Articles by Damiano Portarena

The research expedition of the CNR-ITABC in the archaeological site of Umm Al-Rasas, near Madaba (Jordan) was partially supported by the Italian Foreign Ministry. It started in 2013 and was mainly focused on the 3D documentation of two Byzantine churches with magnificent floor mosaics, dedicated to Saint Stephen and Bishop Sergius respectively. To improve the analysis of the archaeological structures, different investigation techniques were used and reciprocally integrated, in an effort to create geometric models enabling the interpretation of data related to the masonry and floor mosaics, as well as to the documentation of the archaeological area. In order to facilitate handling and mobility, lightweight tools were chosen and Micro Photogrammetry and Close Range Photogrammetry methods were applied. A correct description of the floor warp was achieved thanks to laser scanner techniques and the resulting geometric data were integrated with the chromatic data coming from photogrammetry, obtaining a 3D restitution of the two adjacent structures and a metric and spatial analysis of their morphological features. New devices, specifically designed for the project, helped to solve some practical problems that the survey operations had to cope with during the fieldwork. This paper illustrates the results of the survey, which will be useful to develop restoration projects in order to make the whole archaeological site attractive to tourists.

The recent development of camera sensors, the manufacturing of lenses and the accurate algorithms of photogrammetric software allow today to acquire point clouds similar to those generated from a laser scanner. The results are similar: numerical models that contain a variety of information, useful for the final data synthesis. Thanks to the automatic points recognition of photogrammetric algorithms, it is now possible to revise part of digital data previously acquired and use them in new computing strategies. Emblematic is the example of the crusader castle of Wu'Ayra, an important medieval fortress located in the Petra valley in Jordan. Since 2000, in collaboration with the international mission of the University of Florence, a number of surveys aimed at detecting the whole monumental area, the archaeological site, the settlement and the defensive system of the castle were performed by the research team of the Italian ITABC-CNR. Different survey techniques were used during the acquisition step, in order to enhance the main information of the archaeological site and the geomorphology of an extended area particularly complex to be defined. In these 15 years, the team tested several techniques. Thanks to recent software, the team has revised old data, created a defined numerical model of Wu'Ayra, updated and improved the documentation. The Authors illustrate the results of these elaborations and compare them with the other systems used, highlighting the differences and updating the graphic documentation of an important site in the history of the Petra valley. Furthermore, latest data of the architectural structures of the formworks acquired with laser scanner will be presented.