In relation to the project approved by the European Commission, the Direzione Generale per le Antichità has been charged with the responsibility of implementing the Knowledge Plan in accordance with the Cabina di Regia of the Consiglio Superiore per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici guidelines. A working group, composed of archaeologists from MiBACT in cooperation with informatics experts, was therefore established with the objective of creating a logic system capable of gathering and managing all information pertaining to the Pompeii area. The research and analysis have culminated in the project currently presented, and is the realization of an informatics system that integrates technical-descriptive with geographical and cartographical data, permitting the analysis of all the archaeological and architectural components of the ancient City. The project has enabled an evaluation of the state of preservation and deterioration factors, with the object of implementing a programmed conservation with periodic inspections and interventions that are not solely based on emergency factors.

The Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle biblioteche italiane (ICCU) is an Institute of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e il Turismo; it manages the National Library Service, the union catalogue of over 5,000 Italian libraries, and is responsible for providing the standard rules and regulations for cataloguing all types of materials ranging from manuscripts to multimedia documents and for digitization of CH. ICCU has extensive experience in digitization standards and guidelines and coordinates on behalf of the Ministry major digital cultural heritage projects at the national level such as Internet Culturale, the portal of the digital resources of the Italian libraries, and CulturaItalia, the national aggregator for Europeana. At the European level the expertise of ICCU’s staff is dedicated to the coordination of top level European initiatives in DCH, such as MINERVA, the series of 3 projects that ran from 2002 to 2008 for the harmonization of the policies in DCH, and more recently the projects for contributing content to Europeana like: ATHENA, Linked Heritage, ATHENA Plus. ICCU coordinated also projects to bring the CH on the wave of the e-Infrastructures: DC-NET project, INDICATE and DCH-RP that investigated other political and technical domains of the relation between the DCH sector and e-Infrastructures. ICCU is also partner in many European projects, such as PARTAGE and ARIADNE, a research infrastructure in Archaeology.

ARIADNE brings together and integrates existing archaeological research data infrastructures, so that researchers can use the various distributed datasets and new and powerful technologies as an integral component of the archaeological research methodology. ARIADNE is funded by the European Commission under the Community’s Seventh Framework Programme, contract no. FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1-313193. The project started on 1st February 2013 and runs for 48 months.

Social sciences and humanities, and cultural heritage have been investigated at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) since the agency’s reform in March 4, 1963. From that date on, CNR has made it possible for the Italian SSH and CH communities to undergo a rapid and far-reaching development, which has brought about vital technological innovations - such as the setting up of Italy’s first digital library in 1964 - as well as substantial services to the country - one thinks of the industrial applications provoked by the rapid improvement of cultural heritage restoration techniques in the aftermath of the Florence flood of November 4, 1966. Today SSH and CH researchers are part of the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Cultural Heritage (DSU-CNR). At the center of DSU-CNR investigations are all social objects, be they material or immaterial (artifacts, books, social findings), but always set by a person, which now makes a repositioning of technological development increasingly urgent. Persons are not out there only to make sure machines work, they are expected to ask the questions that human beings find it necessary to pose while proceeding along the via humanitatis. Culture is about people that take part in the project of constructing Europe as a society that ought to be less unequal, less unjust, less segregating, and less passive with regard to differing starting environments. CNR researchers work in synergy and express the potentials of diverse sectors. They have integrated findings and methods of history, philology, linguistics, archaeology, physics, chemistry, and ICT. Among the new cross-disciplinary fields that have emerged are: heritage science, the ageing society and migration studies. The result is a multidisciplinary context, which is dynamic and productive, and in which natural sciences dialogue with humanities for the sake of cultural heritage cognition, conservation and valorization.

In line with the policy promoted by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) since the 1960s for the convergence of the two cultures, we provide an illustration of the long and fruitful path followed by today’s Institute for Ancient Mediterranean Studies. In the early 1980s, the launch of an innovative research programme gave rise to the first experiments in computer applications in archaeology. This approach, in which data formalisation was already a core issue, subsequently led to the establishment of the scholarly journal Archeologia e Calcolatori and, more recently, to the commitment to open access philosophy. The main goal was to open up new research directions, resulting from the convergence and integration of tools and objectives shared by different disciplines. Today, the whole process substantially benefits from the choice of making data openly available to the research community.

