Luca J. Senatore

The Surveying and Representation Process Applied to Archaeology: A Quest for Invariants in a Highly Variable Context

The study and analysis of archaeological elements often swings from large sites to small objects. This variability in dimensions and typology actually determines an equal variability of problems encountered during the surveying and representation process so that it is hard to retrieve a reliable common theoretical and operational background able to guide the researcher through the various steps. The problems connected with the interpretation of data (and their lack of clarity) disturb in fact considerably the final goal of surveying: achieve the most profound knowledge of the object analyzed. Taking into consideration numerous survey campaigns carried out for years, this chapter seeks to present a modus operandi that seems to be indispensable for standardizing and regulating procedures of data collecting, elaborating and representing applied by our research team from the Department of History, Drawing and Restoration of Architecture (Sapienza—University of Rome), the aim being to make the final result scientific, i.e. more objective and correct. Together with a general methodological framing, we shall describe a number of research projects spanning from large sites (Petra), single buildings/architectural structures (The Temple of Divus Claudio, Rome) and small objects (Tombs and artifacts in Crustumerium – Rome).

Gerbert of Aurillac (c. 940–1003)

Gerbert of Aurillac represents one of the most relevant personalities of the European medieval culture, being a prolific scholar as well as an acknowledged teacher especially as tutor of Emperors Otto II and Otto III. A disciple himself of Atto, during his long and successful career, first as a teacher in Reim’s Cathedral School, then as Abbot of the monastery of Bobbio, Archbishop of Ravenna and finally as Pope Silvestre II (999–1003), Gerbert always encouraged and promoted the study of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) also through the reintroduction to western Europe of ancient Greek-Roman scientific culture, especially in the augmented Arab versions. Gerbert’s influence on western scientific thought refers not only to theory (i.e. the arabs’ decimal numeral system or some of Euclid’s theorems) being instead always balanced with practical applications that involve instruments (abacus, armillary sphere, astrolabe, etc.) and that immediately affect the lives of common people.

Traditional Drawing and “New Drawing”: Reflections on the Role of Representation

The contribution, starts from an analysis of the procedures and graphics performed on the survey of San Bernardino in Urbino, proposes a reflection on the current role of traditional drawing and on the role played by the “new drawings”, that is, the different types of graphics that are possible to create from the survey data. From the processing characteristic of the “new drawing”, this paper analyses the contribution to knowledge given by those commonly known as images Gigapixels and the subsequent processing of these kinds of data.