Papers by Roberto Montagnetti
The Journal of Fasti Online, 2024
In September 2023 the first season of work was conducted by the Furfo Project, a new interdiscipl... more In September 2023 the first season of work was conducted by the Furfo Project, a new interdisciplinary study organised through a 3-year research agreement between the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di L’Aquila e Teramo, the University of Aquila – Department of Human Sciences, the British School at Rome and the Comune di Barisciano.
The aim of the research programme is the investigation of the vicus of Furfo, an important archaeological site in the territory of Barisciano (L’Aquila, Abruzzo) located in the Aterno Valley along the via Claudia Nova. The vicus has been identified since at least the 1700’s thanks to its correspondence with the toponym of the area conserved by the church of Santa Maria di Farfona and with the ancient name conserved by the celebrated Lex Aedis Furfensis (CIL IX, 3513). More recently in the 1990s some fieldwalking was undertaken which proposed an estimated extent of the vicus.
The first year of research of the new project saw the application of diverse types of non-invasive survey: fieldwalking, geophysical prospection (magnetometry) and LiDAR survey. The detailed analysis of each technique, and the combined synthesis of the overall results, allows a new reading of the topography and chronology of the site: a new understanding of the area occupied by the settlement has emerged, considerably more extensive and structured then previously hypothesised, and the complex topography of its long continuity of habitation attested by the material culture, from the ’Vestina’ to the medieval period.
LA VILLA DOPO LA VILLA - 2 Trasformazione di un sistema insediativo ed economico nell'Italia centrale tra tarda Antichità e Medioevo - Collana « FERVET OPVS » - n° 9, 2022
A project of the Comune di Lugnano in Teverina and the University of Arizona continues the invest... more A project of the Comune di Lugnano in Teverina and the University of Arizona continues the investigations carried out by the Soprintendenza Archeologica dell’Umbria and then the University of Arizona in the 1980s and 1990s in the villa of Poggio Gramignano. This is a villa on a naviga- ble stretch of the Tiber upstream from Rome. It is possible to follow the transformations of the SE corner of the villa from its foundation in the 1st century BC to frequentation after the mid 5th century. The discovery of a cemetery was not unusual. Here, however, the deceased are babies, which has given rise to the hypothesis of an epidemic. The comparison of the pottery found in 3rd- and 5th-century layers allows some considerations on the inhabitants of Poggio Gramignano. In both periods, they had access to a range of goods not only from the region but from various parts of the Mediterranean. Their comparable material culture argues for a certain continuity and against the idea of squatters in the 5th century.
Archeologia e Calcolatori, 2022
This contribution traces the history of pyArchInit, the first QGIS plugin created directly by arc... more This contribution traces the history of pyArchInit, the first QGIS plugin created directly by archaeologists for the management of archaeological sites. The article describes the structure of the plugin, its features and the main innovations brought to the field of archaeological data management compared to the commonly used applications (CAD and Office package). Furthermore, practical examples of its use and potential will be provided through the description of the methodological procedure, based on pyArchInit, put into the field during the excavation of the archaeological site of Poggio Gramignano - Umbria - Italy. Such excavation is directed by Prof. David Soren of the University of Arizona and has revealed the remains of an important Roman villa reused in the Late Roman period as a cemetery for children.
Fra tutela e ricerca, Indagini Archeologiche in territorio Amerino, a cura di Elena Roscini, 2022
This contribution is a preliminary report of the new excavation season (2016-2019) at Poggio Gram... more This contribution is a preliminary report of the new excavation season (2016-2019) at Poggio Gramignano, an archaeological site located in Lugnano in Teverina (Umbria). This is a multi-year project, a partnership between the University of Arizona, Yale University, Stanford University and the Municipality of Lugnano in Teverina, that continues previous reasearches begun over three decades ago, from 1982. The new excavation campaigns aim to better understand the Roman villa and its surrounding area, with particular focus on the late Roman infant cemetery discovered within the storage magazines.
The goal of this article is to provide several practical procedures for working within the GIS en... more The goal of this article is to provide several practical procedures for working within the GIS environment in the archaeological sector, with specific reference to the excavation site, through open source methodologies and software such as Qgis and PyArchinit. It will also demonstrate how to use the data derived from the survey, processed and managed through Qgis and PyArchinit for enhancement projects such as 3d modeling and 3d mapping through Blender software.
Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 2021
The aim of this paper is to highlight the main benefits of using the Qfield app in archaeological... more The aim of this paper is to highlight the main benefits of using the Qfield app in archaeological jobs. In particular this article provides examples to use Qfield in open area excavation, Archaeological survey and impact assessment (HIA) projects.
Archeomatica International Volume XIII Issue 3 September, 2021
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Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 2016
Lugnano in Teverina is internationally famous for its archaeology thanks to the remarkable discov... more Lugnano in Teverina is internationally famous for its archaeology thanks to the remarkable discoveries made in Poggio Gramignano during the investigations of the American team of archaeologists from the University of Arizona, lead by Prof. David Soren. The archaeological campaigns of the late 1980s and early ‘90s revealed the remains of a Roman rustic villa, later reused as a children’s necropolis dating to the mid-5th century CE. Nevertheless, the municipality is rich in other important archaeological evidence. The aim of this work is therefore to highlight some of this less-known evidence, in particular those belonging generally to the Roman period. DOI:10.2458/azu_jaei_v10i1_montagnetti
MDPI, 2021
The aim of this paper is to highlight the main benefits of using the Qfield app in archaeological... more The aim of this paper is to highlight the main benefits of using the Qfield app in archaeological jobs. In particular this article provides examples to use Qfield in open area excavation, Archaeological survey and impact assessment (HIA) projects.
European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies, 2020
Begun in the Summer of 2016, the Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano Archaeological Project – a par... more Begun in the Summer of 2016, the Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano Archaeological Project – a partnership between the Soprintendenza Archeologia dell’Umbria, the University of Arizona, and the town council of Lugnano in Teverina – continues a work initially begun in the 1980s. The present report illustrates the preliminary results obtained after the years of excavation 2016-2019. The aim is to contribute to the debate concerning
the causes of the end of Roman villas in the western part of Empire.
Keywords: Roman burials, Roman infant cemetery, plasmodium falciparum, Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina
Iniziato nell’estate del 2016, il progetto archeologico Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano – in partenariato tra la Soprintendenza Archeologia dell’Umbria, l’Università dell’Arizona e il Comune di Lugnano in Teverina – continua un lavoro iniziato negli anni Ottanta. Questo articolo illustra i risultati preliminari ottenuti dalle campagne di scavo 2016-2019, con la
speranza di contribuire al dibattito che concerne le cause che sancirono la fine delle ville romane nella parte occidentale dell’Impero.
Parole chiave: sepolture romane, cimitero infantile romano, plasmodium falciparum, Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina
Archeologia Aerea XIII, 2019
This study highlights the methodologies, problems and results of the
use of aerial photogrammetri... more This study highlights the methodologies, problems and results of the
use of aerial photogrammetric mapping from drones through the
characterization of some selected archaeological sites in the Aquilan
territory. These examples are the paleo-Christian and High Medieval
cathedral of Amiternum, the multiphase site of Piana and Colle San
Marco in Castel del Monte and the archaeological site of the Baullo
plateau in Gagliano Aterno.
In the first site, the drone mapping has pointed out the structures discovered
during the archaeological excavation as well as the surrounding
habitation area of the Roman imperial period, including the connected
road network and public and private structures (temples, forum,
domus, insulae) that were hidden beneath the ground. In the second
site, the buried tracks of structures from the Roman pagus and thermal
or Christian worship complexes stand out particularly. Finally,
the third site revealed the structures of Santa Scolastica monastery
complex and a possible Norman castle.
DAIDALOS 17: STUDI E RICERCHE DI ARCHEOLOGIA E ANTICHITÀ, 2019
This paper summarizes the activities of a work aimed at georeferencing and digitizing, in the GIS... more This paper summarizes the activities of a work aimed at georeferencing and digitizing, in the GIS environment,
maps of the nineteenth-century cadastral documentation of the Papal State referable to the Viterbo area.
The work was part of a larger project led by the Department of Ancient World Sciences of the University of Tuscia,
which it collects the archaeological research carried out on the urban and suburban area of the ancient city of Ferento
between 2009 and 2013. Such project has been extended later to the other rest of the Tiber river valley of the Provincia
of Viterbo side, including the territory of Celleno. The use of GIS technology has allowed the digital transformation of
the old paper maps in a series of thematic layers able to highlight different aspects of this territory in the first half of the
nineteenth century, when these maps were worked out. This allowed an accurate comparison between the modern landscape
and the previous landscape of in this territory.
