Tecnologie digitali integrate per lo studio del sito archeologico di Adulis (Eritrea)

Giulio Bigliardi, Sara Cappelli, Enzo Cocca

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2013, 24, 139-162

Abstract

The Adulis Project started in 2011, directed by the Ce.RDO in collaboration with the Centre for GeoTechnologies of the University of Siena and the National Museum of Eritrea. The project aims to investigate and promote the cultural heritage of the ancient port site of Adulis, one of the most important archaeological sites in Eritrea and East Africa. The paper presents the results of the first two campaigns. First of all, we analyzed the satellite imagery to identify traces of buried archaeological elements. Then, three excavation areas were opened to unearth some of the structures already identified in the excavations of the last century, as well as to investigate the stratigraphy of the site in areas where archaeological excavations have never been conducted. In conclusion, a GPS survey was conducted on the whole area to elaborate a detailed map of the site, to create a DEM and to position all the archaeological structures that are visible on the surface. All the stratigraphic, topographic and cartographic data were managed in an open source GIS, based on the combination of the desktop mapping software Quantum GIS and the plugin pyArchInit.

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