Articles by Roberto Orazi

2013 Open Access Article Download PDF BibTeX

Discovering Chan Chan: modern technologies for urban and architectural analysis

Francesca Colosi, Roberto Gabrielli, Roberto Orazi, Eva Savina Malinverni

Abstract

Since 2002, the Italian Mission of CNR-ITABC has been operating in the archaeological complex of Chan Chan (Peru), which is the largest pre-Columbian settlement entirely built with adobe. In 1989 Chan Chan was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The main purpose of the work is aimed at the conservation, documentation and use of the site and of the territory that is related to Chan Chan from a historical and cultural point of view. The urban structure of Chan Chan, which is spread over a surface of 14 km2, has a number of buildings which characterizes the town at both an architectural (ciudadelas, huacas, huachaques) and decorative level (bas-reliefs, geometrical motifs). In order to achieve our research goals, we had to arrange for the combined use of various analysis techniques that would provide both urban and architectural information about the town. The data we obtained allowed us to make a more up-to-date interpretation of the urban fabric and revealed intriguing details regarding the construction phases of one of its palaces which will be helpful both for the planning of the Archaeological Park and the restoration project of the Palacio Rivero.

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2013, 24, 187-207; doi: 10.19282/ac.24.2013.09

2000 Open Access Article Download PDF BibTeX

Procedure standard per la registrazione degli interventi di restauro: ipotesi di applicazione a Khor Rori, Oman

Roberto Orazi

Abstract

Maintenance and restoration activity of archaeological structures are often recorded only on paper and not according to standardised procedures. For this reason a large amount of information produced daily can be neither referred to or elaborated. The geographical location of building materials and deterioration patterns, the relations between decay and environmental data, quantitative information on restoration work, products and techniques, are some of the types of information normally generated in the conservation sector which at present are not being used to improve the quality of the restoration activity or to accomplish the institutional task of strategic programming. The main purpose of this research project was to devise a qualitative and quantitative method to evaluate the behaviour over time of products used for the protection and restoration of architectural surfaces, and to establish a single criterion for certifying their performances. Only after the procedures used to record the different kinds of data (geometrical survey, building materials, deterioration patterns etc.) have been standardised will it be possible to correlate and elaborate them, exchange information through a system of local and remote networks, and produce synthesis outlines. The proposal has been tested on the monumental complex of Khor Rori in the Sultanate of Oman. The fortified city, built at about the end of the first century BC, for the protection of a natural harbour, was located on the main maritime route that crossed the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Nile, connecting Rome and the Mediterranean Basin to India (the Frankincense road). The study and the restoration of Khor Rori, chosen as a “pilot project” by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and financed by public organisations in Italy and Oman, will help to clarify the historical, commercial, and cultural relations between the Mediterranean and the Southern Arabian peninsula. This study has been conducted with the support of Siatel S.n.C. of Perugia and the Studio Menci of Arezzo.

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2000, 11, 199-218; doi: 10.19282/ac.11.2000.11