PCA European Journal of Post Classical Archaeology, 2020
Begun in the Summer of 2016, the Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano Archaeological Project – a par... more Begun in the Summer of 2016, the Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano Archaeological Project – a partnership between the Soprintendenza Archeologia dell’Umbria, the University of Arizona, and the town council of Lugnano in Teverina – continues a work initially begun in the 1980s. The present report illustrates the preliminary results obtained after
the years of excavation 2016-2019. The aim is to contribute to the debate concerning the causes of the end of Roman villas in the western part of Empire.
ARCHEOMATICA n.4, 2019
The goal of this article is to provide several practical procedures for working within the GIS en... more The goal of this article is to provide several practical procedures for working within the GIS environment in the archaeological sector, with specific reference to the excavation site, through open source methodologies and software such as Qgis and PyArchinit.
It will also demonstrate how to use the data derived from the survey, processed and managed through Qgis and PyArchinit for enhancement projects such as 3d modeling and 3d mapping through Blender software.
Roberto Montagnetti, 2019
This article offers an example for a quick and smart procedure for geo-referencing archaeological... more This article offers an example for a quick and smart procedure for geo-referencing archaeological stratigraphy and managing it digitally in a GIS environment, through the open source software QGIS and PyArchInit. Specifically, the authors propose two ways of obtaining a geo-referenced survey of the archaeological features identified: 1) a handmade manual
survey carried out with triangulation measurements; 2) a digital survey through Structure from Motion algorithms.
Archeomatica N. 1, 2019
This work wants to be an overview about the various “open source” software that can be used to ob... more This work wants to be an overview about the various “open source” software that can be used to obtain rendering and photogrammetric data geo-referenced from digital photos.
In fact, all the phases of digital photogrammetric processing can be performed by open source software. This paper, therefore, wants to provide an alternative to the use of the most famous commercial photogrammetric software, taking into consideration and comparing the different methods of photogrammetric processing available in the open source environmental to obtain the final aims pursued and showing off how it is possible to integrate the information coming out the different software used in order to the best result possible.
The software used were: MicMac, OpenMVG, CloudCompare, MeshLab, Qgis2.8 and GrassGIS7.
The comparison between the different photogrammetric processings through the software mentioned above has been tested on a burial in “enchytrismòs” found out during the archaeological excavations in the site of Poggio Gramignano (Italy).
Generally the main final results we can obtain from a photogrammetric survey are:
1. a 3d model of the area or og the object investigated in the form of a “dense points cloud” rendered with associated texture;
2. a Digital Surface Model (DSM);
3. an orthophoto.
These results can also be geo-referenced in a geographic reference system and can be used for many different purposes in the light of the kind of the research carring out.
Even in this case, therefore, we worked on reaching the same final results that the “open source” software used allowed to obtain, resulting in a very hight reliability.
Moreover, the final outputs can be managed and used to obtain, in the GIS environment, further data such as sections, altimetric profiles and so on and to associate them a database in order to have alphanumeric information for every vectorial element.
ARCHEO n. 412, 2019
During the 2018 field season of the Necropilis of Poggio Gramignano - Lugnano in Teverina (Italy)... more During the 2018 field season of the Necropilis of Poggio Gramignano - Lugnano in Teverina (Italy), a remarkable discovery was made. In the early afternoon under the beating July sun, while the cicadas sang out from the old oak tree looming over the villa’s ruins, the archaeologists involved in the project began to reveal the first signs of a new burial. Amphorae sherds capped a tegula (roof tile) leaning up against one of the storage magazine’s walls. But as excavation continued, it became clear to all that this burial was different. Not long after Gabriele and Danny had come across the first signs of this burial, the two had fully uncovered a partial “alla cappuccina” style burial, much larger than those so far discovered at Poggio Gramignano. Alla cappuccina burials are typical of this cemetery and Roman Italy in general, in which tegulae are stacked and pitched against one another to create a make-shift tomb, often for ordinary individuals. This was a partial alla cappuccina burial, constructed by leaning two large roof tiles against an existing wall of the room. Beneath the tegulae was found the remains of a single individual placed resting on the left side and facing the wall of the room. Designated as “Burial 51,” this individual and the burial are remarkable for two reasons. First, this child is much older than those infants and children so far discovered (52 in total). Based on the stage of dental development evident, this young child (whose sex remains undetermined at this moment) was around 10 years old at the time of its death. While the body had been subject to some taphonomic disturbance over time, it was well-protected by the tegulae, evidenced by the skeleton’s completeness and the high degree of articulation. This preservation made the second remarkable fact of this burial all the more apparent. A stone was found within his or her mouth. This stone was revealed to be a small limestone cut in a shape similar to a wall cubilium. A cubilium is a kind of cut stone crafted by the Romans, pointed on end and inserted into stone-faced cement walls. Because of the way the child’s head was positioned, the jaw would not have fallen open as the masseter muscles decomposed, suggesting that the placement of the stone was intentional and did not result from the slow collapse of the surrounding edifice. Moreover, this stone had cement on two sides, in which small tooth-shaped depressions are visible, lending further weight to the interpretation that the stone was purposefully inserted within the child’s mouth.
