Un Système d’Information 3D pour l’archéologie du bâti : Showback. Le cas de Montreal (Shawbak, Jordanie)

International audienc

Il Congresso di Archeologia Pubblica come progetto culturale nazionale

First paragraph: Quando il 29 ottobre 2012, nella sala d’arme di Palazzo Vecchio a Firenze, si aprirono i lavori del primo congresso di Archeologia Pubblica in Italia, organizzatori e partecipanti erano immersi in un clima di grande attesa; tutti volevano innanzi tutto approfondire, dopo oltre un anno di preparazione e riunioni organizzative in giro per l’Italia, circolari, indicazioni ai relatori ecc., cosa si intendesse precisamente per ‘archeologia pubblica’. Come poteva essere definita e descritta? In che modo l’archeologia italiana avrebbe potuto contribuire al dibattito internazionale sul tema della Public Archaeology in corso dagli anni ’70? Sarebbe stato un evento scientifico significativo per i futuri sviluppi della disciplina, oppure una boutade intellettualistica e autoreferenziale? Domande che, come curatori, si ponevano in primo luogo gli autori di questo contributo, i quali, assieme a Guido Vannini, guidavano il gruppo di gestione progettuale (o PMG, Project Management Group), primo proponente e organizzatore dell’evento. Oggi, a distanza di alcuni anni da quel giorno, possiamo osservare il considerevole impatto che il congresso di Firenze ha avuto, soprattutto per l’essere riuscito a fornire basi solide per la costruzione di un movimento culturale nazionale che, da allora, ha profondamente cambiato la prospettiva con cui, reciprocamente, archeologi e non archeologi percepiscono l’essenza del proprio lavoro e si confrontano in Italia. Certo, il progressivo avvicinamento tra archeologi e non archeologi e la riflessione sull’interazione tra archeologia e società civile erano processi in atto da tempo, in Italia come all’estero, e di questo si è già detto sopra e altrove (v. l’Introduzione a questo volume, Bonacchi 2009 e Vannini, Nucciotti Bonacchi 2014). Sul modo in cui il PMG decise di operare per preparare un congresso nazionale di una disciplina inesistente, in Italia, è invece necessario spendere qualche parola in più. In particolare sull’approccio metodologico e sulle strategie, adottati fin da subito, ovvero fin dal 2010, quando il progetto di congresso venne in effetti alla luce, come prosecuzione e sviluppo del seminario Archeologia Pubblica in Toscana, i cui atti furono poi pubblicati a cura di Guido Vannini (2011)

A merging data tool for knowledge based photogrammetry: the case study of the castle of shawbak,Jordan

International audienceThe present paper addresses an approach for merging heritage survey and archaeological knowledge. The theoretical framework is the integration between photogrammetric survey and documentation process, practically used in different archaeological excavation. Merging surveyed geometries and knowledge is a complex task. Many variables have to be considered during the process of merging. Photogrammetric survey results and knowledge can be actually seen as information. Information is sorted by source. A source is a set of information provided by the operators involved in the excavation process. Such operators can be archaeologists, photogrammetrists, or any other researcher (i.e. a topographist) involved in the study. The merging process involves the verification of the consistency of different sources and the aggregation of all the information from the sources into a global result. Each source, respectively each operator, owns a personal representation of his knowledge domain, a photogrammetrist uses geometrical primitive and 3D representations of the object surveyed, an archaeologist has a textual and semantic representation of the objects. Merging together all these sets of information needs a tool which can be easily operated by most of the participants in the research and which can furthermore manage the ‘multiple knowledge' on the surveyed object. This tool, called Ametist, an acronym standing for Arpenteur ManagEment Tool for Interactive Survey Treatment, uses a simple interface for displaying results and knowledge in various form (textual, 2D map, 3D scene, XML). This tool can make an automatic merging of the “multiple knowledge” and its merge engine can solve conflicts (object identification mismatch, measure of an object taken several times, spatial collisions etc.). When conflicts cannot automatically be solved the application can report about inconsistency errors and ask a user to manually correct the information involved. As inconsistency can be present in any information, all operators have to be able to use the interface. The tool provides a simple easy to use interface. This document will first address the concept of knowledge based photogrammetry (with ARPENTEUR) and then deal with a presentation of ‘Ametist'. Finally, a real case study will be considered to highlight the first results of such a system in the frame of a French Italian scientific partnership with the “Dipartimento di Studi storici e Geografici” of the University of Florence, in charge of the archaeological research. The selected case study is the Castle of Shawbak, in Jordan, known in medieval written sources as the “Crac de Montréal”

Surveying medieval archaeology: a new form for Harris paradigm linking photogrammetry and temporal relations

The paper presents some reflexions concerning an interdisciplinary project between Medieval Archaeologists from the University of Florence (Italy) and ICT researchers from CNRS LSIS of Marseille (France), aiming towards a connection between 3D spatial representation and archaeological knowledge. It is well known that Laser Scanner, Photogrammetry and Computer Vision are very attractive tools for archaeologists, although the integration of representation of space and representation of archaeological time has not yet found a methodological standard of reference. We try to develop an integrated system for archaeological 3D survey and all other types of archaeological data and knowledge through integrating observable (material) and non-graphic (interpretive) data. Survey plays a central role, since it is both a metric representation of the archaeological site and, to a wider extent, an interpretation of it (being also a common basis for communication between the 2 teams). More specifically 3D survey is crucial, allowing archaeologists to connect actual spatial assets to the stratigraphic formation processes (i.e. to the archaeological time) and to translate spatial observations into historical interpretation of the site. We propose a common formalism for describing photogrammetrical survey and archaeological knowledge stemming from ontologies: Indeed, ontologies are fully used to model and store 3D data and archaeological knowledge. Xe equip this formalism with a qualitative representation of time. Stratigraphic analyses (both of excavated deposits and of upstanding structures) are closely related to E. C. Harris theory of "Stratigraphic Unit" ("US" from now on). Every US is connected to the others by geometric, topological and, eventually, temporal links, and are recorded by the 3D photogrammetric survey. However, the limitations of the Harris Matrix approach lead to use another representation formalism for stratigraphic relationships, namely Qualitative Constraints Networks (QCN) successfully used in the domain of knowledge representation and reasoning in artificial intelligence for representing temporal relations

Introduzione

First paragraph: Questo volume esce a sette anni dal primo congresso di Archeologia Pubblica in Italia, organizzato a Firenze il 29 e 30 ottobre 2012 sulla base di un programma definito dal comitato scientifico nazionale riunitosi più volte durante il 2011, tra Roma e Firenze. L’obiettivo del comitato e del congresso era l’introduzione dell’Archeologia Pubblica in Italia, come area tematica e di ricerc