Articles by Grazia Semeraro

In 2005-2006 the excavations in the Sanctuary of Apollo conducted by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Hierapolis in Phrygia (MAIER) brought to light about sixty fragments of a larger-than-life marble statue of Athena. This paper presents the discovery, highlighting the role played in the research by digital technologies, especially 3D modelling and reconstruction techniques, the application of which mitigated the highly fragmentary nature of the evidence. The first section of the paper highlights the importance of the context of discovery of the fragments, which were found, together with other sculptural and architectural elements, in front of Temple B, in a deposit of discarded material related to the destruction in situ of part of the sanctuary’s decorations in the Byzantine period. The second section describes the plan drawn up by the MAIER to publish a comprehensive scientific description of the sculptures of the Sanctuary of Apollo. The project aims to reconstruct the sculptural decoration of the sacred area in the Imperial period, combining information on the types of statuary and the iconographic subjects and themes with excavation data and the epigraphical documentation from the sacred area. The project includes the study of the statue of Athena, for which this paper provides the description and the results of the historic and artistic analyses. The final section is centered on the process that led from the creation of the digital model to the virtual reconstruction of the statue of Athena and, lastly, to the 3D printing of the reconstructive hypothesis. Digital models were created for many of the sculpture fragments of the Sanctuary of Apollo. Saved in a database designed to store data on the sculptures, these models facilitate the study of the documentation and have proved to be extremely useful for the dissemination of the finds to the public, especially in problematic situations that limit or impede access to the evidence, as was the case during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Archaeological site monitoring and updating can nowadays benefit from the contribution of geomatic techniques. In recent times, image-based and range-based measurement systems have become increasingly interesting in excavation processes for monitoring purposes and large scale mapping, both from a terrestrial and aerial point of view. The paper will focus on the great challenge of monitoring sites over time, integrating and conforming multiple data coming from previous metric survey projects and image data collected in the past for different purposes. The test-site was the complex archaeological landscape of the ancient city of Hierapolis in Phrygia on which the MAIER – Italian Archaeological Mission of Hierapolis has operated since the 1960s and where the Politecnico di Torino conducted several survey campaigns. A set of multi-temporal datasets acquired in a series of campaigns in 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2015 are presented, as well as their 3D multi-sensor models; the older dense models generated with archival images are intended to be compared and integrated with newer models generated by the LiDAR scans in 2012 and the UAV systems employed in the last mission in 2015. In particular, the case study was the massive complex of the ancient Bath-Church in the northern part of the city below the Northern Necropolis, and Building A of the Apollo Sanctuary, in the central Sacred Area near the Ancient Theatre. In these sites, many different sensors have been experimented with over the years and preliminary multi-temporal data integration has been tested in order to up-date and improve older archival records based on collected images and related to newer and updated documentation projects.

This paper illustrates the main research projects implemented by the LIA (Laboratory of Archaeological Computing) at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy) in the field of computer application to archaeology. This activity started in 1983 with the first excavation data management system. Further developments are linked with the use of GIS in the field of settlement studies and, more recently, with the implementation of two web-based applications, which represent the on-line versions of the older systems. The paper also presents the results of a research project, LandLab Project, in the field of multimedia communication.

The paper deals with the results of the LandLab Project, aimed at the reconstruction of ancient landscapes. The use of the Internet for presenting the results of the scientific research is discussed through the presentation of two web applications, which have been implemented by the Laboratory of Archaeological Computing of the Dept. of Cultural Heritage - University of Lecce, Italy: the WebGIS of the pre-Roman settlements of the Salento region and WODOS, the on-line version of the ODOS excavation data management system. The web-based applications are aimed at developing new approaches to the problem of data preservation and data dissemination. They use the methods and technologies available in the field of Information and Communication Technology for the transfer of data, information management systems and multimedia communication in the reconstruction of ancient landscapes and cultural systems. The project is unique in the geographical context in question here, in that it represents the first thematic laboratory for research into the ancient landscape completely based on web programming and Internet technology.