In 2016 a new excavation of the Roman villa and the infant cemetery of Poggio Gramignano (Lugnano... more In 2016 a new excavation of the Roman villa and the infant cemetery of Poggio Gramignano (Lugnano in Teverina, Italy) began. This contribution is a preliminary report of the first excavation season.
In 2016, between June and July, new excavations at la Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano (VRPG) began. This was the first season in a multi-year research project - a partnership between the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, the University of Arizona, Yale University, Stanford University, and the Commune di Lugnano in Teverina. This project aims to better understand the villa and its surrounding area, with particular focus on the late Roman infant cemetery discovered within the villa’s storage magazines.
The project continues work begun over three decades ago. Initial excavations of the villa were conducted by Daniela Monacchi of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, from 1982 to 1984. David Soren (University of Arizona) directed subsequent excavations, from 1987 to 1994, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria (Soren and Soren 1999).
Since 1994 the University of Tuscia conducts archeological research on the site of the Roman and ... more Since 1994 the University of Tuscia conducts archeological research on the site of the Roman and Me-dieval city of Ferento which was abandoned after the destruction by the Viterbesi in 1170-1172. This paper presents the first results of the surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016 on the urban site. The goal of this project is to create a digital archaeological map of the area and to increase the knowledge on the topography and urban setting of a central section of the medieval city. This was obtained thanks to the integration of different non-intrusive research methods: topographic and aerial photography surveys, fieldwalking, radar analysis.
In this paper it is presented the work of Airborne remote sensing by UAV and the consequent aero-... more In this paper it is presented the work of Airborne remote sensing by UAV and the consequent aero-photogrammetric survey of the area immediately to the north of Colle di Casciano, between the districticts of Basanello and Teora, both in municipal territory of Barete (AQ) - Italy.
The aerial remote sensing by UAV of that area is one of the great research project of the L'Aquila University aimed at deepen of the the knowledge and study of the site where they were found the ostrogote belt buckles today preserved in the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome.
The remote sensing of that area has been finalized to the elaboration of some orthophoto for a better identification of several cropmarks and soilmarks that we have already identified on the site thanks to satellite images.
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Papers by Roberto Montagnetti
The aim of the research programme is the investigation of the vicus of Furfo, an important archaeological site in the territory of Barisciano (L’Aquila, Abruzzo) located in the Aterno Valley along the via Claudia Nova. The vicus has been identified since at least the 1700’s thanks to its correspondence with the toponym of the area conserved by the church of Santa Maria di Farfona and with the ancient name conserved by the celebrated Lex Aedis Furfensis (CIL IX, 3513). More recently in the 1990s some fieldwalking was undertaken which proposed an estimated extent of the vicus.
The first year of research of the new project saw the application of diverse types of non-invasive survey: fieldwalking, geophysical prospection (magnetometry) and LiDAR survey. The detailed analysis of each technique, and the combined synthesis of the overall results, allows a new reading of the topography and chronology of the site: a new understanding of the area occupied by the settlement has emerged, considerably more extensive and structured then previously hypothesised, and the complex topography of its long continuity of habitation attested by the material culture, from the ’Vestina’ to the medieval period.
the causes of the end of Roman villas in the western part of Empire.
Keywords: Roman burials, Roman infant cemetery, plasmodium falciparum, Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina
Iniziato nell’estate del 2016, il progetto archeologico Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano – in partenariato tra la Soprintendenza Archeologia dell’Umbria, l’Università dell’Arizona e il Comune di Lugnano in Teverina – continua un lavoro iniziato negli anni Ottanta. Questo articolo illustra i risultati preliminari ottenuti dalle campagne di scavo 2016-2019, con la
speranza di contribuire al dibattito che concerne le cause che sancirono la fine delle ville romane nella parte occidentale dell’Impero.
