Il mausoleo di Cecilia Metella tra documentazione grafica analogica e digitale. Un approccio metodologico multidisciplinare

The paper presents the first results of the Cecilia Metella Project, at the ‘Parco dell’Appia Antica’. The prominent monument is dedicated to the noble Roman woman, whose life can only be deduced from what can be read from the epigraph carved in marble. Although the monument is probably the most famous and characteristic one of the regina viarum near the city, even today the knowledge of the mausoleum – at least from the point of view of digital acquisition and analysis of the graphic documentation – appears incomplete and therefore deserves to be deepening. The new technological frontiers and their integrated use in the field of cultural heritage allow scholars to have more accurate and complete tools at their disposal. These multidisciplinary applications make it possible to acquire, in a rapid and quick way, the physical and spatial dimension of very complex and stratified archaeological contexts such as the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella. In this context, the richness of the graphic evidence of the mausoleum allowed for in-depth comparative analyses regarding the iconographical documentation and its relationship with the physical monument acquired with modern survey techniques. This study therefore aims to update the state of the art of the tomb and to define a methodological protocol for the acquisition and critical analysis of the monument.