At the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Lazio Region, a number of diverse databases are in use for cataloguing and management of cultural heritage. The existing databases have been designed in different moments, for different purposes and in different ways, so interoperability is impossible between them. In order to ensure interoperability and to promote the sharing of cultural information and services, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Lazio has started a collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR), which since 2007 has been developing SITAR. The data model and database, created by SITAR for the Italian Capital, will be used as a basis for a common infrastructure, so the previous databases can progressively flow into a unique platform for sharing cultural data with an increasingly wide audience, not only researchers and public bodies, but also all citizens.

The paper gives an overview of the various databases currently used in the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Etruria Meridionale, which are non-interoperable due to the adoption of different technical solutions and data-models. The idea is to bring together the existing databases and make them interoperable and accessible to a wide audience, creating a sort of Sistema Lazio, a unique platform for the storage, management and sharing of the Southern Etruria cultural heritage. The main goals are the systematization of the archive documents, their digitization and, ultimately, their sharing with the stakeholders: public bodies, researchers and professionals, in order to make data available for study, research, preventive archaeology, but also edutainment and tourism. In order to reach this objective, a collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR), which is developing SITAR, was started. SITAR is designed to store the archaeological record of Rome and thanks to its modular and easy to extend data-model, can be easily reused for a different and wider territorial context like Southern Etruria.

The advanced Information and Communication Technologies, combined with the development of applications based on artificial intelligence, open new possibilities to investigate Cultural Heritage in depth. The main objective of this process is to promote the integrated knowledge of CH within its context, so that it becomes a factor of growth in the cultural, social and economic system, in specific geographical areas. Through GRID computing it is possible to directly access by web distributed databases, creating a network of different archives. In addition, a virtual reality reconstruction of areas and ontologies, supplementary capabilities designed to support intelligent fruition and multilingualism, for some time have been extensively investigated with significant results. The archaeological heritage has been the subject of investigation and study at ENEA-UTICT in a number of project activities. This paper intends to propose conceptual and methodological reflections for a fruitful interaction with SITAR.

The technological aspect has been one of the major challenges that the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR) has faced for the implementation of SITAR, starting with the organization of the system up to the creation of a network infrastructure. Thanks to the help and support of the Italian research and education network GARR, a fiber optic link has been created between GARR and the head office of SSBAR, Palazzo Massimo, to reliably manage the transmission of the huge amount of data created by SITAR. In addition, the Superintendence is going to adopt the newly released IdP in the Cloud GARR service to join the IDEM federation for privilege and security management in data access and for offering authenticated services in the web application SITAR. In this paper, we will highlight the strategic role of the ICT and the high-bandwidth research and education networks in providing a virtual environment to encourage and facilitate collaboration between archaeologists and researchers.

Law no. 221 of December 17, 2012 amended the Digital Government Code (CAD), and imposed a change in the Public Administration’s approach to transparency towards the citizen. The General Secretariat of MiBACT directs the policy of the Ministry concerning transparency, publication of data and open data and develops new official positions on this subject. Regulatory updates on cultural heritage are indeed necessary in order to consistently regulate the sharing of digital cultural resources and knowledge, and replace current approaches, such as the principle of open-by-default, which are still insufficient to define a suitable legal framework for new forms of copyright/copyleft.

