Old data, old methodology and new research. A case study of legacy data integration from the Cestrine Region, Epirus

In the context of the joint archaeological project in Çuka e Ajtoit (Albania) by Sapienza University of Rome and the Albanian Institute for Archaeology, new archaeological field research is being conducted in the Southern fringes of the Albanian territory. The area of interest extends from the site of Butrint (UNESCO Heritage site) to the Albano-Greek border, and corresponds to ancient Cestrine, renowned in the literary sources for its pastoral resources and Trojan connections. The study integrates the freshly acquired information collected during the field campaigns, characterized by a high degree of technological innovation, with old research data poorly published up to present. This paper concerns the photogrammetric processing of historical aerial imagery acquired for mapping purposes by the Italian Military Geographical Institute (IGMI) in the 1930s, during the war context of the invasion of Albania by Fascist Italy. The process resulted in the creation of a DTM and an orthomosaic by using SfM algorithms and GNSS topographical surveys, representing the shape of the landscape of the late 1930s, i.e., before the realization of extensive land reclamation programs by the socialist regime that have determined the radical changes of the current landscape.