Parole chiave: sepolture romane, cimitero infantile romano, plasmodium falciparum, Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina
use of aerial photogrammetric mapping from drones through the
characterization of some selected archaeological sites in the Aquilan
territory. These examples are the paleo-Christian and High Medieval
cathedral of Amiternum, the multiphase site of Piana and Colle San
Marco in Castel del Monte and the archaeological site of the Baullo
plateau in Gagliano Aterno.
In the first site, the drone mapping has pointed out the structures discovered
during the archaeological excavation as well as the surrounding
habitation area of the Roman imperial period, including the connected
road network and public and private structures (temples, forum,
domus, insulae) that were hidden beneath the ground. In the second
site, the buried tracks of structures from the Roman pagus and thermal
or Christian worship complexes stand out particularly. Finally,
the third site revealed the structures of Santa Scolastica monastery
complex and a possible Norman castle.
maps of the nineteenth-century cadastral documentation of the Papal State referable to the Viterbo area.
The work was part of a larger project led by the Department of Ancient World Sciences of the University of Tuscia,
which it collects the archaeological research carried out on the urban and suburban area of the ancient city of Ferento
between 2009 and 2013. Such project has been extended later to the other rest of the Tiber river valley of the Provincia
of Viterbo side, including the territory of Celleno. The use of GIS technology has allowed the digital transformation of
the old paper maps in a series of thematic layers able to highlight different aspects of this territory in the first half of the
nineteenth century, when these maps were worked out. This allowed an accurate comparison between the modern landscape
and the previous landscape of in this territory.
the years of excavation 2016-2019. The aim is to contribute to the debate concerning the causes of the end of Roman villas in the western part of Empire.
It will also demonstrate how to use the data derived from the survey, processed and managed through Qgis and PyArchinit for enhancement projects such as 3d modeling and 3d mapping through Blender software.
survey carried out with triangulation measurements; 2) a digital survey through Structure from Motion algorithms.
In fact, all the phases of digital photogrammetric processing can be performed by open source software. This paper, therefore, wants to provide an alternative to the use of the most famous commercial photogrammetric software, taking into consideration and comparing the different methods of photogrammetric processing available in the open source environmental to obtain the final aims pursued and showing off how it is possible to integrate the information coming out the different software used in order to the best result possible.
The software used were: MicMac, OpenMVG, CloudCompare, MeshLab, Qgis2.8 and GrassGIS7.
The comparison between the different photogrammetric processings through the software mentioned above has been tested on a burial in “enchytrismòs” found out during the archaeological excavations in the site of Poggio Gramignano (Italy).
Generally the main final results we can obtain from a photogrammetric survey are:
1. a 3d model of the area or og the object investigated in the form of a “dense points cloud” rendered with associated texture;
2. a Digital Surface Model (DSM);
3. an orthophoto.
These results can also be geo-referenced in a geographic reference system and can be used for many different purposes in the light of the kind of the research carring out.
Even in this case, therefore, we worked on reaching the same final results that the “open source” software used allowed to obtain, resulting in a very hight reliability.
Moreover, the final outputs can be managed and used to obtain, in the GIS environment, further data such as sections, altimetric profiles and so on and to associate them a database in order to have alphanumeric information for every vectorial element.
In 2016, between June and July, new excavations at la Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano (VRPG) began. This was the first season in a multi-year research project - a partnership between the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, the University of Arizona, Yale University, Stanford University, and the Commune di Lugnano in Teverina. This project aims to better understand the villa and its surrounding area, with particular focus on the late Roman infant cemetery discovered within the villa’s storage magazines.
The project continues work begun over three decades ago. Initial excavations of the villa were conducted by Daniela Monacchi of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, from 1982 to 1984. David Soren (University of Arizona) directed subsequent excavations, from 1987 to 1994, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria (Soren and Soren 1999).
The aerial remote sensing by UAV of that area is one of the great research project of the L'Aquila University aimed at deepen of the the knowledge and study of the site where they were found the ostrogote belt buckles today preserved in the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome.
The remote sensing of that area has been finalized to the elaboration of some orthophoto for a better identification of several cropmarks and soilmarks that we have already identified on the site thanks to satellite images.
The aim of the research programme is the investigation of the vicus of Furfo, an important archaeological site in the territory of Barisciano (L’Aquila, Abruzzo) located in the Aterno Valley along the via Claudia Nova. The vicus has been identified since at least the 1700’s thanks to its correspondence with the toponym of the area conserved by the church of Santa Maria di Farfona and with the ancient name conserved by the celebrated Lex Aedis Furfensis (CIL IX, 3513). More recently in the 1990s some fieldwalking was undertaken which proposed an estimated extent of the vicus.