The pilot project dati.culturaitalia.it started in 2012 to build up a Linked Open DataLOD) Service that will progressively make available open data-sets from the web-portal CulturaItalia, the Italian national aggregator for Europeana. The application, online since 2013 (http://dati.culturaitalia.it/), was designed to allow the resources aggregated by CulturaItalia to be involved into large semantic networks after exposing, sharing and connecting data according to LOD principles. CulturaItalia is the Portal of Italian Culture managed by the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico (ICCU), in which are involved cultural institutions - museums, archives and libraries - from national, regional and local levels. Metadata aggregated by CulturaItalia, encoded according to the XML schema PICO Dublin Core Application Profile (PICO AP), were mapped into two different RDF schemas: the Europeana Data Model (EDM) and the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC-CRM). In particular, the OWL implementation named Erlangen CRM was chosen for implementing the mapping. RDF triples mapped into Erlangen CRM were then enriched with links to URIs identifying instances of internationally established RDF resources for geographic names and authority files for personal and corporate names, such as GeoNames and Virtual International Authority File (VIAF).

At present, the law is improving in order to make possible to share the public sector information with civil society, creating an ever-increasing body of knowledge. Information is not only evidence of the work done by the administration, but also the chance for an economical rise. Moreover, data help to enhance the quantity and quality of available information, in virtue of derived data circulation. This is very important if it is applied to the informative heritage preserved in public archives, filled with unpublished scientific data. The Geographic Archaeological Information System of Rome (SITAR) is a project of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e il Turismo, which aims to open archaeological heritage data of the Roman urban area to the general public (http://sitar.archeoroma.beniculturali.it/). SITAR webGIS portal allows the online consultation of archaeological data: for every record in the database the topographic location is provided, together with a descriptive sheet containing administrative information (type of survey, commissioning body, executing company) and scientific ones (type/function, chronology, description, etc.). The information provided correspond to a minimum level of knowledge, which is adequate to allow an aware re-use of data for research, conservation and urban planning aims. Appropriate licenses would be provided, in order to make it possible to cite the name of the scientific director and of the field archaeologist, author of the archaeological report, allowing the preservation of the information about the provenance of scientific data.

The main goal of the DATABENC project is to make the cultural heritage of the Campania Region available to a wider audience. This project aims at creating and promoting new economic, social and cultural opportunities, which can positively influence each other and enable further developments. DATABENC is based on the use of the most advanced ICT solutions and its main goal is to create real innovation in the Cultural Heritage field: the most important objective is to develop an infrastructure with a strong, well defined, territorial and cultural connotation which can generate well targeted measures. After introducing the project’s aims, the paper illustrates its operational program and intervention models: in particular, its application scenario (Cultural Heritage domain), and its scientific framework (Internet of Things). Finally, a preliminary application (OPS Cricket) will be presented.

The Or.C.He.S.T.R.A. project focuses on the development of a set of ICT solutions supporting the smart valorization of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Campania Region, in particular the city of Naples and its historic center, for citizens/visitors/tourists while fulfilling the principles of sustainability and eco-friendliness. The project investigates the perspectives of applying the Smart City paradigm in the Cultural Heritage field. Thus, this research outlines the emerging concept of Smart Cultural Heritage and proposes a new integrated approach, in which the fundamental value of the cultural framework is acknowledged in the complexity of the smart model. The studies on Cultural Commons are invoked as a basis for the analysis on the advantages of sharing common cultural resources (such as cultural heritage and the related digital information) within the Communities, identified in their inclination to innovation by means of the Evolving Networks model. In this context the Or.C.He.S.T.R.A. project aims at defining a new model of an integrated multidisciplinary approach to Naples’ historic center: a participatory, cooperative, complex system of heterogeneous information on the identified area, ranging from mobility, to health, energy, cultural heritage. The integration of different aspects increases their potential, affecting the values of cohesion and density of the networks of shared contents, goods and services in the area, and supporting the availability of culture and innovation in the community, facilitating their assumption and thus contributing to the generation of value on the territory.

Data and the possibility to circulate and spread them are the key infrastructure of archaeology. Part of the (interpretative) information underlying data is connected to the know-how of each single researcher. Data, instead, are firm points. In this paper, we describe how open data can be used for determining the archaeological potential. We used a sizable number of datasets, in order to consider the problem of estimation of archaeological potential in all of its aspects: archaeological, historical, and geomorphological data. As the identification of relations among finds is a key issue in archaeological interpretation process, we applied a modified version of the PageRank algorithm. The procedure included a categorization of archaeological data, the assignment of initial values of potential to the available data, the creation of geomorphological maps, the definition of functional areas (i.e. the levels of spatial and functional organization: urban, suburban and rural areas), and the application of the PageRank based algorithm. The model has been applied on the urban area of Pisa, and tested through the data of 14 new cores. The map of archaeological potential consists of the composition of the 7 layers, one for each archaeological period under consideration. The results, including the archaeological potential map, are to be considered as the first steps towards an automatic, formally definable, and repeatable approach to the computation of archaeological potential.

