Articles by Marco Valenti

This paper explores some issues related to recording and analyzing archaeological datasets. After making our (neo-)processualist approach clear, some key digital technologies (relational databases) and methodologies (conceptual modelling) are discussed as examples to assess the actual state of archaeological information systems and reflect upon possible future directions. This brings us also to define the limits of quantitative (and especially predictive) analyses. Variability of parameters and, above all, the extensive lack of reality tests are heavy hindering factors. Precisely defining the variables and attractors based on specific questions can help us to relativize complex systems, bending the analyses to our needs.

The paper focuses on the problems related to archaeological excavation data management through the use of a GIS solution; it considers aspects ranging from the planning of an open and functional data model, fitting the complexity of stratigraphy, to the possibilities of data processing such as the production of thematic maps or the elaboration of interpretative and predictive models using statistical and mathematical tools. It also discusses the difficulty of 3D data recording, as well as the recent technological development of Internet mapping servers and web-based dynamic GIS systems.

It is our intention to present the experience accumulated in the last decade by the LIAAM (Laboratorio di Informatica Applicata all’Archeologia Medievale). In recent years we have worked to develop solutions for managing all types of information produced by an archaeological project. We have operated on different levels (from regional surveys down to detailed records of all the finds). In particular, all the data was administered within a system made up of three components: different GIS platforms, an alphanumerical database and a media database; these are linked by a system level application called OpenArcheo, directly engineered and developed at our Laboratory. Basic concepts of our system are the multidirectional links between information types (which allow the user to query and retrieve all the information related to a feature starting from any of the components mentioned above), modular organisation of the architecture in order to implement the ever changing variables and detail levels of archaeological research that suit the specific needs of every single project, and user-friendliness so that the management of complex data is possible for anyone who has a basic knowledge in the use of computers. In short, our aim is to optimise the management of information produced by archaeological projects and make it possible that the archaeologist has all the different kinds of data at hand in real time. Such a system, and particularly a “GIS solution”, is perfectly suited for the management of an excavation and the application of inter-site spatial and statistical analysis tools, organising each campaign of our projects and providing simulations of the parts we cannot investigate.

The paper presents a proposal fir the computer-based management of all the archaeological data produced by the Poggio Imperiale project. It highlights in particular, perhaps for the first time, a complete GIS solution to fit the needs of representing, querying and spatially analysing the features of an excavation. The hypermedia and multidirectional system we have developed provides a programmed user interface linking the interactions between three different applications: a GIS platform (with digital cartography ranging from the whole hill to a single stone of the excavation), a relational alphanumeric DBMS (collecting all the data from fieldwalking to stratigraphical layer records with all the finds) and a media archive (storing pictures, 3D reconstructions, movies, hypermedia products, etc.). The aim is to create a standard in the management of archaeological data.