Articles by Alessandro Alessio Rucco

The paper proposes the representation of the evolution of the Comacchio Valleys between the 11th and 16th centuries CE. The bases for this representation are provided by stratigraphic, topographical, cartographic and historical-documentary data; the frame is offered by information technology. The possibility of reconstructing the physical characteristics of a landscape in a diachronic perspective with a certain degree of detail offers valuable insights not only in order to refine our knowledge on the given topic but also in view of the evaluation of the archaeological potential and planning of research.

The paper presents a reconstruction of the ancient morphology of the early medieval port of Comacchio through Kriging and Radial Basis Functions algorithms, and 3D models of the archaeological remains. The predicted surfaces are in significant accord with past hypotheses, also providing a good amount of certainty from a scientific point of view, since they appear extremely consistent with the geological data collected through stratigraphic corings. As a whole, the predicted surfaces and the 3D reconstructions of the wooden remains of the port offer fresh perspectives on the interpretation of the site by showing the existence of different building phases and spatial organizations, thus providing new guidelines for future excavations.