Between 2011 and 2013, a project for developing the archaeological information system of Verona (called SITAVR) was started by the University of Verona and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Veneto and with the financial support of the Regional Agency and the Bank institute Banca Popolare di Verona. The first step was determined by a collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR), which since 2007 has been developing an Information System for the Italian capital. Thanks to the support from the colleagues and the conventions between the public administrations involved, it was possible to start the project using the data model and databases created for Rome as a basis. The second step was to study and adapt these artefacts to a smaller town like Verona, taking into consideration the different cataloguing necessities. During this phase, a new methodology (based on GeoUML model) and its tools were used in order to analyze the database of Rome and to create the conceptual schema as a reverse engineering process. The usage of the GeoUML tools allows us to obtain automatically the physical schema and the documentation for the new database of Verona. All the data collected will be available to the general public, both for a better public comprehension of the Information System content and eventually for reuse in other similar projects.

RAPTOR (Italian acronym for Ricerca Archivi e Pratiche per la Tutela Operativa Regionale) is a geodatabase specifically designed to manage the administrative procedures of the Italian archaeological superintendencies. The software was originally developed by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Friuli Venezia Giulia and it is currently shared with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Lombardy and Veneto, in order to define and support the use of common standards. The system does not require any particular skill in computer sciences and, given the lack of human and financial resources, it is intentionally structured to allow an autonomous approach for each user, in order to offer the possibility of a collaborative work. Currently the development has been focused on a suite of applications, which helps to redact those documents that are in direct relationship with the territory and cultural heritage protection. Thanks to a wizard, which guides the Superintendency officers through the compilation of few simple forms in the database, in combination with the use of a set of drawing tools, it is possible not only to map every single project carried out in the territory of jurisdiction, but also to have a general overview of the archaeological excavation’s outcome. For this reason, a specific section of the system is dedicated to professionals and private society, so that the documentation of their work, compiled in accordance with the given standard, can be directly uploaded in the archives of the Superintendency.

The portal NADIR (Network of Archaeological Research) is developed from the work of the Commission Carandini of 2009 for the SITAN (Sistema Informativo Territoriale Archeologico Nazionale) and aims to build integration between scientific information systems and infrastructure of computer networks, the physical locations and the various functional areas of research that are developed at the national level. It aspires to be a cooperative network of shared work between the different databases spread throughout the country.

The contribution of research in territorial planning involving cultural heritage highlights some scientific questions relative to: 1) territorial diversity as the main factor for managing impacts and effects of the tourism development by offering endogenous and sustainable solutions; 2) the capacity of territories to achieve these goals by means of general directives and common methodologies and procedures; 3) the potential of territorial dimensions to generate a competitive reaction by translating general directives in endogenous place-based strategies and by applying common planning methodology. In particular, this paper discusses issues related to the European NEWCIMED project (New Cities of the Mediterranean Basin, ENPI CBC Med Programme). By adopting an innovative methodological approach named STeMA (Sustainable Territorial environmental/economic Management Approach), the project is realizing sustainable, integrated, strategic and competitive touristic management plans in seven new Mediterranean cities. Respect of local identities, economic growth, social inclusion and employment goals are developed by ex ante and ex post assessment of Cultural Heritage’s territorial potential capital.