The system used for organizing the data from the excavation at Hierapolis, a sample site for this research project, represents an example of the application of the methodology of GIS to a stratigraphically excavated site. The use of this methodology, based on the logical structuring of data in independent layers, makes it possible to reconstruct the micro-dynamics typical of a stratigraphic excavation. Once the archaeological layers are separated, divided and organized according to their geographic position, they are treated as a series of divisible and superimposable layers which can be used in order to create the floor plans of single monuments and, more generally, maps showing the different phases of the city. This type of data management makes it easier to understand the spatial organization and transformation of a city over time.

Central to the arguments developed in the paper is an examination of the contextual approach to the interpretation of archaeological data. The management systems for excavation data are seen as strategic instruments for realising the potential of the means of analysis and interpretation of contexts. In this regard, the problem of which standards to adopt in the definition of finds, in particular portable items, becomes crucial. The paper discusses the most suitable criteria for the creation of dictionaries (structures for cataloguing) aimed at evidencing the functional aspects of portable finds, as an instrument for the best interpretation of contexts. The experience of the Archaeological Computer Laboratory of Lecce University is presented.

The paper illustrates the computing section of a Strategic Project for the development of research methods applied to the study and safeguarding of the archaeological heritage of southern Italy. The project has been launched by the Italian National Research Council at the University of Lecce. The scientific aim of the system is the management of excavation data relating to problems emerging from the study of settlements. The system is characterised by: a) the integration of alphanumeric data, graphical data (site plans, archaeological maps) and images; b) the application of quantitative analysis. The system has been tested with the input of information from the excavation of sample sites at Otranto, Vaste and Oria (Italy) and Hierapolis (Turkey). The end result is a series of thematic and chronological maps of the settlements, which are of particular importance for centres such as Otranto which are under continuous pressure from building development. “Risk maps” have also been produced, which indicate areas where archaeological action is most urgent. The results form the base upon which we can construct a functional relationship between town councils, Superintendencies and the University so as to take the necessary steps that will avoid the sort of destruction of archaeological areas that has taken place over the last few years.

This paper illustrates the computing section of a Strategic Project for the development of research methods applied to the study and safeguard of the archaeological heritage of southern Adriatic Italy. The project was launched by the Italian National Research Council and the University of Lecce. The computing section has as its objective the creation of a system for the management of data pertaining to antique settlements that guarantees the integration of three information supports: alphanumeric, cartographic and photographic. These supports contain data deriving from two interacting research systems: field survey and excavation. The cartographic data is varied: large scale maps, area and site plans, detailed plans of single monuments, stratigraphic sections and feature and layer plans. Software used consists of a relational database and a specific digitised mapping system. The system permits the acquisition of raster images. A global user-friendly interface which permits maximum navigation is in the process of completion. We foresee the principal field of application being the analysis of spatial distributions of artefacts and ecofacts as a basis for synchronic and diachronic cultural analysis.

Methodological and statistical aspects of the distribution of Greek imported ware in the archaic period (600-480 a.C.) in Salento are presented here. They form part of a wider research on trade. In order to value the fieldwork intensity and assess the survival conditions of archaeological data, the contexts to which the finds can be provenienced have been analysed. Frequencies of type concerning recovery of artefacts (occasional recovery, systematic excavation, survey, underwater and unclassified), frequencies of contextual types (settlements, cultual places, isolated graves, necropolis, unclassified and anchorage) and frequencies of the exploration degree in the archaeological sites have been studied. Crosstabulations between these classification factors and the quantities of material found in each context have been conducted. These analyses permit us to identify similar contexts from the point of view of archaeological research and to value more fully the phenomenon of interaction and exchange in the Salentine peninsula in the archaic period. Regression analyses were also conducted to study the distribution of Greek colonial ware.