TECHNICAL ANALYSIS AND MAPPING OF ANCIENT MONUMENT

The course gives the knowledge and methodologies for the recognition of building materials and their acquisition or manufacture, with insights into the interpretation of construction processes and engineering systems of antiquity, the evolution and architectural characteristics of specific types of monuments, as well as for the documentation of the monuments themselves and of the archaeological excavation, even in a submerged environment.

 

The application of the general skills listed above is concretely implemented in the direct survey of the monuments. To this end, the candidates, under the guidance of the teacher, carry out a direct archaeological survey. The ability to document is preparatory and inseparable from the expertise in the technical analysis of the monument. During the course, the student is given advanced methodological knowledge on the comparative process between the monumental archaeological remains and the evidence of the sources, especially the treatise of Vitruvius.

 

This training gives the student the tools for autonomous observation of the monument. The knowledge of an accurate approach method avoids the conditioning of the literature produced, which the student, made independent, learns how to critically evaluate.

 

The comparative examination of specialist literature and archaeological evidence also substantiates a corpus of communication exempla; the enunciation by the teacher of the relative procedural and deontological criteria also lays the foundations for the ability to produce professional writings, especially for scientific purposes, and of the related specific necessary expository skills: appropriate language, clarity of contents, methods of communication in its different shapes.

 

The concept of the program includes both manual and specialist literature, mixed in a balanced balance that develops in the students both the necessary general skills and, on the other hand, confidence with the criteria of the archaeological writing of a monumental subject. Learning is stimulated by exercising the contextualization of the case studies in the methodological panorama of the discipline.

Classroom lectures with slide show and reading of sources.

Attendance is not compulsory.

Building materials; quarries. Construction process:  mould; clay, wood; stone; opus caementicium, in its various forms (incertum, reticulatum, testaceum, etc.). Examples of building and architectural types. Building techniques in the coastal or flooded zone. Archeological prospecting, remote sensing, direct survey. Cartography. Elements of archaeological stratigraphy. Graphic rendering. Archaeological survey practice.

F. Coarelli, L'inizio dell'opus testaceum a Roma e nell'Italia romana, in P. Boucheron, H. Broise, Y. Thébert (Eds.), (acte du coll.) La brique antique et médiévale. Production et commercialisation d'un matériau, (Saint-Cloud 1995) Rome 2000, pp.  87-95 (9).

F. Coarelli, Opus mixtum, in (a cura di) F. M. Cifarelli, (atti del conv.) Tecniche costruttive del tardo ellenismo nel Lazio e in Campania, (Segni 2011) Roma 2013, pp. 65-70 (6).

E. Felici, in F. P. Arata, E. Felici, Porticus Aemilia, navalia o horrea ? Ancora sui frammenti 23 e 24 b-d della Forma Urbis, in Archeologia Classica 62, n.s. 1, 2011: pp. 137-148 (12).

E. Felici, Il porto di Claudio e Vitruvio, in Atlante Tematico di Topografia Antica 23, 2013, pp. 111-137 (27).

E. Felici, Dalla latomia al cantiere. Il trasporto nautico della pietra, in (a cura di) G. Buscemi Felici, E. Felici, L. Lanteri,  Produzioni antiche sulla costa sud orientale della Sicilia. Saggi di topografia antica litoranea, Bari 2020 (ISBN 978-88-7228-927-3), pp. 147-174 (28).

E. Felici, Lithoi logades. Appunti sulle fortificazioni in pietra grezza (e sulla natura dell’emplecton), in (a cura di) L. M. Caliò, G. M. Georgiannis, M. Kopsacheili, atti del conv. Fortificazioni e società nel Mediterraneo occidentale. Italia e Grecia settentrionale, (Catania – Siracusa 2019), Cronache Convegni, Roma 2020, pp. 519-539 (25).

E. Felici, Antium. Archeologia subacquea e Vitruvio nel porto di Nerone, Bari 2021, pp. 98-103, 130-189 (66).

E. Felici, Fixis refixisque ingentibus stilis. Il legno nella costruzione antica, litoranea e sommersa, in L’archeologo subacqueo 73-74, 2021-2022, pp. 7-46 (40).

E. Felici, Sidonio Apollinare e la pozzolana a Costantinopoli. Temi di ingegneria portuale romana, in Rivista di Topografia Antica XXX, 2020, pp. 57-80 (24).

C.F. Giuliani, L’edilizia nell’antichità, Roma 2006, pp. 11-235 (225).

C.F. Giuliani, Rilievo e analisi tecnica dei monumenti e definizione cronologica delle strutture murarie, in atti del I Congresso di Topografia antica Metodologie nella ricerca topografica (Roma 1993), in Rivista di topografia antica IV, 1994, pp. 85-90 (6).

C.F. Giuliani, L'opus caementicium nell'edilizia romana, in (a cura di) C.F. Giuliani, A. Samuelli Ferretti, (atti del sem.) Opus caementicium. Il materiale e la tecnica costruttiva, Roma (1997) 1998, pp. 49-61 (13).

C.F. Giuliani, Archeologia oggi. La fantasia al potere, in Quaderni di archeologia e di cultura classica 2, Tivoli 2012, pp. 5-48 (44).

C.F. Giuliani, Descrivere, fantasticare o conoscere?, in (a cura di) E. Cicalò, M. Solci, Rinnovare la tutela. Modelli matematici e grafici per una ridefinizione delle prospettive, Roma 2017, pp. 47-61 (15).

P. Gros, L’architettura romana. I monumenti pubblici, trad. it. Milano 2001, pp. 434-467.

G. Gullini, L'architettura e l'urbanistica, in Princeps urbium. Cultura e vita sociale dell'Italia romana, Milano 1993², pp. 419-714 (296).

P. G. Guzzo, P. Liverani, La Virtual Archaeology e le istituzioni per la tutela e la fruizione, in (a cura di) A. Coralini, D. Scagliarini Corlàita, Atti della giornata di studi “Ut natura ars”. Virtual Reality e archeologia, (Bologna 2002) Bologna-Imola 2007, pp. 11-15 (5).

P. Liverani, 3D Reconstructions: A Critical Reflection Starting from the Roman Forum, in K. Göransson (Ed.), Classical Archaeology in the Digital Age – The AIAC Presidential Panel, Panel 12.1, Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World 51, Heidelberg 2021, pp. 7–17 (11).

M. Medri, Manuale di rilievo archeologico, Roma-Bari 2003, pp. 26-50 (25).

Vitruvius, De architectura, ed. a cura di P. Gros, Torino 1997 (selected passages).

 

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

The reference texts can be consulted in the Library. Some materials are also available on specialized web platforms and in any case, in compliance with current regulations, will be made available by the teacher on the digital platform STUDIUM.