This paper illustrates a step in the research that the GISLab (CNR-UNIPA) has been conducting on the development of informative systems for Cultural Heritage. In particular, it shows a methodology used to describe archaeological sites through 3D models integrated with databases. Models are implemented with BIM software. They are made searchable through the connection with a Relational Database Management System and shareable on the web. The case study, analyzed in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR), concerns an application on the Roman structures found in the Crypt of the Church of SS. Sergio e Bacco in Rome. The BIM application we experimented also shows how to use in the archaeological field semantic and parametric solid modeling integrated with 3D standardized and all-inclusive databases that are finally manageable in the public cloud.

Aim of this paper is to introduce the Medieval Forma Urbis project which is part of an agreement between Lazio Region and Tor Vergata University (Rome-Italy). The analysis starts from an assumption: surely, the urban history of ancient and medieval Rome has a wide bibliography with important summaries and several detailed studies related to medieval buildings, by architects and art historians but also by archaeologists. Furthermore, historical far-reaching reviews contained in the recent essay by J.C. Maire Vigueur or in the one by C.J. Wickham apply a stringent use of the archaeological record and material culture. Why then propose a cohesive and, at the same time, detailed study about what remains of medieval Rome? The first observation we can make about all this literature, is that this kind of approach rarely used methods specific to Building Archaeology and, in any case, never when they concern the entire urban area. We believe, instead, that only stratigraphy and typology methodically applied to the reading of historical buildings can allow us to read and unravel the complex palimpsest of the city. The typological and stratigraphic analysis, managed through geo-referenced databases, is then a proper solution to reading the different building phenomena in quantitative diachronic and synchronic terms.

In this paper two experimental projects conducted in recent years by the Digital Archaeology Laboratory at Foggia University are described. The projects are oriented to examine possible solutions for the use of ICT in the communication of archaeology that imply specific attention towards technologies, languages and creativity. The first project described is TimeMachine, a virtual reality application realized with real-time animation technologies that allows the user to move freely inside reconstruction, hypotheses and documentation of an archaeological stratigraphic excavation. The latter is Heritouch, a multimedia system for digital storytelling regarding the huge collection of Greek pottery of the Fondazione Sicilia at Palermo. Albeit regarding very different aspects of archaeology, the common aim of the two projects was to achieve an innovative methodology for the production of digital content that, on one hand provides the use of innovative technologies for the creation and fruition of cultural resources and, on the other, tries to engage the competences of the professionals and the characteristics of the knowledge domain.

The Inventory and Catalogue Service promotes inventorying and cataloguing of the archaeological objects owned by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR). Since 2007, the Niobe database has allowed us to elaborate the data of the archaeological items. In 2012, the Niobe program was updated to meet the changing needs (online data entry, information control and supervision) and to make the system consistent with the current state of development of the web-based applications. Today Niobe 2012 provides a web application, which is accessible to local or remote users via a browser. The database fulfills the requirements of institutional cataloguing, not only aimed at the identification and quantification of the objects but also at their protection and preservation. Users can browse, see, add, and edit files, with different conditions and restrictions according to the access profiles (guest, cataloguer, auditor). Niobe 2012 allows entering RA records (Reperto Archeologico, i.e. archaeological find), following ICCD guidelines. The user can choose among three research methods: free text search, advanced search and specific catalog/ inventory number search. Mapping all the available data on location, recovery, conservation measures, officer in charge of cataloguing or excavations will make it possible an interchange of information between Niobe and SITAR. This interaction can bring a considerable and mutual enrichment of the two databases, helping the Superintendency to manage global information and data.

Recent developments in the excavation and osteological studies of human skeletal remains have shown the need to adopt a computer-based approach, which is able to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired in recent years by different branches of archaeo-antropological studies, using modern and innovative tools. JASs (Journal of Anthropological Sciences) has repeatedly promoted a renewal of the practices related to information management, both through the creation of the forum Sharing databases in digital Anthropology, and through the publication of many international works linked to this topic. In order to address the management of large amounts of anthropological and paleopathological data and their subsequent processing and interpretation, the Division of Paleopathology of Pisa University has created an extensive project relating to excavation and laboratory activities designed to develop a number of data storage protocols and subsequent inclusion into a GIS system. This project has been essentially organized into a tripartite structure; the information system includes two main protocols designed by the research team of the Division of Paleopathology of the University of Pisa that work on an OS Windows: 1. the software SIUS manages the skeletal unit computer records, which aim to store all the archaeological, taphonomic and anthropological data recorded on the field during archaeological excavations; 2. the software BONES stores and handles the dozens of anthropological and paleopathological records compiled during the examination of the skeletal remains in the laboratory. The GIS system allows interaction between the protocols using the two types of software.

The Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR) possesses a notable photographic collection which is highly remarkable because of the variety, quality and quantity of the images (about 500,000 analogical examples on several types of supports). The need to protect negatives, recently recognized as cultural heritage, and their contents, required the digitization of a considerable part of the SSBAR photographic library. An easy searchable digital archive was therefore created, together with the website http://www.fotosar.it finalized to make this whole heritage available to the public. This website was activated in 2002 and continually improved till the current version; it permits the free consultation of the photos, also through excellent features to enlarge details, and their purchase in various formats (low, medium, high density) with different fees set on the basis of the intended use. In addition to the value of the website itself, our hope is that the Fotosar website, holding numerous and valuable images, not only of works of art but also of excavations and archaeological finds, will be able to cooperate with the SITAR system. This cooperation will allow users to access Fotosar contents related to a specific urban area or monument by selecting the corresponding location in the SITAR web map. The future objective is to continue the meritorious cooperation undertaken with the experience of exchange of views and interrelations described above, towards a general harmonization of our work.

For decades, the complex of Domus Tiberiana has been the object of continuous monitoring and restorations of structures for understanding the phenomena of displacement and ruin; at the same time, archaeological excavations and architectural surveys have continued. In 2013 new projects aimed at the general restoration of the monument and at its reopening to the public were launched, and a comprehensive and integral program of renovation of historical and archaeological knowledge of the monument was begun. The prerequisite for conservation and archaeological research is the management of a lot of data, published or not, produced over time: this was possible thanks to the use of SITAR, in which data were systematized. In this way, it was possible to improve the knowledge of the history of research and by highlighting the outstanding issues in the historic-archaeological and static-structural knowledge of the monument, it was possible to improve the planning of the most urgent restorations and the most useful archaeological investigations for detailing the lesser known aspects of the monument.

Between the Republican and Imperial Age the Aventine Hill was a popular quarter characterized by a huge number of inhabitants and many buildings; later on it became an elegant residential area of the city. The hill was almost abandoned during the Late Antique period, and later, after the construction of oratories and monasteries, it acquired an almost agricultural aspect which did not change until the beginning of the 20th c., when the main construction work was concentrated between the 1930s and 1940s. Starting in 2009, the use of SITAR made it possible to add previous records about various interventions carried out by the main service managers. For the most recent data, like the excavations carried out on the via Marmorata, which brought to light structures built from the 1st to the 8th c. A.D., a chronological type that allows a diachronic vision of the excavations data was used to insert the records in the Archaeological Partitions system.

This paper illustrates some results of rescue excavations carried out during public and private work executed between the third and sixth mile of the ancient Via Flaminia before and beyond the Milvian Bridge. The excavation data are still being studied, while the graphic documentation has already been scanned, georeferenced and vectorized by the SITAR. Due to the nature of the places, the adoption of multiple methods of investigation was required. In addition to the archaeological survey, geo-archaeological drillings and prospections using ERT (Electrical Resistivity Tomography) were undertaken. The findings, arising from the various sites investigated, mainly consist of funerary buildings (like Mausoleums under the Stadio Flaminio and remains of burial chambers under the Villa Flaminia) that escaped demolition of the early 20th century, when the road was involved in an intensive building campaign, which erased it from the city landscape. On the other side of the Tiber, a portion of the ancient Via Flaminia has been unearthed in the area of a gym, Mondofitness, at the fourth mile of the Via Flaminia, and trial excavations in the area of Saxa Rubra brought to light the ruins of a Roman Villa Rustica with a thermal complex.