The first year of research of the new project saw the application of diverse types of non-invasive survey: fieldwalking, geophysical prospection (magnetometry) and LiDAR survey. The detailed analysis of each technique, and the combined synthesis of the overall results, allows a new reading of the topography and chronology of the site: a new understanding of the area occupied by the settlement has emerged, considerably more extensive and structured then previously hypothesised, and the complex topography of its long continuity of habitation attested by the material culture, from the ’Vestina’ to the medieval period.
the causes of the end of Roman villas in the western part of Empire.
Keywords: Roman burials, Roman infant cemetery, plasmodium falciparum, Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina
Iniziato nell’estate del 2016, il progetto archeologico Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano – in partenariato tra la Soprintendenza Archeologia dell’Umbria, l’Università dell’Arizona e il Comune di Lugnano in Teverina – continua un lavoro iniziato negli anni Ottanta. Questo articolo illustra i risultati preliminari ottenuti dalle campagne di scavo 2016-2019, con la
speranza di contribuire al dibattito che concerne le cause che sancirono la fine delle ville romane nella parte occidentale dell’Impero.
Parole chiave: sepolture romane, cimitero infantile romano, plasmodium falciparum, Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina
use of aerial photogrammetric mapping from drones through the
characterization of some selected archaeological sites in the Aquilan
territory. These examples are the paleo-Christian and High Medieval
cathedral of Amiternum, the multiphase site of Piana and Colle San
Marco in Castel del Monte and the archaeological site of the Baullo
plateau in Gagliano Aterno.
In the first site, the drone mapping has pointed out the structures discovered
during the archaeological excavation as well as the surrounding
habitation area of the Roman imperial period, including the connected
road network and public and private structures (temples, forum,
domus, insulae) that were hidden beneath the ground. In the second
site, the buried tracks of structures from the Roman pagus and thermal
or Christian worship complexes stand out particularly. Finally,
the third site revealed the structures of Santa Scolastica monastery
complex and a possible Norman castle.
maps of the nineteenth-century cadastral documentation of the Papal State referable to the Viterbo area.
The work was part of a larger project led by the Department of Ancient World Sciences of the University of Tuscia,
which it collects the archaeological research carried out on the urban and suburban area of the ancient city of Ferento
between 2009 and 2013. Such project has been extended later to the other rest of the Tiber river valley of the Provincia
of Viterbo side, including the territory of Celleno. The use of GIS technology has allowed the digital transformation of
the old paper maps in a series of thematic layers able to highlight different aspects of this territory in the first half of the
nineteenth century, when these maps were worked out. This allowed an accurate comparison between the modern landscape
and the previous landscape of in this territory.
the years of excavation 2016-2019. The aim is to contribute to the debate concerning the causes of the end of Roman villas in the western part of Empire.
It will also demonstrate how to use the data derived from the survey, processed and managed through Qgis and PyArchinit for enhancement projects such as 3d modeling and 3d mapping through Blender software.
survey carried out with triangulation measurements; 2) a digital survey through Structure from Motion algorithms.
In fact, all the phases of digital photogrammetric processing can be performed by open source software. This paper, therefore, wants to provide an alternative to the use of the most famous commercial photogrammetric software, taking into consideration and comparing the different methods of photogrammetric processing available in the open source environmental to obtain the final aims pursued and showing off how it is possible to integrate the information coming out the different software used in order to the best result possible.
The software used were: MicMac, OpenMVG, CloudCompare, MeshLab, Qgis2.8 and GrassGIS7.
The comparison between the different photogrammetric processings through the software mentioned above has been tested on a burial in “enchytrismòs” found out during the archaeological excavations in the site of Poggio Gramignano (Italy).
Generally the main final results we can obtain from a photogrammetric survey are:
1. a 3d model of the area or og the object investigated in the form of a “dense points cloud” rendered with associated texture;
2. a Digital Surface Model (DSM);
3. an orthophoto.
These results can also be geo-referenced in a geographic reference system and can be used for many different purposes in the light of the kind of the research carring out.
Even in this case, therefore, we worked on reaching the same final results that the “open source” software used allowed to obtain, resulting in a very hight reliability.
Moreover, the final outputs can be managed and used to obtain, in the GIS environment, further data such as sections, altimetric profiles and so on and to associate them a database in order to have alphanumeric information for every vectorial element.
