineteenth century merchants of archaeological antiquities emptied the tomb: some of the reliefs which decorated its walls were taken away and sold to various European and North-American museums. Five of these are now in the Archaeological Museum of Bologna. In the years which followed its first discovery, the tomb was newly covered by the sand of the desert and was found out again only in 1975 by G. Martin. The publication of these excavations enabled experts to develop an hypothesis of the tomb reconstruction which has been subsequently reproduced on a video that allows visitors to enter Horemheb tomb "virtually". The video has been made by Antonio Gottarelli (TE.M.P.L.A. Tecnologie Multimediali per l'Archeologia): it will be available for sale on CD (interactive version) and videotape. A small portion of the video, a few seconds with reduced spatial dimensions, is available at: http://www.comune.bologna.it/bologna1/Cultura/Museicomun/Archeologico/VirtualEgyptian.htm1.

In describing graphics description with electronic tools, solid modelling is the application in which several techniques (2 and 3 dimensional CAD, image processing, animation) act together. Solid modelling is therefore a very important topic, both from methodological and practical aspects. This paper deals with the process of generating a digital model, and discusses the following statements: A. The analysis of archaeological evidence is based on the description of a real (and therefore continuous) and complex space through the identification and coding of its components; this activity is then undertaken through a modelling process. The models used for the analysis must have at least the basic requirements for the electronic description of the objects: a quantitative requirement – to be able to describe numerically and analytically the objects in space (vector data); a qualitative requirement – to able to describe their physical/optical features (visual/raster data); a synthesis requirement – to be able to consider the codes and the rules of union of the components (text and topological data). B. The data collected have to be acquired, worked out and edited coherently with the need of their subsequent use within the software devoted to the virtual elaboration of the shape (i.e. the sample rate must be the same during the acquisition of visual and numerical data ). C. The electronic reassembly of the shape must take into consideration all the different levels used in the coding, in order to have both a topographic and topological description of the object.

The main advantages of archaeological excavation electronic video documentation are to be found in the highly informative potential of recording sound and movement with respect to documentation. This opens up the many potentials of electronic image management, both in data acquisition and processing. The first benefit deals with the possibility of direct computer interfacing, the real-time control (via the monitor) of each frame sequence, and more generally the useful tendency of video devices to be automated for recording. The second main benefit deals with the extended possibilities of electronic image enhancing and processing, that can be efficiently used in archaeological research.