The III municipality (formerly the IV) of Rome, ever since the 1970’s, has been archaeologically documented in a particularly intensive way by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR) in collaboration with a range of Italian and foreign scholars and institutes. This has resulted in an invaluable corpus of analogue and digital data archived by the SSBAR that is now being brought together in a single spatial database on protohistoric and Roman to medieval settlement and land use features, called SITAR. In this paper the contributors discuss the genesis, workings and actual state of SITAR, highlighting the cases of the Roman villa complex of Vigna Chiari or ‘di Faonte’ and the protohistoric settlements of Fidenae and Crustumerium, the latter serving as an example of collaboration between SSBAR and a foreign institute, in this particular case the Groningen Institute of Archaeology of the University of Groningen.

The area enclosed within the VIII municipality of Rome is marked by the presence of the ancient Via Appia, which includes extraordinary and widespread archaeological sites and monuments that brought to the establishment of the namesake natural Park (LR 29/97). The synergy between the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR) with SITAR and the territorial Landmarks Departments brought about important results, such as the recognition and identification of archaeological investigations and the set up of devices aimed at the institutional protection of the SSBAR. In 2012 and 2013, a considerable amount of data was added by the SITAR into its GeoDB. This synergy also brought about the set up of technical and thematic maps aimed at territorial protection, preventing unauthorized constructions. As for the application of SITAR in scientific research, this system offers the possibility to analyze, either in a typological and contextual point of view, a huge conglomeration of environmental and anthropogenic data leading to the analysis of several system landscapes in all their aspects. As part of the research project Settlement and spatial dynamics along the ancient Via Appia, between the Suburbium and the city of Rome, the SITAR was fundamental for analyzing the layout and visibility of the burials as expression of social promotion, for building identity and memory.

Recent investigations in the S-W area of the Roman suburbs, from the Via Ostiense and the Via Laurentina until the coastline near Ostia (IX and X municipalities), produced important knowledge that allowed the reconstruction of the complex network of roads, the imperial villas system and the economic reality of this wide territory. The aim of this article is focused on the activity carried on by the SITAR and the consequent important data which has been collected from its implementation, as provided by the recent law on the transparency of the public administration offices.between the Suburbium and the city of Rome, the SITAR was fundamental for analyzing the layout and visibility of the burials as expression of social promotion, for building identity and memory.

This contribution provides an overview of the historical and topographical XI municipality Arvalia Portuense - that is part of the southwestern suburbs of Rome. The dynamics of exploitation of this area are conditioned by the presence of the Tiber river and of important roads such as the ancient Via Campana and Via Portuense. In this paper some sites are presented, which describe the complexity of settlement of the Portuense district, particularly between the archaic and the Republican era, through an analysis of the traces of infrastructures, land use and necropolis. Starting from some sites in which the presence of major emergencies makes the establishment of strategies for the protection of archaeological resources increasingly urgent, the SITAR office started the digitization and cataloguing of archaeological data and the webGIS platform was implemented with the new data. A tool like SITAR, which offers a detailed, easy to update picture of the territory, allows us to steer the archaeological record in the current topographical context and represents a valuable support, useful, on the one hand, to speed up the procedures of data-entry and, on the other to direct the planning of a continuously expanding urban area.

This study describes the most important archaeological finds of the western part of the XIII municipality, dating back from the prehistoric age to the Roman empire. Thanks to the work of surveys and supervision of Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR), several protection procedures (like Castel di Guido, Polledrara di Cecanibbio, Cava Esi, Cava Mapi) have been already started. The gradual data capture of all the archaeological finds in the SITAR database is essential for an exhaustive knowledge of the territory in order to organize the conservation activity. At present, the data entry concerns all the findings since 1997 up to the present day; the sites analyzed are streets that testify the presence of the ancient Via Cornelia and Via Aurelia and other secondary roads, aqueducts (Aqua Alsietina), graves and villas of the Roman period. The SITAR system offers the possibility to analyze this data not only from a historic-archaeological point of view, with the study of the ancient settlement’s distribution and evolution, but especially with regards to the modern landscape’s transformation, becoming pivotal areas that the authorities should take into consideration for their conservation.