In 2016, between June and July, new excavations at la Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano (VRPG) began. This was the first season in a multi-year research project - a partnership between the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, the University of Arizona, Yale University, Stanford University, and the Commune di Lugnano in Teverina. This project aims to better understand the villa and its surrounding area, with particular focus on the late Roman infant cemetery discovered within the villa’s storage magazines.
The project continues work begun over three decades ago. Initial excavations of the villa were conducted by Daniela Monacchi of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, from 1982 to 1984. David Soren (University of Arizona) directed subsequent excavations, from 1987 to 1994, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria (Soren and Soren 1999).
The aerial remote sensing by UAV of that area is one of the great research project of the L'Aquila University aimed at deepen of the the knowledge and study of the site where they were found the ostrogote belt buckles today preserved in the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome.
The remote sensing of that area has been finalized to the elaboration of some orthophoto for a better identification of several cropmarks and soilmarks that we have already identified on the site thanks to satellite images.
The paper sheds light on the open source cutting edge technologies put in the field by the project carried out since 2018 by Silvia Festuccia (University ‘Suor Orsola Benincasa’, Naples) with Myriam Ziadé (Directorate General of Antiquities of Lebanon) in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team.
In particular, this paper explains how the GIS platform of the project has been created, tested and customized according to the typology of the data, supported by the use of Qfield and PyArchinit for the centralized management of the data collected from archaeological and geophysical surveys, remote sensing, geoprocessing and conservation and study of the archaeological material found out. All these data will improve knowledge and interpretation of the historical-environmental processes of the territory.
Located near the Umbrian town of Lugnano in Teverina (TR), this Augustan period villa was originally excavated in the 1980s and early 1990s under the scientific direction of David Soren. These first excavations not only uncovered significant sections of the villa’s living quarters, but also a unique child cemetery. It is currently hypothesized that this cemetery was the result of a malaria epidemic that struck the region sometime in the middle of the 5th century CE.
Recent excavations have focused on the area of the cemetery. During the 2019 field season eight new burials of varying types were uncovered, including two inhumed infants whose bodies were weighed down with stones and concrete. These newly discovered burials, together with those recently discovered during past seasons, brings the total count of distinct individuals found deposited within the villa’s ruins to sixty. In addition, re-study of those burials previously discovered by Soren and his team has found evidence of mid-wife assisted birth. Finally, the 2019 field season saw the completion of a pre-Roman deposit of artifactual material, found to have been cut by the villa’s foundation walls in close proximity to the area of child cemetery. Although study of this material is ongoing, it likely originates from an archaic settlement formerly located on or near Poggio Gramignano.
PyArchinit uses Python as a programming language and PostgressSQL / PostGIS as a Database.
Specifically, two examples of georeferenced drawing of the archaeological stratigraphy are proposed: the first one by hand, carried out in a traditional way by "triangulation" or "coltellatio"; the second one, through the "computer vision" techniques based on SFM algorithms.
An open source software for the management of archaeological data
Gli infanti furono trovati con pietre conficcate nelle cavità orali e grandi pietre e altri materiali da costruzione posizionate su mani e piedi per impedire ai morti di risorgere e diventare revenant. Cuccioli di cane di circa 5-6 mesi furono anch'essi sacrificati, con uno addirittura tagliato in due, e associati alle sepolture dei bambini insieme ad altri reperti come: grandi calderoni di bronzo, una bambola d'osso senza braccia e gambe, resti di caprifoglio bruciato, un artiglio di corvo, parte di un portalucerne e altri oggetti.
Gli scavi, eseguiti essenzialmente sotto la direzione dei principali autori, iniziati nel 1987 con il Dr. Soren e tuttora in corso, hanno portato alla luce la più grande villa romana finora scoperta in Umbria, a nord di Roma e a sud di Siena. Sebbene la società tardo romana di quel periodo fosse presumibilmente già convertita al cristianesimo, gli scavi non hanno trovato alcuna testimonianza della professione di tale fede sul sito e si crede che, per far fronte alle misteriose morti che stavano flagellando la comunità, si fece ricorso a pratiche e culti precedenti, soprattutto l’utilizzo di talismani per scongiurare il male.
