The ancient Digital Terrain Model and the infrastructure of the Etruscan city of Kainua

Aurelio Muzzarelli, Malik Franzoia

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2017, 28.2, 151-164; doi: 10.19282/AC.28.2.2017.10

Abstract

This paper aims to explain the creation of the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of Kainua, an Etruscan city founded, following a rigorous urban plan, at the beginning of the 5th century BCE. This DTM was used as the basis for the virtual reconstruction of Kainua landscape from an urban to an architectural scale in a three-dimensional digital model, visualized in an interactive and immersive approach. The DTM was developed using different sources of elevation data, in order to take into account the geo-morphological transformations occurred in that area from the Etruscan period to the present day. The causes of these changes were natural (due to erosion phenomena) and anthropic (due to excavations for construction of transport infrastructure as well as those which occurred partly due to improvements made by landowners and partly to archaeologists who first began a systematic campaign of site studies). On positioning on the DTM, an analysis of the metrology and of the infrastructure of the ancient city (streets and sewers) made it possible to create a renewed vision and to propose a hypothesis for reconstructing the incomplete, or as yet unstudied, parts of the city, which only further excavations will confirm.

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