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Map of the Upper Sabina Tiberina indicating the location of the Vacone villa (in red) and a selection of other neighboring villas.
Source publication
Between 2016 and 2018, excavations at the Roman villa of Vacone, carried out by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project, transitioned to completely digital recording practices. The methodological shift was accompanied by a three-year campaign of backfill removal and cleaning, which allowed most of the villa’s extant architecture and décor uncovered since...
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... Bloy et al. 2014Rice et al. 2017;Pollari et al. 2018;Franconi et al. 2019;]. Its objective is to understand the long-term development of rural settlement and economy in the northern portion of the Sabina Tiberina region of Lazio, located about 55 km north of Rome between the Tiber river on the west and the Monti Sabini on the east (Fig. 1). The project has conducted survey and geophysical prospection at 15 sites within a study area that is roughly equivalent to the territory of the ancient settlement of Forum Novum (modern Vescovio). Most effort, however, has been focused upon the excavation of a late-republican to mid-imperial villa located in the town of Vacone, which ...
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... remains. We were even able to monitor our progress during the excavation with single-context models that were superimposed upon the cryptoporticus model, visualizing and measuring how close to the underground architecture the excavations had come. The result confirmed the existence of an eastern portico, complete with an in A composite model (Fig. 10) created from the end-of-season 3D models and hosted on Sketchfab (https://skfb.ly/6KFSH), visualizes the relationship of the porticus to the cryptoporticus below, including windows and the passageway that connects to the villa's upper level. This model confirmed, for example, that an unusual u-shaped drain on the exterior of the ...
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... all 3D data, it is also possible to convert such composite 3D models to conventional 2D representations for traditional print publications. By combining several models of the villa's architecture, for instance, it is possible to create an orthometric 2D sectional elevation of the entire villa and its terraces, including the underground features (Fig. 11). ...
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... part of the multi-level villa is the southern sector of the main terrace. Here a descending subterranean vaulted passageway was built directly through the villa's innermost southern cryptoporticus wall, creating a corridor which also had access to a well that opens into the pars urbana above. Another composite model (Fig. 12) created in Blender and hosted on Sketchfab (https://skfb.ly/6KFSM) visualizes the relationship of the tunnel, cryptoporticus, well, and mosaic paved rooms above. As with the previous composite model, this also combines architectural spaces captured in various years. Room 30, for example, was digitized in 2016 after the removal of ...
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... in a photo tent with the camera mounted on a tripod [Porter et al. 2016]. Moreover, both sides of the artifact must be modeled separately and then joined in Metashape. Once complete, however, these models are extremely accurate because of the controlled conditions of their photography, with RMS errors often less than a millimeter. One example (Fig. 13) is a late antique ARS oil lamp (Hayes IIA, Bailey Q1837), dating to c. 500 CE, found in a fill layer in the southern cryptoporticus [Franconi et al. 2019, 129]. Although difficult to discern, the discus, framed by a braided border, contains a female bust facing left with hair wrapped into a bun. The shoulder is framed by a motif of ...
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... a modern ceramic sherd bearing a forged inscription (https://skfb.ly/6PLTF), are also available online. Complete Site 3D Model After the conclusion of the three-year retroactive digital modeling campaign and with the implementation of the new digital recording protocol, there is now an almost compete 3D model of the entire site excavated to date (Fig. 14). The model can be continuously updated, as well, as new spaces are revealed by future excavation seasons. Rendered in Blender, it includes many of the same elements as the composite models discussed above, such as scalebars, a north arrow, and various transparent planes that indicate ground levels while allowing underground ...
Citations
... In recent years, many archaeological projects have been testing the integration of digital survey techniques for excavation documentation, as well as the creation of digital databases to store the information from the entire excavation in a unified system [Garstki et al. 2018, Notarian et al. 2020]. This enables the diachronic documentation of the excavations and the availability of digital copies of the stratigraphy [Boyd et al. 2021]. ...
Excavating an ancient Maya city requires a long-term archaeological project that entails adequate documentation procedures for the unearthed remains, frequently of monumental scale and with difficult preservation conditions. A digital laser scanner survey methodology was designed and implemented to document the exposed architecture and to follow-up the archaeological excavation of the Maya site of La Blanca (Peten, Guatemala). All scans collected during the different field seasons were stored and aligned in a common reference system. Thus, an accurate digital three-dimensional database was obtained, including all the architectural remains found, some of which had to be reburied to ensure their preservation. The resulting database is a helpful repository that facilitates to extract all the graphic outputs required for: planning the next excavation campaigns, monitoring the preservation of the buildings, studying the architecture and construction technology in detail, and disseminating the excavation results. This paper describes the methodology and procedures used to build-up this database.
