Emanuele Brienza
From landscape to excavation: using new smart tools for multiscale archaeological investigations

The world of geomatics today provides new tools, smart, low cost and easy-to-use for archaeological research in the field, from geographical positioning to detailed survey of past evidence. These instruments, light and not bulky, interface directly with tablets, I-Pads or smartphones via intuitive applications and speed up the data collection in the field, making the spatial and typological integration of archeological record increasingly and easier. However, to what extent these tools, beyond their apparent effectiveness, are precise and reliable and in which frameworks work better or worse? In this year I had the chance to use a new smart system for centimetric georeferencing, the Trimble Catalyst DA2, in various ancient sites of the world, facing different logistic and environmental situations, and following distinct purposes and targets: the use of this new geo-positioning system was always associated to detailed and close-range survey activities, related to landscape archaeology investigations and stratigraphic excavations.

Livio D'Alvia, Ludovica Apa, Emanuele Rizzuto, Zaccaria Del Prete
Study of wood samples positioning on two microwave planar coupled ring resonators for water content measurements

Microwave resonance-based techniques have become increasingly popular for the non-destructive testing of wood materials, as they enable the measurement of moisture content without causing damage. This paper presents a preliminary study focusing on the most suitable way of placing wood samples on two microwave planar coupled ring resonators, specifically the capacitive and inductive configurations, for water content measurements. The study aims to assess the impact of sample positioning on measurement accuracy, considering two different positions corresponding to the coupling points: between the ring gap and the feed line and the inner gap. Results indicate that, for capacitive coupling (c.c.), placing the sample in proximity of the inner gap is more suitable for detecting variations in permittivity, as evidenced by the regression analysis with a R2 value exceeding 0.98 for the two peaks. Instead, for the inductive coupling (i.c.) configuration, both positions present a good response. The regression analysis reveals a R2 value greater than 0.98 for the two peaks in proximity of the outer gap, and a R2 value of 0.9 for the inner one.

Eleonora Marconi, Antonio Budano, Giancarlo Della Ventura, Federico Fina, Alberto Botti, Sandro Tassa, Ottavia Palacino, Lorenzo Conte, Marianna Franco, Francesco Pacetti, Caterina Coletti, Armida Sodo, Luca Tortora
AI-assisted Reconstruction of Archaeological Pottery from digital 3D mesh models

Ancient pottery in archaeological sites is typically found as broken fragments. The collection, classification, and assembling of those pieces into their original artifact may take years of hard work, especially when the fragments are irregular, intermixed with parts of different vessels, or if some key pieces are missing. This problem is traditionally handled via two main steps: (1) the Classification of Archaeological Fragments into similar groups (CAF) and (2) the Reconstruction of each group into the original Archaeological Objects (RAO). Over the years, many alternatives have been proposed to solve this problem. A seminal approach was exploiting the color and texture properties of the fragments. More recently, the use of 3D computer-aided reconstruction methods gained attention as promising tools in pattern recognition. For this reason, researchers have implemented algorithms to collect all the information necessary to reconstruct a complete vessel from suitable data collected via 3D scanners. In this work, four types of algorithms were tested to reconstruct the objects without an a priori knowledge of the final shapes. The method exploited the geometric features obtained from the 3D mesh model acquisition on artificial samples from a broken mug, used as test cases. The best algorithm satisfying the final 3D reconstruction was then applied to the study of archaeological ceramic fragments from Villa della Piscina in the Parco Archeologico of Centocelle (Rome, Italy) within the project ERCOLE. The aim of this work is at developing a tool that satisfies the criteria of accuracy, performance, robustness, transportability, cost, and careful handling of archaeological specimens.

Michele Punzo, Daniela Tarallo, Vincenzo Di Fiore, Vincenzo Belelli, Carmelo Rizzo, Alberto Villari, Carla Sfameni, Marco Arizza
High-resolution geophysical investigation at Banditaccia Necropolis (Cerveteri) by means GPR and magnetic surveys

In the search for bodies of archaeological interest at shallow depths, geophysical methods can provide useful indications. The aim of the present work, carried out in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, was to detect the presence of tombs/graves and/or buried structures in an unexplored area of Banditaccia Necropolis (Cerveteri and Tarquinia Archaeological Park), one of the largest ancient necropolis in the entire Mediterranean area. In the investigated area, two different non-destructive geophysical techniques have been employed: Ground-Penetrating Radar and gradiometry. The results made it possible to identify anomalies referable to probable structures of archaeological interest buried at a depth of several meters and probably attributable to tombs/graves.
These geophysical results will preparatory to set up an archaeological excavation.

Raffaele Persico, Gianfranco Morelli, Giuseppe Esposito, Ilaria Catapano
An innovative heuristic strategy for the management of buried scenarios with strong discontinuities

This contribute proposes a heuristic strategy for processing GPR data referred to scenarios characterized by strong buried discontinuities, for which the common assumption of a homogeneous soil drives to errors in the imaging. This can be the case of layered media or the case of electrically large buried cavities. Here, the focus is on the buried cavities and a combined time-depth conversion strategy, which is able to account for the different propagation velocities in the cavity and in the surrounding soil, is proposed. Results referred to simulated data provide a preliminary assessment of the achievable imaging capabilities.