https://www.amazon.it/avevano-cimitero-infanti-Poggio-Gramignano/dp/B0DCNFL6HW/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_it_IT=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1LV6JP4EMBTEQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.j-P1bA5NPoaA88Om0Um0TDOPJ9WQcCrgIizIRyD4FMxZ3dRw0TrYAvbRP3xhtyLusJHJQPp9i57wwG0ivumPZ3_WUxeHpa7iLw-hxqt19NhgzxxkB-S06pnMfXTiHqIgYBFAEKpxLBB0NQ9Qm5YLAo19f0eRCw6OozLvpPV3GAd76rLKa3Ghi5PykGfnGpJK15ZsDAaJA1Es7TSi0zai1EWP7i2ewqnZTmvbzRGdE_O5oMfiCSeqQicpA_iSpJ4WZVzYxOZdxCe6twpZLt-A0SZ1xqU9fS3bEOczNiFbl-U.uMPU9pi9sfZkU6kYTHkVcEyhV1o3WjBbkb8wqZzy_z0&dib_tag=se&keywords=Di+cosa+avevano+paura%3F&qid=1728394444&sprefix=di+cosa+avevano+paura+%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-1
delle fonti storiche, agiografiche e archeologiche, la presenza di
San Francesco nell’area dell’attuale Parco Regionale Sirente–Velino
e di individuare gli insediamenti della prima fraternitas francescana
all’interno di questo territorio.
Tale area geografica corrisponde, nello specifico, ai territori comunali
di Acciano, Aielli, Castel di Ieri, Castelvecchio Subequo, Celano,
Cerchio, Collarmele, Fagnano Alto, Fontecchio, Gagliano Aterno, Goriano
Sicoli, Magliano dei Marsi, Massa d’Albe, Molino Aterno, Ocre,
Ovindoli, Pescina, Rocca di Cambio, Rocca di Mezzo, San Domenico
né Vestini, Secinaro e Tione degli Abruzzi, tutti ricadenti nella
provincia dell’Aquila.
L’unica testimonianza della presenza fisica di Francesco in Abruzzo,
e più specificatamente all’interno del territorio preso in considerazione
dalle ricerche, è fornita dal racconto del suo protobiografo
Tommaso da Celano, secondo cui Francesco giunse in Abruzzo per la
prima volta tra il 1215 e il 1216 rispettivamente a Celano e a Pescina e
una seconda volta, intorno al 1222, nella sola Celano. Eppure diverse
memorie e tradizioni sostengono che San Francesco abbia visitato
altre località in Abruzzo dove avrebbe fondato conventi e luoghi per i
suoi frati.
Questa diatriba, ovvero la presenza o meno del Santo in varie
località della regione, oltre a Celano e Pescina, e la fondazione diretta
da parte di Francesco di alcuni conventi abruzzesi, come vuole la
tradizione, ha diviso e continua a dividere tutt’ora la storiografia
francescana abruzzese.
Essenzialmente sulla questione esistono due scuole di pensiero contrapposte:
quella che sostiene che Francesco abbia visitato solamente
Celano e Pescina, unici luoghi attestati dalle fonti, senza aver fondato
alcun insediamento e quella che non esclude a priori la presenza di
San Francesco in altre località abruzzesi, così come la fondazione, da
parte del Santo, di alcuni insediamenti in quest’area, semplicemente
per la mancanza di documenti scritti che la testimonino.
Questo lavoro pertanto ha affrontato la questione da un punto di
vista diverso, vale a dire quello dell’analisi archeologico–topografica e
geospaziale del territorio.
Come primo passo ha individuato, censito e analizzato archeologicamente tutti quei siti e quelle strutture superstiti tradizionalmente
legate alla figura del Santo, allo scopo di capire se effettivamente
potessero risalire cronologicamente all’epoca di Francesco.
Allo stesso tempo si è proposto l’obiettivo di ricostruire la topografia
medievale del territorio attraverso l’individuazione di tutti gli
insediamenti sicuramente esistenti al tempo di Francesco e la viabilità
dell’area in quell’epoca, per valutare, in questo modo, la sua densità
abitativa, la qualità dei collegamenti tra un insediamento e l’altro e le
tempistiche di spostamento al suo interno.
Tutto ciò per capire le ragioni che avrebbero potuto determinare
la visita di San Francesco in altre località di quest’area oltre a Celano e
Pescina, influenzare i suoi spostamenti e decretare, eventualmente, la
fondazione di loci francisci all’interno del territorio.
Stabilire, quindi, l’effettiva incidenza che la figura di San Francesco
ha avuto, in termini di nuove edificazioni monastico–religiose o di
riadattamento di quelle già esistenti, all’interno del territorio e quanto,
eventualmente, tutto questo abbia inciso sull’assetto insediativo e
topografico dell’area, chiarendo i rapporti tra le strutture francescane
e gli altri insediamenti del territorio.